RT-AC88U Randomly Drops 5GHz Frequency

[David B]

For the last few months, I have been struggling with the 5GHz frequency on my RT-AC88U router randomly dropping off. I've tried everything imaginable to fix the problem including:

• Setting the 5GHz frequency to use a specific channel bandwidth
• Setting a specific channel for the 5GHz frequency
• Turning MU-MIMO on and off
• Changing the beam-forming settings
• Disabling the 5GHz frequency on my ACRH13 which I have set up as an access point

I only installed Merlin on my AC88U on Monday, and everything was fine until about 30 minutes ago. I had to leave my house for about 20 minutes, and when I came back, 5 was dead again but as always, the 5GHz LED on the router was still on.

There are a few interesting things about the problem that I am having:

• Most of the time, the 5GHz frequency drops in the late evening hours, although that is not always the case, and it is not the case this time either.
• The drops seem to occur less frequently now that I have disabled the 5GHz frequency on my ACRH13.

Does anybody have any idea what is going on? I've read a ton of things about how to fix the problem, but nothing that I have tried has stopped it from happening. I do not know if this is significant, but I never had the 5GHz frequency on my ACRH13 drop.

 

[akb]

how much other 5ghz routers are in your area? I noticed that this router the 2.4ghz is whats the best, any other routers step over the 5ghz pretty hard for me.

 

[RMerlin]

Make sure you aren't using a DFS channel, which can cause you to get kicked off it. Usually, the system log should mention when that happens.

 

[David B]

Make sure you aren't using a DFS channel, which can cause you to get kicked off it. Usually, the system log should mention when that happens.

What is a DFS channel? I currently have the router set to automatically select the channel.

 

[RMerlin]

What is DFS?

 

[CJDias]

I have been having similar problems where the 5Ghz network would die completely and require a restart. Adding a small laptop cooler under the router helped because I found my temperatures in excess of 90°C. I still get signal drops which becomes annoying when I'm streaming audio wirelessly from Roku via the mobile app but at least it's not a complete failure requiring intervention. I'm hoping a future firmware may improve things with newer drivers but for now I'm trying to live with it.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[David B]

@RMerlin, from what I understand of the RT-AC88U, it does not support DFS channels, so I do not know if that is an issue. What should I be looking for in the logs? I always check it before rebooting but I never see anything noteworthy. I actually had given up on this for a while because I didn't have any drops until today during which I had 4.

 

[RMerlin]

@RMerlin, from what I understand of the RT-AC88U, it does not support DFS channels, so I do not know if that is an issue. What should I be looking for in the logs? I always check it before rebooting but I never see anything noteworthy. I actually had given up on this for a while because I didn't have any drops until today during which I had 4.

RT-AC88U does support DFS channels if you live in a region that requires it, like Europe.

System Log usually shows when the router had to back off from a DFS channel due to radar detection.

 

[David B]

RT-AC88U does support DFS channels if you live in a region that requires it, like Europe.

System Log usually shows when the router had to back off from a DFS channel due to radar detection.

@RMerlin I live in the United States so it looks like I am among the countries that require it. So what should I do to stop this? Is there some way that I can block the DFS channels and still leave the router on automatic or do I have no choice other than to set a specific channel? I do not see DFS channels available for selection when I look at the channel selection drop down menu.

 

[RMerlin]

@RMerlin I live in the United States so it looks like I am among the countries that require it. So what should I do to stop this?

No, Asus does not support DFS channels in the US, only in Europe where they lack access to the higher channels (140-160).

In your case, test with both a low-numbered channel and a high-numbered one. Some people have different experiences with the two bands.

Might be worth checking the temperature under Tools -> Sysinfo. Also, consider doing a factory default reset and reconfiguring everything from scratch.

I use an RT-AC88U myself as my main router, and its wifi is rock solid for me.

 

[David B]

No, Asus does not support DFS channels in the US, only in Europe where they lack access to the higher channels (140-160).

In your case, test with both a low-numbered channel and a high-numbered one. Some people have different experiences with the two bands.

Might be worth checking the temperature under Tools -> Sysinfo. Also, consider doing a factory default reset and reconfiguring everything from scratch.

I use an RT-AC88U myself as my main router, and its wifi is rock solid for me.

I do not know if temperature is the problem because I keep a cooling fan running under the router at all times. Here's what the temperature report is for all components.

Prior to making this post, I had just dropped off again so I used WiFiAnalyzer to pick a channel. It looks like most of the 5GHz channels around me are open, so I chose the lowest option: 36. I will report back if I experience another drop.

 

[herrdude]

This problem is not specific to AC88. It is happening on the AC68 as well.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/random-net-loss-5g-going-down.37657/page-4#post-322790

 

[David B]

Well since making my last post in this topic, I've only dropped off twice, and both of those times were after I put a box fan on top of the router after my previous fan died. Prior to that, I had not had any drops since posting. Since I suspected that the box fan was responsible for interfering with the signal in some way, I removed it, and it has not dropped off since.

 

[herrdude]

Well since making my last post in this topic, I've only dropped off twice, and both of those times were after I put a box fan on top of the router after my previous fan died. Prior to that, I had not had any drops since posting. Since I suspected that the box fan was responsible for interfering with the signal in some way, I removed it, and it has not dropped off since.

On the other thread, the solution was to drop the channel bandwidth from 80mhz to 40mhz.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/random-net-loss-5g-going-down.37657/page-5

 

[David B]

I've just come back from rebooting my router after experiencing a drop-off. I checked the channel graph on the WiFiAnalyzer app and it seems that all of the networks that I saw before, which were occupying the channels in the 149-165 range, have moved to the 36-64 range where I set my router. I moved my router to 165. Let's see what happens this time.

On the other thread, the solution was to drop the channel bandwidth from 80mhz to 40mhz.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/random-net-loss-5g-going-down.37657/page-5

I currently have my router's channel bandwidth set to 20/40/80. I tried setting my router to 80 before to improve my speed, but when that seemed to cause problems, I moved it back to 20/40/80. I would try setting it to 40, but from my testing, it seems that using anything less than 80 degrades my performance. I don't want to set it to 80 because it seems to cause drops to be more frequent, but at the same time, I don't want to have to live with something that is slower, so 20/40/80 is a sort of happy medium. Do you have any advice on what to do about this?

 

[RMerlin]

I think channel 165 does not support 80 MHz. Try one slightly lower than that.

 

[David B]

I think channel 165 does not support 80 MHz. Try one slightly lower than that.

Okay, I have moved to channel 149 and have decided to try setting the bandwidth back to 80 MHz. Now I'll just wait and see what happens.

 

[super_sweeney]

Okay, I have moved to channel 149 and have decided to try setting the bandwidth back to 80 MHz. Now I'll just wait and see what happens.

So I am having issues also i was on channel 124. I have enable auto?? and also I have an option to select DFS channels will see how this goes. If it does not go well I will disable DFS and see was that my issue.

 

[L&LD]

Auto is your issue (and more than likely, including DFS channels too).

 

[super_sweeney]

Auto is your issue (and more than likely, including DFS channels too).

Hmmm I dont know. As i only switched on Auto today and also the DFS today and it hasnt dropped since. Before that it would drop to 2.4ghz after 5-10 minutes