RT-AX86U slow WiFi, no settings have improved it. Is this normal performance?

[drinkingbird]

My ISP offers approximately 50Mbps down, 40Mbps up.

He doesn't have that much speed to push

Understood but he should be able to max it out that much easier.

 

[L&LD]

Can't see where any interference would come from. House is out in the middle of nowhere. Yes, multiple devices still have slower 5GHz speeds, even when within 15ft, signal strength -20dB to -57dB.

Time to start trying different Control Channels (not Auto).

Control Channel Setup 2021

Reset Mini Guide + Control Channel Setup Details

Control Channel Setup (more)

 

[Grizzly_Canoe0153]

I disabled universal beamforming yesterday and saw no improvement. But today I suddenly had an issue where the router refused to let my phone connect to the 2.4GHz network, just kept authorizing and deauthorizing forever. Rebooted, connected, did a speedtest comparison, and finally I have reached equal performance across the APs. Even reached a new top speed never seen before, 70Mbps down.

I'll keep monitoring it, as I've already convinced myself that it won't last.

I've recorded the current 5GHz channels used in case that's the problem.

 

[Crimliar]

On the devices "shadowing" the router channel, isn't this just "WiFi Direct"? I've both a printer and a living room speaker system that "shadow" - that is they'll output their own SSID so you can connect to them directly, but they'll do this on the same channel as the router because you can also connect to them over the main WiFi network!

 

[drinkingbird]

I disabled universal beamforming yesterday and saw no improvement. But today I suddenly had an issue where the router refused to let my phone connect to the 2.4GHz network, just kept authorizing and deauthorizing forever. Rebooted, connected, did a speedtest comparison, and finally I have reached equal performance across the APs. Even reached a new top speed never seen before, 70Mbps down.

I'll keep monitoring it, as I've already convinced myself that it won't last.

I've recorded the current 5GHz channels used in case that's the problem.

Many wireless settings sometimes take a reboot to take effect (or to take full effect). It can vary from one model to the next too.

 

[Teddy21]

For whatever reason in the professional settings for the 2.4ghz channel, setting mine to short preamble (after making sure the mimo settings are turned on in both frequencies) allows client speed up to 2400 on both my laptop and phone on 5ghz. I believe its set to long by default.

Router manufacturers are trying to support the most devices they can out of the box and not tune for speed. This causes compromises to get older hardware to connect to be used. One thing I would also do is get all your old legacy 2.4 ghz only devices off your new router. I have both the AX68 and an ISP router and all my legacy stuff connects to the ISP router so I have 11b turned off on the AX as well. Although it may not be nessescary - it removes any need for compromises for the AX to make connecting to some ancient device (and I have a few of those ) and lets you tune the AX to connect at speed to newer devices, and to turn on WPA3 without problems as well.

If you have an old router around and want to do this - take your old router and give it a set address either by reserving and address or by setting a hard address in it. Set a unique wireless network name. Then connect it with a cable from a switch port on the router to a network switch. Use the set or reserved address to manage it and connect all your non 5 ghz devices to it.

Beamforming has to do with how the antennas work and is part of mimo. Because the shorter the waves get (higher frequencies like 5gig) the more prone they are to interference. Beamforming tries to focus the wifi toward the client for better reception.

 

[bbunge]

If you have an old router around and want to do this - take your old router and give it a set address either by reserving and address or by setting a hard address in it. Set a unique wireless network name. Then connect it with a cable from a switch port on the router to a network switch. Use the set or reserved address to manage it and connect all your non 5 ghz devices to it.

Just what people need...more WIFI interference in their house!

 

[Teddy21]

Just what people need...more WIFI interference in their house!

Not if you know what you are doing..... I have only been running a totally utterly stable setup like I describe since Wireless N was a thing.

 

[Tech9]

and to turn on WPA3

And what's the point having WPA3 only AX only network when another router running WPA2 only for older devices is connected to the same network and has access to it? If someone wants to crack your Wi-Fi - the WPA2 only network is the easier target. Then the same person will discover the bonus - access to your AX only network. Instead of running 2x routers you can easily dedicate 2.4GHz radio with compatibility settings to IoT and similar low-bandwidth clients and 5GHz radio for your high-bandwidth clients.