RT-AX92U Was dropping, now slow

[grumpygamer]

Hello all, I'm new here and have come here in despair after learning ny super expensive RT-AX92U dual mesh combo I bought is rubbish?

I've been trying different solutions from these very forums, but the results have kept getting worse.

What's the issue?
Well I changed provider recently and have gone with a 1gbit, but since then I have had troubles with these units as one of them is now an actual router (before it was an AP with mesh)
I factory reset the router and followed the wizard to set up.

The wizard combined 24 and 5ghz in one connection, which was causing drop-out issues with some of my computers.
So I split them again into 2 bands.

Since then the speeds have really dropped and have been trying solutions from here with no success.

I hope someone can help!

I will post some screens of the set up.
Currently the "X" band is used for backhaul.

 

[Tech9]

Both your 5GHz radios - AC for clients and AX for backhaul are in DFS range. Disable Auto channel, lock the AC radio to ch. 36 @80MHz, find what works better for the AX radio and lock it as well as channel and at @80MHz. In your region (Europe?) this tri-band set with perhaps missing upper 5GHz range (149-161?) is a challenge. For 2.4GHz radio do the same, disable Auto and lock the channel working better most of the time @20MHz.

I don't know why your backhaul AX radio has AX mode disabled. Is is usually dedicated and the second router is AX capable.

Use System Log for clues what's happening to DFS range radio. It will be disrupted by detected radar communications around. Your best setup is the two units wired - AiMesh with Ethernet backhaul. This will eliminate the wireless backhaul in DFS range and improve the overall system stability a lot.

 

[grumpygamer]

Thanks for the swift reply Tech9.
I bought these units on purpose because I cannot have them wired so I was hoping the AX backhaul would work.
Yes I am in Europe (UK)

Sorry I'm a bit lost here and don't know what DFS range is.
I am a bit techy, but when it comes to WiFi I am at a loss outside of basic settings =)

Basically if I understand correctly I have to

- 5Ghz-1: remove Auto, set ch 36 @80Mhz
- 5Ghz-2: remove Auto, set to any channel @80Mhz
- 2.4Ghz: remove Auto, set to any channel @20Mhz

Is that correct?

We are happy to move to the tp-link deco m5 if need be (apparently has better reviews than this)

 

[Tech9]

Is that correct?

In the UK I would try first:

- 2.4GHz: Ch 6 @20Mhz, Auto for G/N clients, all MU-MIMO and Beamforming disabled, modulation to 802.11n
- 5GHz-1: Ch 36 @80Mhz, Auto for N/AC clients, 802.11ac Beamforming enabled only, modulation to 802.11ac
- 5GHz-2: Ch 100 @80Mhz, Auto with AX enabled, 802.11ac/ax Beamforming enabled, modulation to 1024-QAM

don't know what DFS range is

Dynamic frequency selection - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[grumpygamer]

Ok let's start one step at a time.
2.4GHz
Based on your feedback (thanks!) Here's what I set the 2.4Ghz to. I couldn't find any reference to MU-MIMO.
The rest I did some guess work based on the menu items I have here.
Have a look: is that ok?

 

[Tech9]

Have a look: is that ok?

You can do N-only if no you have no G clients, some routers offer MU-MIMO settings for 2.4GHz band even with no AX support. I don't have this model, go by available settings. No MU-MIMO is correct, not supported anyway. Ch 6 is in the middle of the 2.4GHz band, most usable channel is the one the router selects on Auto most of the time. You can look at the System Log which one it was when the router was running on Auto or just experiment. Speed test on 2.4GHz showing 30-50Mbps is excellent. This band is for range and slower devices like IoTs.

 

[grumpygamer]

I've not applied all the changes yet, but will do in a little while and report back.
Seems that wifi is now dropping out again AND is slow.
I will see if I can get a copy of the logs too.

 

[grumpygamer]

Ok so i tried my best to match all values, speed is around 300 DL and 100 up.
I still can't reach 480 DL as I used to let alone 900 as the wired connection can get (but maybe that's the limitation of wifi)

 

[Tech9]

I don't even know how is this possible, AX-only with Wi-Fi 6 Disabled!?

About speed - stabilize the system first. What you can get with common 2-stream client on 2.4GHz band is around 90Mbps and on 5GHz band around 500Mbps, very close to the router (same room), clear channels with not too much activity, yours or your neighbor's. Wi-Fi is dynamically changing environment and the speed is not guaranteed. Deal with disconnections first, then we'll deal with the speeds.

From logs - I see a lot of device disconnections around -70dBm threshold and lower, try disabling Roaming Assistant, it may not work as promised and make things worse. I also see your router was still running on Auto channel for some time on Ch 52 in DFS. You have two wired devices on ports 2/3 disconnecting and reconnecting quite often, don't know the reason, you rebooting often or a lose cable? Check what's going on there too.

 

[grumpygamer]

Hey, thanks again for taking the time to look into this.
With Wifi 6 disabled the speeds don't go above 70Mbps, it's once enabled that they move up to the 300Mbps.

I'm not sure why I posted that image. I thought I had posted the newer one.
At any rate here it is (attached).

So next step:
- Disable Roaming assistant on all frequencies

Does that not affect the whole Mesh idea?


Edit: I have disabled roaming assistant and cleared the logs so we have a fresh point to start off with.
I will reboot the router and the AiMesh node as well

I am not sure which device has the ports with the disconnections, I am trying to identify by looking at the logs.

Edit 2: Found out the port 2/3

Port 2: The TV. Before switching to using the RT-AX92U as a router the TV was attached to the switch, now it's directly attached to the router.
I did in fact notice that every time I boot the telly (funny to write that actually) it now says "Connected to Ethernet". It did not use to do that.

Port 3: Nintendo Switch Dock. Not sure what it's doing.

Attached the new syslog after one reboot

 

[Ripshod]

Port 2: The TV. Before switching to using the RT-AX92U as a router the TV was attached to the switch, now it's directly attached to the router.

Observation. When connected via a switch, if you reboot the router you'll not actually be physically disconnected from the network because of the switch (but you do lose DHCP DNS and routing with an unmanaged switch) - so no message from the TV.

 

[grumpygamer]

Observation. When connected via a switch, if you reboot the router you'll not actually be physically disconnected from the network because of the switch (but you do lose DHCP DNS and routing with an unmanaged switch) - so no message from the TV.

hm. Maybe a better option to do that then.

 

[Ripshod]

There's no better option. I was just pointing out why you saw that notice from the TV. No need to do anything.

 

[grumpygamer]

I would do it not to get the message every time I switch it on.
Eh... network still drops for some reason around 13.50 ~ 13:55,but not in the updated logs (attached).
TV is still firing up and disconnecting. Maybe I can try moving it back to the switch?


Edit (14.25): Now it's dropping very frequently as my partner is meetings, but no trace in the logs

Just done a speedtest while she's in the meeting, results are ISDN sort of

 

[Tech9]

You have long cycles of crashing and recovering radio, perhaps 2.4GHz:

Jun 24 09:55:23 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[1]
Jun 24 09:55:43 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[2]
Jun 24 09:55:45 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[3]
Jun 24 09:55:54 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[4]
Jun 24 09:56:34 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[5]
Jun 24 09:56:34 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[6]
Jun 24 09:56:44 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[7]
Jun 24 09:56:51 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[8]
Jun 24 09:58:41 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[9]

I don't know what causes it and how to fix it.

 

[grumpygamer]

You have long cycles of crashing and recovering radio, perhaps 2.4GHz:

Jun 24 09:55:23 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[1]
Jun 24 09:55:43 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[2]
Jun 24 09:55:45 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[3]
Jun 24 09:55:54 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[4]
Jun 24 09:56:34 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[5]
Jun 24 09:56:34 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[6]
Jun 24 09:56:44 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[7]
Jun 24 09:56:51 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[8]
Jun 24 09:58:41 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[9]

I don't know what causes it and how to fix it.

oh. Dead end then. Well thanks for trying

 

[grumpygamer]

I have an update

In the process of understanding the problems with the disconnections, I found out it was the fault of my thunderbolt hub (Satechi).
I have given it back, and since then no more drop outs or slowdowns.
In fact I get close to max speeds now thanks to the optimizations that you have helped me to put into place.

Not only that, but - always thanks to those aforementioned changes - streaming between rooms with GeForce Experience is no longer laggy and works wonderfully.
So thank you ever so much @Tech9 for the time you spent helping me debug this!