RT-BE96U with 5Gb Fiber

[dseto]

Hi all,

I am looking to see what others with this model may have for their wifi speeds per channel, as ours seem low, but I am unsure if it is an actual issue or just the normal. Our Lan connection is perfect 5Gb down and up, but each of the 3 channels seems much lower than what Asus say, now i will admit aside the marketing of the max rates, I wouldn't think it would be 100% to the advertisement, but maybe 90% or better?. Asus list the 2.4 as 1,376 Mbps, 5 as 5,764 and 6 as 11,529.

Also, I do get some Wi-Fi drops on 2.4. I have scanned the channels to see what all the other neighbors are using and changed to the best I can, but we live in a townhome, so when all the neighbors are home at night, it seems to drop much more.

I am on 3.0.0.6.102.37038, i want to move over to merlin, but to be honest not sure how to turn on the allow for downgrades. Merlin worked great on the last router.

On a laptop 12 feet as the sole connection, with a wifi6e card, link speed of 2402 down and 2402 up, ( by no means not saying there is any issue with the laptop, that is slowing down) it averages
2.4 is at 78 Mbps down and 16 Mbps up
5 is at 1104 Mbps down and 1120 Mbps up
6 is at 852 Mbps down and 1430 Mbps up

On a cell phone (S24 ultra) same 12 feet away as the sole connection,
2.4 is at 71 Mbps down and 37 Mbps up
5 is at 1533 Mbps down and 1356 Mbps up
6 is at 2196 Mbps down and 2818 Mbps up

Thanks for any advice, or if this is just what is expected.

 

[degrub]

2,4GHz is very crowded as you found out. No surprise limited bandwidth. Change your radio to 40 MHz width and pick a relatively clear channel.
5GHz is getting crowded. Set your radio to 80MHz width and pick a relatively clear channel. You could also keep the channel selection on AUTO and see how it does with the 80MHz width. 5GHz will barely get through one wall.
6GHz will have trouble getting through walls and really is only usable within a room if you want the higher speeds. Just hope your neighbors haven't upgraded their wireless, although, the condo walls should help.

So, yeah, none of what you report is a surprise. Wire everything possible. Use old coax with moca modems to distribute the ethernet if you can't run ethernet cables.

 

[dseto]

Thanks for the feedback! what is the best app for scanning channels to see congestion? I have tried netspot, but every time I adjust to the recommended when I scan again, it gives me another recommended channel. I have 2,4 at 40, 5 at 160 and 6 at 320, is 160 and 320 not realistic? I have been working on a wired connection for my wife, which will resolve 50% of the heartburn with being dropped, and then i am going to get rid of the cheap wyze camreas on 2.4 and go to POE or something on 5 or 6 that i can't wire. I looked at the moca a few weeks ago, and due to the townhome not being the best wired (the year 2005), I can maybe get one good connection; the others on the distribution block don't look like they were ever run to a NEMA box anywhere I can find in the house.

 

[degrub]

Try dropping both to 80 MHz wide band.
If the 2.4 GHz is only used for IOTs, try 20MHz wide band. You may actually get more throughput. And more distance.

Alarm installers are usually pretty good about getting low voltage cables through walls for a modest price. There is also flat CAT6 ethernet cable. Just don't crimp or fold it. Something like PanDuit surface mount conduit can be used to disguise cables as well. It is a small U channel with a clip in cover.

i have used Apples Airport Utility to read RSSI values (signal strength in dB) around the house. You have to go into Settings and tick the box to allow WIFI scanning. The larger the number ( less negative e.g. -50 is larger than -65 ), the higher the signal strength at that specific spot in space. Anything larger than -65 or so should be adequate.

It is also possible that you have too much RF power and are generating a lot of reflections that interfere with good reception. You can try reducing Transmit power to low and then increase to get adequate coverage RSSI values on each of the bands starting with 2.4 GHz.

 

[dseto]

Thanks so much; I very much appreciate the time and feedback!!

 

[raven-au]

Hi all,

I am looking to see what others with this model may have for their wifi speeds per channel, as ours seem low, but I am unsure if it is an actual issue or just the normal. Our Lan connection is perfect 5Gb down and up, but each of the 3 channels seems much lower than what Asus say, now i will admit aside the marketing of the max rates, I wouldn't think it would be 100% to the advertisement, but maybe 90% or better?. Asus list the 2.4 as 1,376 Mbps, 5 as 5,764 and 6 as 11,529.

Also, I do get some Wi-Fi drops on 2.4. I have scanned the channels to see what all the other neighbors are using and changed to the best I can, but we live in a townhome, so when all the neighbors are home at night, it seems to drop much more.

I am on 3.0.0.6.102.37038, i want to move over to merlin, but to be honest not sure how to turn on the allow for downgrades. Merlin worked great on the last router.

On a laptop 12 feet as the sole connection, with a wifi6e card, link speed of 2402 down and 2402 up, ( by no means not saying there is any issue with the laptop, that is slowing down) it averages
2.4 is at 78 Mbps down and 16 Mbps up
5 is at 1104 Mbps down and 1120 Mbps up
6 is at 852 Mbps down and 1430 Mbps up

On a cell phone (S24 ultra) same 12 feet away as the sole connection,
2.4 is at 71 Mbps down and 37 Mbps up
5 is at 1533 Mbps down and 1356 Mbps up
6 is at 2196 Mbps down and 2818 Mbps up

Thanks for any advice, or if this is just what is expected.

You need to work out what the maximum is for each wireless band.
2.4 GHz, starts at 1376 Mbps but this assumes a 40Mhz connection, most of the time the router will use 20Mhz so that's around 680.
Then there's the antenna configuration, the router spec gives the rate for a 4x4 antenna configuration but almost all devices, laptops, computers (most of the time), phones and iPad/tablets are 2x2 so that brings it to 340 maximum sync. rate.
Then there's actual sync rate which is related to signal strength and interference, with only a small amount interference and signal strength reduction the maximum rate will be around 20%-40% of the maximim sync rate which at 20% is about 240 or so. Unfortunately the 2.4GHz band almost always gets much less than this so it's usually not worth worrying about.

Going through similar process for the other bands will give a maximum sync. rate of 1200 Mbbs for 5GHz and 2400 GHz for 6Ghz.

So, from above, it looks like the laptop is a bit slow in the 5GHz download, the phone looks a bit faster than it should be (maybe it's connecting as a WiFi 7 device, the S24 can do that and nothing seems to be able to display how it's connected?).

And don't forget device's driver quality can affect this too!

 

[dseto]

Thank you for the feedback, I will have to learn more about the antenna configuration, I will give different channels this weekend and see, and also test reducing the power, to see if that helps any at all. I do have a seprate 2.4 for IoT, as i learn my alen air purifer would not connect to wifi 7 regardless of the band.