Serious 2G WiFi problems

[pallec]

Hi

Just got this RT-AC66U router.

Everything works perfect with wired devices and 5G WiFi.

However, all my Windows Laptops, Android and iOS devices have serious WiFi performance problems on 2G WiFi.

I have full signal on 2G, but it is EXTREMELY slow and connection often drops!

The RT-AC66U har replaced my old Netgear WDNR3700 that worked fine with all devices on both 2G and 5G.

I have tried to disable/enable network on my devices and reset the router, nothing helps

I hope someone can help as this is driving me mad and I would hate to have to revert back to my Netgear router, since the performance of the ASUS is fantastic, except for 2G WiFi.

I am using firmware version 3.0.0.4.266. According to my router, this is the latest version. Security is WPA2-AES.

I have no interference from other 2G networks (no close by neighbours).

So, it seems the problem is related to 2G and unfortunately I only have 2G possibilities on some of my devices.

I hope this can be fixed, otherwise I will have to return my router which I would hate to do.

Any input is highly appresiated.

Thank you.

 

[CaptainSTX]

First Things to Try 2.4 Ghz

Turn modem off, turn router off, turn all devices off. New router maybe assigning same private IP that was assigned to another device on old router.

Turn modem on then after 60 seconds power up the new router and then finally all devices.

Then if necessary:

Set channel width to 20 Mhz

Instead of letting the router pick a channel on Auto. Usually 1, 6 or 11 are best. Run inSSIDer to see what other channels are being used by neighbors and pick the channel being least used.

Be sure that you have enabled the router to broadcast its SSID. Use a different SSID on both bands.

If none of the above help turn security off and see if connections improve. If that helps then you will need to trouble shoot security setting. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR ENCRYPTION OFF EXCEPT FOR A SHORT PERIOD WHEN TESTING.

Good luck!

 

[huskerkurt]

Sorry, to say I don't have any help, only wanted to add that I'm having the same (or a similar) problem.

I've had this router for two months with no problems, and then yesterday, problems cropped up out of nowhere, and it's on the 2G (2.4Ghz) band.

I had no issues earlier in the day, and then my wife went to use her laptop, and it won't connect to the WiFi. I thought it was her computer's problem at first, because my phone was connected to WiFi just fine and it was working. I tried cycling the modem and router anyway, but that didn't help her problem. I figured at the time it was her computer's problem, but we had to leave so I wasn't able to investigate any further.

Later, we were trying to stream Netflix on our Bluray player connected over wireless, and it wouldn't connect either. I checked my phone, and it was still working fine, but I noticed it was connected to the 5Ghz instead of the 2.4Ghz. Attempting to connect my phone to the 2.4Ghz connection yielded the same issues as the other devices, it won't connect, and just switches to connecting to the 5Ghz.

After further investigating, all wired connections work fine, and all 5Ghz wireless connections work fine, just the 2.4Ghz connection is not working. Neither my bluray player or my wife's laptop (Ideapad Yoga 13) have dual-band cards, so they can only connect to 2.4Ghz and won't connect. Both my and my wife's phones (HTC One) will connect and work fine over 5Ghz, but have the same issues as other devices over 2.4Ghz.

To my knowledge, there are no new sources of interference that could be causing issues. No microwaves were running (at least in my house), the only new appliance I've been using recently is a window AC for an upstairs bedroom, but it's been used about a week with no issues, it wasn't running when the problem first cropped up, and I can't really see how an AC would cause problems anyway. My neighbors have WiFi, but they've had it as long as I've lived in this house, so I don't think that would be interfering.

All the devices that have the problem can "see" the 2.4Ghz band with great signal just fine, they just won't connect to it, and they don't really give any errors that clue me in to the issue. My phone just tries to connect and won't do it, and switches the 5Ghz. The laptop tries to connect, and pretty quickly throws back that it can't connect, but doesn't give any specific error. The bluray player also just says it can't connect.

 

[pallec]

Turn modem off, turn router off, turn all devices off. New router maybe assigning same private IP that was assigned to another device on old router.

Turn modem on then after 60 seconds power up the new router and then finally all devices.

Then if necessary:

Set channel width to 20 Mhz

Instead of letting the router pick a channel on Auto. Usually 1, 6 or 11 are best. Run inSSIDer to see what other channels are being used by neighbors and pick the channel being least used.

Be sure that you have enabled the router to broadcast its SSID. Use a different SSID on both bands.

If none of the above help turn security off and see if connections improve. If that helps then you will need to trouble shoot security setting. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR ENCRYPTION OFF EXCEPT FOR A SHORT PERIOD WHEN TESTING.

Good luck!

Thank you for your reply.

I have tried all of the above, unfortunately without any improvement

I already used inSSID and there are absolutely no other networks within range (which would have surprised me, considering the distance to my neighbours).

 

[Pericynthion]

Check out this thread I posted - exactly the same scenario, swapping out an old WNDR3700 for a RT66U. Horrible performance on the 2.4Ghz radio to the point of me getting zero throughput - I believe it is client-connection related.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=72102#post72102
(post #5)

You can easily prove it by temporarily changing the SSID on the router to something new (so no existing devices connect to it), and adding a single client onto it. If that client works fine the fix is to set the SSID back to the correct value (or just carry on using the new one) and re-add the clients back in.

I personally believe its something to do with a different method in the underlying WPA negotiation compared to my WNDR3700, which is resolved when you re-establish the connection to the new router (but I can't prove it ;-) )

 

[pallec]

Interesting.

I will give that a try and report back.

 

[pallec]

Check out this thread I posted - exactly the same scenario, swapping out an old WNDR3700 for a RT66U. Horrible performance on the 2.4Ghz radio to the point of me getting zero throughput - I believe it is client-connection related.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=72102#post72102
(post #5)

You can easily prove it by temporarily changing the SSID on the router to something new (so no existing devices connect to it), and adding a single client onto it. If that client works fine the fix is to set the SSID back to the correct value (or just carry on using the new one) and re-add the clients back in.

I personally believe its something to do with a different method in the underlying WPA negotiation compared to my WNDR3700, which is resolved when you re-establish the connection to the new router (but I can't prove it ;-) )

WOW, that actually fixed it. Thanks, I would never have thought of that.

You really made my day

 

[Pericynthion]

WOW, that actually fixed it. Thanks, I would never have thought of that.

No problems , I got to the point of getting an RMA number from ASUS myself before I took the whole setup to pieces and found this out the hard way.

I can only presume that anyone setting up a 'new' network, will not hit this problem - but anyone just hoping (like you and I) to switch one router for another with the same SSID is in for a nasty surprse.

Considering this is the 3rd person in 2 weeks to have this issue, I might write a more formal post (or reformat the other one) and ask someone to make it a sticky post.

 

[RMerlin]

No problems , I got to the point of getting an RMA number from ASUS myself before I took the whole setup to pieces and found this out the hard way.

I can only presume that anyone setting up a 'new' network, will not hit this problem - but anyone just hoping (like you and I) to switch one router for another with the same SSID is in for a nasty surprse.

Considering this is the 3rd person in 2 weeks to have this issue, I might write a more formal post (or reformat the other one) and ask someone to make it a sticky post.

What we might need actually is a FAQ. I see a lot of questions coming back on the forums times and times: how to configure a PPTP server, why is my RT-N66U 5 GHz wifi unstable with FW 354, how can I change my router's wireless region, etc... I can understand why some people might have trouble finding the answers using a forum search (tho in all honesty, I suspect that 90% of users don't try a forum search, or even a simple Google search), so having them grouped in one place might be a good idea. Just need someone with the time and dedication to maintain it (don't look at me, got my hands full already )