Set up New ROG AX6000 (w/ RMerlin) but Not Getting Fast Wi-Fi Speeds. (Please Help)

[Poseidon]

Just set up and updated my ROG AX6000 router with RMerlin latest 386.6 fw and performed a factory reset and set up from scratch. I used Wi-Fi Analyzer and found the best/least congested 2.4 and 5 GHz channels.

However I noticed my wireless speeds aren’t as fast as my previous router (Netgear RAXE500). I feel I need to make some settings changes but I’m not quite sure because the options are massive compared to the simplistic and bare-bone Netgear gui.

What settings changes are recommended from the default settings for the ROG AX6000? On 5GHZ wireless I did select 160 MHz channel bandwidth. Is this correct? Any other settings I should change to get faster and more reliable speeds/connection?

* Using 1gig internet. Testing wireless mainly with latest Apple products. (iPhone 13 Pro, iPad Air). With Netgear was getting around 790-806 Mbps down. With ROG getting around low to mid 600 Mbps down.

 

[bbunge]

You should use the Dual Band SmartConnect and auto channel. Let the router choose the bandwidth and channel that is best. Works for me! You spent big bucks for the router now trust it.

 

[John_]

For 5GHz, manually set channel 36.
That is more likely to allow the 160Mhz bandwidth.

 

[SAL9K]

I don’t believe the iPhone 13 supports 160 MHz channels, so its connecting at 80 MHz max. I usually have to toggle the iOS WiFi off/on between channel changes, otherwise my speeds tank. Also, if you’re in a congested WiFi environment then forcing 160 MHz channels may be hurting your speeds. Possibly, try the fixed 80 MHz setting to see if that helps, or using the 20/40/80/160 option and letting the router decide. For me, using the mixed option almost never resulted in the router choosing 160MHz so I had to use the fixed 160MHz to use it, and I discovered doing that actually lowered my speeds.

 

[Poseidon]

Thanks for everyone’s input and help but the ROG router is going back. Tried both RMerlin and stock fw and still very inconsistent speeds and average range compared to my Netgear RAXE500. Never had these issues with the Nighthawk router, which was blazing fast.

Maybe as the fw matures for the ROG it will be a beast but not for me and not right now.

 

[SAL9K]

That's too bad about the slow AX6000 speeds. I'm looking to upgrade myself, but then I read about the early adopter issues like this, and realize that I haven't heard a peep from my AX86U, it's just a no-fuss workhorse at this point, forget that it's there.

Do you hear the fans on the RAXE500? Do you even use the 6GHz bands, and if so, what's your experience with the 160MHz channels and speeds?

 

[RMinNJ]

Always possible the netgear is good and works well in your environment. It's too bad about netgear.. I found their older AC hardware good with good range..but their firmware and support awful.

 

[Poseidon]

That's too bad about the slow AX6000 speeds. I'm looking to upgrade myself, but then I read about the early adopter issues like this, and realize that I haven't heard a peep from my AX86U, it's just a no-fuss workhorse at this point, forget that it's there.

Do you hear the fans on the RAXE500? Do you even use the 6GHz bands, and if so, what's your experience with the 160MHz channels and speeds?

I only hear the fan on startup otherwise it’s super quiet. I don’t have any devices that use the 6GHz band but 5GHz is phenomenal and my IoT smart home devices work perfectly on 2.4 band. No hiccups whatsoever

Also much to my surprise is that Netgear has frequently released firmware updates for this router, including one yesterday, that has added QoS function + opening up the WAN port as an optional 5th LAN port when using the 2.5gig WAN. Nice added feature IMO.

I have tried the latest from Asus (ROG GT-AXE11000 and now the ROG GT-AX6000) and I have been very disappointed in both, especially for the price. I miss the good ole days of when Asus premium routers kicked butt. Not the case any more for me personally at least unfortunately.

Lucky we have options as consumers!

 

[lilstone87]

but their firmware and support awful.

This is exactly the reason I stopped buying their routers. As I owned a couple different ones, and at the time. They were newer higher end routers. Yet firmware updates were slow to the point you were lucky to see one every six months.

 

[RogerSC]

This is exactly the reason I stopped buying their routers. As I owned a couple different ones, and at the time. They were newer higher end routers. Yet firmware updates were slow to the point you were lucky to see one every six months.

Firmware for the Netgear Orbi was even worse because of autoupdate...that's the one that pushed me away from Netgear. They used to put out some bad versions, but you couldn't revert to a good version with their forced "autoupdate". You just had to use the bad version until the next version came out. Which fixed some bugs, but broke other functionality in the process. From what I've heard since then, things have gotten worse, not better. Too bad, used to like Netgear routers. The R7800 was one of my all time favorite routers, especially with OpenWRT firmware.

By the way, happy with the GT-AX6000 here, speeds are as expected and stable. Sorry to hear about the OP's difficulties. Personally, don't use 160MHz. channel width here, DFS channels are apparently unreliable. And don't leave the channel and channel width settings on "auto", that's been problematic as well. Also not using smart connect, although I used to until I found that separate 2.4GHz. and 5GHz. networks helped with keeping all my 5GHz. clients on 5GHz. as well as a positive effect on speed...that's what I see here, anyways.

 

[SAL9K]

Firmware for the Netgear Orbi was even worse because of autoupdate...that's the one that pushed me away from Netgear. They used to put out some bad versions, but you couldn't revert to a good version with their forced "autoupdate". You just had to use the bad version until the next version came out. Which fixed some bugs, but broke other functionality in the process. From what I've heard since then, things have gotten worse, not better. Too bad, used to like Netgear routers. The R7800 was one of my all time favorite routers, especially with OpenWRT firmware.

By the way, happy with the GT-AX6000 here, speeds are as expected and stable. Sorry to hear about the OP's difficulties. Personally, don't use 160MHz. channel width here, DFS channels are apparently unreliable. And don't leave the channel and channel width settings on "auto", that's been problematic as well. Also not using smart connect, although I used to until I found that separate 2.4GHz. and 5GHz. networks helped with keeping all my 5GHz. clients on 5GHz. as well as a positive effect on speed...that's what I see here, anyways.

This is the philosophy thats worked the best for me as well — fixed BW, fixed channel, separate SSID’s, no roaming. Using the auto settings, I’d get random phone/laptop reconnects, that I couldn’t sort out. I haven’t touched my AX86U for what seems like months, the WiFi is fast and rock solid. Sounds like the OP has a similar situation with the Netgear. I kinda have the new tech fever as well, especially when Asus makes “announcements”. That new 6E bandwidth has some real potential.

 

[SAL9K]

I only hear the fan on startup otherwise it’s super quiet. I don’t have any devices that use the 6GHz band but 5GHz is phenomenal and my IoT smart home devices work perfectly on 2.4 band. No hiccups whatsoever

Also much to my surprise is that Netgear has frequently released firmware updates for this router, including one yesterday, that has added QoS function + opening up the WAN port as an optional 5th LAN port when using the 2.5gig WAN. Nice added feature IMO.

I have tried the latest from Asus (ROG GT-AXE11000 and now the ROG GT-AX6000) and I have been very disappointed in both, especially for the price. I miss the good ole days of when Asus premium routers kicked butt. Not the case any more for me personally at least unfortunately.

Lucky we have options as consumers!

I think every vendor has some winners and many more duds. The ROG line is ghastly looking IMO, and expensive, but going by specs the AXE16000 looks pretty amazing, we’ll see how that turns out. I wouldn’t call the AX86U a premium router, but the performance/$ ratio is super high. The vertical format Asus routers have all been great for me (n66u, ac86u, ax86u). Perhaps a better router for you is no new router at all, just start using those wide 6E channels!

 

[Tech Junky]

That new 6E bandwidth has some real potential.

No, 6 & 6E have the same options. The difference is 6Ghz on 6E but, the same 160mhz option on both.

WIFI7 will double things to 320mhz which will boost things significantly to at least 2gbps actual throughput with a theoretical max single client of maybe 4gbps depending on what they do on the client side adapters.

Most of the issues mentioned here can be completely avoided by going DIY and adding an AP instead of buying the commercial junk that's on the shelves. I upgrade my kernel on Linux weekly just for patches / performance but, the AP chugs along for months at a time until a happen to check for new FW every few months. There's no need for this BS you all are putting up with for a sun standard experience.

Especially if you're running some high end data storage across the network going DIY give you the option to pick ports / speed as needed to match your data needs. I went 4-port 5GE and hit 400MB/s+ over Ethernet to the NAS drives int he DIY box. I also can hit line speed 1gbps+ over VPN unlike the router's that tend to top out at 500mbps due to the processor limitations. If I added more clients to peg the WIFI though I could push it to 2.5gbps which is the port limitation of the AP. If a higher spec AP comes along with a 5GE port then it's already just a swap out and this comes to mind with WIFI7 / 320mhs coming down the pipe in a year or two.

 

[SAL9K]

It was pretty clear that by new 6E bandwidth I meant the 6GHz band

 

[Tech Junky]

It was pretty clear that by new 6E bandwidth I meant the 6GHz band

The only benefit this provides is if you're in a dense spectrum area.

 

[lilstone87]

Most of the issues mentioned here can be completely avoided by going DIY

Not to drive this topic off the rails. But just curious what kind of cost was your DIY router? I'm talking from scratch, not adding parts to a already built pc, to run as a router.

 

[Tech Junky]

Already had a PC built as a NAS and some other functions.

To build from scratch it's cheapest to get a used PC and add a 4 port NIC to it. So you could do it for as little as $200 for gigabit speeds and put your router into AP mode for WiFi.

Bumping beyond gigabit speeds would be a 2.5ge NIC or 5ge for $150-$200 or you could do a dual port 2.5 for $60. If you don't have a 6/6E router and want to upgrade to a full fledged AP it would be ~$150-$350.

Then it's just a matter of picking the OS from free to some $ depending on how comfortable you are with Linux based commands.

The price is inline with consumer options but with more performance. No buggy fw to deal with. Full speed VPN options. Speed tailored to your wants. Firewall, ad blocking, monitoring, etc

 

[L&LD]

That is nowhere in line with consumer options.

While the GT-AX6000 is expensive, nothing similar can be built for the same or less with the features it offers and the performance on tap it has.

 

[Tech Junky]

So, for $400 you can build something better?

$200 for the used PC / NIC
Leaves $200 for an AX AP

Seems like you can.

 

[Maverick009]

The ASUS routers are quite superb routers with an expansive feature set. The Mesh AI is just one big advantage just in default firmware. Merlin firmware can usually move faster to add some advantages and bug fixes that eventually find it in the ASUS firmware and every once in a while there is bonuses or fixes in the default firmware over the merlin firmware. That is just the nature of the game. As for the hardware, I have used Linksys, Belkin, Netgear, Custom wireless router hardware, and a few others. Linksys use to be by far my favorite due to flexibility both in hardware and firmware options. As things changed, Linksys sort of regrated to mid to high tier with hits and misses. Belkin when they came on the seen, tried to make a name for themselves, but firmware was slower to come out, even if t hey had some pretty powerful WIFI equipment or tried to be first. Slow firmware updates though can kill products. Netgear was decent but they like to more or less control every aspect of their products, and they have even shipped some hardware with issues, that sometimes cannot be fully corrected in hardware. Asus is quite a huge name in motherboard/PC race, and when it came to wireless, they took a lot of that philosophy to their wireless router space. Removable antennas, custom firmware, restore/rescue mode, performance, AI Mesh, and name are some of the big reasons I took a look into them.

As for that AX6000 ASUS Router, it is very decent and does outclass that Netgear router. The difference will be some early firmware and difference in settings. What worked for the Netgear, will not necessarily work for the Asus and vice versa. I have the AX11000 router which has an additional 5Ghz channel, but for the AX6000, some of the same methods will apply to it. I have the channels locked and tweaked. For my fast 5Ghz channel, I have it set to AX Only, 20/40/80/160 Mhz Channel, control channel 161 with extension channel as auto, Authentication method set to WPA2/WPA3, and protected management frames set to capable. I also have WiFi 6 mode/Agile Multiband/Target wake time all enabled. I also have under professional tab OFDMA/802.11ax MU-MIMO set to DL/UL OFDMA + MU MIMO. Those settings allow me to connect at full speed, but keep in mind as you connect more devices, and depending on their wireless radio hardware and settings, your performance can change and it will vary depending on location/etc. I honestly do not think there is anything wrong with the RX6000 other than maybe a few extra settings you need to adjust to benefit from it. Plus with Ai Mesh, it has some worthy perks for keeping it around.