Slow Wireless Performance RT-AC68P in AP mode

[legacyofbob]

Hello,

My main router at the moment is a RT-N66U but being located in my basement it has never given me good reception on the main floor of my house. I finally got around to running a CAT5 cable upstairs and added a RT-AC68P in access point mode. Unfortunately I can only get about 9.5Mbps on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz out to the internet. I checked the cable run by connecting it directly to a laptop and was able to get 120Mbps out to the internet so I know that is good. I am using a different SSID for the "upstairs" networks versus the "basement" networks, the basement 2.4GHz being on channel 1 and the upstairs on 6. I've also tried upgrading the firmware to 3.0.0.4.378_9135 and clearing the NVRAM afterwards and the results are the same.

The laptop I'm using shows that it is connected at 72Mbps on the 2.4GHz network, yet can still only get 9.5Mbps via speedtest (I ran on different websites to be sure.) Pings seems fine, 12ms to the server I was using.

(Yes at some point in the future I was planning on making the AC68 my router and turning the N66 into an AP but I have a lot of custom settings on the N66 as my router now and I didn't feel like messing with it.)

If anyone has any ideas for me to try I'd sure appreciate it.

Here's the AP's wireless log in case that helps:

SSID: "Kitchen"
RSSI: 0 dBm    SNR: 0 dB    noise: -89 dBm    Channel: 6
BSSID: 1C:87:2C:49:04:D8    Capability: ESS ShortSlot
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
VHT Capable:
    Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 6 20MHz (0x1006)
    Primary channel: 6
    HT Capabilities:
    Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]
    VHT Capabilities:
    Supported VHT (tx) Rates:
        NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9
    Supported VHT (rx) Rates:
        NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9

Mode    : AP Only

Stations List                          
----------------------------------------
MAC               Associated Authorized    RSSI PSM SGI STBC Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
20:68:9D:EB:7A:32                        -53dBm No  Yes No     72.2M      1M 00:00:00

SSID: "Kitchen_5G"
RSSI: 0 dBm    SNR: 0 dB    noise: -92 dBm    Channel: 149/80
BSSID: 1C:87:2C:49:04:DC    Capability: ESS
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
VHT Capable:
    Chanspec: 5GHz channel 155 80MHz (0xe09b)
    Primary channel: 149
    HT Capabilities:
    Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]
    VHT Capabilities:
    Supported VHT (tx) Rates:
        NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9
    Supported VHT (rx) Rates:
        NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
        NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9

Mode    : AP Only

Stations List                          
----------------------------------------
MAC               Associated Authorized    RSSI PSM SGI STBC Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time

 

[legacyofbob]

I sent in a ticket to Asus support to ask them if they had any ideas since I didn't get any response here. I'll follow-up with their suggestions. If I can't get this working in a couple of days I'll return it and grab the Nighthawk since that's rated higher.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Just checking on your setup... Are you using Cat5 or Cat5e Ethernet cable? Cat5 or low quality Cat5e can result in slow speeds for wired Ethernet. There is a big difference between those two. Cat5 cable is not rated for Gigabit speeds. High quality Cat5e cable can work for a Gigabit network at short to medium distances. At a minimum you should be running very high quality Cat5e or Cat6 or better cable.

You might run into the same problem with any Gigabit router you try to use if the Ethernet cable is causing the problem. You could test your RT-AC68P router by swapping the routers and see if your older router has the same low speed issue.

An even easier test would be to simply see if the problem exists with the exact same setup but temporarily bypass the long run of Cat5 and try using a shorter Cat6 or better cable between the two routers in the same room just for doing throughput testing. If eliminating the long Cat5 cable solves the slow throughput problem then the long Cat5 run of cable is your problem.

Note: I know you may already have done this but again make sure the two routers are not overlapping on the exact same wireless channel. For example for 2.4Ghz wireless... manually set one to 1, 6 or 11 and other other router to a different channel. It looks like you already did this but still try using different channels if you feel you are experiencing interference. In high traffic areas always set both routers to 20Mhz bandwidth so there is less chance of frequency overlap in an enclosed environment. Follow a similar procedure (if you need to manually set to 40Mhz bandwidth) if you are using 5Ghz wireless for both routers.

BTW... I am using the RT-N66U and the RT-AC68P in a similar setup (one connected to the other via Cat7 spec Ethernet cable, but for various reasons I do not have the 68P configured as a strict access point, both are using DHCP resulting in double NAT for the clients on the 68P) and I have none of the internet speed problems you are experiencing. It seems to be very fast with very low latency. While running internet speed tests with all my various devices I can not detect a difference in throughput or latency when connecting via wireless to either router.