Starting to despair

[TheLyppardMan]

As you may have seen in my other thread, I had a big problem with the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band on my RT-AX88U Pro, so I sent my router back to Amazon and I'm currently waiting for a refund. The router was on special offer at Amazon earlier this week, so I took a chance and ordered a new one. Guess what - it's exhibiting similar behaviour to the one I have just sent back. Can anyone offer a possible explanation as to what is going on here and what I should do? I've spend many hours configuring and then wall-mounting these routers and I'm getting fed up with this now. Please help if you can.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Is this using the current stock Asus firmware (3.0.0.6.102_21514) and the default settings? If not do that and test again.

If it is using stock firmware then try the previous stock firmware (3.0.0.4.388.23110) as the current firmware is the first release of the new firmware branch and may have teething problems.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

I'm using Merlin's latest firmware at the moment.

 

[ZebMcKayhan]

Ive had a similar experience with my old ac86u, finally the 2.4GHz wifi just dissappeared. I ordered a new router, a ax86u pro and guess what: same thing. Strangely enough I put my old router next to my media converter when I setup my new router and the 2.4GHz worked again.

After an evening of janking cables I could conclude that my rpi nas (located 5cm from my router) created disturbance. Move it and it was gone.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I'm using Merlin's latest firmware at the moment.

As a minimum you need to confirm whether or not it works properly with the stock firmware it was shipped with.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

OK, I'll have to find a download link for the previous firmware and give it a try. What a pain!

 

[TheLyppardMan]

OK, I'll have to find a download link for the previous firmware and give it a try. What a pain!

I can only find two firmware downloads for this router, so I'll try using the earlier one, but at this stage, I'm not feeling optimistic.

By the way, I haven't set up any scripts on this router. It's just a simple setup at the moment, although I have set 4 network clients with static IPs.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

OK, this is what I have done so far. I've flashed the router with the earliest of the two available firmware downloads from the ASUS web site, but I haven't reset anything yet and from the following observation, I may not have to, as I have found something interesting, viz; if I set the Wi-Fi manually to channel 11, (the one I have always used in the past), the speed drops to extremely low values for a 900/900 full fibre interent connection. However, if I choose one of the other channels, such as 1 or 6, everything returns to normal. I'll just confirm that in a moment by using my Windows 11 laptop to test the connection, rather than my Samsung Galaxy A22 mobile phone. I'll post the restults in a few minutes.

 

[L&LD]

Your testing and observations mean little if you're flashing between stock and RMerlin firmware and not doing a full reset afterward. Followed by a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

I did do a full reset after flashing with the Merlin firmware and with the previous router, I also did a full factory reset after flashing with the official firmware as well. These are the results I have obtained so far, but I'll do a full reset next and some more testing.

 

[drinkingbird]

OK, this is what I have done so far. I've flashed the router with the earliest of the two available firmware downloads from the ASUS web site, but I haven't reset anything yet and from the following observation, I may not have to, as I have found something interesting, viz; if I set the Wi-Fi manually to channel 11, (the one I have always used in the past), the speed drops to extremely low values for a 900/900 full fibre interent connection. However, if I choose one of the other channels, such as 1 or 6, everything returns to normal. I'll just confirm that in a moment by using my Windows 11 laptop to test the connection, rather than my Samsung Galaxy A22 mobile phone. I'll post the restults in a few minutes.

Your symptoms line up perfectly with saturation of the channel. Why are you using channel 11 - have you done scanning to see how much RF there is on that band? Not just neighboring networks, actual band utilization. If not, set it to auto and let it pick the cleanest channel.

This is a major issue with 2.4ghz that everyone has. The band is very saturated, even in moderately populated areas. Plus bluetooth, microwaves, lots of other stuff interfere. Unless you have the ability to do some spectrum analysis, just set it to auto. If you want it to pick the best channel each day, set it to reboot every night at 3AM or whenever.

The absolute best you can typically expect from a 2 stream client on 20mhz channel width (nobody should be trying to use 40mhz as it only compounds the issue) is about 75 megs, half of the 150M link rate. So your throughput on 1 and 6 are excellent, probably taking advantage of throughput enhancer or something. Either that or you're actually hitting the theoretical limit of about 67% which means that router and your client are quite good.

If you are using 40mhz channel, set it to 20 only. While it may be getting you a few extra megs right now, it is harming your neighbors and probably will end up reducing your performance at other times (in other words, it will be inconsistent, and a consistent 75 is better than a varying 5 to 90).

 

[L&LD]

Doing a full reset before flashing the firmware you want to use/test isn't valid either. If proper testing is your goal.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

I only ever use 20 MHz, just for the record. Also, I always do the full reset after uploading the firmware I want to use (my mistake in my post above - sorry about that; I've corrected my error).

If I set the router to "auto", how often does it check the Wi-Fi quality and does it matter if it selects channels other than 1, 6 or 11, as used to be the normal advice?

 

[drinkingbird]

I only ever use 20 MHz, just for the record. Also, I always do the full reset after uploading the firmware I want to use (my mistake in my post above - sorry about that; I've corrected my error).

Anyway, these are the results with the official firmware, after the full reset and with only the Wi-Fi and internet settings added. This time I used my laptop, fairly close to where the router is situated, just the otherside of a plasterboard partition:

Using channel 11


Using channel 6


If I set the router to "auto", how often does it check the Wi-Fi quality and does it matter if it selects channels other than 1, 6 or 11, as used to be the normal advice?

1/6/11 no longer applies in residential environments. Hasn't for years. An overlapping channel with more available spectrum is better than a saturated non-overlapping channel.

Your screenshot of channel 6 is clearly using a 40mhz channel (or 5ghz). No way you can get that speed from 2.4 on a 2 stream connection. The default on the router is to use 40mhz if any client supports it. Set it to 20 only in the router. I suppose you may have a 3 stream 2.4ghz client but that seems unlikely, they're rare (and that speed is even pretty high for that).

Obviously 11 is saturated in your area.

When set to auto, the router only rescans when the wifi is bounced hence why I say you can have it reboot every night at 3AM or whenever so it rescans. You could also use a script to bounce the wifi pereodically.

Just set it to auto and call it a day. Or if 1 or 6 are working well for you, you can use those, just know that when a neighbor gets a new router or their router re-scans, it may no longer work well for you.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

1/6/11 no longer applies in residential environments. Hasn't for years. An overlapping channel with more available spectrum is better than a saturated non-overlapping channel.

Your screenshot of channel 6 is clearly using a 40mhz channel (or 5ghz). No way you can get that speed from 2.4 on a 2 stream connection. The default on the router is to use 40mhz if any client supports it. Set it to 20 only in the router. I suppose you may have a 3 stream 2.4ghz client but that seems unlikely, they're rare (and that speed is even pretty high for that).

The router was set to 20 MHz when I conducted that test. I'll try another test now with the channel set to auto and post the result in a few minutes.

Obviously 11 is saturated in your area.

When set to auto, the router only rescans when the wifi is bounced hence why I say you can have it reboot every night at 3AM or whenever so it rescans. You could also use a script to bounce the wifi pereodically.

Rebooting in the middle of the night would be a problem, unless I can either ensure that the leds don't come back on (as the router is close to my bedroom) or failing that, I may put a strip of led-dimming over them (I aready have some available, so I'll look into that tomorrow).

Just set it to auto and call it a day. Or if 1 or 6 are working well for you, you can use those, just know that when a neighbor gets a new router or their router re-scans, it may no longer work well for you.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

This is how I currently have the settings in the router:

 

[Piotrek]

Your screenshot of channel 6 is clearly using a 40mhz channel (or 5ghz). No way you can get that speed from 2.4 on a 2 stream connection.

This is possible for AX on 2,4 GHz.
AX on 2,4 GHz and channel 20 MHz will allow to get a speed of over 220 Mbps.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

1/6/11 no longer applies in residential environments. Hasn't for years. An overlapping channel with more available spectrum is better than a saturated non-overlapping channel.

ASUS need to update their website then, because this is what it says:

1. Set up fix channels of your Wi-Fi network, the best compatibility channels are: for 2.4GHz network, channel 1, 6, 11 are suggested, for 5GHz, channel 36~48 are recommended.

Your screenshot of channel 6 is clearly using a 40mhz channel (or 5ghz). No way you can get that speed from 2.4 on a 2 stream connection. The default on the router is to use 40mhz if any client supports it. Set it to 20 only in the router. I suppose you may have a 3 stream 2.4ghz client but that seems unlikely, they're rare (and that speed is even pretty high for that).

Obviously 11 is saturated in your area.

When set to auto, the router only rescans when the wifi is bounced hence why I say you can have it reboot every night at 3AM or whenever so it rescans. You could also use a script to bounce the wifi pereodically.

Just set it to auto and call it a day. Or if 1 or 6 are working well for you, you can use those, just know that when a neighbor gets a new router or their router re-scans, it may no longer work well for you.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Ive had a similar experience with my old ac86u, finally the 2.4GHz wifi just dissappeared. I ordered a new router, a ax86u pro and guess what: same thing. Strangely enough I put my old router next to my media converter when I setup my new router and the 2.4GHz worked again.

After an evening of janking cables I could conclude that my rpi nas (located 5cm from my router) created disturbance. Move it and it was gone.

I have a VOIP phone base station about 3 feet from my router, but even when I switched it off, it didn't make any difference to the abysmal data transfer speeds on channel 11, so that's clearly not the issue in my case. Also, my NAS is mounted well away from my router in a downstairs cupboard and is connected via an ethernet cable.

 

[Piotrek]

the best compatibility channels are: for 2.4GHz network, channel 1, 6, 11 are suggested

It made sense 10-20 years ago.
As @drinkingbird wrote - set 20 MHz and auto, see what the router will choose most often and check how it works.