Stronger signal on guest network than primary

[Preskitt.man]

Just got new AC68U and put on the 583 firmware. Have a guest network on the 2.4 GHz channel. When I look at the signal strength on my wifi analyzer, the guest network signal is always notably stronger than the primary network signal. This is true wether I am right by the router or way off in the kitchen. Turning off the guest network had no impact on the signal strength of the primary. Any ideas?

 

[cmillar6]

do you have any wireless G clients on your primary 2,4GHz band?

 

[Preskitt.man]

No wireless G. Have network set for N only.

 

[icece]

Everything is OK. Don't confuse yourself.

 

[Preskitt.man]

Sort of nice to hear , and not trying to confuse myself.but am trying to understand. One would naively think they would either be the same, or if for some reason one was given greater signal strength than the other, that would be to the primary network.

 

[L&LD]

Which analyzer are you using? Not many report AC class routers properly yet. Though you would think the signal level would be easy enough.

I would suggest switching your wireless mode to Auto instead of 'N' only for best performance.

 

[Preskitt.man]

Using WI-FI Analyzer on Google Nexus 7 (2013 edition). This isn't an AC signal strength issue - question is on the 2.4 GHz band. Will try auto and see where that takes me.

 

[L&LD]

I wouldn't put too much stock in that (seeing as it's a tablet with less than optimal WiFi performance).

Do you have a laptop to try?

Edit:
But even then; inssider shows my Guest network about 2dBm stronger than the main network too.

Guess it's just the quirks of WiFi?

 

[RMerlin]

Edit:
But even then; inssider shows my Guest network about 2dBm stronger than the main network too.

Guess it's just the quirks of WiFi?

My theory is that, the longest the SSID is, the more bits have to be sent over radiowaves in those beacons. More bits being heavier, means the signal doesn't carry as far.

Or, it could just be average fluctuation depending on the specific point in time where measurement was taken. But I prefer my former theory as it's far more entertaining.

 

[icece]

It's unrelated to SSID, but I like that kind of entertainment

 

[Preskitt.man]

Well, would like to think its those heavier bits from that long ssid, but actually the primary ssid is shorter than the guest, so couldn't be that. Can't blame it on the MAC address either, it's greater for the guest than the primary. I suppose we'll just have to chalk it up as one of life's great mysteries.

One theory is that the guest network was unburdened with any traffic nor connections while this took place, while the primary was busy keeping several clients happy.