Weird 2.4ghz behavior.

[Screwdriver]

I bought a RT-AC3200 to replace my RT-AC66U in hopes of getting better 2.4ghz coverage. It does work better but I am still getting spotty 2.4 at times. Before I went to the trouble of running cable to the living room, I decided to try a powerline kit and set the RT-AC66U as an AP. The powerline kit works great as I am hitting my ISP speed directly wired to the RT-AC66U. But the 2.4 is still spotty. Using InSSider and sitting 10' from the AP I get a signal around <25db which never changes, yet my Speedtest results sometimes drop from near 100Mbps to 3Mbps. I would test it hardwired to the AP and always get the max. These speed drops happen on all devices running 2.4, even when held a foot away from the AP. BTW, from the AP, 5ghz always maxes and equals my wired speed.

Some things that I noticed. This spotty 2.4 seems to start around 5 PM when all my neighbors come home. But using InSSider I do not see any odd or new devices come on at that time. I live is a house, but the street behind me is all apartments and condos and I do see many AP, but none are near my strength and there are no overlapping channels. Also, while the signal is weaker from the main RT-AC3200, it also shows this weird 2.4 behavior. I even borrowed a Netgear R7000 just to see if it was an Asus issue and it also had the problem.

So I have read what can cause interference with 2.4ghz, but what could affect it this dramatically?

 

[sfx2000]

Could be a SmartTV or Wireless Set Top box - inSSIDer won't see them as the SSID's are hidden/not broadcast...

With the right setup, one can see them with Wireshark on the packet captures - TxOP's with just data frames... what I can say is that sources are typically Netgear or CiscoSPV, and I've seen a lot of CiscoSPV and Vizio destinations - depending on client, most is single stream, N72 rates (MCS7), no QoS, no BlockAcks - which suggest streamer...

I'm in a standalone dwelling - and CH1 is pretty much hammered with this stuff... it's high enough source levels to significantly interfere with CH1 use at longer ranges...

 

[Screwdriver]

Could be a SmartTV or Wireless Set Top box - inSSIDer won't see them as the SSID's are hidden/not broadcast...

With the right setup, one can see them with Wireshark on the packet captures - TxOP's with just data frames... what I can say is that sources are typically Netgear or CiscoSPV, and I've seen a lot of CiscoSPV and Vizio destinations - depending on client, most is single stream, N72 rates (MCS7), no QoS, no BlockAcks - which suggest streamer...

I'm in a standalone dwelling - and CH1 is pretty much hammered with this stuff... it's high enough source levels to significantly interfere with CH1 use at longer ranges...

I do have a LG, Smart TV....I might move that to wired. I already moved the Roku and Sonos to the wired lan. I also use an Arlo camera setup that has a 2.4ghz base station...but turned that off and it made zero difference.

 

[sfx2000]

Are you in a townhome/condo/apartment?

Could be the neighbor on the other side of the wall

 

[Screwdriver]

Are you in a townhome/condo/apartment?

Could be the neighbor on the other side of the wall

I live in a house......but the street directly behind me is all apartments. I can see many AP's the closer I get to the back of my house. Also, I live in an old neighborhood where my neighbors are pretty close to each other. Less than 10' from wall to wall.

This was never an issue until a few months ago when I started getting sever slow downs on the web. I moved up to 100Mbps internet which made no difference to my and my wife's laptops. Both of which are 2.4ghz only but are still good units. If they could do 5ghz this would not be an issue.

 

[ChatmanR]

I live in a house......but the street directly behind me is all apartments. I can see many AP's the closer I get to the back of my house. Also, I live in an old neighborhood where my neighbors are pretty close to each other. Less than 10' from wall to wall.

This was never an issue until a few months ago when I started getting sever slow downs on the web. I moved up to 100Mbps internet which made no difference to my and my wife's laptops. Both of which are 2.4ghz only but are still good units. If they could do 5ghz this would not be an issue.

Why not use usb stubs that do 5ghz? I use the Edimax EW-7711ULC 11AC with no issues.