Wi-Fi Signal Strength RT-AC86U v RT-AX88U

[brummygit]

I've been following this thread for a while now, and did my own testing with my RT-AX88U some pages back which satisfied me that the change of Broadcom drivers introduced by Asus at a particular firmware release introduced the problem with 2.4Ghz signal strength. I also noted an improvement in 5Ghz signal at the same version change. Asuswrt-Merlin versions changed their behaviour once the GPL and binaries from the same significant firmware were merged.

I stopped posting on this thread however because of many unhelpful and negative posts generally not accepting there is an issue and berating people needlessly. I think the thread would be best moved to the AX subforum where interested parties are more likely to visit - @thiggins is this something you you can help with?

Interestingly, in my case I added 2 x RT-AX56Us as AiMesh nodes to cover the outer reaches of my area, and these too seem to have weaker 2.4Ghz coverage than my older AC routers. Using INSSIDER I always see a higher or equal signal from any of my 5Ghz APs than from the corresponding 2.4Ghz one. It might be that common settings are distributed via AiMesh from my AX88U, or if they share a common flaw from the Broadcom SDK/drivers, or maybe it's a deliberate direction to focus on 5Ghz coverage as a priority over 2.4Ghz.

 

[Tame]

I've been following this thread for a while now, and did my own testing with my RT-AX88U some pages back which satisfied me that the change of Broadcom drivers introduced by Asus at a particular firmware release introduced the problem with 2.4Ghz signal strength. I also noted an improvement in 5Ghz signal at the same version change. Asuswrt-Merlin versions changed their behaviour once the GPL and binaries from the same significant firmware were merged.

I stopped posting on this thread however because of many unhelpful and negative posts generally not accepting there is an issue and berating people needlessly. I think the thread would be best moved to the AX subforum where interested parties are more likely to visit - @thiggins is this something you you can help with?

Interestingly, in my case I added 2 x RT-AX56Us as AiMesh nodes to cover the outer reaches of my area, and these too seem to have weaker 2.4Ghz coverage than my older AC routers. Using INSSIDER I always see a higher or equal signal from any of my 5Ghz APs than from the corresponding 2.4Ghz one. It might be that common settings are distributed via AiMesh from my AX88U, or if they share a common flaw from the Broadcom SDK/drivers, or maybe it's a deliberate direction to focus on 5Ghz coverage as a priority over 2.4Ghz.

@brummygit I see that you're running "ASUS RT-AX88U running ASUSWRT-Merlin 384.19_alpha3". Have you had any success with improved 2.4 range with this version?

 

[brummygit]

@brummygit I see that you're running "ASUS RT-AX88U running ASUSWRT-Merlin 384.19_alpha3". Have you had any success with improved 2.4 range with this version?

No, it's the same as other recent firmware versions but I don't think much has changed in the area of WiFi drivers for a while. I'm now on Alpha 4 which is also the same.