Wireless problems RT-N66U

[mattswell]

I've owned my RT-N66U since it was first released, and it has been flawless up until recently...

I've got a late 2012 MBP and a late 2013 MBP along with a few iPhones/iPods/iPads/etc (iOS dev, otherwise there would be some variety...) using wireless, along with a computer wired directly to the router and another wired via Powerline.

Anything that is wired directly to the router (or via Powerline) works without issue, but anything wireless will eventually have poor performance. Takes a few hours to a day for it to happen. Once I restart the router, anything wireless is back to full speed.

What can I use to collect data when this is happening? I am trying to sort out what the issue is. I am using the Merlin firmware v3.0.0.4.374.35_4.


Thanks!

 

[wouterv]

Few things that are relevant:

Use InSSIDer to figure out the use of radio channels in your neighborhood and manual select the least occupied ones for your router 2.4 GHz (only use channels 1, 6 or 11 and set the bandwidth fixed to 20 MHz) and 5 GHz.
Leave the Wireless Mode set to Auto and use WPA2-Personal.

Try the special SDK5 driver versions of Merlin.
The newer SDK6 driver has known issues for some users.

What is the frequency that shows the low throughput, 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz?

 

[mattswell]

So my laptop is connected to the 5GHz network, and it is currently having extremely poor throughput... I can barely even load the router's admin.

I managed (somehow) to get these images uploaded (i apologize for the mammoth retina images)

inSSIDer:

My proximity to the router:

2.5GHz settings:

5GHz settings:

 

[L&LD]

Try deleting the network settings from your computer and change the ssid on the router to something without spaces and different for the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz band.

Also - uncheck B/G protection as an additional test.

 

[wouterv]

I agree, uncheck b/g Protection and for your own practise use different SSIDs for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, by this you know for sure to which frequency a device is connected.
It is advised to not use spaces or other odd characters in your SSIDs, use alphanumeric only (Aa to Zz and 0-9), some devices have problems with odd characters.

I notice both frequencies are quite occupied in your neighborhood.
I suggest to select another channel for 5 GHz (e.g. 56), or set it to Auto.
I suggest to set the bandwidth of 2.4 GHz to 20 MHz.

One strange thing I see at your 2.4 GHz settings is Control Channel 21, that is very odd (the highest channel is 11 or 13 or 14, depending on your region).
Do a hard reset of your router or revert to factory defaults and manual configure the router again.

The router location seems to be not very optimal.
It is very close to your TV and the antenna's are very close to the wall and against the TV shelf.
The TV can cause disturbance and the wall or shelf may cause odd reflections or absorbtion of the signals. The anteannas should be free of obstacles at least 1 feet/30 cm, and away from other electronic devices.
Is the white box underneat the router your modem? If so...separate them at least 1 feet/30cm.
Given the distance to your computer it should not be a big deal, but it is worth to experiment with the router location, keep it at least 3 feet/1 meter away from your computer(s).

Finally: replace the red cable by a white, to make it match with the wall ;-)

 

[mattswell]

So I changed a few things...

I reset the router to factory settings, reconfigured it, using auto channel config (5ghz stays at 157/161, 2.5ghz moves around. laptop always connects to 5ghz)

I moved the router somewhere else. It was sitting on top of a mac mini, and the connector for the antennas were hot enough to hurt.

I still have the same problem, but I noticed that if I simply reconnect the laptop to the wireless, the problem goes away (well it did this last time...). Now I'm not sure if it's the router or if it is the MBP (MBP doesn't have this issue with other wireless networks, so I'm not inclined to believe that it is the problem).

So... slowly degrading network connection that is fixed with either a reconnection to the network (cycling the wireless adaptor) or power cycling the router.


Still very annoying.

 

[L&LD]

I would guess it's a MBP issue with this router/firmware - but you may have also damaged the router permanently by cooking it over the mac mini?

 

[wouterv]

Moving the router away from the MacBook (why do Mac guys use those odd abbreviations??) was a brilliant idea. How is the temperature of the router at its new location?
The RT-N66U is known to become warm, but it shall not be too hot to touch, 50 deg C / 120 deg F max at some spots should be normal.

What does the 2.4 GHz configuration page show now as control channel (is channel 21 gone)?
What do you mean with "2.4ghz moves around"?

Unless you really need Merlin features, I suggest to give Asus firmware 3.0.0.4.276 a try, this is known stable for the wireless part (after the firmware installation: revert to factory defaults and manual configure the router).
Or try Merlins SDK5 driver version.

[EDIT]
There seems to be know problems with MBP, see here:
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=14455
Merlin firmware has an option to enable 802.11d+h support, which seems to fix those issues. Note: this is for 5 GHz only.

 

[mattswell]

This morning I was using my laptop, everything was great. Suddenly everything loads like it's 1999 on a USR 56k. I disabled/enabled the wireless on my laptop and everything's golden again.

I'm going to use my other laptop, and use my USB-N53 on my PC to see if this affects any other wireless clients. My i-devices don't stay connected constantly so it's hard to tell from them.



What I mean about moving around, is that on auto it changes the control channel for 2.4Ghz every so often since the space is so crowded.

I was using merlin for the sweet vpn (I connect when I'm away from home), thought I don't remember if vanilla asus had this or not.

My radios are currently at 56 deg C and 58 deg C, there is nothing electronic/warm within 1ft of it. Thing gets hot.

I did enable the d+h setting for 5Ghz though it didn't help.


EDIT:

I hopped onto the other laptop, and immediately had issues. First connection attempt did not work at all (exclamation mark in OSX). Second attempt connected, but connection was so slow nothing would load. Third connection attempt worked, everything is fast and speedy.

This laptop I've had for a year, and it has been running mavericks since it was released. Zero issues at work (using an airport extreme) and I don't recall any issues here at home (on the asus). My main had been running snow lion until I replaced it in November.

I don't know if this is a mavericks issue (both laptops running mavericks) or if this is my router finally dying out after 2 years of cooking on top of the mac mini. I can go grab another asus router to see if it fares better, but I don't want to junk this one if there is actually nothing wrong with it.