Wireless range troubles 378.53_0

[darobb1985]

Hello

I'm having some troubles with my wireless range.
I have installed the router this morning after reading a lot of succes story's... (not for me so far )
When i'm upstairs or in my garden the signal is just not good...

From the beginning i used firmware 378.53_0.
I left al settings standard. Does annybody have some advise or the same troubles?

 

[hardtotell]

Whatever portable device you are using from your garden area may not have enough transmit power to reach the router. Even if you bought a 5W Wi-Fi booster on eBay to put on the router, it probably would not help.

 

[martinr]

Could you clarify a couple of things; firstly, which router are you using. And secondly, am I right in thinking the router is new (to you) and 378.53 is the only firmware you have ever had on it? Or are you saying that simce installing 378.53 (from whatever was on it beforehand), the signal is no longer as good as it used to be?

 

[darobb1985]

Could you clarify a couple of things; firstly, which router are you using. And secondly, am I right in thinking the router is new (to you) and 378.53 is the only firmware you have ever had on it? Or are you saying that simce installing 378.53 (from whatever was on it beforehand), the signal is no longer as good as it used to be?

Sorry for my incompleteness..
I use the Asus RT-AC66U.
The router is indeed new to me. 378.53 is the first firmware installed on it. I saw another thread where someone else also had troubles with 378.53 wich he had not with 378.51.
So, I installed that firmware and it looks like it's slightly better. At least for my iPad air 2.
My notebook (Asus X750LN-TY111H) still has troubles. The range is bad and speed also.

 

[darobb1985]

I did a little troubleshooting some more.
I made two ssid's one for 2.4ghz and one for 5ghz.

My ipad sees both and has everywere connection especially on the 2.4ghz network. (but thats obvious).

My Huwai Ascend P6 has also connection in my garden on the 2.4 Ghz network.

My notebook doenst even see the 5ghz network (in my living room where my ipad has full connection)...

So it looks like my notebook is the bottleneck. But maybe you guys have some more tips & tweaks for my router or notebook

 

[darobb1985]

Oké now i see that my notebook doenst support 5ghz... (bummer)

But that doesn't meen that the 2.4ghz network has to run crappy right?

It is best to run both network under 1 ssid again I think?

 

[martinr]

I'm also running an RT-AC68U. Thing is: from what you say, you don't know how the router would have performed on the stock firmware, or any other version of Merlin's firmware, and I'll bet you that any difficulties in wifi range coverage are nothing to do with firmware but are simply down to the laws of nature. In contrast to other forums on open-source firmware, hardly anyone ever asks which version of Merlin's firmware is stable or gives the best wifi coverage: that just isn't a product of this firmware: they're all rock stable and there seems to be no measurable variability in wifi range between versions. So it'll be down to the limitations of the router. As it happens, after 7 or 8 months of putting up with not being able to get wifi much beyond the outside walls with my own RT-AC68U, this week I ran an Ethernet cable to an old repeater router running DDWRT situated in my loft, and that has solved my own inabilty to push my wifi out to the garage and garden.

 

[netwrks]

Oké now i see that my notebook doenst support 5ghz... (bummer)

But that doesn't meen that the 2.4ghz network has to run crappy right?

It is best to run both network under 1 ssid again I think?

Label the ssid's with <yourssidname> for 2.4 and <yourssidname-5g> for 5ghz, so you can differentiate what band you are connecting to... The notebook may only support somewhere around 50-70Mb/s. Don't forget, WIFI connection speeds are theoretical. Every environment is different.

 

[jim769]

You could also try John's fork build of Merlin 374.43 firmware rock stable and many people report better range.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-update-for-374-43-available.18914/

 

[darobb1985]

You could also try John's fork build of Merlin 374.43 firmware rock stable and many people report better range.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-update-for-374-43-available.18914/

Thanks! I'm going to try this one because I discoverd a new "feature". when I'm upstairs the internet connection on my ipad stops. I still have connection with my intern network because i can connect my Synology en the Asus router itself. (at that moment I've got internetconnection with my notebook).
After turning wifi off & on on my ipad it works again for about 5 minutes...

Downstairs i don't have issues like this with my ipad... (5ghz network bitching upstairs?)

(And no, its not my ipad because i have never had issues like this before with the previous situation )

 

[darobb1985]

You could also try John's fork build of Merlin 374.43 firmware rock stable and many people report better range.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-update-for-374-43-available.18914/

I installed version 10.
Testing right now (so far so good)

edit: -50 dBm in my living room

 

[jim769]

A lot of people love John's builds and hope he never stops releasing them. You are aware that there was a version 11 that was just released recently but certainly nothing wrong with v-10

 

[darobb1985]

A lot of people love John's builds and hope he never stops releasing them. You are aware that there was a version 11 that was just released recently but certainly nothing wrong with v-10

I noticed but I also seen that you were on v10 in that thread dat you gave. And you are happy with so I believe you

 

[darobb1985]

although my notebook still has a bad connection up stairs.

And my ipad has again a connection break...

thanks for all the support but I'm returning this router

 

[jim769]

I change firmware all the time. I like trying different ones just to see how they perform I am using Merlins latest right now and it works very good for me. Sorry your having issues I don't own the AC66U so I cant comment on how that router performs but have heard good things from most. I am using the AC68R here and it seems to work quite well.

 

[RMerlin]

Downstairs i don't have issues like this with my ipad... (5ghz network bitching upstairs?)

The 5 GHz band is more susceptible to obstacles than the 2.4 GHz band. It's possible that you simply have too many walls/ceilings/obstacles between the router's location and the ipad upstairs. You usually need to either relocate the router to reduce the number of obstacles, or switch to the 2.4 GHz band (which has better penetration).

 

[john9527]

And in the silly reminder category....if you are trying to go between floors, make sure that the outer antennas are not vertical (I think the manual recommends 45 deg outward tilt, but experiment a bit).

And thanks for the kind words on the fork

 

[sbailey4]

although my notebook still has a bad connection up stairs.

And my ipad has again a connection break...

thanks for all the support but I'm returning this router

For Apple devices they work well when you set the SSID's the same for both bands. Then they will switch to the one with the best connection/throughput/signal. (not just signal) They seem to prefer the 5ghz when closer/better signal but switch to 2.4 as needed (ie when u go upstairs) without dropping the connection but switch back when 5g is better again. Works fine for me with AC66 and iPhone 6's

 

[darobb1985]

Thanks you guys for the tips and support.
One last attempt this morning:
- Experimentet with the antennas
- Installed official Asus firmware
- Separated the 2.4 en 5.0 ghz network
- Connected my ipad upstairs to the 2.4 network

Result after about 10 minutes the internetconnection stops. I am still connected to the 2.4 network and I can Access my synology and asus router.
Meanwhile my laptop (downstairs) has still internetconnection.

I don't know what the bottelneck is so I'm returning it for sure now.
But what ever it is, it's not working in my situation...

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Pierino]

You aren't giving us enough info yet. What channel width are you using? What channels? Have you used any utility to make sure you are using the best channel available to you?
If you don't know about any of this, you are likely to run into the same problems with your next router.
Not to offend or sound condescending but it seems like you are new at this.
If you still have time on your return window, don't give up yet with out giving more info.