ASUS AC66R isn't performing as expected.

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Alexander Moore

Alexander Moore

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I bought a high end ASUS router as several people I know said that ASUS routers are the best.

So I bought the ASUS AC66R router and tested it against my friend's old $3 Goodwill-bought Netgear router.

The ASUS AC66 produced 4Mbps / 2Mbps on speeds. We re-tried with the trasmit power brought clear up to 190mW (the default is 80mW) and QoS enabled. Still the same result.

His little old single-antenna Netgear router ran at 15Mbps / 2Mbps.


So, needless to say I'm pretty frustrated. My high-dollar router is getting badly out-performed by a 3-dollar router. If this is how it's going to be then I've just wasted a lot of money and I'm going to return this to BestBuy.

Any ideas of what might be wrong? The ASUS router gets awfully hot awfully quickly too. Is that normal?

Test Specifics:

Tested using 2.4Ghz signal. Used SpeedTest.net

His Netgear router is just a little old white Wireless-G single-antenna router...
 
Solution
dbhosttexas
The problem isn't that the router itself is at fault, the problem is most likely a common a misunderstanding of how WiFi works.

Are you connecting AC clients to it, and if so is the router running in AC only mode? If not, expect performance to be bad. Just like wired ethernet, if your client is 10mb then that is all the speed you are going to get through it. But with wireless it is worse because the slowest client slows the entire network down. Combine that with the overhead of translating from say Wireless B/G, or whatever to AC and you will likely perform WORSE than say a dedicated wireless B/G or whatever router...

That is why I wired everything I could that I couldn't upgrade to wireless N and turned my router to N only. AC works...
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Alexander Moore

Alexander Moore

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N on my computer, until I can get an AC adapter. Or do you think it would be better to trade it in for an N router?

I figured an AC router should be able to use N at the same or better speed as an N router. Am I wrong?
 
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dbhosttexas

dbhosttexas

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The problem isn't that the router itself is at fault, the problem is most likely a common a misunderstanding of how WiFi works.

Are you connecting AC clients to it, and if so is the router running in AC only mode? If not, expect performance to be bad. Just like wired ethernet, if your client is 10mb then that is all the speed you are going to get through it. But with wireless it is worse because the slowest client slows the entire network down. Combine that with the overhead of translating from say Wireless B/G, or whatever to AC and you will likely perform WORSE than say a dedicated wireless B/G or whatever router...

That is why I wired everything I could that I couldn't upgrade to wireless N and turned my router to N only. AC works the same way...

Good luck getting everything AC, I know of no printers, game consoles, tablets, or phones that are AC compatible, very few laptops, desktops etc...

That is why I avoided spending the extra bank on AC and went with wireless N.

So long winded story shortened up somewhat. AC isn't really ready for prime time, mostly because very little compaitble hardware is out there, and the older stuff you are connecting to it slows it way, way, way down...
 
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Solution
Alexander Moore

Alexander Moore

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So wait, I thought AC routers worked with N just fine?

Well, I'll just trade this AC router for an N router at BestBuy. I'll give them some bullshit about it or something. Tell 'em it doesn't work as expected. I'll figure out a way to even out the purchase since I figure there won't be any cash-back.

But really, do they not work fine in A/B/G/N? It is NOT in AC-only mode. I use 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Would it work better if I set it to N-only in the firmware or something?
 
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Alexander Moore

Alexander Moore

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Yeah. I got this router because it was most appealing to my situation. My grandmother was going to get me a router and she didn't really care which one, so I figured I'd get the best thing they have. I figured AC will catch up with time and I'll be ahead of the game when it does.

But yeah, what I was fearing is that Wireless N wouldn't work as nicely on this AC router because it's an AC router.

If it's the same then I'll just keep it. I'll try switching it to N-Only and see what it does. I thought it made no difference if it was A/B/G/N/AC or N-Only, except compatability.

I'll have to test it somtime tomorrow.
 
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Alexander Moore

Alexander Moore

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I think it's worth noting that some of my devices are older and will need to use G.

Is there any tutorial on setting this up for best performance? I don't even need the AC part of the router yet. Not until technology catches up. I only need G+N.

Also, it was already set to AES. I might just disable encryption altogether as there's nobody that's going to steal it nearby.

Currently everything is just set to Auto.
 
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dbhosttexas

dbhosttexas

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If you have older G only devices, and you want at least N speeds you have 2 options.

#1. Turn off the G devices and enable N only mode, insuring your N is operating on an uncluttered channel mind you.
#2. Pick up a cheap second router to act as a Wireless G only access point for your network, and put it on a different channel than your big router.

If you want to do some in depth reading on configuration of WiFi for best performance, check out the DD-WRT forum, as well as their Wiki. I am pretty sure you haven't flashed your router with DD-WRT, and am not recommending you do so at this point, but the info on that site is very helpful for all sorts of WiFi / routing education..

To be completely blunt, unless you live out in the sticks, with no microwave, place your WiFi router / clients just so, and everything meets the same standard version for WiFi, well WiFi just isn't the thing to go to if speed is your concern. There are just too many factors in the environment, and the WiFi signals are kept very low power by FCC regulations for good reason (safety). You have to deal with myriad other devices in the 2.4 and 5 ghz consumer devices bandwitch spectrums, not just WiFi signals, but everything from cordless phones, to home security systems, garage door openers, air conditioners, and even woodworkers air filtration systems compete for space in that radio spectrum space. It is very crowded, and thus very interference prone. The more interference WiFi encounters, the slower it will go, if it connects at all. That is why I use WiFi ONLY for the least critical of my devices. Everything important gets a category 6 cable. (I have approximately 1,500 feet of Category 6 cable run in my house right now...)

Having said all that, a college friend of mine that DOES live out in the sticks, and has all of his stuff like mine, either cabled, or on Wireless N using the same router you have, and it is set in N only mode, wit the security settings set per Asus recommendations. His WiFi coverage and speed is really impressive. I live in the Burbs, in crowded WiFi area, but was lucky to find a couple adjacent channels. I have good coverage at reasonable speeds (130Mbps on the low side, 280Mbps on the high side. My slowest device is my N150 controller on my Android phones. My printers and streaming boxes do N300...
 
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Alexander Moore

Alexander Moore

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Thnks for the info. Keep in mind that I live in China. No FCC here :p and I believe there's probably quite a few things about China as opposed to the US that you haven't thought of. Things are pretty different here.

Anyway, well I dunno why this shows it can be increased to 200mW and then says only 100mW is allowed. Maybe it'll change it's locale when I'm back in China, which will be in three days. Maybe it's auto-detecting local standards. I don't believe China has many regulations about WiFi (or much of anything, for that matter. Even when they do, they just get bribed to turn a blind eye).

Well, I have quite a few N routers, actually. Maybe you could help me in this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1734774/routers-set-lots-general-networking-questions.html

BY THE WAY, I have a quetion about the ASUS technolgies.

Since this is going to be a dedicated N + AC router, what would be the best setup for the following?
DTIM Interval (currently at 3)
Beacon Interval (currently at 50)
Enable TX Bursting (currently disabled)
Enable TM WMM (disabled)
Optimize AMPDU (disabled)
Optimize ack supression (disabled)
Explict Beamforming (enabled)

Just wonder what the best combination would be with those.

Edit: Oh, and should I use 20/40 for the 2.4Ghz and 80 for the 5Ghz, or should I use 20/40 and 20/40/80?
 
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