Asus RT-Ax86U

[Marshg3]

i have a Asus RT-Ax86U and i have been having slow wifi speeds. my speeds are 750 up 750 down. when im on 2.4GHz standing in front of the router my speeds are 100mbps. when i walk like 20 feet away the speed drops to around 80mbps. it is slower than my isp provided router

[Electronics Wizardy]

What phy rate are you seeing?

 

What client device?

 

What are the 5ghz speeds?

[Marshg3]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What phy rate are you seeing?

 

What client device?

 

What are the 5ghz speeds?

 

phy rate is 5700mbps
the device is my phone
5ghz about 20 feet away they are 572 down 598 up

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, Marshg3 said:

 

phy rate is 5700mbps
the device is my phone
5ghz about 20 feet away they are 572 down 598 up

What is the phy rate on your phone? The current phy rate isn't 5700mbit on your phone.

 

Why not juse use 5ghz then?

[Marshg3]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What is the phy rate on your phone? The current phy rate isn't 5700mbit on your phone.

 

Why not juse use 5ghz then?

when i go downstairs 5ghz is only 114 down 116 up. the isp provided router did better. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Marshg3 said:

when i go downstairs 5ghz is only 114 down 116 up. the isp provided router did better. 

If range is a isue you probalby want multiple access points or a mesh system then.

[Falcon1986]

@Marshg3

1. If the RT-AX86U is upstairs (assuming it’s a 2-level house), is it centrally located or off to the side?
2. How many walls are there between the test device and the RT-AX86U when you’re testing it 20 feet away? Walls (especially concrete or those with metal reinforcement) will dampen WiFi signals.
3. While most WiFi antennae on home routers are omni-directional, their signal doesn’t reach very far in the vertical direction. So if you want to get better speeds on the level with slower speeds, you’ll need to add another wireless AP. Also remember that floors, just like walls, dampen WiFi signals.
4. 2.4GHz is great for range but it tops out at a much slower speed (even on AX) than 5GHz. Furthermore, it’s more susceptible to interference from other sources of 2.4GHz radio waves (e.g. microwaves, cordless phones, your neighbours’ WiFi). All these factors will slow down 2.4GHz significantly so you should only use it if all you want to get is better range and don’t care about speed or you have devices whose internet activity is low priority (e.g. IoT gadgets).
5. Run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer (search the Microsoft Store) and post the screenshot of the ‘Analyze’ page for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. It will highlight which channels you can use/avoid in your home for the best WiFi experience.
6. Post a screenshot of the RT-AX86U wireless settings. Hide any passwords, of course.
7. Disable any unnecessary services that the router might have running which you don’t need. Security features like deep packet inspection, intrusion detection/prevention, etc. are taxing on CPU resources and will slow down the entire router, including radio performance.

[Marshg3]

 

13 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

@Marshg3

1. If the RT-AX86U is upstairs (assuming it’s a 2-level house), is it centrally located or off to the side?
2. How many walls are there between the test device and the RT-AX86U when you’re testing it 20 feet away? Walls (especially concrete or those with metal reinforcement) will dampen WiFi signals.
3. While most WiFi antennae on home routers are omni-directional, their signal doesn’t reach very far in the vertical direction. So if you want to get better speeds on the level with slower speeds, you’ll need to add another wireless AP. Also remember that floors, just like walls, dampen WiFi signals.
4. 2.4GHz is great for range but it tops out at a much slower speed (even on AX) than 5GHz. Furthermore, it’s more susceptible to interference from other sources of 2.4GHz radio waves (e.g. microwaves, cordless phones, your neighbours’ WiFi). All these factors will slow down 2.4GHz significantly so you should only use it if all you want to get is better range and don’t care about speed or you have devices whose internet activity is low priority (e.g. IoT gadgets).
5. Run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer (search the Microsoft Store) and post the screenshot of the ‘Analyze’ page for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. It will highlight which channels you can use/avoid in your home for the best WiFi experience.
6. Post a screenshot of the RT-AX86U wireless settings. Hide any passwords, of course.
7. Disable any unnecessary services that the router might have running which you don’t need. Security features like deep packet inspection, intrusion detection/prevention, etc. are taxing on CPU resources and will slow down the entire router, including radio performance.

2. there where no walls in the way. the 20 feet away was in the same room as the router

 

 

 

 

 

[Falcon1986]

@Marshg3

 

For the 2.4GHz antenna, force it to use channel 6 and decrease the channel bandwidth to 20MHz.

 

For the 5GHz antenna, force it to use channel 40 or 44 and disable 160MHz channel bandwidth for now. 80MHz should be fine.

 

Reboot the wireless router.

 

Test speeds.

 

Try to avoid connecting to the 2.4GHz SSID if you can help it.

 

BTW, what is available under "Wireless Mode" for each antenna?

[Marshg3]

3 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

@Marshg3

 

For the 2.4GHz antenna, force it to use channel 6 and decrease the channel bandwidth to 20MHz.

 

For the 5GHz antenna, force it to use channel 40 or 44 and disable 160MHz channel bandwidth for now. 80MHz should be fine.

 

Reboot the wireless router.

  

Test speeds.

 

Try to avoid connecting to the 2.4GHz SSID if you can help it.

 

BTW, what is available under "Wireless Mode" for each antenna?

 

[Marshg3]

3 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

@Marshg3

 

For the 2.4GHz antenna, force it to use channel 6 and decrease the channel bandwidth to 20MHz.

 

For the 5GHz antenna, force it to use channel 40 or 44 and disable 160MHz channel bandwidth for now. 80MHz should be fine.

 

Reboot the wireless router.

 

Test speeds.

 

Try to avoid connecting to the 2.4GHz SSID if you can help it.

 

BTW, what is available under "Wireless Mode" for each antenna?

on 2.4GHz what is the difference between 20mhz vs 40mhz. is it just faster but cant go as far

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, Marshg3 said:

on 2.4GHz what is the difference between 20mhz vs 40mhz. is it just faster but cant go as far

Read this for a simple explanation.

 

Based on your wireless survey of the 2.4GHz airspace around your home, it's very congested with your neighbours' WiFi. This survey does not account for other sources of interference such as Bluetooth, microwaves, cordless phones, etc. When WiFi signals overlap like that then clients connected to each must take turns communicating with their respective WiFi source; sort of like a busy intersection on the road. Everyone's traffic will get through, but it will take time. There's no way to get over this if you plan to continue using 2.4GHz (other than to probably move to a rural area where there isn't another neighbour for miles!). As you will observe from the survey, your current settings have you sharing channel 11 with 3 other WiFi sources on 2.4GHz. The likelihood of running into interference here is high compared to channel 6, which only has 1 other WiFi source. Ideally, you'd want to be on a completely clear channel, but 2.4GHz is so narrow, it's not realistic in today's neighbourhoods.

 

With regards to channel width, a narrower width means that you have a smaller "highway" to transmit data, but you're less likely to overlap with your neighbour's 2.4GHz WiFi. It's the tradeoff that you have to make when the 2.4GHz wireless airspace is congested as yours. With regards to the 5GHz spectrum there are more channels and less congestion, so you can afford to use wider bandwidths like 40MHz, 80MHz or even 160MHz, with the ability to achieve even higher speeds if your client devices can also take advantage of these wider bands. It's important to analyze your wireless survey after making these bandwidth changes to ensure you're not overlapping on your neighbours' WiFi signal.