Problematic 5G Wifi

[JZStudios]

We have an Asus RT-n66u dual band router and my PC is using a Linksys AE3000 USB dual band. The bizarre problem is whenever I set it to 5G it often just hitches, freezes, or disconnects randomly, all while saying signal strength is still good (And it's a desktop so nothings moving) When it works properly it IS faster than 2.4 according to Ookla and downloading things.

Apparently my uncles laptop is also on 5G, but other than that there's the TV that's hardwired and a couple smartphones. Any time the 5G starts acting up I switch over to 2.4 and it starts working perfectly, so I've basically been living on 2.4 for stability.

Should I just stick with 2.4 or is there something I'm missing here? My uncle IS constantly streaming stuff on his laptop, but that still only makes 2 devices and that shouldn't be an issue right?

[SALEEN961]

I've had similar issues with my 5G connection in the past, update the drivers and firmware for your wireless adapter and router if you haven't already. If your issue still persists what solved mine was changing the channel that my 5G connection was broadcasting on. The channel that was selected by default on my router just didn't give me a stable connection.

[JZStudios]

1 hour ago, SALEEN961 said:

I've had similar issues with my 5G connection in the past, update the drivers and firmware for your wireless adapter and router if you haven't already. If your issue still persists what solved mine was changing the channel that my 5G connection was broadcasting on. The channel that was selected by default on my router just didn't give me a stable connection.

Changing the channel seems like an odd fix, but I can give it a try. I could only think that maybe my USB stick would have a slightly different channel if that's the case.

[JZStudios]

Okay, so I installed some "new" driver for my USB stick, though the website says it's the release version...

Ran a Ookla test and it got 74Mb/s on 5G compared to ~14Mb/s on 2.4G. Ran a few tests and it gets some weird variances in download speeds, but consistently higher than 2.4 until it just... decided to stop registering altogether.

Like, running a test RIGHT NOW with only Opera and this single tab open it took a long time to connect and gave me 22Mb/s on 5G. Is that normal?

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I assume you checked that your router is on the latest firmware?

 

Unfortunately with WiFi it can be issues in the router firmware or the client driver.  It may even be worth looking for other reports of similar problems with your router to see if there is a specific firmware that is more stable.

[JZStudios]

9 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I assume you checked that your router is on the latest firmware?

 

Unfortunately with WiFi it can be issues in the router firmware or the client driver.  It may even be worth looking for other reports of similar problems with your router to see if there is a specific firmware that is more stable.

I haven't yet, I don't exactly have access to the router settings but I'll look into it.

As far as the 2.4 band goes, according to the highly calibrated android app, the only other 2.4 on the same band is a printer in my uncles room. Why he's using wireless for a printer 3 feet away I don't know. Anyways, it's not used very often but it is on exactly the same band, would this cause any issues interference wise? should I change the 2.4 band? I don't know how much data transfer it's doing considering it's almost always idle, which also makes me question why he doesn't ever turn it off...

[Alex Atkin UK]

Its tricky as a lot of devices use 2.4Ghz that AREN'T WiFi, so you can't be 100% sure its not interference from something else.  That said, the same applies to 5Ghz too its just with it having a shorter range you are unlikely to pick up interference from very far away.

[JZStudios]

On 7/9/2018 at 8:48 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

Its tricky as a lot of devices use 2.4Ghz that AREN'T WiFi, so you can't be 100% sure its not interference from something else.  That said, the same applies to 5Ghz too its just with it having a shorter range you are unlikely to pick up interference from very far away.

Correct, but... We live pretty far away from neighbors so 2.4 isn't SUPER busy in terms of Wifi, and microwaves n other stuff aren't on too much. I don't know what else could be flooding the 5ghz.

I went and bought myself an Asus PCE-AC56, which seems pretty nice. I have a 2 week period to run it and see if I get the same spotty slowdowns before I return it. Best I can figure is the USB stick was overheating and getting old, so sometimes I stick it in the freezer for ~15 seconds to cool. Always seems to work better after that.