WRT1900ACS Slow Wireless

ebilcake · 15 Jul 2016 at 09:17

The 2.4Ghz range on this router is impressive however the speed is not that great, strangely laptops using dongles are getting more or less the full 200Mbps bandwidth(4-5 meters away), yet phones and tablets are getting around 30-50Mbps which I don't understand at all.

5Ghz range drops of very quickly, a few meters and it's gone from 200Mbps to around 30Mbps even though signal strength is still fairly good.

Is this normal? any tips on improving performance, the 5GHz band speed drop after a few meters is especially annoying, pretty much every cheap router I've had over the last 5 years has done a better job here.

Mostly on auto settings as it has a serve a lot of devices, tried playing with other settings but nothing I change showed any real improvement, it just got worse.

Orcvader · 15 Jul 2016 at 09:26

Some phones/tablets are single band so they don't support the full n/ac speed.

5GHz is great but they have poor penetration power compared to 2.4GHz, if you have thick walls, then it will kill the quality of the signal significantly.

If you really want good 5GHz everywhere, consider running a long cable to the other side of the house and place an access point there.

joeyjojo · 15 Jul 2016 at 09:30

If those are just 'displayed speeds' then ignore them, they're not reliable. Or are those speed tests you've done yourself?

Are they too slow for something specifically? Your phone probably doesn't need more than 30 Mbit unless you're doing some file transfers.

ebilcake · 15 Jul 2016 at 09:56

Orcvader said:
Some phones/tablets are single band so they don't support the full n/ac speed.

5GHz is great but they have poor penetration power compared to 2.4GHz, if you have thick walls, then it will kill the quality of the signal significantly.

If you really want good 5GHz everywhere, consider running a long cable to the other side of the house and place an access point there.

It's serving a smallish office so it's really only the users on the same floor and those adjacent that need access, which the 2.4GHz band covers quite well now

5GHz on the other hand is really only for one department (ours) at one end it's pretty good, at the other it's down to 8Mbps, no walls as such but dividers and cupboards etc.

An old Asus RT-N52 we used had better 5GHz range than this, the 2.4Ghz was crap but for devices connected the speeds were better, would still be using it but it's not very reliable.

joeyjojo said:
If those are just 'displayed speeds' then ignore them, they're not reliable. Or are those speed tests you've done yourself?

Are they too slow for something specifically? Your phone probably doesn't need more than 30 Mbit unless you're doing some file transfers.

Speed test on various devices.

To be honest the speeds are fine and I could just leave it be.

But it was an expensive item and I need some justification for spending this much on a router, slower 2.4Ghz speeds are not helping me out.

EYEREX · 15 Jul 2016 at 15:56

I have the WRT1900ACS and with stock firmware it's a dog but swap to say DD-WRT (kong builds) and it brings the Linksys "cough" Belkin router to life

PS the last stock firmware did something to WiFi performance ie range is not as good

Link to Kong build of DD-WRT below

http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-MVEBU/

joeyjojo · 15 Jul 2016 at 16:10

You must be right on the edge of its range if you're only getting 8 Mbit on the 5 GHz, but you say it's a small office? How far away are we talking? In this review in the "5 GHz range" test it scored 47.6 Mbit (which looking at the chart is an attenuation of about 33 dB).

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...acs-dual-band-gigabit-router-reviewed?start=3

Most likely culprit is interference. Are there a lot of other WiFi hotspots in the area? Worth experimenting with various channels.

Regarding the 2.4 GHz speeds, unfortunately I think you just picked a lemon.

The sub-ranks tell a Tale Of Two Routers story, with the ACS besting the AC in the 5 GHz band, but coming in a distant second in 2.4 GHz. Wired router ranking cancels out with a tie at #3.

I hate to say it, but Linksys appears to have taken a step backward with the WRT1900ACS, at least for 2.4 GHz performance. If you like everything else about the WRT1900, then grab an AC while you can.

ebilcake · 15 Jul 2016 at 16:41

joeyjojo said:
You must be right on the edge of its range if you're only getting 8 Mbit on the 5 GHz, but you say it's a small office? How far away are we talking? In this review in the "5 GHz range" test it scored 47.6 Mbit (which looking at the chart is an attenuation of about 33 dB).

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...acs-dual-band-gigabit-router-reviewed?start=3

Most likely culprit is interference. Are there a lot of other WiFi hotspots in the area? Worth experimenting with various channels.

Regarding the 2.4 GHz speeds, unfortunately I think you just picked a lemon.

Might be interference I guess, in the middle of Cardiff city center so loads of signals about.

The range is a lot better, so as long it remains reliable it will do the job.

Just odd that a £45 Asus router can outperform a £160 Linksys router in terms of 2.4Ghz speeds, even the 5Ghz performance didn't drop off as quickly, just issues with range.