Asus RT-N56U Intermittent Wireless Connection

[Noxvayl]

I bought this router a while back due to the good reviews it got and many recommendations. Since then I've used it wired only, disabled wireless completely.

I now have a laptop that needs to connect to it so have enabled the wireless radio and have found that the laptop has the connection become limited regularly(about every 25minutes).

I have tried the following:

• Unplugged router for 5 mins and restarted it
• Turned 5Ghz wireless mode off
• Changed channel bandwidth to 20Mhz
• Changed channel bandwidth to 40Mhz
• Changed channel number to 8
• Enabled WPS
• Disabled WPS
• Updated router firmware to the latest version 1.0.1.8b
• Changed Fragmentation threshold from 2346 to 2306
• Changed RTS threshold from 2347 to 2304
• Changed beacon interval from 100 to 50
• Updated network drivers on laptop

The laptop still gets limited connectivity within 25 minutes. I currently use a wireless homeplug to connect the laptop that is working perfectly. The router just won't maintain the wireless connection and I don't know what else to do.

Unfortunately DD-WRT or other open source firmware do not support the router. I don't have a spare cable router so sending it back will mean I'm without the internet for however long it takes to be returned. I doubt Scan will send me a spare to use until the router is tested and replaced.

Are there any other settings that could be causing issues that anybody can think of?

[Noxvayl]

After posting this I decided to download all the different firmware versions for the router to see if it wasn't a firmware bug introduced accidentally at some point.

Uploaded version 1.0.1.2 and so far have had no issues... I hope this has solved the problem.

[Noxvayl]

Unfortunately the connection stability was short lived, crashed repeatedly the next day.

I've since tried 1.0.1.3 and 1.0.1.4, neither of which are working. My next step is to reset to factory defaults and start again.

[DDY]

Reset everything back to default and set:

WPS off
Security WPA2-PSK,
Bandwidth 20MHz,
5GHz mode off (i.e. 2.4GHz only)
Channel 1,

Download and run inSSIDer on your laptop while next to the router point;

First look at the signal strength (the time graph helps) and check your router's signal consistency and strength e.g. RSSI amplitude.

Then look at the 2.4GHz channel graph and note the channels of other access points, pick a channel that isn't too busy and set your router to broadcast on that channel.

Once you've set your router to broadcast on a different channel; check with inSSIDer that the channel has actually changed, then sit and wait to see if your network drops again.

[Noxvayl]

Unfortunately it is still dropping the connection. If the laptop is right next to the router it has a stable RSSI amplitude of -45dB. As soon as you move 2-5 meters away that begins to fluctuate between -45dB and -65 to 85dB. There are no objects between the router and laptop.

I'm not sure if the fluctuation is causing the connection to become limited or not but I am still unable to maintain the wireless connection within the same room as the router. Could a cordless phone nearby be causing a problem(within 50cm of the router)? Our other router worked perfectly in the same position though... The kitchen, and all it's anti wireless devices, is 10 meters away; again our router used with the older connection had no problems in the same spot.

I think this router is faulty, I'm confident enough to send it back after the tests I've done. Just need to sort out something to replace it in the mean time.

[ChaosSystem]

Is there any way to test the laptops wifi? Check what chipset it is running very any known stability issues.
Do you have any other device on the wifi network?

[Noxvayl]

The laptop maintains it's connection to my wireless homeplug and to our old Sky router(use before we switched to FTTC). The laptop has been connecting to the above 2 devices for years without issue, it's only the Asus Router that it has trouble with.

[DDY]

Unfortunately it is still dropping the connection. If the laptop is right next to the router it has a stable RSSI amplitude of -45dB. As soon as you move 2-5 meters away that begins to fluctuate between -45dB and -65 to 85dB. There are no objects between the router and laptop.

I'm not sure if the fluctuation is causing the connection to become limited or not but I am still unable to maintain the wireless connection within the same room as the router. Could a cordless phone nearby be causing a problem(within 50cm of the router)? Our other router worked perfectly in the same position though... The kitchen, and all it's anti wireless devices, is 10 meters away; again our router used with the older connection had no problems in the same spot.

I think this router is faulty, I'm confident enough to send it back after the tests I've done. Just need to sort out something to replace it in the mean time.

There is definitely something wrong, you should have a much stronger signal and less fluctuation, for example I get -17dB @ 0.5m, -35dB ±2dB @ 5m and -45dB ±3dB @ 5m plus a brick wall. The last time I had results like yours I had a faulty router.

I wouldn't rule out interference yet, try the test again with other wireless devices switched off and the laptop next to the router. Still no good? Time to send the router back.

[Noxvayl]

An update to give others searching for this the result that came from my tinkering.

After getting the inSSIDer results I borrowed a D-Link DIR-615 revD4 router from a cousin and set that up to broadcast our internet connection. All wired connections worked great but the wireless was still dropping for the laptop. I began to think the laptop was the one having a problem so I got a few more laptops over to the house for testing and found all the others connected fine to both routers, albeit at the lower than usual RSSI amplitude. I figured that the laptop was having trouble with 802.11n standard so changed both router to 802.11g only.

The laptops connection still dropped and I left it connecting to the WirelessPlug as it had no issues there and concluded that the laptop was at fault not either router. On the 29th April 2012 there was a new driver released for the Realtek RTL8188CE wireless card so I downloaded and installed it. Ever since the connection has been stable. It turned out to be the wireless card in the laptop all along. I suspect it had problems with MIMO(Multiple Input Multiple Output) devices but the change log doesn't reveal what the error actually was.

[Petra Ceason]

Noxvayl,

Pleased to see you've solved your problem, even if you don't know all the ins and outs.

I had a similar experience, right down to suspecting the adjacent Mobile 'Phone, but all my connections were dropping out, wired as well.

The fault was finally traced to a ADSL Filter, on the Mobile 'Phone, presumably one of the twenty or so components was overheating/tired/grumpy, which of course was not in direct circuit, connected yes, but merely as a bystander.

It just shows when fault finding, acquit nothing until proved innocent.

Regards,

Petra.