Okay, personal problem here. I've gone through three different routers in a month; a $300 ASUS, a $90 Netgear, and a $240 Linksys. They've all failed in exactly the same way - Everything on the 2.4Ghz band slows down to an absolute crawl. Speed test shows 0.5Mbps if I can keep it connected for that long. I'm talking the Alexa's take 20+ seconds just to turn the light on or off, and it fails half the time. The 5Ghz band continues working flawlessly on every one of these routers. Is it possible I have a defective device on my network that's frying routers? Yes, I've completely reset the modem/router to factory defaults. It doesn't help. This is definitely a hardware problem (unless you can come up with some other explanation). Anyone ever experience this?
EDIT: Oh and it's not too many devices connected to that band. I already thought of that. I have 35 devices connected to the 2.4Ghz band and about 20 devices connected to the 5Ghz band. If it was something like that then the router wouldn't work perfectly for a week before crapping out on me. I've tried different channels too. FWIW, these are all WiFi 6 routers.
EDIT 2: Oh yeah, and out of desperation I also swapped my modem one time. It did nothing.
Hi
@sapphirescales
1st, directly connect a laptop to the ISP gateway's ethernet port. Run a speed test. Make sure then speed delivered is as expected (paying for) if not, schedule an on prem service call with ISP. Make them hit the speed SLA while you watch.
I use Unifi personally. I next prefer the Netgear WAX or switches or Orbi Pro (better VLAN management)
I wish Unifi were more timely on Wi-Fi 6 but maybe that is a blessing. I decided to run down their rabbit hole when I had too many clients using Unifi and I could not configure them. So I decided to invest and learn their stack. The best feature is their free controller software. Very helpful with your type of issue. Others give you trial cloud access and some reporting but then pull you into a fee based program.
I'm sure you've verified the obvious. Here are somethings I've come across that may affect throughput/connectivity
1) Do you have any wireless access points in your configuration? If yes that's a whole other ball of wax but make sure they're at least uplinked using a wire. Wireless uplinks are really sketchy.
2) Do you have any of the nasty, early generation ring cams doorbells? Same for any camera system really if they are constantly streaming. If yes, I would temporarily remove those from the network and optimize configuration. Then add back.
I have found that ring devices simply bounce between all the possible access points ultimately trying to get all ring devices on the same access point (Not sure why.)
3) What Wi-fi channels are you using for 2.4G, 5G Low and 5G High radio bands? You may only have on 5G band. If you can use one of the 5G bands for back haul, do so. ASUS and Netgear allows for this.
I read a good whitepaper from Cisco on their Meraki platform. Their Step #1, is to decide what channels to use for each access point. If you only have one access point, the router, then you need to select one for each Radio Band.
4) Which channel to use? Do not turn on auto wifi (AI) tuning. Use a different channel for each each access point radio. Avoid channel duplication where possible
2.4Gh prob avoid channel 1. In the US you only have 1, 6 and 11.
5Ghz use one channel in low range 36-64 and one in high range 144-161.
In US, if you use a channel between b/t 100 and 128, the Govt may automatically, but temporarily, disconnect/block your access if they need that channel for radar purposes. Like an airport or military base near by. Just avoid this range
Pick the least congested channel and if the info is available, the channel that introduces the least Rx/Tx packet retries for your clients often introduced by your OTHER ACCESS POINTS (see signal strength)
Use a signal meter. Don't worry, I'm not thinking you'll go spend a $1k for one. On Android there is Wi-Fi analyzer see pic 1 On iOs, I'm sure there are several. On a PC, I find WifiInfoView by
nirsoft useful.
With these apps, they will show what channels are heavily used see pic 2. Now I have lots of access points. But even if you just have a router, it's signal and that of your neighbors will show up. The LESS negative the dB the stronger the signal (grade school negative whole integers) or simply, the taller the curve.
Channel Width
2.4GHz set to HT to 20. 5Ghz set VHT to 40
Signal Strength.
If multiple access points, reduce the signal strength (EIRP) to perhaps +15dB to +19dB
If signal is too strong (set to max) your devices will bounce back and forth between access points causing Rx/Tx retries. I often think of this being analogous to a CPU which thrashes as it spends all of it's time swapping memory and little time processing
Band Steering
Yes please. Push 5G to 5G. Let 2.4Ghz devices wallow in the gutter. You may have to create 2 SSID's to separate those radio bands.
Even though the 5Ghz signal "appears" weaker to your clients (and then incorrectly selects a 2GHz signal), your actual throughput is likely better on 5GHz say 500-600Mbps than 2.4ghz (Max Mbps 150-200) This is why you want to use band steering to force eligible clients to 5Ghz - doesn't always work.
On Unifi, I made the mistake of using "smart queues?" which automatically reduces the throughout for all clients because it anticipates overall congestion even if there is a lot of bandwidth. I got rid of that and now back to expected speeds.
Wired devices. If you have a poorly matched ISP gateway, VPN or switch, etc. upstream from access points or in front of router, that can easily gate throughput. Make sure that is not the case. Read specs and see what max packets are.
Sniffing (DPI). If the router is evaluating every packet for threats or behaviors, then the router is also providing BIG Data stats. I like DPI, threat management, not so much.. The router must have the quality of hardware and software to make that actually work.
It was one of the earlier houses to use aluminum siding long ago ('50s) before I bought it. They used to add a bit of copper to the aluminum back then to make it more ductile. Cell phone signals just die inside my house. I'm lucky to get WiFi in the garage 25 ft. away.
