AC1450 Repeater Bridge issues

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LCAAR
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Nov 2015
Posts: 28

PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 0:48    Post subject: AC1450 Repeater Bridge issues Reply with quote
I am having difficulty getting a working setup going with these AC1450 routers I recently purchased. First I will list off all the builds I've tried over the past few weeks : all are kong builds 25179,25697,26332,26866,28211,29300,30700,30910,30965,and 31205 perhaps a few BS builds, one which bricked my router (had to serial it back to life). The problem I have with all of these builds is that the throughput to the internet while fast enough is nearly one fourth the speed of the Netgear firmware. Not sure why that is. I did a couple of tests and was getting about 850Mbps on factory Netgear firmware and about 220Mbps with the DD-wrt. This is not really the main issue for me I only state it for informational purposes. The issue I'm having is a strange behavior on the 2.4Ghz wifi. For one the signal is weaker than the 5Ghz signal. I'm not certain but I think this is even the case on the factory firmware. I have a repeater bridge setup in my shop across the driveway from my house and have had a number of setups working well over the last 15 years or so, the last being a pair of WNDR4500's. With these AC1450's it just will not work. When I do a wiviz survey from the WNDR4500 in the shop I can't even see the router (AC1450)in the House, but I can see my neighbors wifi on the opposite side of the House. The 2.4Ghz channel seems to go in and out. When it does connect it's slow and unusable and then it just disappears. Now I did buy 2 of these routers (used and cheap so I'm not out much) but this is the same case with both of them so I'm reasonably certain it's not a hardware issue. I did install both of them using the factory software in Repeater base station mode and it did work reliably for a week but it only worked using the 5ghz channel and not the 2.4. This is odd since I'm far enough away that with my WNDR4500's they can't even see the 5GHZ channel from the shop to the house. I guess what I'm looking for is someone to say " Hey this build will solve all your problems" or perhaps even " hey Mark you cheap butt that's never going to work, you should have spent more on an R7000 and then you wouldn't be having this problem" If anyone has any advice I'm all ears. Kong if you read this I want to say thank you for dedicating time to give us abilities to even do this stuff.
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Xeon2k8
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 11 Feb 2016
Posts: 1288

PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 13:27    Post subject: Reply with quote
220 is all you will get from that router on ddwrt since NAT is not hardware accelerated. For reference, an R7000 could give you ~450mbps. R7800 around 1Gbps
I'm assuming every time you flashed a new build you did an erase nvram. Now, giving that you stated that you have the same problem on stock firmware then don't expect for ddwrt to do magic.

_________________
R6400v2 (boardID:30) - Kong 36480 running since 03/09/18 - (AP - DNSMasq - AdBlocking - QoS)
R7800 - BS 31924 running since 05/26/17 - (AP - OpenVPN Client - DNSMasq - AdBlocking - QoS)
R7000 - BS 30771 running since 12/16/16 - (AP - NAS - FTP - SMB - OpenVPN Server - Transmission - DDNS - DNSMasq - AdBlocking - QoS)
R6250 - BS 29193 running since 03/20/16 - (AP - NAS - FTP - SMB - DNSMasq - AdBlocking)
LCAAR
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Nov 2015
Posts: 28

PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 18:09    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sorry, Looking at what I wrote I wasn't clear. It did work on the stock firmware. It does not work at all on the DD-wrt firmware. I had it set up stable with the Netgear firmware although it was slow it was usable. I did find it odd that it only worked well using the 5ghz channel though. The part I stated in my prior post that was the same with factory firmware was that the 2.4Ghz channel was weaker than 5Ghz. My main problem with stock firmware is the only way to bridge wirelessly is without any security and that's just not wise. DD-WRT just simply will not work period in repeater bridge mode. I'm not sure if I stated it before but just to clarify I've been running DD-wrt for years on other router models with this same setup in repeater bridge in fact it's been wonderful on my last three setups using WNDR4500's and prior to that WNDR3800's and even a WNR3500v2. I know how it should work using the repeater bridge it just isn't working correctly on the AC1450. Also thank you for the clarification on the throughput as well. I did read that somewhere last night after I posted as well. So in order to get the max out of my speeds I need a 7800. Not sure I'm ready for that LOL. Thank you for taking the time to respond Xeon.
LCAAR
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Nov 2015
Posts: 28

PostPosted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 16:04    Post subject: Update Reply with quote
To update on this topic is a painful one for me. Here I'm afraid I have to admit my incompetence. Apparently usb 3.0 cables can completely block wifi signal. I didn't know this and having at least one hard drive attached to each of the four routers in my setup this can cause some issues especially trying to use Repeater Bridge. Now I haven't experimented again with the AC1450's yet but I did have to revert back to my old tried and true setup with the WNDR4500's that were bridging just fine before but when I set them back up after my ac1450 failure they didn't work either, yet I had changed nothing in my setup. Well nothing except I moved the usb3.0 cables to the other side of the router for a cleaner look on my shelf. Believe it or not I only could get 1-3mbps internet connection in my shop that way but moving the cable to the other side of the router it is now holding steady at around 30mbps. Once I got my R7000 wifi working again now I've eliminated one WNDR4500 and I'm getting over 50mbps but again if I move that usb cable on the other side of the antenna I am back to around 1-3 if I can get a connection at all. I since have sheilded the cables in aluminum tape (not sure if that helps or not but it makes me feel like I did something) So in case you didn't know like I didn't USB3.0 cables can ruin your wifi. I'm guessing this was the problem and not the kong builds as I had previously and erroneously assumed!
_________________
R7000- seems fixed (fingers crossed)
AC1450- Primary Router
WNDR4500 VPN Router and WIFI base station
R4500 Wifi Repeater Bridge
WNDR3800-setup as Switch
WNR3500-on shelf
js1662
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 23 Jul 2014
Posts: 1237
Location: BC, CA

PostPosted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 19:12    Post subject: Reply with quote
There is a sticky on General forum that talks about that: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=165678
SnowFrog
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 29 Mar 2017
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 14:04    Post subject: Reply with quote
LCAAR wrote:
The 2.4Ghz channel seems to go in and out. When it does connect it's slow and unusable and then it just disappears. Now I did buy 2 of these routers (used and cheap so I'm not out much) but this is the same case with both of them so I'm reasonably certain it's not a hardware issue.


LCAAR wrote:
My main problem with stock firmware is the only way to bridge wirelessly is without any security and that's just not wise.


I have been struggling with very similar issues trying to set up a repeater. Just a few of my deductions which may help us both in the end. I’m running a much older build (21061) which is a few step up from the initial build for my E1000v2 which was 16758. This is also my second router since I wanted to eliminate hardware issues. I am also seeing and unstable link which drops off every few hours until it drops off completely and just disappears also. If I don’t set up the VLAN and just test just using the LAN connection – it is steady and fast (about 80+% of the host router). After messing with the VLAN I found (as your second comment says) that if I disable the security the system appears to be stable (more than a few days). So I played with the various security mode (I know the recommended setup is for this to be the same as the host router) just to see what would happen. My conclusion is that of the normal mode or lesser security all work equally, meaning unstable. Note also that when the SSID disappears, sometime simply re-applying the security setting will bring it back but after a few times the entire router needs a reboot. Only no security appears stable.

To me, it goes directly to you comment that your stock firmware needed no security to work. My conclusion, at least for my build, is exactly that.
Try it without security and let us know how stable your set up is. Maybe we are narrowing down enough on an issue that has a clear answer.
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