Is my router lacking in performance or is it dying?

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Proself
DD-WRT User


Joined: 07 Apr 2014
Posts: 82

PostPosted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 7:01    Post subject: Is my router lacking in performance or is it dying? Reply with quote
The short version of my problem is this. I have ~20 wireless clients running almost 24/7 utilizing roughly 4 GB of data a day each. There are other additional wireless devices on the network but they are for more of your daily activities and personal use. Maybe 3-4 more. At max 25 wireless clients active at a time. I am having more connectivity issues either by no longer being able to detect the AP, "your internet connection is unstable", or the data will just stop sending to the device periodically.

I cannot accurately say how much the instability of my wireless is slowing things down but it is clear by trying to use other devices on the network at times there is no guarantee of success. For example accessing my NAS or streaming content from my Plex server (internally and/or externally). Clearly I would like to resolve this in the best way possible.

I have been getting a bunch of unverified information for some time now and today I've decided to try and get the correct information and resolve it once and for all.

One thing mentioned consistently was when you're having trouble accessing data wirelessly the router is dead/dying. Plain and simple. Replace it. More recently I've read of people advocating replacing antennas as opposed to the entire unit.

Another is the maximum wireless client nodes is 200. More specifically saying that as long as you're under than limit you're good. While I do not have 200 wireless devices to actually test this considering what I've been seeing the last few weeks with my current setup I cannot fathom how such a statement could be made like that with the person truly believing it's accurate..

Is there a definitive way to find out if the router is (a) not properly configured (b) needs new antenna (c) needs replacement (or additional help) (d) none of the above?

I have a Buffalo WZR-HP-G450H running DD-WRT v24SP2-MULTI (09/27/12) std (SVN revision 20025). I posted this here because while I don't think this is an issue with its chipset specifically I didn't want to offend anyone once I said what router/chipset I was running.

Anything I missed I will happily provide. Thank you for your time.
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_Hannes_
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 14:12    Post subject: Reply with quote
Honestly I find it impressive that you even achieve this level of performance. I have a 3700v2 and only a few single wifi clients. Streaming large amounts of data (20-40 GB) kills the wifi regularly. That's the wifi disappear bug attributed to the Atheros driver and known for a few years now. Only reapplying wifi settings or rebooting the unit fixes that.
Proself
DD-WRT User


Joined: 07 Apr 2014
Posts: 82

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 0:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, thanks for the reply. I guess it's time to upgrade. Would one router do it or do I need to buy two of:

    ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router

    ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router

    ASUS RT-AC68U Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router

^^listed in order of preference... clearly if I'm buying two RT-AC68U I would really want to make sure it's going to improve my situation... just saying.
R/\ZV/\N
DD-WRT User


Joined: 04 Dec 2013
Posts: 92
Location: Râmnicu Vâlcea, România

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 16:49    Post subject: Reply with quote
Proself wrote:
Well, thanks for the reply. I guess it's time to upgrade. Would one router do it or do I need to buy two of:

    ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router

    ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router

    ASUS RT-AC68U Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router

^^listed in order of preference... clearly if I'm buying two RT-AC68U I would really want to make sure it's going to improve my situation... just saying.

Actually, the best router that money can buy is NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900. A friend of mine has that beast coupled at 1Gbps(dnl)/100Mbps(upld) fibre channel connection and he have more that 150 wired + WiFi clients connected to him. And I want you to say that I was stunned to what is capable to do this beast. Simply badass!!!
Search for some reviews on the net.

_________________
TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 v1.4
_Hannes_
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 20:22    Post subject: Reply with quote
Is your friend running dd-wrt on his monster router?
R/\ZV/\N
DD-WRT User


Joined: 04 Dec 2013
Posts: 92
Location: Râmnicu Vâlcea, România

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 21:17    Post subject: Reply with quote
_Hannes_ wrote:
Is your friend running dd-wrt on his monster router?

I really don't know that.
But I do know that router is supported by DD-WRT.
Please do one search about NETGEAR 7000 on this forum and you'll see what I'm talking.

_________________
TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 v1.4
tatsuya46
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Posts: 7568
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 23:17    Post subject: Reply with quote
get a good atheros based N900 router(this is the atheros section after all, & i find broadcom radios jittery, unstable, & love to break EASILY & FREQUENTLY with repeater/client modes), leave ac till it matures or is finalized which will also by then have more qualcomm(atheros) ac units out by then & price for all of them will be lower. remember ac is 5ghz only..

i just did the above & replaced my wndr3700 v1 which now serves the ps3, with the tl-wdr4900 & it was worth it, the 3x3 really helps in many ways despite the little bugs that ddwrt's ath9k has.

_________________
LATEST FIRMWARE(S)

BrainSlayer wrote:
we just do it since we do not like any restrictions enforced by stupid cocaine snorting managers

[x86_64] Haswell i3-4150/QCA9984/QCA9882 ------> r55488 std
[QUALCOMM] DIR-862L --------------------------------> r55460 std
▲ ACTIVE / INACTIVE ▼
[QUALCOMM] WNDR4300 v1 --------------------------> r50485 std
[BROADCOM] DIR-860L A1 ----------------------------> r50485 std


Sigh.. why do i exist anyway.. | I love you Anthony.. never forget that.. my other 99% that ill never see again..

Proself
DD-WRT User


Joined: 07 Apr 2014
Posts: 82

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 5:06    Post subject: Reply with quote
So many Broadcom... trying to find something other than just your (@tatsuya46) TP-LINK TL-WDR4900 too. It's late I will keep looking in the morning but thank you all for your replies.
tatsuya46
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Posts: 7568
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:09    Post subject: Reply with quote
Proself wrote:
So many Broadcom... trying to find something other than just your (@tatsuya46) TP-LINK TL-WDR4900 too. It's late I will keep looking in the morning but thank you all for your replies.


there is a few atheros 3x3:3(450mbps) units but most are 2.4ghz only like the buffalo ones & most of buffalo's dual band ones are extinct for some reason, if you dont care about 5ghz that is. if you do theres less choice though..i recommend staying at a min of 16mb flash & 64mb ram for any unit right now, but if youre fine on 8mb flash that will expand your options though

_________________
LATEST FIRMWARE(S)

BrainSlayer wrote:
we just do it since we do not like any restrictions enforced by stupid cocaine snorting managers

[x86_64] Haswell i3-4150/QCA9984/QCA9882 ------> r55488 std
[QUALCOMM] DIR-862L --------------------------------> r55460 std
▲ ACTIVE / INACTIVE ▼
[QUALCOMM] WNDR4300 v1 --------------------------> r50485 std
[BROADCOM] DIR-860L A1 ----------------------------> r50485 std


Sigh.. why do i exist anyway.. | I love you Anthony.. never forget that.. my other 99% that ill never see again..

Proself
DD-WRT User


Joined: 07 Apr 2014
Posts: 82

PostPosted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 19:30    Post subject: Reply with quote
I understand there is a limited amount of choices out there but where exactly am I supposed to search by atheros 3x3:3(450mbps)? I searched for N900 routers on Amazon, Best Buy, eBay.. etc. and got almost all broadcom based routers and then slower atheros...

here maybe?
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros
Malachi
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 7209
Location: Columbus, Ohio

PostPosted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 20:14    Post subject: Reply with quote
Proself wrote:
I understand there is a limited amount of choices out there but where exactly am I supposed to search by atheros 3x3:3(450mbps)? I searched for N900 routers on Amazon, Best Buy, eBay.. etc. and got almost all broadcom based routers and then slower atheros...

here maybe?
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros


You could look here http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

_________________
I am far from a guru, I'm barely a novice.
binaek89
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:28    Post subject: Reply with quote
R/\ZV/\N wrote:
_Hannes_ wrote:
Is your friend running dd-wrt on his monster router?

I really don't know that.
But I do know that router is supported by DD-WRT.
Please do one search about NETGEAR 7000 on this forum and you'll see what I'm talking.


There is a DD-WRT build available for the R7000 at http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/51635/DD-WRT-Firmware-for-NETGEAR-R7000-Wi-Fi-Router/.

This build even comes with the HeartBleed fix.

Looks pretty stable too.
Malachi
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 7209
Location: Columbus, Ohio

PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:32    Post subject: Reply with quote
binaek89 wrote:
R/\ZV/\N wrote:
_Hannes_ wrote:
Is your friend running dd-wrt on his monster router?

I really don't know that.
But I do know that router is supported by DD-WRT.
Please do one search about NETGEAR 7000 on this forum and you'll see what I'm talking.


There is a DD-WRT build available for the R7000 at http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/51635/DD-WRT-Firmware-for-NETGEAR-R7000-Wi-Fi-Router/.

This build even comes with the HeartBleed fix.

Looks pretty stable too.


There are plenty of builds here http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/

_________________
I am far from a guru, I'm barely a novice.
Proself
DD-WRT User


Joined: 07 Apr 2014
Posts: 82

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 15:33    Post subject: Reply with quote
So trying out two routers ATM. 2 issues cropped up. (1) is an old issue that I assumed would've been resolved with a broader range. I had trouble getting an N900 Atheros so this is from an N750 (Netgear WNDR4300) but I still keep getting this message on most of my phones. More area is supposed to have been covered than my N300 and the idea was that more speed would mean the signal wouldn't keep dropping out right? https://imgur.com/jvFOraF
(2) I have never seen where a AP is listed as "disabled" what exacted does that mean and how do I avoid this in the future. All of the devices that listed it like that never reconnected. They just tried to use 3G (mobile data - which isn't fast enough...) http://imgur.com/qZI0S6l
onix
DD-WRT User


Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 188

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 19:43    Post subject: Re: Is my router lacking in performance or is it dying? Reply with quote
What has changed since you first set up your router? If it was the same configuration with a similar number of clients and the same firmware, it's hard to believe your router is "dying". Solid-state devices do not fail slowly, they fail catastrophically. Modern memory error corrections algorithms and possibly some other self-healing technologies might mask hardware failures, but there are tests to scan for memory if you feel comfortable getting to the command-line using telnet. Also, I use the "top" command regularly and watch for odd activity. If your memory buffer is getting full then there might be an issue... assuming that is what has changed from your original configurations.

WRT to atheros vs. broadcom, I've ALWAYS gotten better service from my trusty Linksys WRT54GL than I have on my Buffalo AG300H.

Proself wrote:
The short version of my problem is this. I have ~20 wireless clients running almost 24/7 utilizing roughly 4 GB of data a day each. There are other additional wireless devices on the network but they are for more of your daily activities and personal use. Maybe 3-4 more. At max 25 wireless clients active at a time. I am having more connectivity issues either by no longer being able to detect the AP, "your internet connection is unstable", or the data will just stop sending to the device periodically.

I cannot accurately say how much the instability of my wireless is slowing things down but it is clear by trying to use other devices on the network at times there is no guarantee of success. For example accessing my NAS or streaming content from my Plex server (internally and/or externally). Clearly I would like to resolve this in the best way possible.

I have been getting a bunch of unverified information for some time now and today I've decided to try and get the correct information and resolve it once and for all.

One thing mentioned consistently was when you're having trouble accessing data wirelessly the router is dead/dying. Plain and simple. Replace it. More recently I've read of people advocating replacing antennas as opposed to the entire unit.

Another is the maximum wireless client nodes is 200. More specifically saying that as long as you're under than limit you're good. While I do not have 200 wireless devices to actually test this considering what I've been seeing the last few weeks with my current setup I cannot fathom how such a statement could be made like that with the person truly believing it's accurate..

Is there a definitive way to find out if the router is (a) not properly configured (b) needs new antenna (c) needs replacement (or additional help) (d) none of the above?

I have a Buffalo WZR-HP-G450H running DD-WRT v24SP2-MULTI (09/27/12) std (SVN revision 20025). I posted this here because while I don't think this is an issue with its chipset specifically I didn't want to offend anyone once I said what router/chipset I was running.

Anything I missed I will happily provide. Thank you for your time.

_________________
WRT54GL v1.1 - DD-WRT v24-sp2 (04/07/12) vpn-small (SVN revision 18946M NEWD Eko)
WZR-HP-AG300H - DD-WRT v3.0-r30082 std (07/01/16)
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