Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:38 Post subject: WRT3200ACM/r33986 speed is half of stock firmware (resolved)
Hi, complete newbie to dd-wrt here. I have latest stock firmware (1.0.6.186168 - btw it solved connectivity issue for me over previous ones, if any of you have internet issues with stock try update to this one), and just flashed to dd-wrt r33986 following one thread's suggestion.
After reading some threads, I set up my 5GHz and 2.4GHz to the least occupied channels. I set channel width to 40 MHz. Tried wifi mode N only, AC/N mix and AC only for the 5GHz. No matter what I tried (also tried auto channel, dynamic channel width, QoS on/off), the best speed I got from speedtest.net was 120 Mbps down, 12 up. I rebooted back into linksys, instantly it was 240 Mbps down, 12 up.
When I use wifi scanner to view my networks, when using linksys stock firmware, my 5GHz interface was shown as "max rate" 1300 Mbps, and "achievable rate" 1300 Mbps, channel width is 80 MHz. When using dd-wrt, max rate was only 600 Mbps, achievable being 450 Mbps. I also used dd-wrt's own speed test, and it showed consistently 110-20 Mbps down, 110-40 Mbps wifi speed (which is also rather concerning because from linksys stock firmware's 240 Mbps test that was achieved many times, I know my wifi speed is a lot faster than 140 Mbps).
What settings should I tweak to make sure the speed of dd-wrt is as good as stock? Also how do I attach a USB drive and manage it?
I love the power of dd-wrt, but I'd need fast intranet speed and USB support for backups. Would appreciate any help, thanks!
Last edited by ml188 on Fri Feb 02, 2018 13:16; edited 1 time in total
You could start by setting your channel width to 80 Mhz, just like the original Linksys software!
I thought about that but the dd-wrt UI only allowed me to choose b/w 20 and 40 (or dynamic 20/40). Even linksys' own UI didn't allow choosing 80 or 160, but linksys UI allow "auto", which was recommended for top speed. And apparently this "auto" would auto set it to 80 MHz.
Does anyone know if the latest dd-wrt firmware support choosing 80 MHz for wrt3200acm? I'm a bit wary trying it out given multiple threads talking about having internet issues with it (although some had better luck).
UPDATE: Just updated firmware to r34777 and it was working fine for me. I could access Yahoo mail and Ookla speed test as well as any website I tried. The upgrade retained all my previous settings. The only setting I changed was to set the channel width to 80 MHz, and I tried channel 157 LL-6, didn't work. Then channel 112 LL-6, worked, and speed is up to 250 Mbps now (both dd-wrt's own testing and Ookla)! Intranet wifi is up to 280 Mbps, and wifi scanner shows 1300 Mbps for both max rate and achievable rate (although for 2.4 GHz band, it still shows only 450 Mbps vs the 600 Mbps for stock firmware). Tried 160 MHz, didn't work. Tried channel 120 LL-6, same 240 MHz on Ookla, but 265/292 speed (WAN/Wifi) in dd-wrt's own test.
So I just need to see if the router would be stable. Will report back (will post to the r34777 thread too).
I also found under "Services" there's USB. I'll test that out. Will report too.
Great job by the dd-wrt devs, thanks! Linksys' own stock firmware wasn't bad, but I hated its parental control having to select each device to set rules for that device only. That's why I looked for dd-wrt.
Joined: 18 Aug 2009 Posts: 597 Location: Antigua/Seattle
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 16:26 Post subject:
ml188 wrote:
I could access Yahoo mail and Ookla speed test as well as any website I tried.
I'm afraid that since you're posting about being able to get to these sites you have no problem, It means that you are misunderstanding the information being offered here.
There is no reason on this planet that you should have ANY issue with a WRT3200ACM connecting to any site unless your attempting to use PPPOE do you have DSL?
This has been covered extensively, there should be no confusion about who is going to have problems and those who won't have any.
P.S. I get 866 M/bs on my android phone to the wrt3200acm. _________________ WRT3200ACM
UPDATE: Just updated firmware to r34777 and it was working fine for me. I could access Yahoo mail and Ookla speed test as well as any website I tried. The upgrade retained all my previous settings. The only setting I changed was to set the channel width to 80 MHz, and I tried channel 157 LL-6, didn't work. Then channel 112 LL-6, worked, and speed is up to 250 Mbps now (both dd-wrt's own testing and Ookla)! Intranet wifi is up to 280 Mbps, and wifi scanner shows 1300 Mbps for both max rate and achievable rate (although for 2.4 GHz band, it still shows only 450 Mbps vs the 600 Mbps for stock firmware). Tried 160 MHz, didn't work. Tried channel 120 LL-6, same 240 MHz on Ookla, but 265/292 speed (WAN/Wifi) in dd-wrt's own test
Using 160 Mhz doesn't buy you anything, since there are no clients capable of using the full 160 Mhz bandwith.
This would only make sense when connecting 2 WRT3200ACM routers.
450 Mbps on the 2.4 band usually means the client is using only 2 streams, instead of 3, which could give a maximum of 600 Mbps.
This could be due to client device limitations or interference from other AP's.
aairon and adri, thanks for the clarifications on points that I didn't fully understand. For now I'm happy with the release as I use cable, and do not have anything other than NAS set up (also YAMon3). Speed and stability are all I care about. So far stability seems good, although speed drops to half after a day or two up time, rebooting recovers it. I do remember that stock firmware seemed to have the same issue, so it might be router's issue rather than firmware? Anyhow I need more testing.
