ASUS RT-AC56U--excellent wired but wireless disconnects

[KeithAdv]

I replaced a dead router with an ac56u three days ago. It has the latest firmware and I've made very few changes in the settings. It has the same sysid for both bands.

After my wife began complaining of poor internet performance on her laptop, I put Ping Plotter on three computers. One is on the wired connection; two are wireless. After 12 hours, both the wireless-connected PCs are showing many packet losses. What's weird is I've also been watching Netflix on a wireless (XBOX 360) connection and there haven't been any interruptions. (Maybe the Netflix app buffers ahead so the wireless dropping is smoothed out in some way? I don't know.)

I'm not very techy when it comes to networking problems. Is this a known problem with this router? Should I return it? (I thought it had an excellent reputation.) Or how you would you start troubleshooting?

 

[KeithAdv]

Solved!

After much research, I discovered this is a common problem with this router, one for which ASUS has yet to provide an answer. It has to do with the 2.4ghz band, which is where all the drop-outs seem to occur. I have about 15 internet-connected thingys in my house, so perhaps that's why people like me notice the problem. I suppose if you have only a 5ghz laptop or two, you'd never notice.

At any rate, after trying all of the recommendations from ASUS and others that I found on the net (ASUS never responded to my tech support ticket), I took the router back to the store and got the NETGEAR R6250 instead. I'm only 6 or so hours with it onlline, but so far the performance seems flawless.

Shame. ASUS had become a no-brainer brand for me but it looks like this router wasn't quite ready for prime time.