[SOLVED] PCI-E Wifi Module only connects with 5 GHz over 20 MHz channel width ?

[SirShizo]

Hello fellow Nerders,

i was recently upgraded from the 75mbit to the new 150mbit in Austria. So far I've had my PC on the LAN via PowerLine and I've always got the bandwidth well. Since the change, the PowerLine Connection has leveled off at ~ 55mbit (basically OK). All Wifi devices (smartphones, notebooks) are easily connected to the 5 GHz frequency and fully utilize the new 150mbit bandwidth. So that I can also use it on my PC, I recently treated myself with the ASUS AX3000 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 PCI-E adapter and installed it. Strangely enough, he does NOT easily manage to connect to 5 GHz (no valid IP) - 2.4 GHz is not a problem, but with that frequency i only got about 33mbit. Among other things, I have tried the following unsuccessfully:

• assign a static IP to the PC (including DNS, subnet, gateway)
• Prefer 5 GHz on the adapter
• Set 5 GHz instead of 802.11ax to 802.11ac on the adapter
• Separate SSIDs according to frequency (also new PW / all other frequency configurations of the Connect Box are in the standard state)

On the other hand, I successfully tested:

• Connect new devices with Connect Box and 5 GHz (e.g. work notebook - absolutely problem-free with full bandwidth immediately connected)
• New PCI-E adapter connected to my mobile 5 GHz hotspot (absolutely problem-free - only 42mbit download here)
• New PCI-E adapter connected to the mobile 5 GHz hotspot of another smartphone (absolutely problem-free - only 38mbit download here)

After a while i found a many Win Eventlog Entries. Those three are appearing most often:

• Source - Netwtw08; event-id - 5007; Description - TX / CMD timeout (TfdQueue hanged)
• Source - Netwtw08; event-id - 5005; Description - Intel (R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz: Internal error occurred.
• Source - Netwtw08; event-id - 5002; Description - Intel (R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz: The network adapter has malfunctioned.

I googled specifically for the 5007 and got a few hints. Now i set the channel width in the PCI-E module to fixed "20 MHz" instead of "Auto". I have a reasonably stable connection to the 5 GHz frequency now. This config is, even as the only wifi/lan device, currently capped with a maximum of 90mbit (instead of 150mbit). Unfortunately, I cannot set other channel widths on the PCI-E module. One question remains - is it because of the PCI-E module or the Router that only this static channel width works? Router config says it can handle channel widths up to 60 MHz.

I've never owned wifi card before - anything i can do about it or did i miss something?


Thanks for any advice and Cheers,
Shizo

 

[bill001g]

Part of you issue I suspect is that the card is the newer wifi6 and your router is likely wifi5 (802.11ac). Wifi6 is getting better but there are still lots of driver issues. Try different drivers the newest may not be the best. You can get them from intel.

I am kinda surprised you can set the channel width not many cards allow that. It is mostly a feature you set on the router. I suspect that your router can do up to 80mhz not 60mhz. That is the standard for 802.11ac.

You could try 40mhz channels and see if it works better. You can't change the channel numbers it is using from the client end you must do that on the router. A 90mbit/sec rate is a very common number you would see using only 20mhz bands. 40mhz will not be double but it will be significantly faster and 80mhz even more if you can get it to work. You may want to check the setting on the router to see what it can do also.

The other thing that might be happening is some of your other devices may have 3 antenna and if your router support 3x3 mimo. Most wifi6 devices can only do 2x2 which is faster if you can get 160mhz radio bands but when it must run in 802.11ac mode it can actually be slower.