rt-ac66u vs rt-ac56u

[Daniel Navia]

Hey all,

I just recently purchased a RT-AC56U and set it up. My 5ghz speeds are amazing (though range is not as far as I wanted), but the issue is my 2.4ghz speeds are awful. I'm talking 2-3mbps whereas the 5ghz gets me 80-90mbps. I have changed channels to no aval. I went with this model vs the RT-AC66u because from my research it seemed to be the newer model. But from what I am reading thus far, the AC66U is a far superior model. Can anyone confirm that the RT-AC66U is indeed better? I would assume newer=better but maybe not? And yes I have updated my firmware 😀.

Update: Or what about the nighthawk ac1900? From what I am reading it is the fastest of the 3. I'm not too teck saavy with networking so any assitance would be appreciated.

Many thanks

 

[bill001g]

The main difference is that the ac66u can run 3x3 mimo where the 56u can run 2x2 mimo. It does not buy a real lot since it requires very clean signal to get 3 overlapping signals rather than 2.

I would set you 2.4g radio to only support narrow ie 20mhz channels. This will limit your top speed to 150m but you are getting no where near that as it is. The 2.4g band is very crowded there is only 60mhz total and if you try to get 40mhz and even 1 neighbor is trying to get 40mhz you will stomp all over each other.

 

[Daniel Navia]

The main difference is that the ac66u can run 3x3 mimo where the 56u can run 2x2 mimo. It does not buy a real lot since it requires very clean signal to get 3 overlapping signals rather than 2.

I would set you 2.4g radio to only support narrow ie 20mhz channels. This will limit your top speed to 150m but you are getting no where near that as it is. The 2.4g band is very crowded there is only 60mhz total and if you try to get 40mhz and even 1 neighbor is trying to get 40mhz you will stomp all over each other.

Thanks for your reply. Now, what about the nighthawk ac1900? I am leaning towards this model as I'm reading nothing but good about it. Is it recommended over the other two models? Excuse my newbie questions

Update: I'd also like to mention that I tested it last night. The router is in my bedroom, and the 2.4ghz was getting 70-80mbps, then mid speed test I left the room and it instantly dropped to 13, then down to 3 in the living room. It's a small 2 bedroom apartment. Would this be the result of overcrowding band or a faulty router? I couldn't imagine the overcrowding to affect speeds so drastically from room to room but I'm not sure on that of coarse

 

[bill001g]

Its almost impossible to tell why wireless does what it does. Most large name routers are transmitting at maximum legal power so they will have the same coverage. There is some small difference in the antennas and the radio chips but these you can generally only tell if you have special testing equipment. A persons house and the people using wireless around them is the main difference. This is why people say router xxx is the best router there is and other say it is a piece of garbage.

The nighthawk generally is the fastest router on the market. It does not necessary have better coverage than other routers it just has more total capacity. The main difference is its main processor runs at 1g rather than 800mhz. Still other than that the ac87u (I think) has exactly the same 2 radio chips and the exact same processor just running at a slower speed. Like computer cpu there are only a small number of chip makers and all the vendors use these no matter whose name is on the outside.

The speed of a router only really matters to people who have huge internet connections or run lots of hi def streaming INSIDE their house. If you have a 6m internet connection you likely can use any router you can find.

The other reason you need high speed processors is if you are using the router for other functions. Many of these routers can serve torrent files off a usb connect drive without a computer involved. There are many other features that are outside the main function of a router.

Still none of this fixes the fundamental issue most people have with wireless. You really can't fix the walls absorbing all the signal or the neighbor who transmits on the same channel.

If you want a advanced router if you stay with any of the large name brands and even many of the lessor known ones you will get similar wireless functions. Most the difference are software features.

 

[Daniel Navia]

Its almost impossible to tell why wireless does what it does. Most large name routers are transmitting at maximum legal power so they will have the same coverage. There is some small difference in the antennas and the radio chips but these you can generally only tell if you have special testing equipment. A persons house and the people using wireless around them is the main difference. This is why people say router xxx is the best router there is and other say it is a piece of garbage.

The nighthawk generally is the fastest router on the market. It does not necessary have better coverage than other routers it just has more total capacity. The main difference is its main processor runs at 1g rather than 800mhz. Still other than that the ac87u (I think) has exactly the same 2 radio chips and the exact same processor just running at a slower speed. Like computer cpu there are only a small number of chip makers and all the vendors use these no matter whose name is on the outside.

The speed of a router only really matters to people who have huge internet connections or run lots of hi def streaming INSIDE their house. If you have a 6m internet connection you likely can use any router you can find.

The other reason you need high speed processors is if you are using the router for other functions. Many of these routers can serve torrent files off a usb connect drive without a computer involved. There are many other features that are outside the main function of a router.

Still none of this fixes the fundamental issue most people have with wireless. You really can't fix the walls absorbing all the signal or the neighbor who transmits on the same channel.

If you want a advanced router if you stay with any of the large name brands and even many of the lessor known ones you will get similar wireless functions. Most the difference are software features.

Thank you for your answer. Yeah I find every single router has customer reviews that range from good to bad. Based on your comments and my own research I think i am going to go with the nighthawk. Even if my 2.4 ghz speed issue is not fully resolved, the features you mention (and that I have read about) are nice. I stream HD movies/music via PLEX, download torrents, have 2 smartphones, a tablet, game consoles all connected and the nighthawk seems to be very future proofed.

Thank you for helping me make sense of it all

 

[Daniel Navia]

Update: Then more I think about it, the more I feel hesitant to spend the extra cash on the nighthawk. I will give my scenario:

Small 2 bedroom apartment
1 desktop PC (wired)
1 tablet (wireless)
2 smartphones (wireless)
1 XBOX ONE (Wireless)
1 PS4 (wireless)
1 ps3 (wireless)
1 xbox 360 (wireless)
1 Wii U (wireless)
(obviously not everything is online at once)

Should I spend the extra cash on the nighthawk, or maybe make small tweaks to my existing AC-56U (maybe even install DD-WRT), or try another model altogether? My only issue with the AC-56U was my speed of the 2.4 ghz between rooms, but I will try the mod mentioned above (20hz) and see if that helps. From what I am understanding, your telling me I probably won't see a difference in 2.4 ghz between rooms regardless of router? Sorry for all the questions, very confused, and I am hoping to keep from spending more money then I already have (if possible)

 

[bill001g]

The primary advances in the radio chips are all on the 5g. These newer version of 802.11ac support things like beam forming..jury is still out on if that feature does a lot. The 2.4g chips you would really have to dig to find the difference between them.

You should see actually see better coverage on 2.4g than 5g because the signals are not absorb as easy. The coverage that is related to the transmission power is the signal strength or number of bars the devices display. What many people though call "coverage" is the throughput speed. You can have really strong signal strength but still have very poor speed because of interference. A different router would still be competing with interference but might get better "coverage"...ie throughput. Say you lose 90% of the signal due to interference on a 300m connection that would leave 30m on a 450 you would get 45m. So a 450m connection would be a little faster just because you started out with more. It is never this simple in real life to figure out though.

 

[Daniel Navia]

The primary advances in the radio chips are all on the 5g. These newer version of 802.11ac support things like beam forming..jury is still out on if that feature does a lot. The 2.4g chips you would really have to dig to find the difference between them.

You should see actually see better coverage on 2.4g than 5g because the signals are not absorb as easy. The coverage that is related to the transmission power is the signal strength or number of bars the devices display. What many people though call "coverage" is the throughput speed. You can have really strong signal strength but still have very poor speed because of interference. A different router would still be competing with interference but might get better "coverage"...ie throughput. Say you lose 90% of the signal due to interference on a 300m connection that would leave 30m on a 450 you would get 45m. So a 450m connection would be a little faster just because you started out with more. It is never this simple in real life to figure out though.

I definnetly get a stronger signal on the 2.4 (max bars vs 3 on 5ghz), but its the drop in speed that was my concern. Using my phone for the speed test, it was around 70-80Mbps in the same room as the router, but as I walked into the hall it quickly dipped to 20, then to 3 in the very next room (living room). I'm trying to understand the technical lingo used, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your saying that, at least in theory, a better model (such as the nighthawk or ac-66u) may provide a small bump in the speed of the 2.4 network in the living room. Probably not enough to warrant the difference in cost though?

Secondly, along with changing from 20/40 to 20 mhz as mentioned above, would perhaps flashing DD-WRT boost the speed?

 

[bill001g]

The key is 3x3 mimo vs 2x2 mimo is 450m vs 300m on the 2.4g band. Any 802.11n router would get the same increase since it does not run 802.11ac on the 2.4g. You might be better served to buy a inexpensive 802.11n single band router and use a ethernet cable to extend the device to the room that does not get good coverage and turn the device as a AP.

20mhz helps because it reduce the chance of interference. Different software should in theory make no difference. The actual software that runs in the radio chip is a binary file from the manufacture. If the factory software is loading the same file as dd-wrt then the radio chip itself will perform the same. The main difference in dd-wrt and the other software is for features that run on the main cpu. I really wish you could make changes to the software in the radio chip itself but no chip vendor release much information about how this really works.

 

[Daniel Navia]

The key is 3x3 mimo vs 2x2 mimo is 450m vs 300m on the 2.4g band. Any 802.11n router would get the same increase since it does not run 802.11ac on the 2.4g. You might be better served to buy a inexpensive 802.11n single band router and use a ethernet cable to extend the device to the room that does not get good coverage and turn the device as a AP.

20mhz helps because it reduce the chance of interference. Different software should in theory make no difference. The actual software that runs in the radio chip is a binary file from the manufacture. If the factory software is loading the same file as dd-wrt then the radio chip itself will perform the same. The main difference in dd-wrt and the other software is for features that run on the main cpu. I really wish you could make changes to the software in the radio chip itself but no chip vendor release much information about how this really works.

I'm still wanting the dual band, but don't really need the AC. Would it perhaps be beneficial to try out the Asus RT-N66U in this case?

 

[bill001g]

I though you already had a ac56u that works well on the 5g band. I am recommending run 2 routers. You could turn off the 2.4g in the ac56u if you like. In effect you buy a different radio for just the 2.4g band. Since you have a good 5g device you might as well use it and save and buy a router without the 5g. Cost wise I would look at tp-link routers these tend to be cheaper and still run dd-wrt if that is important.

Still it is up to you to decide what is the best way to spend you money.

 

[Daniel Navia]

I though you already had a ac56u that works well on the 5g band. I am recommending run 2 routers. You could turn off the 2.4g in the ac56u if you like. In effect you buy a different radio for just the 2.4g band. Since you have a good 5g device you might as well use it and save and buy a router without the 5g. Cost wise I would look at tp-link routers these tend to be cheaper and still run dd-wrt if that is important.

Still it is up to you to decide what is the best way to spend you money.

Oh I see what your saying. Yeah that seems like a ideal solution. I have an existing router that I loved but I swapped out because it lacked gigabit ports. The netgear N600. If I used the AC56U for 5ghz and gigabit ports, and hooked up the N600 strictly for the 2.4 I will get the best of both worlds. I think I will go with that and work on learning how to hook up both routers. Thanks! And I appreciate your paitence

 

[bill001g]

You want to use the second router as a AP

 

[rafmat]

Hi,

I think you may be interested by my experience, first I used my Asus RT-AC66U for a year without any problem, manly in 2.4G, but at that time he was located close to ADSL router and in horizontal position, then I decided to extend my wifi networl and moved my Asus RT-AC66U in the garage with a CPL link to the router, but this time in vertical position (just because it was easier to fix it on the wall), and since then I experienced many disconnexion, and very poor connexion with 2.4G network, but not in 5G !
Thought, the router was having problem and tried to update firmware but with no luck. This lasted during two weeks, until I realized that I was having still the amazing 2.4G speed, but only when I was in the garage !!!
Suddenly I realized that may be my antennas may not be set in the right direction (remember the asus was put on the wall, but kept the antennas horizontal) ... I changed the two external antennas back to verical (like the router), and now I can enjoy same amazing speed in my entire house !!!

It was just an antenna position issue, so if any of you are facing the same problem ? Check first what is the speed close to the router, then check far away with different antenna position !

Good luck