[SOLVED] Why is my Asus GT-AX11000 signal worse than with my old Sagemcom fast 3890v3?

[nimnen]

My Wifi was having some issues reaching out in the bathroom, sometimes randomly disconnecting, and response time was getting a bit slow on my 2.4GHz network due to buying more smart devices recently. I also disliked the lack of options in the router provided by my ISP (Sagemcom Fast V3890v3)

So I got a Asus GT-AX11000 . I love all the options it has, being able to set up a VPN, prioritize one device over others, etc., and the office has everything running blazing fast on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, making my smart lights way more responsive.

However, now there's barely any signal out in the bathroom, disconnecting way more frequently, and my Apple Watch can no longer connect to it at all out there. It's gotten worse in my closer-by kitchen too, with my phone randomly switching to Data because it's so slow (for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks). It also seems to fluctuate quite a bit out in the kitchen.

It seems a bit better if I set 2.4GHz to be 20Mhz only instead of 20/40 MHz, but it's still worse than with the old router.

What the heck is going on? What settings should I look into, for boosting wall penetration?

 

[bill001g]

It could be antenna design or slightly different placement in the room.

Like most quality routers when you look the output power numbers up in the fcc documents it is very near the legal maximum. When I looked that one up in particular I remember it has numbers above 29db and 30db is the value you can not exceed. The reports though are extremely complex. I know most routers put out slightly less power for some technical reason when they run in 160mhz mode. In your case that does not matter because you are using the 2.4g radios.

This is the extremely strange things about wifi and running in people houses. 2 router that have exactly the same output numbers in the FCC reports perform very differently in houses. It is not even consistent sometimes one works better in some houses and the other works better in other houses. This is why consumer reviews are all over the place,

There is nothing you can change related to output power that router is already one of the highest allowed.

 

[nimnen]

It could be antenna design or slightly different placement in the room.

Like most quality routers when you look the output power numbers up in the fcc documents it is very near the legal maximum. When I looked that one up in particular I remember it has numbers above 29db and 30db is the value you can not exceed. The reports though are extremely complex. I know most routers put out slightly less power for some technical reason when they run in 160mhz mode. In your case that does not matter because you are using the 2.4g radios.

This is the extremely strange things about wifi and running in people houses. 2 router that have exactly the same output numbers in the FCC reports perform very differently in houses. It is not even consistent sometimes one works better in some houses and the other works better in other houses. This is why consumer reviews are all over the place,

There is nothing you can change related to output power that router is already one of the highest allowed.

Thank you! Great info about the output power.

It is placed about 1m closer to the kitchen/bathroom than the old router, though there may be pipes in the way just there, or more solid walls.

I've set it to run on 20MHz instead of 20/40 MHz and that seems to somewhat help. One of the two 5GHz networks was somehow running at 10MHz, so I set that to a fixed value too. Now I can sometimes use the AW out in the bathroom.