[SOLVED] WiFi 5Mhz Band not showing up - Asus RT-AC88U

Jul 7, 2021
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Hello. My first post.

I purchased an Asus RT-AC88U in 2016. When I first purchased this router I could see both the ASUS_2G (2.4Ghz) and ASUS_5G (5Ghz) channels. I don't remember when the 5Mhz band dropped off the available wifi channels to choose from - but somewhere along the way it did. I have only ever seen ASUS_2G for maybe a few years. This is true on my iPhone/FireTV/AppleTV and Mac. I've tried resetting router - resetting devices - forgetting 2G network and then searching for new networks. I can not seem to get my 5G to show up.

Can anyone suggest a reason for 5G to disappear? Any thoughts on how to make it show up again?????
 
Solution
When you hard reset the router, it goes into initial setup mode. You need to connect to the routers web ui and set the router back up again.

On Asus routers, you can opt to have both frequencies share the same SSID or separate them.

Try http://router.asus.com instead of the ip address: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1005263/ Once you get into the initial setup page, it'll walk you through the Wizard to set up your router.

If that doesn't work, you'll want to click on your network adapter and see what the ip address is that's it's giving you. If it's something like 192.168.20.100, then the routers ip is most likely 192.168.20.1. It'll also show you the gateway ip address which should be your router.

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
There's a high chance that the router's 5GHz antenna is damaged on the router(i.e, the WiFi router itself has partially croaked). Yu could try and see if the 5GHz antenna/frequency is disabled in router firmware/GUI. You can do so by going into your router's GUI, 192.168.1.1>username + password>Advanced settings>Wireless>Band>2.4GHz/5GHz.

It'd also be a good idea to make sure that the router doesn't have firmware updates pending.
 
Jul 7, 2021
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Hi - thanks for response.

I did something I may regret. I decided to hard reset my router by holding in reset button for 10 seconds - thinking I would just go back to factory fresh settings and start over. I really never did anything to my router like VPN - port forwarding -etc.

Well I have Fios internet - the touter was working for 5 years without issue. I now can't get WAN working. All I see is a red light. I did have the Fios ethernet plugged in during hard rest - don't know if this caused problem. So I rebooted my Fios ONT - no go. I hard reset router again without Fios ethernet attached - no go. I have a call into Fios to see what may have happened. Prior to reboot - 5 years - working without issue. I know I had to go through things with Verizon before I could switch to my own router - and I did all that 5 years ago.

Any thoughts on what happened - how to fix?

I can not gain access to my router using 192.168.1.1 using a browser. I actually attached a computer directly to ethernet port and tried hard wire 192.168.1.1 - nothing happened.
 
Jul 7, 2021
9
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There's a high chance that the router's 5GHz antenna is damaged on the router(i.e, the WiFi router itself has partially croaked). Yu could try and see if the 5GHz antenna/frequency is disabled in router firmware/GUI. You can do so by going into your router's GUI, 192.168.1.1>username + password>Advanced settings>Wireless>Band>2.4GHz/5GHz.

It'd also be a good idea to make sure that the router doesn't have firmware updates pending.
I updated my firmware a few days back. This did nothing. I also just did a hard reset - see my post. I can't connect to router or internet since resetting router!!!!!
 
When you hard reset the router, it goes into initial setup mode. You need to connect to the routers web ui and set the router back up again.

On Asus routers, you can opt to have both frequencies share the same SSID or separate them.

Try http://router.asus.com instead of the ip address: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1005263/ Once you get into the initial setup page, it'll walk you through the Wizard to set up your router.

If that doesn't work, you'll want to click on your network adapter and see what the ip address is that's it's giving you. If it's something like 192.168.20.100, then the routers ip is most likely 192.168.20.1. It'll also show you the gateway ip address which should be your router.
 
Solution
Jul 7, 2021
9
0
10
When you hard reset the router, it goes into initial setup mode. You need to connect to the routers web ui and set the router back up again.

On Asus routers, you can opt to have both frequencies share the same SSID or separate them.

Try http://router.asus.com instead of the ip address: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1005263/ Once you get into the initial setup page, it'll walk you through the Wizard to set up your router.

If that doesn't work, you'll want to click on your network adapter and see what the ip address is that's it's giving you. If it's something like 192.168.20.100, then the routers ip is most likely 192.168.20.1. It'll also show you the gateway ip address which should be your router.

I figured out what was wrong. I assumed that once you plug in WAN connection everything is peachy. This is not the case. I also didn't realize that the router was broadcasting a wireless single as well. A Fios support guy helped me out immensely. He asked if I could see the Asus wireless network. I looked on my phone and there was an Asus_36_2G that I did not recognize. Once connected I would connect to Router. I had to go through setup steps and re-log into router. I then went to WAN settings and had to change to Automatic IP - and BOOM WAN light turns to white and all good :) Boy am I embarrassed.

Well - though as far as seeing my 5Ghz network - still no go. So I assume my 5Ghz antennas are dead? To give you perspective - my dogs ran over my router numerous times to bark at someone outside the window. My antennas have been sort of beat up. I recently pulled apart router and tried making sure everything is kosher.

So factory reset didn't bring back 5Ghz. I have logged into router and have two distinct frequencies setup. I tried the unified setting 2Ghz/5Ghz but I do not if it helped/changed anything.

Is there any way to see if 5Ghz is not broadcasting with Asus setting page?
 
Jul 7, 2021
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Can someone explain this to me? Prior to factory reset I was get 150Mbs Up and 130 Mbs down over 2.4Ghz network through my Asus Router. I decided to perform a factory rest, and finally figured out how to setup my router again. My Fios ONT/service is for 200Mb/200Mb. I am now getting 19 Mbs U and 11 Mbs D. Man did I screw myself on this effort.

Any thoughts on how to improve my wireless speeds again? I don't remember doing anything special with Asus Router settings to get awesome U/D speeds just this morning. Now I'm hosed!
 
First I would try a ethernet cable rather than wifi just to be sure it is still getting the 200mbps.

The default wifi setting tend to work the best for most people but sometimes a router will pick 5g channels your end devices do not support. This does not explain why 2.4g would have a issue though. Try to set the channel to 42 and 80mhz width.

Now this might be incorrect because I do seldom run asus factory images. Is there a feature called Wifi-radar or site survey. This should let you scan for devices near you. You would hope to see other peoples wifi on the 5g band. If you do not then you can be pretty sure the radio is very dead. Unfortantly it could be it is the transmitter part of the radio is dead but it can receive just fine. If the base firmware does not have this feature you can load a merlin image. Merlin is third party firmware but it is very stable.

Not sure there is very little you can do with wifi other than turn it on and set things like channels. Some things you could try if you were desperate is to set the router to run as a repeater and see if you could connect using the 5g radio to a hotspot you make using something like your phone. If you can get the router to run like this it would mean the radios were good.

If you have not tired it download the latest firmware from asus. You could also try the merlin image. I doubt this will make any difference because the radio chipset firmware images that are included in a router image are not changed much. Most the changes are to the router function itself and not the wifi cpus. It is something you try before you buy a new router because you have nothing to lose.
 
Jul 7, 2021
9
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First I would try a ethernet cable rather than wifi just to be sure it is still getting the 200mbps.

The default wifi setting tend to work the best for most people but sometimes a router will pick 5g channels your end devices do not support. This does not explain why 2.4g would have a issue though. Try to set the channel to 42 and 80mhz width.

Now this might be incorrect because I do seldom run asus factory images. Is there a feature called Wifi-radar or site survey. This should let you scan for devices near you. You would hope to see other peoples wifi on the 5g band. If you do not then you can be pretty sure the radio is very dead. Unfortantly it could be it is the transmitter part of the radio is dead but it can receive just fine. If the base firmware does not have this feature you can load a merlin image. Merlin is third party firmware but it is very stable.

Not sure there is very little you can do with wifi other than turn it on and set things like channels. Some things you could try if you were desperate is to set the router to run as a repeater and see if you could connect using the 5g radio to a hotspot you make using something like your phone. If you can get the router to run like this it would mean the radios were good.

If you have not tired it download the latest firmware from asus. You could also try the merlin image. I doubt this will make any difference because the radio chipset firmware images that are included in a router image are not changed much. Most the changes are to the router function itself and not the wifi cpus. It is something you try before you buy a new router because you have nothing to lose.

So yeah - connected directly to router using ethernet - 300 Mb/320Mb (I'm supposed to be on the 200mb/200mb plan - I guess they bumped me up :))
Right next to router using iPhone 2,4ghz - 130Mb/120Mb
Sitting up in my office (where I used to get 150Mb/130Mb) now I get 30MB/28Mb.

So something changed from this morning and after factory reset.

What is strange the front of my router has lights for "ON/5Ghz/2.4Ghz/WAN/USB1/USB2/WEP" The "On" "5Ghz" and "WAN" lights are lite up. "2.4 Ghz" is dark.

I have gone up and down the Asus settings. I remember when I first purchased router I could see both networks. It's been a while but I now only see 2.4Ghz. So as stated my dogs beat up my antennas. I'm wondering if I order new ones that this may solve my 5Ghz issues. I do not know if Asus 88U has separate 2.4/5 antennas. From link below they are supposed to be dual band.

So you think it's the internal 5Ghz radio and not antennas? I wonder how just the 5 Ghz radio would just up and die, and why can't I test this inside Asus interface? There should be diagnostics. Asus does have a "Smart Dual Band option" I tried this setting, but I don't believe it gave me a benefit. It may because my 5Ghz is just dead.

Here is a link to 12db antennas - dual band:

Ebay 12 dB
 
Are the external antennae broken? Do you see visible cracks, do they not screw on tightly?

I've seen broken AC68u antenna's, but that was on the router side of things. The actual mounting point for the sma connect was broken. That router gave wifi dropout problems until I removed that antenna. The owner was forced to use only 2 of the antennae which weren't broken.

With those speeds, it's likely you're only connected to one 2.4ghz channel wireless N which would give a connection speed of 72mbps, but since wifi is half duplex, your speedtest will be about half that about 36mbps.


802.11n_chart.jpg
 
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Jul 7, 2021
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The Long Length of the antenna was pulled away from base for a number of my antennas. I tried fixing them but can't say that they all work. I'm going to order new ones on eBay to give it a try. I think these are knock-offs so probably junk.

One of my BIC connectors on the router broke of the board. I do not believe this was a electrical connection - just solid attachment. The wires connect to positions on the main board - though this one connection does flop all over the place once connected. I tried superglue but I believe the type I got was too fluid - and connector did not bond to main board.

Holly crap - I did set my 2.4 at 20 Mhz and my 5Ghz at 40 MHz - thinking I could isolate 2.4 from 5 ghz. I went back and set both to 20/40. My speeds did go up to 80 Mbs versus 30MB for Up. Down still sucks at 15 Mbs.
 
Jul 7, 2021
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gggplaya do you know how to remove my neighbors wifi signals from my available networks. I see no reason to see them at all.

BTW I have one local to me that is named "FBI_Surveillance_Van_3". It's funny - though I do sometimes look outside the windows trying to find a black van :)
 
There's no way to remove your neighbors wifi from the air. They are simply there, just make sure you have a good security key on your wifi.

I would remove all the suspect antenna from your router. That'll probably help. Even if you have just 1 good antenna, it'll probably be more stable.
 
Jul 7, 2021
9
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The Long Length of the antenna was pulled away from base for a number of my antennas. I tried fixing them but can't say that they all work. I'm going to order new ones on eBay to give it a try. I think these are knock-offs so probably junk.

One of my BIC connectors on the router broke of the board. I do not believe this was a electrical connection - just solid attachment. The wires connect to positions on the main board - though this one connection does flop all over the place once connected. I tried superglue but I believe the type I got was too fluid - and connector did not bond to main board.

Holly crap - I did set my 2.4 at 20 Mhz and my 5Ghz at 40 MHz - thinking I could isolate 2.4 from 5 ghz. I went back and set both to 20/40. My speeds did go up to 80 Mbs versus 30MB for Up. Down still sucks at 15 Mbs.

Besides setting frequency back to 20/40 for both channels I tried setting the Control channel - I tried 160 then 40 then I went back to Auto. Auto worked so much better.

My goal is to go Wifi 6E and maybe wired eventually. As you can tell I'm capped at 300/300 for now. so anything around 300 Mb is my goal