Strengthening C20 V4 2.4 & 5 GHz signal

[Blastorix]

Hi,

How does one optimize the signal of the above router, especially the 5 GHz one? I'm only having a 2 bar at best and at worst a one bar.

What settings should I tweak in OpenWRT to achieve this?

Thanks for the help!

[Hegabo]

You can do the following:

• adjust the transmission power.
• find a clear channel.
• reposition your router.

[Blastorix]

I wanted to adjust the transmission power; how do I go about it?

[Hegabo]

Edit that particular WiFi from http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/admin/network/wireless

Make sure you select your correct country from Advanced Settings of the WiFi before you change the power to make sure that you are selecting a power level that's legal for your country.

Note that greatly increasing the power doesn't mean you will get good signal, as your client devices might not be able to send a signal that's strong enough to reach the router if it's far, so if you increase the power too much you could acutally be making things worse by introducing noise.

You could also increase the bandwidth for the channel, but make sure you select a non-overlapping channel.

[Blastorix]

Hi, so I have configured that to the Philippines.

Now, when it comes to power, how do I know what is the best dBM? Is this merely trial and error? Also, does the beacon interval, fragmentation threshold, and RTS Threshold play any meaningful factor in influencing the effective range of the router?

Additionally, my 5 GHz band is stuck at -40 dBM; how do I raise it such that it becomes -60 or even -70 dBM? I'm guessing it is not possible.

[Hegabo]

@Blastorix

how do I know what is the best dBM? Is this merely trial and error? Also, does the beacon interval, fragmentation threshold, and RTS Threshold play any meaningful factor in influencing the effective range of the router?

You could maybe start form 20 dBM and increase gradually as you need. In fact if you research the topic you will find that people have different opinions about signal strength. I don't know about the other options to be honest.

@Blastorix

my 5 GHz band is stuck at -40 dBM; how do I raise it such that it becomes -60 or even -70 dBM?

In fact, negative dBM values represent actual signal strength at the client. So you can't change it directly. Well, if you change the transmission power, or move the client device closer to the router, the signal strength should increase. Needless to say it's a negative value. So -40 is actually better than -60.