WRT1900ACS v2 bad WiFi performance on both 2.4 and 5g

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I am having issues with the WiFi performance on my WRT1900ACS v2 (17.01.0-rc1) 2.4 and 5g bands with reported speeds of 54mbps instead of 600mbps b, g, n on the 2.4GHz and 1300mbps ac on the 5GHz.

The following is my /etc/config/wireless settings:

5GHz Band

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00$
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option channel 'auto'
        option country 'MT'
        option distance '100'

2.4Ghz Band

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option channel 'auto'
        option hwmode '11g'
        option path 'soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:02:00$
        option country 'MT'
        option distance '100'

Is there a better WiFi driver that I can install ? or what settings would you recommend the improve performance.

InSSIDer screenshot attached network names are Lumen WiFi 2.4g and Lumen WiFi 5g

2

You might try setting specific channels instead of auto, 1/6/11 for 2.4ghz and 40-48/149-161 for 5ghz. You also appear to be missing htmode option for 2.4ghz, it should be -

option htmode 'HT20'

or

option htmode 'HT40'

And you might double check to make sure you security is set to force AES, it should look like this -

option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'

I don't see a txpower option either, so i'm guessing you left it on auto, you might try a specific setting for that as well.

3

hello,

I think you should change the distance option. Is the furthest client really 100 meters away from the access point?

Christoph

4

@mike thanks for the guidance and also thanks to @rj-45 .

I made the following corrections: radio0 is 5g radio1 is 2.4g (the key password is fake so no war diving please :wink: )

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option country 'MT'
        option txpower '20'
        option channel '104'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Lumen WiFi 5g'
        option key 'password'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11g'
        option htmode 'HT40'
        option path 'soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:02:00.0'
        option country 'MT'
        option channel '6'
        option txpower '20'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Lumen WiFi 2.4g'
        option key 'password'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'

The 2.4ghz band shot up to 450mbs but the 5g network remained stuck at 54mbps.

Any suggestions please, also I wish to get the 2.4ghz to the actual speed of 600mbps.

InSSIDer screenshot attached

5

You could try changing VHT80 to VHT40 to see if that might be the problem, but i can't think of anything else to try, maybe someone else can come up with something.

6

Having gone through all the settings possible, I have no other option but to think that its a driver issue.

How can I check the version of the driver and where can I find an update for it.

7

hello,

have tried to download something over the 5Ghz wifi and watch the download speed or used iperf/iperf3 for a real speedtest?

maybe it is a bug inssider?!?

Christoph

8

@rj-45 Christoph, I fully agree with you that inssider might not be that accurate but I am also having trouble connecting to this band.

9

Following @hnyman suggestions at this thread WRT1900ACS v2 how to update mwlwifi driver I have updated the firmware to LEDE Reboot 17.01.0-rc2 r3131-42f3c1f and now I can connect to both the 2.4 and 5g bands.

Yet I still have an issue with transmit powers on both bands as the signals are very weak, despite that the 5g is set to VHT80 and the 2.4g is set to HT40.

Any other suggestions on how to improve the signal strength please?