Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 6:35 Post subject: Very bad wi-fi after installing DD-WRT -- Archer C7 v3
First of all, yes, I have read the "QCA BEST WIFI SETTING" sticky and the wiki and followed the settings from there.
Ultimately, both I and my housemates are having poor connectivity qualitatively speaking. I stream TV shows in the same spot in the house, and now it stops playing periodically whereas it didn't on stock FW. Etc.
I've been looking into it, and I have a number of more specific issues/symptoms.
1.) Is it abnormal that the wifi signal is so choppy when measured in inSSIDer? See below. This is the 5 Ghz band. I discovered that when I switch off the 2.4 GHz antenna, it becomes steady.
2.) When I change the TX Power, it apparently does absolutely nothing. I tried going from 16 dBm to 30, and the signal strength measured by inSSIDer is basically around -45 regardless. How is this possible?
Anyone know what's going on? _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Last edited by darussiaman on Sat May 22, 2021 2:16; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14223 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 15:13 Post subject:
Output power is determined by the hardware limitations that are (usually) hard-coded. I will leave my thoughts out on inSSIDer... except to say there are better analyzers out there. Also, stream over wired ethernet, if possible. I have always had issues streaming over wireless, even on very capable hardware, over wireless, on stock firmware. The best settings resources quote an article that is valid, however, I have had better luck with the previous recommendation of 980, and even 1176. People need to keep in mind that those numbers also relate to MTU.
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 17:42 Post subject:
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Output power is determined by the hardware limitations that are (usually) hard-coded.
Right. The wiki says that, "what's displayed on the wireless status page is what's being used." Is this incorrect? Because my wireless status page does display 30 dBm when I enter 30 into the Wireless settings page. Are you saying that the status page is actually displaying false information about the output power?
kernel-panic69 wrote:
I will leave my thoughts out on inSSIDer... except to say there are better analyzers out there.
Could you kindly recommend some other one(s)?
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Also, stream over wired ethernet, if possible. I have always had issues streaming over wireless, even on very capable hardware, over wireless, on stock firmware.
Ok sure but it's simply not feasible in this house. Also, even if it was never perfect, the wifi was definitely better previously on this router, when I was using stock FW. So, I could lower my expectations and not expect it to become better but I'd expect to at least achieve that same baseline that we had. In the past, I've had a good experience with DD-WRT the few other times I've installed it.
kernel-panic69 wrote:
The best settings resources quote an article that is valid, however, I have had better luck with the previous recommendation of 980, and even 1176.
I'm confused by your sentence there. Are you referring to the RTS Threshold setting?
Thank you. _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14223 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 17:59 Post subject:
I guess running cat 5e or better cabling and installing ethernet drops is obviously impossible.
Regarding output power, it is best to find the specific technical information for your hardware to see what is and isn't doable.
Yes, I meant to include "for RTS threshold setting".
No, you do not have to reset when you upgrade; only when something goes completely awry do you ever need to do a hard reset to rule out nvram corruption or gremlins.
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Fri May 21, 2021 23:54 Post subject:
kernel-panic69 wrote:
No, you do not have to reset when you upgrade; only when something goes completely awry do you ever need to do a hard reset to rule out nvram corruption or gremlins.
It does feel like I have a bunch of gremlins here lol, given how bad the wifi quality is, even though other people on the forum seem to be doing well on this router and on this build. When I installed this build, I remember that the page didn't reload as expected. The "upgrading firmware" window was just showing the entire time even after the timer finished counting down. I eventually just reloaded the page after waiting for a while (if my memory is correct). Does that mean something went wrong? _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 0:10 Post subject:
Ok I just upgraded to r46604. This time I saw the page that said "firmware upgrade successful" or something like that. And that the router is rebooting. Then the DD-WRT page loaded. So things went as expected.
Again I'm seeing the following. When I have only 1 antenna switched on, the signal looks stable, according to my network analyzer. As soon as I switch on both antennas, it becomes very "choppy" or oscillatory. Screen shot attached below. You can see the before and after.
Can someone please confirm: is this normal or abnormal?
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 18:06 Post subject:
Another thing I'd like to add.
Using stock FW, when I was in my kitchen, I used to get 2 or sometimes 3 "bars" of the wifi signal strength when connected to the 5 GHz band with my Windows 10-based tablet. But now, with the router hung up in the exact same spot on the wall (in another room), I'm using the same tablet in the same location, but I only ever get 1 "bar" on the 5 GHz band. Like this:
Why is the signal on that band consistently weaker now than it was under stock FW? I have set the TX Power to 30 dBm, although this page says that it can only do 23 dBm anyway.
I have tried going through the different permutations of Channel Width and Firmware Type and also switched channels. So I tried each of the "Full (20 MHz)", "Wide HT40 (40 MHz)", and the "VHT80 (80 MHz)" settings. I toggled between the VANILLA and the DD-WRT Firmware Type setting. And also tried channels 161 and 120. But none of it makes a difference. _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Or at the very least Zip them up and attach the zip file.
See the link in my signature for recommended WiFi settings.
PS: I use a WiFi analyzer called Acrylic WiFi Home. It is not perfect but it works. _________________ Before asking a question on the forums, update dd-wrt: Where do I download firmware? I suggest reading it all.
QCA Best WiFi Settings
Some dd-wrt wiki pages are up to date, others are not. PM me if you find an old one.
Atheros:
Netgear R7800 x3 - WDS AP / station, gateway, QoS
TP-Link Archer C7 v2 x2 - WDS Station
TP-Link TL-WDR3600 v1 - WDS Station
TP-Link 841nd v8 - NU
D-Link 615 C1/E3/I1 x 7 - 1 WDS station
D-Link 825 B1 - NU
D-Link 862L A1 x2 - WDS Station
Netgear WNDR3700v2 - NU
UBNT loco M2 x2 - airOS
Broadcom
Linksys EA6400 - Gateway, QoS
Asus N66U - AP
Netgear WNDR3700v3 - not used
MediaTek
UBNT EdgeRouter X - switch
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 2:37 Post subject: Re: Screenshots
ian5142 wrote:
Start by posting screenshots of the WiFi settings, including Advanced Tickbox.
Ok sure, I'm happy to do that; here they are in the attachments.
I currently have it set to "full" for channel width in the 5 GHz band, which I realize is counter to the recommended settings in the sticky, but I have tried the other options already.
To recap, I'm getting weak signal (as measured by the Windows indicator in the system tray) from the 5 GHz SSID on my tablet compared to what I was seeing previously under stock FW. The router is in the exact same spot in another room, and I'm using the same tablet in the same location.
Unfortunately, I did not record signal strengths with a WiFi analyzer prior to installing DD-WRT. So, I could post my results but it seems useless if I don't have a before and after comparison. _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14223 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 2:47 Post subject:
Follow the settings in the sticky, save and except for RTS/CTS threshold (I didn't have much luck with 784, but you can test it if you like). Your beacon intervals and sensitivity range / ack timing are wrong, and you need to look at a few other things. The sticky was written and tested on more than one device.
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 2:49 Post subject: Re: Very bad wi-fi after installing DD-WRT -- Archer C7 v3
darussiaman wrote:
1.) Is it abnormal that the wifi signal is so choppy when measured in inSSIDer? See below. This is the 5 Ghz band. I discovered that when I switch off the 2.4 GHz antenna, it becomes steady.
Also, as a side note, I'm pretty sure I've figured out something about this part from my first post. The reason the signal is choppy like that is because inSSIDer keeps switching between which of the two SSIDs it's measuring. The legend on the right also switches back and forth. For some reason, inSSIDer cannot "see" both of the SSIDs at the same time. I made another thread about this. This is also evident in Acrylic Wi-Fi Home, although in the case of the latter, it doesn't switch back and forth like that--it just stays put, but it only "sees" one of the SSIDs. This is despite the fact that both SSIDs do show up in the WiFi list in Windows. _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona, USA
Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 3:01 Post subject:
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Your beacon intervals and sensitivity range / ack timing are wrong
Really? I followed the QCA page for the sensitivity range. It says 900 is good for most people.
The beacon interval... I did have other numbers filled in on the first build I tried (44715). Can that really affect the signal strength?
EDIT: Anyway, you're right that I did neglect to switch these from the defaults. I checked the QCA page and set the 5 GHz radio to 300 and the 2.4 GHz radio to 400 since I prefer the 5 GHz band. I set the DTIM on both of them to 1.
Thank you. _________________ Not all those who wander are lost
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14223 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 3:25 Post subject:
I presume MSOE has not had a chance to update the wiki page, but re-read the sticky at the top of this forum. 3150 for 2.4, 3160 for 5GHz band for sensitivity range. The old defaults worked a hell of a lot better when it was 2250; 500 and 900 are not ideal settings unless you are in the same room as the router with direct LoS. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
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