Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 20:46 Post subject: 5Ghz Question: Mixed vs. AC/N Mixed
OK.. I have a question.
I had my 5Ghz network setup for AC/N Mixed mode. All of my wifi devices could see the network and connect...........except for my Microsoft Surface RT Tablet.
The RT could see the network, but not connect.
So for fun, I set the mode in DD-WRT to Mixed and now it connects instantly.
Joined: 10 Jan 2016 Posts: 62 Location: California, USA
Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 23:33 Post subject:
I am subscribed to the mwlwifi github and there is a lot of chatter about finding the fixes for the driver. There is hope... _________________ Linksys WRT1900AC-V1 (BS 29048) • Motorola SB6141 • Netgear Gigabit Switches • 16 Wired/12 Wireless
Perhaps... but it frustrates me after months of no improvements. Have had this router for over two months now and it still doesn't work right with wifi. Turns out, no WDS, and worse off, The issue ".16 driver Incompatability [sic] with with Dell 1504 wireless card and HP officejet printer 8600" still hasn't been addressed minus all the other performance issues.
I'm going to setup logging to see if anything shows. I just disabled and reenabled wifi and no drops yet but we'll see over time.
Joined: 10 Jan 2016 Posts: 62 Location: California, USA
Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 0:45 Post subject:
Talk about waiting... I was one of the poor saps that purchased the WRT1900AC (V1) when they first came out almost 2 years ago. It took about 20 months before DD-WRT was officially released and I felt safe enough to jump in.
I think my success with DD-WRT so far is probably because my network setup is so typical without enabling many fancy features. My network is mostly wired, and as for the wireless devices are truly mobile only devices (phones, laptops, etc). I am one of those guys that likes to implement the most reliable setup. I knew if I went wired for basically everything that has an Ethernet jack I would reduce my headaches. For the last 5 years we have been in the house I have have very little problems. My network is more reliable than my provider's internet coming in the house!
Really I would have stayed with the stock firmware until I started hearing more on Security-Now about all the security issues happening these days. So I decided to jump in to DD-WRT knowing its always has the latest Linux Kernel security fixes.
The weird thing I just can't figure out is why some users on here who also have simple setups like mine have so many issues with DD-WRT. The only thing I can think of is they are either a configured option that makes the route buggy, or they flash without doing the reset, or they another version of the router hardware. Its just plain weird, I have had a very stable experience with DD-WRT. _________________ Linksys WRT1900AC-V1 (BS 29048) • Motorola SB6141 • Netgear Gigabit Switches • 16 Wired/12 Wireless
Talk about waiting... I was one of the poor saps that purchased the WRT1900AC (V1) when they first came out almost 2 years ago. It took about 20 months before DD-WRT was officially released and I felt safe enough to jump in.
I think my success with DD-WRT so far is probably because my network setup is so typical without enabling many fancy features. My network is mostly wired, and as for the wireless devices are truly mobile only devices (phones, laptops, etc). I am one of those guys that likes to implement the most reliable setup. I knew if I went wired for basically everything that has an Ethernet jack I would reduce my headaches. For the last 5 years we have been in the house I have have very little problems. My network is more reliable than my provider's internet coming in the house!
Really I would have stayed with the stock firmware until I started hearing more on Security-Now about all the security issues happening these days. So I decided to jump in to DD-WRT knowing its always has the latest Linux Kernel security fixes.
The weird thing I just can't figure out is why some users on here who also have simple setups like mine have so many issues with DD-WRT. The only thing I can think of is they are either a configured option that makes the route buggy, or they flash without doing the reset, or they another version of the router hardware. Its just plain weird, I have had a very stable experience with DD-WRT.
I too wire most things when we renovated and it works perfectly -- but some devices the wifi is unbearable.
Joined: 14 Dec 2015 Posts: 774 Location: 127.0.0.1
Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 3:37 Post subject:
jsebean wrote:
Perhaps... but it frustrates me after months of no improvements. Have had this router for over two months now and it still doesn't work right with wifi. Turns out, no WDS, and worse off, The issue ".16 driver Incompatability [sic] with with Dell 1504 wireless card and HP officejet printer 8600" still hasn't been addressed minus all the other performance issues.
I'm going to setup logging to see if anything shows. I just disabled and reenabled wifi and no drops yet but we'll see over time.
What problems are you having with the OfficeJet? I have an 8610 sending it's syslog to my laptop, and haven't had an issue with it, yet.... Knocking on wood. _________________ Tutorial for flashing WRT series WRT Installation,Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes
r52242: WRT3200ACM, WRT1200ACv1 & 1 Velop in bridge mode(IoT subnet), r52242 WRT1900ACv1 AP
Velop:2 WHW0101, RE6500, RE9000(AP)
Spectrum - 1000/50
SysLog Watcher 5, New security Onion box coming soon, Fingboxes, PiHoles, NEMS, Cacti, rpisurv
Perhaps... but it frustrates me after months of no improvements. Have had this router for over two months now and it still doesn't work right with wifi. Turns out, no WDS, and worse off, The issue ".16 driver Incompatability [sic] with with Dell 1504 wireless card and HP officejet printer 8600" still hasn't been addressed minus all the other performance issues.
I'm going to setup logging to see if anything shows. I just disabled and reenabled wifi and no drops yet but we'll see over time.
What problems are you having with the OfficeJet? I have an 8610 sending it's syslog to my laptop, and haven't had an issue with it, yet.... Knocking on wood.
I was quoting the issue title on Github, hence the quotes I don't have an officejet, but the issue described is similar to mine.
I do have an Asus laptop with a Broadcom adapter and a Nexus player that constantly loses connection. The laptop is only 802.11n 2.4GHz but the Nexus player drops both on 5GHz and 2.4GHz.
I then have to reset them and reconnect to the network to gain connectivity.
Meanwhile the Chromebook I have and my cellular phone do not appear to have any issue whatsoever, and of course, all ethernet wiring have no issues. The router, other than wifi works fine.
If I use the wifi built in my DSL modem (bypassing DD-WRT) or if I connect a Ubiquiti Unifi AP to the router for wifi, then all issues go away. So it's not an issue with the devices but something funky going on with the wifi driver DD-WRT uses, which others can reproduce also with OpenWRT according to what I read on Github.
And for the record... the restarting wifi and even rebooting, with or without a fan blowing on it makes no difference... it's not a heat issue as was mentioned in another thread somewhere.
Just writing in to say it appears to be the power output DD-WRT pumps out by default. 30dBm!! Ouch! Notched it back to 17-20dbm and has been running flawlessly for the last couple hours.
I'll report back later if I have any further issues.
Back on topic with OPs question:
What is your 5GHz channel width and how is the surface connecting? Is it connecting as AC?
Just writing in to say it appears to be the power output DD-WRT pumps out by default. 30dBm!! Ouch! Notched it back to 17-20dbm and has been running flawlessly for the last couple hours.
I'll report back later if I have any further issues.
Back on topic with OPs question:
What is your 5GHz channel width and how is the surface connecting? Is it connecting as AC?
Channel width is VHT80... and I didn't change that.
As far as how the Surface is connecting, I haven't a clue how to even check...?
Just writing in to say it appears to be the power output DD-WRT pumps out by default. 30dBm!! Ouch! Notched it back to 17-20dbm and has been running flawlessly for the last couple hours.
I'll report back later if I have any further issues.
Back on topic with OPs question:
What is your 5GHz channel width and how is the surface connecting? Is it connecting as AC?
Channel width is VHT80... and I didn't change that.
As far as how the Surface is connecting, I haven't a clue how to even check...?
VHT80 is not default so you must have changed it xD. Check the Wireless status page and see the rate your surface is attaining there. 54Mbps max is 802.11a... whereas if you're getting faster attained speeds you know it's n or ac. It'll also show if it's connect VHT80 or not.
What power output and what channel are you on/regulatory domain? I've been messing with my router all morning here (11:30AM as of writing this) tweaking settings. I sort of hijacked your thread earlier where my issue seems to have been too high power output killing my laptops wifi -- perhaps your power is set too high as well if you're close by the router? I'll report back later if it is actually a solution but so far so good, might be worth checking. Got them set to 20dBm now.
Too bad there are no mods around... the two threads regarding this issue should be merged or 1 closed since they're really the same topic/issue...
VHT80 is not default so you must have changed it xD. Check the Wireless status page and see the rate your surface is attaining there. 54Mbps max is 802.11a... whereas if you're getting faster attained speeds you know it's n or ac. It'll also show if it's connect VHT80 or not.
What power output and what channel are you on/regulatory domain? I've been messing with my router all morning here (11:30AM as of writing this) tweaking settings. I sort of hijacked your thread earlier where my issue seems to have been too high power output killing my laptops wifi -- perhaps your power is set too high as well if you're close by the router? I'll report back later if it is actually a solution but so far so good, might be worth checking. Got them set to 20dBm now.
Too bad there are no mods around... the two threads regarding this issue should be merged or 1 closed since they're really the same topic/issue...
What I meant was... The only setting I changed was fromAC/N Mode to MIXED. Once I did that, the Surface would connect.
It's currently connected at 270Mbps and HT40.
Output power and regulatory domain is all default/US.
At this point, my Surface RT is connected to 5Ghz, as are all my other 5Ghz devices, so it's good enough for me.
VHT80 is not default so you must have changed it xD. Check the Wireless status page and see the rate your surface is attaining there. 54Mbps max is 802.11a... whereas if you're getting faster attained speeds you know it's n or ac. It'll also show if it's connect VHT80 or not.
What power output and what channel are you on/regulatory domain? I've been messing with my router all morning here (11:30AM as of writing this) tweaking settings. I sort of hijacked your thread earlier where my issue seems to have been too high power output killing my laptops wifi -- perhaps your power is set too high as well if you're close by the router? I'll report back later if it is actually a solution but so far so good, might be worth checking. Got them set to 20dBm now.
Too bad there are no mods around... the two threads regarding this issue should be merged or 1 closed since they're really the same topic/issue...
What I meant was... The only setting I changed was fromAC/N Mode to MIXED. Once I did that, the Surface would connect.
It's currently connected at 270Mbps and HT40.
Output power and regulatory domain is all default/US.
At this point, my Surface RT is connected to 5Ghz, as are all my other 5Ghz devices, so it's good enough for me.
//Brew
I seem to be having similar issue with an 802.11n Chromebook 5GHz not connecting when I do that. What's more, changing the channel to any other but default causes it to not work unless I set it to Full 20MHz.
Edit: What I've found screwing with the settings:
VHT80 only seems to work in channel 149+ or the lower channels 60 and below when on mixed mode. Channel 60 and below will only do 17dbm power while the others allow more. The only channel that allows me to do VHT80 @ 20dbm while letting my n devices connect therefore is only channel 149 (and maybe 153? Didn't test that one).
The 802.11n 5GHz chromebook only connects on Mixed mode like your Surface, so this isn't a Windows 10 issue since the Chromebook runs Linux/Chrome OS.
VHT80 seems to work on all channels on AC only mode, but of course the chromebook wont connect on AC only being an N device.
Full 20MHz works on all channels including with AC/N only. That is the only time I got it to work. If I try Dynamic 20/40 or 40MHz then it doesn't work and I need mixed mode again.
Seems to be a bit buggy.
Edit 2: current screenshots of config I have working now. The VHT80 device connected is the nexus player 802.11ac and the HT40 is the chromebook on 5GHz. The others are 2.4GHz devices.
Last edited by jsebean on Mon Feb 15, 2016 15:28; edited 1 time in total
I don't have an officejet, but the issue described is similar to mine.
