Linksys WRT54GS wireless router occasionally drops to 1.0 Mbps and stays there.

The channels available for WiFi are all unlicensed; if there's a strong second WiFi user (or other device in the 2.4 GHz band) its broadcast could swamp yours, except for pauses between transfers.

Signal strength might be excellent, but the road is crowded.

there are firmware update, just not from Linksys:

Bye Jack

On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 06:07:24 -0700 (PDT) snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in Message id: :

Thanks. Looks like I have already have the last version ever released by Linksys.

On Wed, 24 Aug 2016 13:05:43 -0700 (PDT) whit3rd wrote in Message id: :

Thanks, I don't think it's that given the symptoms (requires power cycle)

Current firmware is: WRT54GS_4.71.4.001_fw,2.bin

It's been many years since I've seen that phenomenon and it's quite real. It's a bug in the firmware that runs the radio section. The problem is that the easily replaceable firmware such as DD-WRT operates mostly on layer 3, while the wireless card operates on layer

1. For alternative firmware, the layer 2 stuff is supplied by Linksys in the form of a linkable library that can't be tweaked. This might be why firmware transplants haven't done anything to fix the problem and why only some WRT54G and GS v2 boxes have the problem.

It's been many years since the WRT54GS was in fashion. There has been considerable progress in wireless chips, antennas, router features, acronyms, and aerodynamic packaging. You might want to consider a newer wireless router.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Thank you for that Jeff. I think you may be right. Have any good reasonably priced recommendations?

I had a WRT54G that required frequent resets right out of the box. The firmware was up-to-date. Reverting back one version made it much more stable. Ultimately though, I had to replace it. Scott

Maybe, but I need to know what you're doing with it, the speed of the internet connection, number of simultaneous connections, and whether you plan to use alternative firmware. Some clue as to the environment (business, coffee shop, outdoors, home, industrial, doorstop, etc). Do you need gigabit ethernet or will 10/100Mbits/sec suffice? USB 2.0,

3.0, or none? What you consider reasonably priced?

If you want really cheap, I've been buying refurbished Linksys EA2700 wireless routers from the Belkin (they own Linksys) eBay store: for $25 including shipping. Can't get much cheaper than that for a dual band router with gigabit ethernet interface. However, the router has a few odd problem.

1. The wireless range is lousy.
2. The wall warts blow up after about 2 years of service.
3. I can't stack anything on top of it due to the rounded top.
4. No flashing lights for user diagnostics. However, wireless speed is good, measured up to 60 Mbits/sec. I use these for lighting up small areas that do NOT require going through walls or covering long distances. I also stock spare power supplies.

For home users, the other end of the scale is an Asus RT-AC68Uv2. About $130. I don't care much about the AC speeds, but the range is much better thanks to three 2.4GHz and three 4GHz power amps inside. However, I've only installed one of these, and haven't had time to do any kind of performance analysis. My seat of the pants evaluation is that I like what I see (except for the price). It's on the DD-WRT supported list: but I haven't tried it yet.

Note: I'm a big fan of having the wireless access point(s) seperate from the router, but cost and complexity prevent me from selling that to home users.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Oops. I goofed. That should be for an RT-AC68P, not U. The FCC site has it listed as RT-AC68V2.

The links I previously mentioned are all for the V1 router RT-AC68U. There are some substantial hardware differences between v1 and v2. V1 is an RT-AC68U, while V2 is an RT-AC68P. Some sales web sites are mixing these two with little control over which one will arrive. Anyway, look for the "P", not "U". This one worked for me: Sorry(tm) and caveat emptor.

There is also Asus specific alternative firmware available: I haven't tried it yet.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for all that detailed information. I think I'll go for the Asus RT-AC68P. Appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

I ran a Linksys WRT54GS for many years (with openWRT) eventually I wanted gigabit and dual band so I replaced it with a Netgear WNDR3800 (also with openWRT) they seem more plentiful second-hand in the US than the UK.

I would be interested in how well (or badly) it works, especially if the range is an improvement over the WRT54GSv2. I'm now debating whether to buy one for testing, and then put it on the shelf for the next customer. However, I've been getting reliable 2 day delivery from Newegg so there's no reason for me to inventory any of them. Decisions, decisions...

Incidentally, notice that the prices I've been posting are mostly for refurbished equipment. I've been buying refurbished from Linksys, Asus, Brother (via Staples), and others for years with very few problems (a crunched toner cartridge and a missing power supply). With a typical discount of 50%, it's difficult to resist the temptation to buy only refurbished. However, watch out for the distinction between "factory refurbished" which is legitimate, and "vendor refurbished" which can be anything from an authorized service center to a hole in the wall reselling used equipment.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

I will do that. I'll have to use my smart phone, as my laptop has a dead battery so I can't stray far from an outlet. I have an LG Escape2 phone and I found a free app to measure signal strength. Cool. I should have the router this week and I'll do the before and after test.

Got it.

Got the new router and have it all set up. Previously with the old router, I was able to stray about 150' from the house before the power level dropped to -90dBm and speed to 1Mbps. I now get about 250' before the same occurs. Typical power levels with the new router are about 12dBm higher than with the old router from the same distances.

I'm currently running all the devices on the network at 2.4GHz. I'll probably leave it that way as I think only my phone is capable of dual band operation, and according to the Internet (so it must be true) 2.4Ghz has better range and penetration through walls than 5GHz.

Seems to be working great so far. Thanks for your advice Jeff.

That's generally true, and if you're using 5GHz indoors it's usually a good thing as it tends to keep everyone else's signal out (not that it's so crowded to begin with, but usage is growing).

So weeks later still happy with this router. On devices capable of only

54Mb/s It never drops below that number. Never any disconnects either. One of our newer laptops gets 300Mb/s on a regular basis.

"So let it be written, so it shall be done" (Yul Brenner as pharaoh in CB DeMille's version of the Ten Commandments).

2.4GHz penetrates somewhat better than 5GHz. The "somewhat" depends on the material, where the reflections go, polarization, and the political agenda of whomever is paying for the research.

"Propagation Losses Through Common Building Materials 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz" See Table 3 on Pg 9. However, if you want speed, 802.11ac works on

5GHz only.

Y'er welcome. I just inherited a small collection of Netgear wireless routers. Much as I would like to buy a new Asus RT-AC68P for myself, I really don't need any more wireless routers. Maybe later and good to know that it works.

If you're actually getting 300 Mbits/sec throughput, it's probably doing it using 802.11ac on 5GHz and not on 2.4GHz.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Yep, just checked and that one is 5GHz. The utility that's built into the thing is pretty cool. It shows all the clients that are connected, their IP addresses, their MAC addresses, throughout, and connect frequency. It also has a traffic analyzer and monitor plus tons of other stuff to play with. Even keeps statistics on how much data is transferred on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

Out of morbid curiosity, does the Acer utility show the connection speed in both directions? In infrastructure mode, the connection speed (actually the associations speed) is set by the wireless access point and can be different in each direction. I've seen lots of sniffers and monitors, but they always seem to show the connect speed only in one direction, usually from the AP to the Client radio.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558