This does not strike me as specific only to this router, but has to do with a configuration setting around 20MHz vs. 40MHz channel bandwidth.
I picked up an Asus RT-AC68R a while back and it’s been fantastic. One bit of behavior I wasn’t crazy about was the periodic – and somewhat frequent – dropping of the wireless connection. This happened with multiple devices (all of which happened to be Apple). I read around a bit online and there were a few suggestions, ranging from configuration to third-party firmware, but the one I homed in on had to do with channel bandwidth. I live in an urban environment and there are many APs within range of me. Evidently, by default, the Asus comes configured with 2.4GHz to use a channel bandwidth of 40MHz (or 20/40) as opposed to a strict 20MHz bandwidth, and this has been identified as a potential issue in crowded AP environments. I limited the channel bandwidth to the more concise 20MHz and my dropped connections have disappeared in the weeks since.
When it happened to you, did you have to switch channels as well?? Mine seems to drop not just the iDevices but anything on 2.4 GHz until I switch the channel. Then it will work for about 3-4 days and do it all over again. Yeeha.
5 GHz devices do NOT have the issue.
Joel,
I did seek to find a channel with the least amount of nearby APs. As mentioned in my post, it’s fairly densely populated where I live. You will want to scan nearby access points and try to find a channel (1,6,11) that is the least used by those around you. This, in conjunction with limiting channel bandwith to 20MHz, seems to have fixed my problems. In my case, the issue was likely not related to iDevices; it’s just that those represent the wireless devices I have connecting to my router.
Yes, 5Ghz has the potential to be much better…I just have older school b/g wifi adapters on my devices right now so am stuck with 2.4GHz.
I can corroborate this solution. I was having the same problem. Changing the 2.4GHz channel to limit to 20MHz bandwidth addressed the problem immediately.
Thank you! It was driving me up the wall.