Asus RT-AC66U How to get AC?

I just received an Intel 7260 AC wi-fi card as well as an Asus RT-AC66U that I'm currently using in AP (Access Point) mode. The router is currently only 10 feet from the laptop unobstructed and wi-fi status in Windows says 866Mbps. While fast still a far cry from the advertised 1300Mbps.

Also there is no way to set it just to dedicated AC that I can tell. I have another router that I'm fine using for b/g/n and this one for AC only. I was thinking perhaps it would improve bandwidth if it was dedicated AC only.

Any ideas?

edit: D'oh! Just after I posted this I realized that the card's max speed is 866Mbps... gah.

 

So far the main complaint is the lack of drivers from Intel for Operating Systems besides Windows 8.

The Windows 8 only driver was released a month ago but a Windows 7 and Linux driver are still MIA.

Because I dual boot W7 and W8 I had to pull the AC-7260 and put my Killer 1103 back in.

Let's hope Killer(Qualcomm Atheros) and Intel release 3 antenna AC cards soon and Windows 7 drivers.

 

I would love 3 antenna AC cards.

 

So would I, not upgrading my wireless adapters until then.

 

I got my 7260 gratis, so I'm not complaining, I'm just waiting for one that offers full gigabit speeds. 100MB/sec would be awesome, then I could ditch the cable for good.

 

Still, keep in mind that actual transfer speed of wireless routers tends to be somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 of theoretical maximum, while actual transfer speed of ethernet tends to be between 4/5 and 9/10 of maximum. This means that you'd need a maximum wireless speed of at least four times your ethernet speed to get similar real-world performance.

Basically, that means 802.11g has a maximum real-world transfer speed of roughly 2 MB/s, 802.11n can do 20 MB/s (in 4x4:4 configuration), and 802.11ac can handle up to 50 MB/s (also in 4x4:4). Still nothing close to the 100 MB/s of ethernet yet. And if you're talking about the lowest common denominator (how most wireless cards are sold), 802.11n is only going to give you 5 MB/s and 802.11ac will go up to 25 MB/s.

 

@djembe

It's true but still you can easily get close to 10-12MB/s on 802.11n if you pay attention to the hardware and proper configuration and by the same token you will probably easily get above 40MB/s with 802.11ac and while it's still far cry from Gigabit Ethernet it's fast enough for most tasks.

 

True, and those speeds very well may be fast enough for most tasks. I was just making the comment that advertised wifi speeds do not translate into actual speeds nearly as well as advertised ethernet speeds do.

I think the progression of increasing connection speeds in both the wired and wireless realms is good for everyone. As it is now, I can get impatient with even the 100+ MB/s transfer speed over USB 3 when I back up my system.

 

I can usually get around 20mb/s with my Intel 6300 and the Asus RT-AC66U. The settings on the router are important, as well as the firmware. Check out this forum

Also, I'm pretty sure that to get the best AC speeds, you'll want to set you 5ghz band to 80mhz.

I'd love to try out the AC-7260 but I'm not running Win 8 yet. . . I'm looking forward to more drivers!

 

The 7260 is a dual channel meaning maximum 867mbps. so you're limited by your card not the router. the 1750mbps speed advertised on the routers is a combination of AC (1300 max) plus N (450 max). so you would have to have two devices connected one on AC one on N and both devices have to be 3x3 in order to get maximum bandwidth.

Even then you're likely to get only about 50% of the 1750mbps due to overhead from the protocols, error correction etc.

 

I am thinking this is running 450Mbps N because 40MB/sec is closer to what you'd expect from 450Mbps N, 8667AC should get 70-80Mbps. Based on reviews it seems the RT-AC66U is running about 40MB/sec with just N only.

 

No actually it isn't - in reality 802.11n 450mbps gives you real throughput of up to 100 mbps (sometimes a bit more).
If you're expecting 40MB/s from 802.11n you'll be very disappointed.

See here for a comparison graph.
Router Charts - 5 GHz Downlink - SmallNetBuilder

 

You are correct. I just did some testing and even with a 10 ft clear distance to my Asus router, I get 17-18MB/sec with Wi-Fi N. Getting 40-45MB/sec with Wi-fi AC. It will be good to hopefully get a 1300Mbps notebook card sometime in the near future. That would be awesome to get 70-80MB/sec wireless.

But maybe 802.11ad will manage that. But so far I'm loving the 40MB/sec + transfers over wireless. I'm ready to ditch the cable. That will be nice. Except I just went through and replaced my two routers (one router + one AP) with the Asus AC66U and two gigabit switches with D-link DGS switches. I have one of the DGS switches and it runs cool and fast, and no issues. Others get hot and need occasional power cycle.

 

I've been following this thread with interest. Such numbers, Oy vey, my head is spinning.

Isn't 40-45 MB/sec equal to 320-360 Mbps? All my tests reference Mbps, so that is my standard. I have a hard time converting MB/sec, to actual speed tests I run, which are all listed in Mbps.

 

Yes you are correct. Just multiply by 8

That is why I was a bit confused. The card itself was reporting 866Mbps, but it was downloading (real world) at ~ 40MB/sec (or ~ 320Mbps). I know there's some loss due to protocol, intererence, etc, but at 5-10 ft unobstructed it should be at it's peak performance. But 40MB/sec seems to be a solid ceiling for this thing sometimes bumping up to 42-43.

 

When they advertise speeds, keep in mind using their metrics today's typical ethernet port would be 2Gbps. They also add together separate radios on different frequencies, so using the same weasel logic the quad gigabit cards I got off ebay would be 8Gbps. (my switch actually does have a 48Gbps backplane though)

They also list these magical transfer rates without overhead and in a theoretical ideal vacuum inside a faraday cage @ 12 inches apart.

In the real world, take the marketing number, divide it by 10 or so and you will have a realistic scenario.

Meanwhile I've read about some real world uses of 10Gb ethernet getting >97% transfer efficiency.

I still bought a 7260 last week to play with, but not expecting miracles.

 

Home Gigabit wired ethernet I get 120MB/sec. the Asus AC 1750Mbps they advertise is 1300Mbps AC and 450Mbps N.

 

Gigabit ethernet has very little overhead and packet loss though, so it's normal to get close to the link rate compared to wireless. Nature of the beast unfortunately.

 

hey what are your settings? I have the same set up and i dont get any where near 866..

 

I'm not getting near 866, that was my question. I'm getting 40MB/sec ~ 320Mbps, less than half advertised speed of 866.

 

Hardware acceleration, which is not compatible with all features (e.g. IPv6) must be enabled on the RT-ac66 to attain maximum speeds.

Win 7 drivers for the 7260 dual band wireless-N AC: Finally! Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Wi-fi Card for Notebooks | LinksysInfo.org

 

Hardware acceleration refers to NAT and has nothing to do with Wi-Fi connection speed.

 

Seems this router is not so great after all. Getting lag spikes mid-game. Usually running 15-20ms in BF3. Then spikes to 150-250ms for a few seconds then back down for a few minutes then spikes again. I've updated to the latest firmware with same result. inSSIDer indicates no overlapping signals either with strong signal.

 

It's not the router, have you played wireless before? I have the RT-N66U and I had the same problem, I was ready to ditch the router and try another but after some good looking and reading, it's apparently Windows that causes these spikes.. Every time Windows scans for nearby networks(called background scan), you get those lag spikes. I play Counterstrike so I was also very frustrated, but using a background scan disable tool, it fixed my problems completely, no more lag spikes

The program I use is called WLAN optimizer( Home-WLAN Optimizer - Optimize wireless gaming, audio and video streaming... ) just put autoconfig on, background scan off, streaming mode on, and try again

 

LOL Area 51? :thumbsup:

As to the WLAN Op, you can do the same thing manually. I have my "Roaming Aggressiveness" set to zero. Once it locks on to my router, it doesn't stray like a cat in heat.

 

Thanks, will give it a shot.

My older Router was "300 Baud Dialup" and "FBI Surveillance Van #3" (thanks to NBR suggestion )

How do I set this "roaming aggressiveness" to 0? I only have to 1 which is lowest.

 

Am I the only one who uses, and likes, the Intel PROSet WiFi Administrator Tool?

View attachment 100381

It works great in my system. I really appreciate the logging function, and all the rest of the tools. :thumbsup:

Edit: If you are going to download the PROSet Tools, don't use the default installation, use the advanced mode. You need to expand the tool set, and select that to also install.

 

Funny, the Administrator tool goes from 0-4 for Aggressiveness, but in the device settings it goes from 1-5, so 1 is same as 0, so I'll just stick with what I got.

 

Neither one of those things helped. It's still spiking.

Also I no longer have the checkbox option to "connect automatically" to my wi-fi.

edit: I just swapped my wifi card for another 7260 and it seems the issue has been resolved. Will test some more. Perhaps the card is bad. I dunno, seems like stuff like that either works or doesn't.

 

Gah... it seemed pretty stable but then started spiking again. I don't get it while using wired ethernet. So it likely isn't my internet service. It's either 7260 card or wifi part of router. I think I will try an Intel 6300 card and see if the problem persists.

 

Before you do that, update to the latest 16.1.1.3 on the Intel website and see if it fixes your spikes.

 

There's new windows 7 drivers? Cool. I'll try when I get home. Thanks.

Sent from my YP-G70 using Tapatalk 2

 

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