Decided to pull the trigger last week and replace my old but reliable RT-AC5300 with a new GT-AX11000. While the initial setup was quick and easy and things were up and running quickly, it's not been all smooth since.
A couple things I've noticed this past week:
- Random Wifi drops. Phones, tablets, laptops, etc. have dropped out. Had a notice early this morning that my Google Nest Hub was offline. Watching the screen, I could see it lose connection, display a notice about reconnecting, and then get back to what it should be displaying. That was happening every few minutes it seemed.
- Slower Wifi speeds than my old router. Even with Wifi 6 devices (iPhone 11 Pro Max), I get noticeably slower speeds than I did with the old router.
Regarding the drops, a reboot seemed to clear it up this morning. I think they may have started after I toggled AX support off and on last night. Not sure what happened with some of the other drop outs over the past week though.
With the speeds, I'm at a loss. I have Comcast gigabit internet at home. Over wifi from a phone or tablet, I could usually hit in the range of 575-610 Mbps per the Speedtest.net app or site, or using fast.com. With the new router, I seem capped at 500 Mbps. I'll also sometimes get crazy slow speeds too, like under 20 Mbps. It seems to work itself out eventually, but it's not just 1 device. If I get super slow speeds on my phone, it's slow on the laptops or tablets too. Wired systems can still max out my connection speed.
I've changed a few things: disabled Smart Connect, toggled AX, enabled/disabled 160 MHz, manually specify channels and enable/disable DFS, enable/disable settings in professional settings. Nothing has made much difference really. Not sure where the 500 Mbps ceiling is coming from. I'd hoped that new router + new phone + AX support on both would equal faster speeds, not slower.
Is there something else I'm missing or can try? I've got a couple weeks left to figure it out, but if I'm still getting drop outs and slower speeds, it's going to have to get returned. Not worth spending $400 and getting worse performance.