Archer vr1600v 2.4g

[Nigelcundy]

My archer vr1600v has lost the 2.4g wireless 

I have light bulbs and tv that used the 2.4g and now will not work

No Netflix!

system has been working from install in oct last year

has there been a firmware auto update

if yes can it be down graded

[BasilDV]

Hi @Nigelcundy 

Welcome to TPG Community!

We did not set any auto update firmware within the modem/router that we provide our customers.

If the 2.4GHz wireless network suddenly did not work, you might need to check the settings within the modem interface to make sure that the missing network is Enabled. We have a community article which you can use as a guide on how to change the wireless settings of your modem. You may refer to this link.

If it's still did not work, you may reset the modem/router (VR1600v) and wait for a few minutes as it will reconfigure itself.

Once the issue persists, please let us know.

Kind regards,

BasilDV

[mfeodoroff]

Hi,

I got my NBN running today, and have pretty good performance on wired and 5Ghz WiFi.  Around 46Mbps down and 18Mbps up (50Mb plan). 

I'm getting about half the throughput on 2.4Ghz WiFi on downloads, and slightly better on uploads, even on the same device.

Are there any known issues with this router on the 2.4Ghz frequency?

[Will]

Hi @mfeodoroff,

There's a possibility that the main trouble could be on the 2.4GHz network in the area already and not necessarily on the modem. It could also be just the channel that your devices are communicating on at the moment. You might want to try and change the WIFI channel in the 2.4GHz to check if that will improve the connection speed.

You may refer to this guide on how to change the WIFI channel.

Regards.

[mfeodoroff]

Thanks for replying Will.

My old ASUS DSL-68U didn't exhibit the same behaviour, although I must admit it didn't have the same link speed to the internet (only 10Mb down rather than the 46M I get now).

There's no obvious 2.4Ghz interfering devices (DECT phone is 1.9Ghz, no bluetooth devices in the same room as the router, etc).

When I got the router out of the box, it was set to auto channel hopping but oddly was choosing overlapping channels (eg 9 when I first checked). I've used WiFi Analyser on my phone, checked what any neighbours are using and picked a channel (1) that nobody else is using (at the moment).  Signal from neighbours is very weak as our blocks are fairly large.

If I get some time on the weekend, I might try setting my ASUS router up with the NBN modem and see how it goes (I've read that it's possible).

[Riezl]

Yeah, we can use your ASUS router for comparative testing.

Feel free to message us should you need any assistance. Thank you.

[mfeodoroff]

I have the old router connected via ethernet cable and configured as an Access Point to a new test SSID.

I'll do some testing when the network gets quieter tonight (only getting 20-30Mb down at the moment).

My test plan is:

1. Test vr1600v on 5Ghz (known to be solid) and use as baseline

2. Test  vr1600v on 2.4 Ghz (known to be sub-optimal)

3.  Test Asus on 2.4Ghz (to see if improvements are obvious) on new test SSID

All testing to be from same laptop to rule out device inconsistencies, resource limitations, etc.

I set the router up yesterday and noticed anecdotally that the Asus router performed a lot better than the Archer.

Interestingly, uploads seem to be reasonable...it's just downloads that are poor in comparision to 5Ghz frequency.

[mfeodoroff]

Well,  I tested at 6AM and all three are performing roughly the same, so clearly the issue is related to interference from external sources.

[JovemarL]

@mfeodoroff 

Interference on 2.4GHZ is almost inevitable that's why it perform less compared to 5GHZ that have minimal to no interference.

You can use a 3rd party app that can show you wifi interference such as wifi analyzer to give you a detailed view of the interference on both band and configure you wifi for optimal performance.

[mfeodoroff]

Apps like Wi-Fi Analyser only show Wi-Fi traffic unfortunately as it's not a full spectrum analyser. I've been using it for years :-)  It's good for seeing neighbours networks and picking a different channel (assuming the neighbours don't have channel hopping enabled). 

What it doesn't show is interference in from non-Wi-Fi devices in the 2.4Ghz spectrum, such s DECT phones (mine is 1.9Ghz), Bluetooth (I had fun 'killing' my wife's mouse during testing), Microwave ovens, etc.

I've never really seen a noteable performance difference before, probably because my ADSL 2+ link maxed out at 10Mb down, and less than 1Mb up.