ASUS DSL ac55u and Firestick incompatibility

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bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#240200 26-Aug-2018 10:33

Hi all,

A friend of mine has an ASUS DSL ac55u connected to ADSL2 from Unlimited Internet. When she plugs her firestick into her TV, the wireless connection drops on both 2.4 and 5Mhz and is unavailable to all other devices. Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Is there a setting on the DSL ac55u that I'm not aware of?

Thanks in advance

Mike

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#2079344 26-Aug-2018 11:07

Define "drops". More likely the ADSL connection is simply saturated.

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2079346 26-Aug-2018 11:22

Hi Spyware,

The WiFi is no longer available. The down speed is about 15Mbps and there is nothing else running at the time the WiFi drops out, so I'm not sure what you mean by 'saturated'.

Without the Firestick connected, everything works perfectly, including the WiFi, but the moment she plugs the Firestick into the TV the WiFi is simply not there. The WiFi light is still saying that it's available, but no device can see the network.

Mike

Spyware

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#2079349 26-Aug-2018 11:36

Upstream bandwidth on ADSL is 1 Mbps, that is where saturation occurs.

Has the Firestick itself been connected to the wifi, if so, is it on 2.4 or 5 GHz??

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2079355 26-Aug-2018 12:08

The firestick works fine on other routers. It normally connects to the 2.4Ghz network

Crowdie

228 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 87

#2079462 26-Aug-2018 19:49

Have you configured the 2.4 GHz channel on your router to 1, 6 or 11? If the FireStick is FCC locked and connected to a 2.4 GHz radio it will only operate correctly if the radio is configured on channel 1, 6 or 11.

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2079465 26-Aug-2018 20:08

Thanks for this, it sounded like a really plausible explanation, given that the Firestick came from the US. But sadly not, still the same problem.

Mike

New World

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qwerty123

147 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#2079471 26-Aug-2018 20:37

What's the firestick generation, 2nd? I bet it's Wifi Direct AP running on firestick causes interference. Run Wifi scanner and see what channel firestick AP uses. Change channel/s on the router to avoid interference.

Crowdie

228 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 87

#2079762 27-Aug-2018 14:45

It is common for consumer grade wireless clients to not support, or not fully support, 802.11 standards. Have you tried:

Disabling MU-MIMO on the 5 GHz radio (if possible).
Disabling beamforming on the 5 GHz radio (if possible).
Setting the 5 GHz radio to channel 36, 40, 44 or 48.
Setting both the 2.4 and 5 GHz to 20 MHz channel widths.

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2080539 29-Aug-2018 07:48

Thank you for your response. We've tried all those ideas, but still no joy. I really can't begin to think what might be wrong. The router works perfectly well until a Firestick is plugged in. I lent my friend my Firestick to try the other evening and it had the same effect. Both Firesticks work perfectly on my setup. I can only assume that it's some obscure setting on the router, but I've looked through all the settings and can't see what it might be (although, to be fair, I don't know what many of them do :) )

qwerty123

147 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#2080550 29-Aug-2018 08:30

Does your firestick remote use wifi or bluetooth? Issues with wifi remotes are quite common, like this. You can try changing channel for 2.4Ghz band on the router to avoid clashing or disable 2.4G band at all.

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2080595 29-Aug-2018 08:45

Many thanks for your response. I believe that the Firestick remote uses Bluetooth to connect, and the WiFi drops out whether or not the Firestick is connected to the 2.4 or 5Ghz network. If it was something to do with Bluetooth or WiFi interference, then surely other BT or WiFi devices would have the same effect on the router?

Mike

Dell

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qwerty123

147 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#2080692 29-Aug-2018 10:56

Bluetooth also operates in 2.4G band and may cause interference with Wifi channels in 2.4G band depending on how powerful BT module. And the problem with Bluetooth is you cannot configure a frequency manually, unlike Wifi. Pairing devices negotiate frequency automatically. Recently I had an issue with Wifi on my laptop when was trying to listen music over UEBoom BT speaker, it was literally knocking 2.4G Wifi connection on the laptop off. I tried to choose another channel on AP less interfering with BT connection between laptop <-> speaker, but other channels were interfering with neighbours' access points operating in 2.4G. So I gave up and ended up with 5Ghz Wifi only.

If firestick's BT module is powerful (and it should be powerful enough to provide at least 10m range for remote) and is quite close to the router then it's quite possible that firestick knocks the router. Just wonder why it affects 5Ghz band as well.

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2080700 29-Aug-2018 11:10

Hey, that's really interesting, thanks. Stand by for a response... :)

bigmikey

18 posts

Geek

#2080740 29-Aug-2018 12:16

OK, so tried switching off the 2.4Ghz network, but still got the same problem. Asus and Unlimited Internet have been less than helpful, so you guys are our last hope :)

qwerty123

147 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#2080772 29-Aug-2018 13:17

I would start with some apps as Wifi Analyzer - measure signal strength of AP before and after plugging in firestick, Bluetooth Signal Meter - measure signal strength of firestick/remote

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