Author Topic: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power  (Read 52131 times)

BlueBull

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WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« on: April 11, 2011, 08:35:38 AM »

Recently purchased the WZR-HP-AG300H.  I am running the stock dd-wrt that was on the device: DD-WRT v24SP2-MULTI (12/17/10) std (SVN revision 15940).  on the 2.4ghz radio The transmit power is set to 20dbm (100mw).  The issue is that the AG300H is reducing tx power to somewhere between 10 and 16 dbm which is shown on  the Sys-info tab and is evident by the reduction of coverage in my house.  Is there any way to get tx power to stay at what it is set?


KingJL

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2011, 10:30:39 AM »

This is a common situation with all of the dd-wrt builds for the Atheros based Buffalo HP units.  This was reported for the other models 6 months ago.  Buffalo claims that they are working with DD-WRT on this issue.  But, I follow the DD-WRT 'Timeline' (list of all tickets and change sets), and I have seen no activity addressing this issue.  It appears as if the DD-WRT is defaulting to the "World" regulatory domain and ignoring the "FCC" regulatory domain setting (supposedly set with the US country code setting).  This is either a problem with the DD-WRT Atheros drivers or the Buffalo "Board/Radio Configuration/Calibration".  It would be nice to see some progress on this issue.  It is being ignored by DD-WRT and needs some Buffalo attention.  It is a shame, these Buffalo's have so much potential!


buddee

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2011, 05:08:24 PM »

Nope, no way to get it to stay at 20dBm, and the best i could ever get an AR7161 with dd-wrt to transmit at was 17dBm. As KingJL mentioned, but i will go ahead and clarify, the madwifi driver that dd-wrt uses doesn't seem to let you control the Tx power settings, it will say it does, like if you go into advanced wireless settings and bump it up to say 21, then apply that, then look in wireless>status, it will say its at 21, but its not really, if you measure your signal with something like inSSIDer, it won't show any increase and it should. And i don't see that being solved anytime soon, the ath9k driver is still to new and under-developed, so no implementation at this time or like i said, anytime soon.

 

Believe me, i know your frustration in this matter, because i have a WZR-HP-G300NH, according to reports and stats, its max dBm is supposed to be @ 26-28, i never see anything near that with dd-wrt, i can with stock firmware, just not dd-wrt, but the way i have my setup, i prefer to use dd-wrt, because its more feature filled.


BlueBull

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2011, 12:56:49 PM »

I was hoping with the AG300H that some of the issues might have been corrected from the prior 300 series routers.  As far as i can tell any field that can flucuate on the status page is far from accurate.  What is more rediculous is the TX power isnt even accurate for what is occuring.  The router appears to be selectively choosing how much bandwidth to provide based on amount of traffic requested/sent for more that 1 minute.  See below.

 

this is what i got from buffalo support:

Log into the router and go to " Wireless " and than underneath it " Basic Settings " under there you can go to Channel Width and change that to Turbo 40 MHZ. Also you can try changing the wireless channel to something the will get you less interference from other wireless devices in the area. If you have any other problems please contact our tech support for furhter assistance.

 

and my reply...

 

  I moved the settings to turbo under NG-mixed.  I have also used both auto and manual channel selection.  My neighbors are far enough away that I can occasionally see them at -90 to -80 db.  I have actually gone so far as to turn all wireless equipment (excluding laptop/wifi analyzer) and the power breakers in the house off except the office.  I have tried every possible combination of antenna chains, antenna gain, Ack timer, and TX power.   I have exhausted a number of wifi and dd-wrt forums.  The best the router can display for 2.4 ghz is 13dBm power with a rate of 130Mb/s an a -2db signal fluctuation.  This is constant regardless of idle or active traffic.

 

  I have included some basic examples of what I am seeing below.  It almost appears as if some adaptive radio management or power save feature is in place.  Only after trying to pass a decent amount of data (streaming, large file xfer, multiple web pages) for at least 1 minute does the router seem to boost the radio signal to provide more that 5 Mb/s.

 

  I really do like the router features and dd-wrt, but I need a router that performs better than the 9 year old router it is replacing.  Any other advice is definitely welcome.  I have about another week before the time I can return the router runs up.
  Here is what I notice reported by the router and the wifi analyzer laptop:
signal strength: 
AG300H never above 66%.  Farthest point is as low as 8%
Laptop: 100% for most locations.  Farthest point is 25% or more
Idle Bandwidth (by distance):
3 meters: router: 1 - 19 Mb/s.  Laptop: 5 - 19Mb/s
10-15 meters (through walls): router: 1 - 5 Mb/s.  Laptop 1 - 5 Mb/s
Active Bandwidth (active trying to pass significant amounts of data for more that 1 minute):
after more than a minute....
3 meters: router: 54 - 65 Mb/s.  Laptop: 54 - 65Mb/s
10-15 meters (through walls): router: 18 - 52 Mb/s.  Laptop 18 - 58 Mb/s

 


buddee

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #4 on: April 13, 2011, 07:01:24 PM »

Hrm well, with that unit, what was the default antenna chains set to? IIRC, its a 2x2 MIMO setup on the WZR-HP-AG300H, so it probably should be set at 1+2 | 1+2 And also, for your wireless security, are you using WPA2 with AES?


BlueBull

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #5 on: April 13, 2011, 09:56:24 PM »

Yeah it came with 1+2/1+2.  After all of the combo trial and error 1+2/1+3 gives the most stable highest signal of them all.  I am using WPA2 Personal (not mixed) with AES only


squirrelly

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2011, 12:02:40 PM »

Can this be resolved by using a dd-wrt build instead of dd-wrt/buffalo?   I just bought one too because I liked the power of the whr-hp-g54 I have owned and what's the point if its not HP. 

 

As a side note, I have a Cisco E3000 which I thought that the WZR-HP-AG300H would be superior to and so far, I am not impressed. 


glenb7

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2011, 01:46:07 PM »

try openwrt from a snapshot/trunk build. i get 501mw power. 27dbm power. i am in us.  wireless has good coverage and is stable, much more so than my asus rt-n16 using tomato. 


BlueBull

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2011, 05:31:51 PM »

I looked at the openwrt builds in that line, but only saw the G300, not the AG300


squirrelly

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2011, 12:03:11 PM »

It's here: ftp://dd-wrt/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/2011/04-09-11-r16785/buffalo_wzr-hp-ag300h

 

here are the instructions from Dave:

 

From: 
To:
Posted:Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:02 pm
Subject:Re: WZR-HP-AG300HQuote message
Hey ya sorry for the multi posts. I'm going to repost my info to you but I'll add in a couple lines to try and increase clarity. Let me know. It was VERY easy to do this, just make sure your computer has nothing else running when you actually start flashing the router...

1. Search and enter the "BRAINSLAYER build 16785" thread in the DDWRT Forum. Find the link inside the first post which brings you to the downloads section.

2. Find Buffalo, then find WZR-HP-AG300H, then you should HOPEFULLY be seeing two files with similar names.

3. Download the "wzr-hp-ag300h-dd-wrt-webupgrade-MULTI.bin" file to your computer...MAKE SURE you got the correct one and that it is build 16785.

4. hook up LAN-ethernet cable to your computer and router, make sure to shut off ALL other connections... that means kill your laptop wireless probably

5. Open internet explorer (not firefox or anything else)

6. login to router at 192.168.11.1 using whatever username and password you've created

7. go to Admin tab, go to Default Settings tab, reset router to factory default and give it a couple mins. After about 5 minutes of sitting there, the router will have been reset to complete factory settings. Refresh the internet page.

6. log back into router once it reboots (it will have the stock username/password again)

7. navigate to "Administration" tab in router, go into "Upgrade Firmware" tab

8. select "reset after upgrade" option, then click "browse" and find your "webupgrade" file on your computer

9. Hit "upgrade" button, DON'T TOUCH A THING for about 5 mins or unless it explicitly tells you to proceed somehow


10. once rebooted, go back into router (using IE), login to your NEW firmware which is now address 192.168.1.1!

11. I did another "Restore to Factory Default" at this point (refer back to step 7 for "fact reset").

12. Refresh internet page, login again to that permanent address of 192.168.1.1 (default username/password will exist). Change your router settings as you wish. YOU ARE DONE.

13. Disconnect LAN-ethernet cable and check if the wireless is working now.

I really think there is no way to screw up the above instructions. Just chill out and things should work great. Good luck, Patrick.

NOTE: KingJL and myself report the 5GHz LED indicator light does NOT function on router, but the radios are working perfectly fine (max 19dB output for me).

Dave

 

 


silverhand

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2011, 11:19:48 AM »

OpenWRT isn't the same as DD-WRT.

 

As far as I know, the only firmware available is the Buffalo firmware that comes with the unit and the Community editions published by DD-WRT.  The latest version by DD-WRT was published on May 8, IIRC.  I've not tried it yet, as I like people to try it before I do. :robotvery-happy:


KingJL

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #11 on: May 12, 2011, 01:57:35 PM »

Brainslayer has repeatedly said that dd-wrt does not limit the transmit power, but that it is limited by the chipset/hardware.   Further he has indicated that anyone in tech support who disagrees is wrong.  See ticket 2047 at the following link (read all comments)

 

http://svn.dd-wrt.com:8000/ticket/2047

 

I have located the FCC report filed by Buffalo, Inc. for the WZR-HP-AG300H.  Page 7, Section 3.1 describe the unit under test as having a TX power of 935.7 mW (29.7 dBm) for 2.4 GHz and 915.1 mW (29.6 dBm) for 5.0 GHz..  The full report can be obtaines at:

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=1436494

 

NOTE: It appears that you cannot go directly to the above link without going through the FCC system.  Instead follow these instructions:

go to https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/Generi?cSearch.cfm

Grantee Code = FDI

Product Code = -09101889-0

go to bottom of page and click on "Start Search"

there will be three entries displayed, click on "Detail" of the second entry (2.4 GHz)

there will be a list of attachments displayed, click on "Test Report - 5C"

the Test Report PDF will be displayed

 

 

If this issue is ever to be resolved, Buffalo Inc needs to get involved.  Regardless of the previous statements that Buffalo Inc. and DD-WRT are working on the issue, if the owner/developer of DD-WRT (brainslayer) belives that it is the hardware and not DD-WRT that is the issue, IT WILL NEVER BE FIXED! 

 

Tech support, will you please get involved in this.  It is obvious that this unit (as well as other Buffalo HP units) are being limeted by DD-WRT.  I would think that from a marketing veiw alone, it would be worthwhile to address and correct this problem!  Since embracing DD-WRT on it's products, Buffalo Inc. products are now being judged by the performance of dd-wrt!

 


John_M

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #12 on: May 12, 2011, 03:00:31 PM »

This note from Ubiquiti makes me think it is an inherent madwifi driver problem and Ubiquiti gets around it by building in a hardware power offset into their Atheros based cards...

 

http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/SRXR_power_offset.pdf


KingJL

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2011, 07:53:01 AM »

What is it going to take to get a response from Buffalo Inc. about this issue?  Maybe a class action lawsuit for false advertising will help... a HP router that was reported to the FCC as having >29 dBm TX Power, but shipped to the customer running Buffalo branded DD-WRT that will not provide greater than 20 dBm TX Power!


twvacek

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Re: WZR-HP-AG300H Transmit power
« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2011, 08:01:24 PM »

I had to figure out how to make a tftp-upgradable firmware out of the dd-wrt web-upgrade firmware, and I wanted to share what works in case someone else finds himself in my predicament.   Basically, I took the first 32 bytes from the openwrt WZR-HP-G301NH tftp firmware and appended all but the first 28 bytes of wzr-hp-ag300h-dd-wrt-webupgrade-MULTI.bin from dd-wrt.  Here is a hex dump of the result:

 

0000000: 2320 4169 7273 7461 7469 6f6e 2050 7562  # Airstation Pub
0000010: 6c69 6320 466d 7431 0000 0000 0000 0000  lic Fmt1........
0000020: 2705 1956 c4f2 c250 4dc5 f8bc 000e f3f8  '..V...PM.......
0000030: 8000 2000 8000 6150 1aa7 5e5d 0505 0203  .. ...aP..^]....
0000040: 4d49 5053 204c 696e 7578 204b 6572 6e65  MIPS Linux Kerne
0000050: 6c20 496d 6167 6500 0000 0000 0000 0000  l Image.........
0000060: 6d00 0080 0004 c72a 0000 0000 0000 03ff  m......*........
0000070: ff05 4007 f186 7f28 2c6d 6c36 cadc ea46  ..@....(,ml6...F

 

This flashes successfully via tftp.  On all devices, the bootloader listens for HW address 02:aa:bb:cc:dd:20 with IP 192.168.11.1, so set that with "arp -s 192.168.11.1 02:aa:bb:cc:dd:20".  Also, the bootloader does not respond to pings.

 

Maybe this will goad Buffalo into releasing tftp-able images.