Products > Networking & Wireless

Mediatek based routers have weak Wi-Fi?

(1/13) > >>

argintviu:
I've always preferred wired networks at home, but for the mobile stuff like phones and laptops I've used a budget Wi-Fi router (light usage). The first router (retired but still working) was a small Netis unit, based on Realtek RTL8196C + RTL8188RE and its successor was a QCA9533 based 300 MB TP-Link which has recently gone bad (Wi-Fi dropping randomly). Both of these have been stable and best of all, they had enough range to cover the whole house.

After the TP-Link died, I tried these:
- TP-Link TL-WR840N (MediaTek MT7628N)
- Xiaomi Mi 4C (MediaTek MT7628DAN)
- Xiaomi Mi 4A Gbit (MediaTek MT7621AT)

To my amazement, none of these are able to cover even half the area the others could. I have them set in the same place (upper floor, as high as possible), same settings, highest transmit power, etc.. No major obstacles, at most there's a a timber frame wall with plaster boards and a timber floor. The distance between the router and clients is at most 10-12 meters in any direction. With the old routers, I could get 3 bars signal and ~30 MB/s speeds even outside the house. With the new ones, half the time the devices don't even see the Wi-Fi network.

Did anyone else observe lower radio performance in Mediatek-based routers compared to other brands?

Bryn:
Be fortunate that you didn't have the MT7921, as that's known for very poor performance in terms of WiFi stability and speed, but apparently some routers work well and some don't... and it's all down to inconsistent build quality across all their models. On the plus side though, MediaTek is currently undergoing work to improve its WiFi technology for future products.

amyk:
I've replaced the filter caps in routers that developed erratic connectivity or speeds to fix them. Cheap consumer-grade routers seem to run the DC-DC-converters at their limits and I've found that increasing the capacitance at the output can improve stability.

argintviu:

--- Quote from: Bryn on September 29, 2024, 07:39:14 am ---Be fortunate that you didn't have the MT7921, as that's known for very poor performance in terms of WiFi stability and speed, but apparently some routers work well and some don't...

--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: lspci ---03:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
--- End quote ---

Haha got it in one of the laptops (Lenovo Ideapad 15ACH6). It was a pain a few years back because of bad support in Linux, but now it got better...


--- Quote from: amyk on September 29, 2024, 08:15:41 am ---I've replaced the filter caps in routers that developed erratic connectivity or speeds to fix them. Cheap consumer-grade routers seem to run the DC-DC-converters at their limits and I've found that increasing the capacitance at the output can improve stability.

--- End quote ---

Interesting. The routers I mentioned were new so to be able to return them, I couldn't open / mod them. But I'll try this on the old Qualcomm, maybe it'll help with the disconnects.

It's a shame that Mediatek stuff isn't all that reliable, because it's got good OpenWRT support. That's why I bought the Mi 4C and later the 4A, they had excellent price and being able to run an open source firmware on them was a big plus.

coppice:
I can recommend the TP-Link AX73 for good coverage from personal experience. We've had several ISP provided wifi routers since we moved to our current house. They each gave different but patchy coverage at the extremities of the house. Even two of the same Sagemcom model gave significantly different patchy coverage when in the same spot. I bought an AX-73, to site it in a different part of the house from the ISP's router, to improve coverage. That wasn't necessary. It provides every last corner of the house with fast stable wifi coverage on its own. I finally put it right next to the ISP's router and turned the ISP's wifi off. Its just a VDSL modem now.

One thing to watch when changing wifi boxes is to look at the channels they are using. Some make weird choices when left to select on their own, and choose the area's most congested channels.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page