R710 Signal Strength

[richard_hosch]

I'm evaluating options for a mesh network for a new home we have under construction. Looking for something a little more enterprise grade than consumer Google, orbi etc. gear.

The ruckus access points in unleashed mode seem to be perfect for what I'm looking for.

I bought one R710 used to setup now and play with to see how I liked it. Flashing to latest unleashed firmware and getting setup was a breeze, but I'm a little disappointed in how robust the signal has been with this one AP operating.

I noticed that connection to mobile devices at the edges of the small house we are in currently kept dropping and reconnecting. A Roku box connected to previous wireless router in the most distant room would not establish connection to the R710.

I had initially powered this with a new 8 port POE+ switch, the BV-Tech POE-SW800G, which can supply 30W per port and a total budget of 130W. The spec sheet I found on the R710 led me to believe with POE+ the tx/rx power was the same as with DC adapter. But just in case, I ordered a 12V 2A DC adapter to make sure this wasn't causing problems. No change.

I downloaded a wifi analyzer app on my phone to confirm what I was seeing. Standing in the same room with the R710 a couple of feet away, I see max signal strength of around -37dBm but usually when I check in that room it is more like -41dBm. Three rooms away, where I've noticed the most problems, the signal is down to around -70dBm. However, my old Asus nighthawk 66-n and even the built in wireless in the xfinity all-in-one router are more like -60dBm when located the same as the R710. Even the HP printer has a stronger signal around the house.

Is there something I may be missing in configuration? Is this expected performance, or is there a chance a used R710 may be damaged in a way that still works but with reduced tx/rx power? The point in purchasing this was to see if I like the setup etc. before buying 4 new ones. But now I'm just not sure.

Open to any suggestions.

[hayward_kong]

I currently recommend rolling back to firmware 200.6.x
Firmware. I know 200.7.x has a bug that affects download speeds but only affects certain RF conditions. It might help you to go to 200.6.x the newest of that series.

200.8.x is being released on Tuesday but that speed issue might be carried over to that firmware since I’m currently working along with ruckus support in tracing the issue down.

Anyway, I haven’t had issues on dropping on 200.6.x firmware ... I know I did has issues on dropping sometimes on the edges and that was probably with 200.7.x .

Try 200.6.x

Note when you reflash to older firmware it will reset the unleashed. You can’t use settings that were backed up on newer fimware on older unleashed.

I’ve had my r710 since nov 2015 and back then I’ve tried the Asus rt-ac68u and the r710 can go through walls really well in my situation. And back then unleashed was not even announced so I used standalone firmware.

Back in 2014 I was trying to help a small school in upgrading their existing WiFi and on the market I was deciding between Unifi AC the square one vs ruckus 7372 which was about the same price at the time but the ruckus was 802,11n . And dam so glad that I went ruckus since the unifi would have be a disaster.

From that point started deploying more ruckus

[hayward_kong]

FYI, this speed bug issue that I mentioned seems to affect mostly 802.11ac wave 2 aps... some reported to affect r500 . The bug doesn’t seem to affect WiFi 6 ruckus aps which there is only currently 2 aps r730 and r750.

Note if you plan to get new ap the r650 will be released soon but when it gets unleashed support don’t know when.

[hayward_kong]

Oh btw , I deployed r610 recently in two client homes each about requiring about 3-4 ap depending on the shape of the home. Homes about 4500 sq feet. Works great but I kept them at 200.6.x

[hayward_kong]

Oh I almost forgot to comment on mesh. Why do mesh especially your new home is under construction? If you want max performance get all the ap’s wired up on the ceiling.