WiFi users cannot access internet / Slow WiFi (USG40W)

Zyxel_Stanley

This should not coming from the hardware issue.

As you mentioned the WiFi signal is around -28~-46db in 3 meters. This is a reasonable signal strength

Currently USG40W only supports 2.4G band. This band is easy to be interfered by external wireless signals. it is a sort of wifi signal limitation.

To enhance the USG40W signal strength and coverage. You can install the additional managed AP in your environment. The USG40W supports AP management function ( can manage 2 Aps for free by default), moreover, the external can support 5G band as well.

You can find the support AP list in datasheet(Page.10): ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/USG60/datasheet/USG60_15.pdf

Zyxel_Stanley

Hi @Horia

The 4.32 firmware had fixed some WiFi issues.

You may upgrade to latest version and check it if the symptom still exists.

Horia

Thank you, @Zyxel_Stanley !
I will try the firmware. If it goes wrong, can I still downgrade to the old software? (4.25)
With the APs, we want to stay in a small budget. So I found the AP called NWA5301-NJ or NWA5121-N, which would fit our budget.

Question: can these APs use normal power from a plug, or is it mandatory to use PoE (which we have not available in the house) ? I could not understand this from the documentation.

If, alternatively, I simply buy any AP i find to fit my budget and situation, and I connect it via LAN to the USG40, will it work? (by providing through it a separate, aditional wifi network in its area, with a separate SSID)

regards,
Horia

Zyxel_Stanley

Hi @Horia

If you would like to downgrade to 4.25 firmware, you can backup startup-config before you upgrade to 4.32 And apply config after you downgrade 4.25.

NWA-5121-N has normal power plug. But this model has only support for 2.4band.

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/802-11ac-and-11n-Unified-Access-Point-NWA5120-Series/specification

NWA-53010NJ only support for PoE.

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/802-11n-Wall-Plate-Unified-Access-Point-NWA5301-NJ/specification

Please note that both models you listed supports 2.4G band but no 5G band.

You can consider to NWA5123-AC. And this model has support for 2.4G/5G band.

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/802-11ac-and-11n-Unified-Access-Point-NWA5120-Series/specification

Of cause you can connect others AP in LAN interface of USG.

 

Horia

@Zyxel_Stanley
Thank you for your detailed reply!

Yes, I observed that the cheaper zyxel APs do not have 5Ghz bands, but I prefer to buy two of them, as they are only about 30€ each, and to put them on two different levels of the house, so I have in the end three radio senders for wifi (the main one, from the USG40W and two additional ones).

We do NOT have a lot of interference in my opinion, as the other wifi senders are far away. In Vienna, when you live in an apartment block, you have at least 10 other wifi senders which are at only about 5-10db difference to yours. And you still have a good wifi connection, without trouble.

As we are here in a house, the senders are much more far away, so we have a difference of 50db between our wifi and the other ones.
So if cheap wifi senders work well (in apartment houses, things like "Thompson" routers with wifi function that you get gratis from the profider) then an expensive Zyxel (400€) should work like a charm, and not be much slower than the cheap wifi senders!

Even in this house, we had previously only a cheap standard wifi router, and we never had any problems with the wifi connection. Now that we bought a professional one, we only have trouble with the wifi...  I hope we wil solve it with the update!

Horia

@Zyxel_Stanley
I upgraded to firmware 4.32 (by first upgrading to 4.30 as the PDF documentation of the 4.32 version was asking me to do).
Now the wifi is working practically with equal speed as the LAN (download speeds both over LAN and wifi are equal, around 15 Mbps, which is almost the local speed of the provider - 16 Mbps).
When I ping the router via the wifi, it still has some slow connection moments, but it generally went down from a medium time of over 100ms to a medium time of about 20-30ms. The timeouts disappeared, also the moments when the ping returns long times are much more seldom. The long pings are now mostly between 20-70ms, before the firmware update they were around 60-100ms (and went up to 1000ms, and also lost packages).

attention! for other users:
when doing the firmware update, you need to be directly connected via LAN cable to the USG. If you are connected, say, over a switch or over any kind of longer LAN network (let's say in an office, etc.), then the update will work, but you will not be able to do the final step - to reconnect to the USG after the update. In such a case, you will need to go to the USG and connect your laptop directly to it (with a lan cable) in order to login again. At the first login, you will see some kind of "EULA" (user agreement), which you have to accept, and only after that, you will be able to login and see the usual interface of the USG.
This is something nowhere described, and it took some time to me to understand what's happening.

Generally, it's a pity that the user manuals and instructions for the zyxel are not quite user-friendly, and lack explanations for certain cases that can happen to you.
Even the way you have to make the firmware update is not 100% clearly described, you have to guess around a bit. The firmware does more than what it is explained in the user documentation.