TomatoUSB

I picked up an RT-N16 about two months ago specifically to put Tomato USB on.

When I first got the router, I tried putting TomatoUSB onto it but as I kept having connection issues I decided to leave that for the time being and try out the stock firmware first.

I tested that for a few weeks, didn't experence any major issues but it didn't seem all too stable so I decided to give custom firmware another try. I read all the instructions super carefully this time, but still ended up with the same issues - wireless speeds are horribly slow, unusably slow.

I did some further research, some others with the RT-N16 suggest things like switching from TKIP/AES to just AES, going from auto channel selection to a specific channel (or vice-versa), or using 20MHz instead of 40MHz. I tried all these solutions, and had a small amount of success in that my router can now sometimes report a wireless rate of 150Mbps - it failed to ever go over 65Mbps using the stock settings on TomatoUSB.

But the thing is, I can't leave it on these specific settings and be happy, because it's still fluctuating and going down as low as 5.5Mbps. In fact, it's more often closer to the bottom than it is to the top.

So what do I do? Why is the RT-N16 even listed as officially supported by TomatoUSB? It doesn't seem like I'm the only person with inexplicably slow wireless speeds on this router. I haven't forgotten about static and noise and whatnot, but these fluctuations seem more drastic than that - plus it seem to get better with random settings changes before getting super wonky in a few minutes.

Despite what everyone says I found the stock Asus firmware much better. Sure it would drop my connection one in a while under heavy load, but at least it was always at 150Mbps.

I've been long using Tomato on RT-N16 myself and got one for my brother recently. No issues at all, my wireless is 300 Mbps most of the time (around 12-15 MB transfer speed in real world - better than a standard 100 Mbps network!), the one at brother's place is usually a bit slower, probably because he has like 20 Wi-Fi networks around, a lot of interference.
I would suggest you do a full NVRAM erase after flashing Tomato.

Thanks for the speedy response.

I always do a full NVRAM erase, still have those issues. I do have a bunch of networks around me as I live in a high-rise building, but like I said I took that into account before making this post… the stock firmware does much better in the same exact location, so I'm led to believe the issue is something else.

Can you tell me which exact build of TomatoUSB you are using? If you don't mind sharing your basic wireless settings I'd appreciate that too (not your personal info obviously).

Download inSSIDer and run it to get an idea of what is going on around you as far as wifi signals. http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

Thanks for the input David, I have that program installed and do use it.

But like I said, I don't even have to move the router an inch to get improved results - it's miles better on stock firmware alone so I can't imagine it being the noise and traffic around me that is the problem.

It's weird because no specific set of configurations produces any specific results, as in the speed problems seem to occur randomly as I make any changes to the router setup. For instance the first thing I tried was going from auto channel selection to a specific channel that I selected using inSSIDer and that temporarily gave me 150Mbps but it plummeted again as soon as I made changes and did not recover again just by going back to those settings. So either my router is messed up or TomatoUSB is messed up… obviously it would make sense that I just have a faulty RT-N16, but it doesn't act up like this on stock firmware.

I guess my only hope now is to try DD-WRT and if that fails me too then go back to the Asus firmware. It's a shame since I bought this router specifically for custom firmware, I'd have probably bought a Linksys if I was fine with stock firmware.

Its funny you should say that. I was having the same problem with DD-WRT on my RT-N16. Wireless is faster with stock firmware with mine too. I don't think there's fluctuations though. Its just not as fast as it should be. I was going to Tomato to see if it worked better. Apparently not judging by this thread. I can't get tomato to work at all on mine. There's also OpenWRT. Maybe I'll try that next.

Also having this problem. If anyone has solved it, feel free to post your solution or the firmware you used as an alternative that worked.

Same problem here on a brand new RT-N16. Wireless fluctuates from 150Mbs to 5.5Mbps, up and down. Strange thing is that Windows reports the wireless signal as Excellent while this speed drops. So something is definitely wonky about this.

I experienced this too but after an erase nvram thorough, the drops went away.

I have my wireless settings as follows:

Wireless Mode Access Point
Wireless Network Mode auto
Radio Enabled
SSID home
Security WPA / WPA2 Personal + TKIP / AES
Channel 1 - 2.412 GHz
Channel Width 20 MHz
Interference Level Acceptable
Rate 144 Mbps

Lots of traffic in my area too based on inSSider and these settings have made my wireless stable

HTH

Oh, i just find that it is not just me who got the problem
I bought rt-n16 a few month ago and want to replace my asus 520gu which is also on tomato a long time ago. Then i flash rt16 w/ tomato and got op' s problem: midrise building, a lot of wireless around and my rtn16'swirelessspeed really fluctuate a lot. Now i set my 520 gu as bridge(520gu connected to rtn16 with ethernet cable but only n16 assign ip, not sure if that called bridge or repeater) and only use rtn16 for wire connection.

Btw, in my case ,can i set my 520gu in such a mode that i could use its usb and wire port ? I love to have additional port if that's possible.