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Resolved - Unstable wifi coverage with Quest 3 on some Router Brands.

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Update January 2024 - full post history below

Hi. Let me try to give a quick TLDR summery.

Since the launch of the Quest 3, numerous users have encountered difficulties with their Wi-Fi connections related to wireless PCVR. A notable bug affects certain mid-range AX and AXE routers, such as TP-Link's AXE75, leading to significant packet losses and varying negotiation rates. Consequently, connection speeds fluctuate between 480 and 1921 Mbps, occasionally reaching 2161 Mbps but rarely achieving the full 2401 Mbps speed.

In contrast, the Quest 2 maintains a stable 1200 Mbps on 5GHz dedicated networks. However, on release, the Quest 3 struggled to reach 720 Mbps, with speed fluctuations occurring every other second.

Meta was promptly notified of this issue on launch day and has been working on resolving it through build updates. Versions v.57 to v.60 have seen a dramatic reduction in negotiation rates, making wireless VR "usable" under certain conditions, particularly when in close proximity to the router and within the line of sight. Nevertheless, users still report random speed reductions to unusable levels (below 740 Mbps), even at close range.

TP-Link has been diligently working on resolving the issue since the initial launch. Unfortunately, their latest update indicates that they couldn't make a breakthrough on their end, and they believe the problem persists on the client side. They've conducted thorough tests with various chipsets, including MTK, BCM, and QCA routers, and it seems these routers are experiencing similar issues. Their focus shifted to Meta software updates, and their most recent test with the Quest3 V60 suggests that while the negotiation rate still varies, the occasional streaming lag seems to have disappeared.

A glance at this threads posts reveals that TP-Link is not the only affected brand; users with Asus and other AX and AXE routers also face similar challenges. The root cause seems to be linked to either Meta or Qualcomm. Users have noted similar issues with the Google Pixel 7, leading to speculation about problems with the XR2 Gen2/Snapdragon 8 Gen2 drivers. So in other words it's in Meta and Qualcomm's hands at the moment.

Please reply to this thread and post your information as per Metas instructions:

"December 14th Update from MetaStoreHelp

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you all know that I heard back from our engineering team. It looks like there might've been some changes with the recent v60 update. I recommend checking your headset to make sure that it is updated to the latest version, and then checking your Wi-Fi connection with your headset. If you're still having trouble after updating your headset, please let me know the below information and I'll pass it along to our engineering team so this can be looked into further.

1. Router make and model.

2. Router firmware.

3. Full Headset version. (59.0.0.##) Go to Settings > System > Software Update"

You can also make a video grab of your issue and send it to Meta over the "report a problem" option in the headset.

For video references on the issue here is a playlist in chronological order

NOTE: If you have a working setup with a different router and not experiencing any issues please post the details on this separate thread: https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/What-Wifi-6e-routers-currently-works-bug-free-with-the-Quest-3/td-p/1101778

Original post October 10th 2023

On my Quest 3 the WIFI signal is hopping from 720 - 864 - 960

But my Quest 2 ti stable at 1200 Mbps

I am sitting 1 m from the Ruter

Is my Quest 3 broken or is this a bug?

Edit FYI: This is a firmware bug with communication between some brand of routers. Please post your info here as a reply. (Se MetaQuestSupports reply)

The team has been made aware and is currently looking into the unstable connection reports.

Meta needs to know:

What version is your headset running? (Full number, i.e. 57.0.0.####)
- Quick Settings > System > Software Update
Which router do you currently have?
Tag MetaStoreHelp

Also.. Remember to send a bug report via Oculus apps or headset...

Here is how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i9Q_h_yeQQ

Edit 2, to be clear:

The issue is not dependent on AirLink or VirtualDesktop. It's a clear communication issue between the Quest 3 and certain routers in Quest build vertion 57. That effects both 5Ghz and 6Ghz. Quest 2 is unaffected.

Here is the issue we are facing demonstrated to TP-link:

https://youtu.be/JFrl9rTJH8E?si=2vBOI6E2PjGvPL_7

If you're r not experiencing any issues please post the details on this seperate thread: https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/What-Wifi-6e-routers-currently-works-bug-free-with-the-Quest-3/td-p/1101778

Edit 3 - Update:

Version 59 showed no improvement. TP-Link has received a unit and are experiencing the same negotiation rate problems. They are investigating the problem.

MetaStoreHelp has stated that they are working on the issue and it will be fixed in a future firmware update. https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Unstable-wifi-covarage-with-Quest-3-on-some-Router-Brands-Known/m-p/1099915#M241197

Edit 4 - Update...
TP-Watched @VirtualOmnipresence 's video and confirmed:

Our Wireless RD found that it might be the case Quest3 are kind Quest3's wireless connection rate strategy is more aggressive in terms of speed reduction. Once it encounters wireless packet loss or interference, it will reduce the negotiation rate on a large scale, thus affecting the actual wireless performance.

In other words, it is actually unnecessarily overly sensitive... especially when interference is basically impossible at 6GHz.

We've tested the Quest3 v57(haven't got v59 yet) so far with almost all our routers from wifi6e to wifi7 with QCA/BCM chipest...

Also thanks a lot for your updates about that article, we will also notice to get the previous quest2 sample to check how it works with our router in old firmware, then upgrade it to newer one for checking.

We will also focus on this issue later quickly if there's new firmware released.

Edit 5 - November 20th 2023

Still no more contact with meta and the silence is deafening.

Though with the new update to v.59 it is actually a lot better on AXE75 for both 5g and 6g. It's fluxing, but not below 1200 in 6g and not below 720 in 5g. Making it... "usable"... if you are relatively close to your router.

Here is my video in my test with v. 59.

We still want to take advantage of the 2401 Mbps so that we are not reliant on no interference and being 2 to 3 meters from the access point.

Any working 6Ghz device connected to a 6 Ghz router, dedicated at close range should output a connection at 2401Mbps. If it doesn't it's simply not working correctly.

So I'm not giving you a pass just yet Meta. 😉

Edit 6 December 8th

A lot of new posts here and in my community on still experiencing this issue making their wireless experience unbearable. The uptick has been noticeable since the release of SteamLink bringing more people over to PC wireless.

I also go a new confirmation from MetaSupport over email:

Meta Store Support following up on your issue.

To clarify, the issue you are experiencing is most likely to be patched up with a new software update. I know how inconvenient this may be for you. We really appreciate your extended patience and utmost understanding regarding this matter. As much as I would like to give you an exact timeline, since this is still a known issue, I'm afraid we are still unable to provide an exact date for it.

This is also for our customers, as we don't want to set you an expectation that is vague. We value transparency here at Meta, and we can assure you that we will quickly contact you as soon as possible once the issue is resolved or workarounds are provided.

We're eager to have this one sorted out for you, so we'll keep an eye on this issue. Looking forward to solve this issue at your earliest convenience so you can proceed enjoying your VR experience.

----

later:

I can confirm that your issue regarding Wi-Fi connection has been coordinated with our engineering team; however, they didn't provide an exact time; maybe they are still figuring out the root cause of the issue. By the way, thank you for the clear explanation of your issue; that helps us a lot.

Edit December 14th Update from MetaStoreHelp

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you all know that I heard back from our engineering team. It looks like there might've been some changes with the recent v60 update. I recommend checking your headset to make sure that it is updated to the latest version, and then checking your Wi-Fi connection with your headset. If you're still having trouble after updating your headset, please let me know the below information and I'll pass it along to our engineering team so this can be looked into further.

Router make and model.
Router firmware.
Full Headset version. (59.0.0.##)
1. Settings > System > Software Update

---

Here is my video on testing version 60

tfosseliAnswer

Inspiring

EDIT May 21th 2024: The bug returned with build v.65. Lets hope its a hiccup.

...

Hey everyone! Build v62 has officially arrived, and I'm pleased to announce that my initial issues have been resolved. The speeds remain rock solid at 2401Mbps, even when I'm in a different room from the router. There was only one brief 5-second disconnect, which was swiftly resolved and did not reoccur during my session.

The issues concerning fluctuating speeds, packet losses, and random negotiation rates have all but disappeared.

However, I'm aware that some of you are still encountering difficulties connecting to the 6G network in general and are experiencing random disconnects. I'm unsure if these issues are related, especially as the problem doesn't seem to be consistent with router brands.

I recommend creating a separate forum thread on the matter so that those affected can voice their concerns and avoid being mixed up with the excitement in this thread.

Thank you to everyone who has engaged in civil discussions and shared their experiences and constructive feedback. And thank you to MetaStoreHelp and TheAntiSocializer for making sure our issues were heard by the Meta engineers.

Edit: if your experiencing micro studders in AirLink follow this thread: https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Quest-3-Airlink-micro-lags-and-stutter-esp-when-moving-head/m-p/1150175/

When a "problems finding 6G Wi-Fi" thread is created, share it here, and I'll add a link to it.

(I can't stay as the OP of a post concerning problems connecting to a 6G network as I am not experiencing that particular problem and can't replicate it.)

Show previous replies

W

Wizzkidy

Participant

Hi,

I am having exactly the same issue. I have a Fritzbox 7530. I have turned off 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi and changed channels but no matter what I do the Wi-Fi disconnects at random times.

If I disconnect the Wi-Fi manually on the headset, then reconnect it. Sometimes it lasts for longer, it's such a random issue. I am obviously only 1 metre away from the router so signal is fine and no other devices experience this issue.

I raised a support case with Meta regarding the issue. Apart from asking me to factory reset the headset (which I have done twice) they instantly said they wanted to replace the unit. I wasn't willing to go through that hassle right now as I assume this is software related?

Can someone shed any light on what the hell is going on? Considering I bought the headset to play online this is just not really possible right now

M

MoleUK

Up and Coming

This issue is currently driving me insane on the QPro. Any news on a fix?

AXE75, with the newest firmware which released a couple weeks back.

L

Lagrik

Participant

I stopped using my Quest 3 because of the wifi issues introduced in v64. Pretty ridiculous

C

Cyda

Up and Coming

I'm getting this exact issue. I've had my quest 2 for ages, never had a single connection issue. Just bought a quest 3 and I'm getting frequent wifi drops. Can't play a single game of Dungeons of Eternity on the quest 3 without getting disconnected, yet my son using my quest 2 has none of these issues connected to the same router. I'm considering returning the quest 3 as this issue makes it kinda unusable.

Edit: Asus AC68U router using latest firmware. No issues on any devices other than the quest 3.

R

Ruined

Inspiring

SO, I see this thread is still going. Here is the bottom line:

The Quest 3 is not the Quest 2. The Quest 3 has far more stuff packed into an area 1/3 the size of the Quest 2. It appears this dense packing of electronics resulted in the wifi receiver not getting a clean, strong, signal - which can lead to all the issues some people are having.

If you have been experiencing this issue since Quest 3 launch, you will likely continue to experience it for the life of the device if you make no other hardware changes. I do not experience it personally.

You can resolve the issue by buying one of the known good routers that have very powerful signal strength and very fast processors. The reason these routers solve the problem is that the powerful signal is better able to reach the wifi receiver buried in the Quest 3, and if there are errors in the transmission the powerful processor is better able to correct them without introducing more latency.

C

Cyda

Up and Coming

Ruined wrote:
reason these routers solve the problem is that the powerful signal is better able to reach the wifi receiver buried in the Quest 3

My quest 3 is 6 foot from the 5ghz router, I find your explanation hard to believe.

R

Ruined

Inspiring

Its not at all hard to believe with people reporting that their quest 3 cannot even *detect* their 6ghz network when 5 feet away. It is clear that the wifi receiver in the Quest 3 is getting an extremely weak signal even when in the same room as the router.

M

Munkiemagik

Participant

Went a slightly different route and decided to build a router with openwrt on an x86 platform with 4x2.5GbE ports and Wifi 6E 6GHz built in.

Quest3 on v66 firmware (I forget the exact version number but latest available to me as of today 10 Jun 2024

Router - Self Build - OpenWRT ; This is running on bare metal currently and not virtualised in proxmox etc.

HP Prodesk 600 G4 SFF PC (intel i5 8500 hex core CPU & 8GB DDR4 Ram)

OpenWrt 23.05.3 r23809-234f1a2efa

4 port Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE PCIE Network card

firmware and driver:

r8169-firmware 20230804-1

kmod-r8169 5.15.150-1

AsiaRF Mediatek MT7916 PCIE Access Point M2 E Key module for 6GHz radio

firmware and driver

kmod-mt7915e 5.15.150+2023-09-11-f1e1e67d-1

kmod-mt7916-firmware 5.15.150+2023-09-11-f1e1e67d-1

Using vendor suggested antennae x3 for 6GHZ radio. There is no issue with Tx power

Every device that I connect to this router via the 6GHz band is blazing fast and has no issue.

BUT the Quest 3 is severely crippled as can be seen below in the images attached of OpenSpeedTest LAN throughput testing I did.

A

Airesione

New Participant

Do you see any random disconnects or are you just seeing the throughput issues? I’m on a Ubiquiti 6 Enterprise AP and had perfect performance before V64 on 6ghz, but ever since I updated to V64 it just doesn’t stay associated to any 6ghz SSID for more than 10 minutes or so, sometimes disconnecting after only a few seconds. This seems to be an issue currently with Ubiquiti APs and the Quest 3, although others here have had a similar issue with different APs.

At the same time, speedtests (even over lan like yours) are inconsistent now after V64. While it’s connected to 6E, sometimes it will pull the full 940mpbs (which is about as fast as it can go as I don’t have mGig switches), but sometimes it’ll just crater down to 450-500mbps like what you’re seeing. It just varies over multiple back to back tests. None of my other devices do this.

I updated to the V67 PTC on my Quest 3 but it still has the same issues with 6ghz from by Ubiquiti. Very frustrating because I live in multi family housing with a ton of 5ghz interference where I see many issues, and have moved entirely over to 6ghz to avoid this.

L

Lagrik

Participant

This is exactly my issue. I have a Unifi 7 AP and before v64, no problems. My Quest 3 stayed connected to 6ghz no problems. Then I updated to v64 and I kept seeing it initially connect to 6ghz but then it would show 5ghz after 15 seconds or so. So I tried creating a 6ghz only SSID and tried connecting to that and noticed my headset would constantly disconnect from wireless. Still having this same problem unfortunately.

M

Munkiemagik

Participant

AiresioneThats gutting to hear. I feel your annoyoance! Thats exactly why I was so fixated on getting a 6GHZ network in my home as well, as there is too much going on in the 5GHz band in my neighbourhood.

I dont seem to be seeing any disconnects from the MT7916 6GHz AP on my Q3, but it is exactly as you've experienced. Sometimes randomly I will get full throughput (can be triggered by connecting to a different AP at 5GHz and then switching back to the MT7916 6GHz, but not always)

BUT even though speedtest randomly shows good throughput at those times, with Automobilista 2 120fps Virtual Desktop H264+ 500mbps it stutters much worse than with my old Asus AX58u on 5GHz 160 wide. After a reboot though it will tank again, back to the throttled throughput rates.

But the most horrifying news youve delivered is that Ubiquiti and Q3 arent good friends either! I'm literally waiting for my U7 Pro to be delivered in the next few hours, looooool. Well that was a waste of a purchase. Thanks Meta 👎

Why it works well on some devices but not others is the question Ive been trying to find an aswer to but failing miserably in that regard. Im on so many forums trying to get some further insight openwrt/proxmox/bananapi/snb/reddit all coming up blank so far

M

Munkiemagik

Participant

Lagrik Airesione

Something to try on your Ubiquiti AP's:

With the MT7916 AP I found some devices to be really flaky when trying to connect to the 6GHz band so I read in (I think it was the bananapi forum about enabling the 2.4GHz radio as well) I gave it a different SSID and password and no client is connected to the 2.4GHz but that seems to have made a difference to the other devices being able to connect to the 6GHz band.

Some unifi users found turning off IPv6 fixed their issue, maybe worth a shot for you guys?

A

Airesione

New Participant

Munkiemagik

I’m not running a Unifi Security gateway, just an AP. My router/firewall is pfsense, with IPv6 disabled. Curiously, the quest 3 will always show an IPv6 address when connected regardless, even if DHCPv6 and IPv6 is definitely disabled on my router.

I’ve actually heard even worse issues with the U7-pro, where the MQ3 doesn’t even connect properly to 5ghz. Unifi has pushed out a ton of software updates for the U7-pro recently so maybe that has improved. There hasn’t been any updates to the U6-enterprise in a few months as they’re focusing on fixing U7-pro issues.

I can try enabling 2.4ghz on an ssid, but from my understanding that was fixing an issue where devices were unable to see the advertised ssid at all. My MQ3 and other devices have no issues seeing the 5ghz and 6ghz ssids, it just can’t stay connected to them. I’m having the same issue as Lagrik where if it’s a pure 6ghz ssid it just disconnects randomly somewhere between instantly and 10 minutes or so. If I make the SSID support 5ghz and 6ghz, the MQ3 will almost immediately just hop over to 5GHz from 6Ghz.

Also unfortunately I’m not seeing great 5ghz wifi performance either with my U6-enterprise. I only run it at 80mhz because I have too many DFS events in my area, but even then my other wifi 6 devices average around 600mbps over 5ghz while the quest bounces between 350 and 400mbps maximum over the same 5ghz connection, even when right next to the AP with full signal. I have a second Ruckus AP which is only WiFi 5 and I’m seeing about the same speeds there, a far cry from the 920mbps+ I was seeing on my U6-enterprise 6ghz before I installed V64.

I

IRefuseToLose

Participant

this driving me crazy! I purchased Quest 3 especially to play PCVR wireless so i bought 2400mbps router with it and every time i move my head i get stuttering. The only setting that gets rid of stuttering was at 72fps. Even 80Hz creates a significant stuttering.

I tried to play directly through SteamVr software without installing anything from Oculus.

I blamed Steam at first but then i tried to play wireless.

I installed Oculus software to play by wire and manage to play Half-Life: Alyx at 90fps and dynamic resolution with no lags at all!

I started to blame my router so i bought more expensive model. At my despair, it did not fix anything! Then i kinda pushed to all in, and bought 250$ router because i did not know what else could be a problem. IT STILL JUST THE SAME as with previous two routers!

I thought that my item was defected but i can finally see that a lot of users have this problem.

My current PCVR experience is a dog**bleep**! I really love My Quest 3 but i can not enjoy what i bought it for. Please fix this issue, i did not want to sit with wire while i bought it to play wirelessly with a good router.

Routers that i tried: TPLink archer ax53, Asus ax57, Asus ax86u. I tried every possible combination of settings ac/ax, 80/160Hz, channel number but it wont matter! It is definitely not a router problem!

I have latest version on my headset and Oculus PC Software.