wireless N signal worse than G?

Hello all I just installed recently a new Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 so I could take advantage of my dual band WRT400N router. For some strange reason even though N i supposed to have a bigger wireless range, my signal strength on the G band is maxed, but on the N its only around 2 bars. All my phones are DACT6 so I can't forsee any wireless interference, the router is upstairs and the laptop is downstairs but they arent on oposite sides of the house and again, since N is supposed to have a wider range, you'd think the G would be worse than the N if it were a range issue. I've played around a little bit with the wireless channels but haven't tried all the different permutations, just seeing if anyone here has some thoughts

 

If you are running on the 5Ghz Band it is much weaker than the 2.4Ghz Band and has a harder time traveling through walls/floors.

 

Like he said, 5ghz has less range. If you are using 5 ghz for N traffic and 2.4 ghz for G traffic, you will have better range with the G band. I also have better range on G than N when I had a WNDR3300 which only did N on one band. Now I have a WNDR3700 which does N on both frequencies, so I use 5 ghz when I am in range and 2.4 when I am not.

 

well that bites, good to know though I was unaware that the 5 band was weaker.. Correct me if I'm wrong here, if I go mixed mode on my 2.4 it defaults everything including the N devices to G speeds if I have even one G device on the band correct? I remember reading awhile back that when you mix between different WiFi proticols it automatically sets everything to the lowest comon denominator

 

I heard that too, but my wireless G iPod Touch doesn't effect the speed of my wireless N G73.

 

Never mind.

 

Mixed mode will negotiate the speeds to the lowest device connected. If you're using DD-WRT you can see this directly on the dashboard. People might not see it with devices, but it does happen.

Best bet is to get 2 routers, 1 for N 1 for G.

 

Or a dual-band router. I have N only on 5GHz, and mixed for 2.4GHz.

 

It seems like he has a dual-band with the N Only already on 5Ghz but having signal issues.

My suggestion was run Mixed on 2.4 on one router and N Only on 2.4 on another router so you still get the penetration of 2.4Ghz on both N and Mixed. But yea, other option is to just deal with it on a dual band.

Also, if your router bios allows it, try using different 5Ghz bands and see what happens.

 

yea i've tried different bands and it hasn't helped. Getting a second N router would be pssible, but I don't know how to get router 1 and router 2 to talk to eachother wirelessly. Optimally router 1 the WRT400N would be upstairs and Router 2, maybe a second WRT400N would be downstairs, giving complete coverage in the house, but Router 1 is the one that has the cable modem to it so if I dedicated the 1st router to G and the second router to N, how can I get the second router to pull the internet from the 1st?

 

The wireless routers shouldn't be talking to each other.

If your cable modem has a built-in hub/switch (i.e. multiple ethernet ports) then you can add your second wireless router to one of those ports.

If your cable modem has only one wired ethernet port, then you can daisy-chain the second wireless router (you could also add another wired switch but that's more money) - connect the new router to one of the existing WRT400N's ethernet ports.

Either way, you'll need to set up the second router with a unique IP address and unique SSID(s). If the second router will be providing DHCP service, you'll want to set its DHCP server to provide a unique range of IPs.

 

Having the two hubs talking to each other in a master-slave configuration is called wireless bridging. Most retail routers do not support this feature, however, it is available on 3rd party firmwares, like DD-WRT.

 

Is there no way to do this wirelessly? Running cable from upstairs to downstairs would require either running extensive amounts of cabling or drilling holes, neither of which is optimum.

 

Yes there is, pick up another WRT400 then flash both routers with DD-WRT Firmware. Now I have never done this myself as I have never needed to but using that firmware you can set one of them up as a repeater to expand your signal.

 

DD-WRT is pretty easy to use. We have used it at work when some site had a linksys WAP and we yelled at them, cause they thought they knew what they were doing. In the end, we took the WAP installed a Cisco AP at the site, installed DD-WRT on it, and turned it into a Wi-Fi Bridge, mounted it on a VTC cart, and had it connect to our Cisco APs. Basically it was a roaming VTC cart, that had battery backup, and you didnt need to look for a wall jack to plug it in

 

Cool!