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Forum Discussion
What is the nature of Wirless N and Dual Band?
Hello, I have just purchased a WNDR3700 and I am figuring out how to set it up. I have only had experience with Wireless G and I would like to know more about Wireless N600 and Dual band.
I'm assuming that if a Wireless G device is connected the access point that is running with wireless N clients that the network speed drops back to that of wireless G.
Does using the different SSID's that this router supports allow me to segregate the different standards and keep the wireless network running as fast as possible e.g. on wireless network for A B and G devices and the other for N?
Also, this router supports simultaneous dual band but you have to select one band or the other when you set up an access point (at least that was my impression from the 5 minutes that I had to spend with the device). Does this mean that I have to connect to two separate networks to get the full speed on wireless N600 (I had imagined that this would have been automatically negotiated).
I understand that these are probably newbie questions but any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Raven_Squire
I'm assuming that if a Wireless G device is connected the access point that is running with wireless N clients that the network speed drops back to that of wireless G.
Does using the different SSID's that this router supports allow me to segregate the different standards and keep the wireless network running as fast as possible e.g. on wireless network for A B and G devices and the other for N?
Also, this router supports simultaneous dual band but you have to select one band or the other when you set up an access point (at least that was my impression from the 5 minutes that I had to spend with the device). Does this mean that I have to connect to two separate networks to get the full speed on wireless N600 (I had imagined that this would have been automatically negotiated).
I understand that these are probably newbie questions but any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Raven_Squire
3 Replies
- The router has 4 aerials. 2 for each frequency range (2.4GHz & 5GHz).
You can configure the SSIDs for each identically or differently. Personally I have set them up differently on a DGND3700 and now on a WNDR3800. This allows me to distinguish clearly between the two and since they are both from the same router there is no benefit in using the same SSID for both.
As both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels use different aerials, the speed which they work at is independent of each other. So you could set up the 5GHz to work at 300mbps and the 2.4GHz at 144mbps if you wish.
If you have the means, I would suggest that you set up a simple test. Copy a large file from a NAS drive to a computer with a WiFi n adaptor. See how fast it copies at. Then perform the same test using a WiFi g computer.
Finally repeat the test with both computers copying the file.
I did find that copying files from the USB port on the DGND3700 was never as quick as the NAS and on a similar test with the WNDR3800, the result was also slow. - Gulp -
okay can you take it down a notch ? a little more naive user friendly please ?
In my house - I will have ethernet lines to 2 printers, a GoFlex shareable drive, a Video DECA adaptor that relays a signal from DirecTV to provide ONDEMAND programming (not very good unfortunately) and wireless connections to 2 laptops an IPhone and an IPAD.
Does this constitute a single network ? Or is the idea to have two networks overlapping the house, so that the load can be balanced over two instead of loading up one ? Or is a "band" not a network, but rather something smaller ? CharlieKatz wrote: Gulp -
okay can you take it down a notch ? a little more naive user friendly please ?
In my house - I will have ethernet lines to 2 printers, a GoFlex shareable drive, a Video DECA adaptor that relays a signal from DirecTV to provide ONDEMAND programming (not very good unfortunately) and wireless connections to 2 laptops an IPhone and an IPAD.
Does this constitute a single network ? Or is the idea to have two networks overlapping the house, so that the load can be balanced over two instead of loading up one ? Or is a "band" not a network, but rather something smaller ?
difference is 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. still single network and you can only use either band for wifi devices has support both bands. wifi device will not use both bands at same time at all.
