D7000 wireless range

[mickburrell]

I've recently changed to a fibre connection so I've replaced my old DG834Gv4 with a D7000. However, the wireless range of the D7000 is no greater than the DG834G. The D7000 is placed in the same position as the DG834G was. This is not an ideal central location but I cannot easily change that. At the furthest point from the router, the DG834G gave a weak signal which sometimes dropped. In that same room, the D7000 is the same and, strangely(?) the 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks both perform the same. I assumed that if the 5GHz network was flakey the 2.4GHz would be stronger. I'm only judging signal strength using the laptops/tablets we use, not a sophisticated signal strength meter.

I was under the impression that the D7000 would have a better range. Unless this is not the case, is there any way I can improve the performance without the major works needed to improve its siting?

[TheEther · Accepted solution]

I guess I didn't make myself clear. My point was that even if the D7000 is more powerful, and it probably is, the walls in your place may degrade the signal to the extent that the effective range is not any better. Imagine shouting twice as loud. To someone on the other side of a wall, it may sound louder but still be unintelligible.

Having said that, a Netgear employee recently posted that reducing the wireless speed mode in advanced wireless settings will increase the transmit power at the expense of bandwidth. The net effect may result in improved effective range. Experiment with reducing the 2.4 GHz mode from the default setting of Up to 600 Mbps to Up to 289 Mbps. Similarly, reduce the 5 GHz mode from Up to 1300 Mbps to either Up to 600 Mbps or Up to 289 Mbps.

[TheEther]

You didn't provide details of your environment. A big factor in Wi-Fi performance is the composition of the walls.

Here is a table from an old 3Com product guide on wireless antennas that will give you an idea of the effect various building materials have on wireless signals. Keep in mind that the dB is a logarithmic scale. 3 dB represents a 50% power loss. 18 dB is 98.4% loss!

Attenuation Properties of Common Building Materials

Building Material	2.4 GHz Attenuation	5 GHz Attenuation
Solid Wood Door 1.75"	6 dB	10 dB
Hollow Wood Door 1.75"	4 dB	7 dB
Interior Office Door w/Window 1.75"/0.5"	4 dB	6 dB
Steel Fire/Exit Door 1.75"	13 dB	25 dB
Steel Fire/Exit Door 2.5"	19 dB	32 dB
Steel Rollup Door 1.5"	11 dB	19 dB
Brick 3.5"	6 dB	10 dB
Concrete Wall 18"	18 dB	30 dB
Cubical Wall (Fabric) 2.25"	18 dB	30 dB
Exterior Concrete Wall 27"	53 dB	45 dB
Glass Divider 0.5"	12 dB	8 dB
Interior Hollow Wall 4"	5 dB	3 dB
Interior Hollow Wall 6"	9 dB	4 dB
Interior Solid Wall 5"	14 dB	16 dB
Marble 2"	6 dB	10 dB
Bullet-Proof Glass 1"	10 dB	20 dB
Exterior Double Pane Coated Glass 1"	13 dB	20 dB
Exterior Single Pane Window 0.5"	7 dB	6 dB
Interior Office Window 1"	3 dB	6 dB
Safety Glass-Wire 0.25"	3 dB	2 dB
Safety Glass-Wire 1.0"	13 dB	18 dB

In a similar discussion just a few days ago, a poster was surprised to learn the effect of concrete walls on his powerful R8000 router. The table above quantifies the effect. There are many free apps available that can display signal strength (known as RSSI). I personally discovered that the Airport Utility has a Wi-Fi scanner, which is really handy for iPhones and iPads. On Windows, two free apps are Vistumbler and Acrylic Wi-Fi. There are many similar apps available for Android and OSX.

Beyond this, there are other factors, like radio noise from cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwave ovens; congestion from nearby Wi-Fi networks; and the capabilities of the Wi-Fi system in laptops/tablets. Getting good Wi-Fi coverage is hard! Sometimes, physics wins.

If you do happen to live in a concrete box, you may have to deploy either Wi-Fi extenders or Access Points to increase coverage. The ideal scenario is to wire your house with Ethernet and connect Access Points. If that's too much work, a much simpler option is to use Powerline networking. Powerline literally uses the electrical AC wires in your house. Powerline products are available with built-in Wi Access Points. The last option is to use a Wi-Fi range extender. These work by rebroadcasting a Wi-Fi signal. There can be a pretty significant performance penalty (up to 50%) because rebroadcasting uses up precious bandwidth. Some vendors have developed some optimizations, like Netgear's FastLane, but they have limitations.

[mickburrell]

Thank you. That's a lot of information! I do understand that walls degrade the signal but that's not really my point. My point is, should the D7000 have a better range than an old DG834G when placed in the same environment? I expected it to but it doesn't. If the D7000 is no more poweful than the DG834G then my question is answered. If it is more powerful and the position of the D7000 is where the DG834G was, are there any settings I may have missed that is stopping the D7000 broadcasting its full strength signal?

[TheEther · Accepted solution]

I guess I didn't make myself clear. My point was that even if the D7000 is more powerful, and it probably is, the walls in your place may degrade the signal to the extent that the effective range is not any better. Imagine shouting twice as loud. To someone on the other side of a wall, it may sound louder but still be unintelligible.

Having said that, a Netgear employee recently posted that reducing the wireless speed mode in advanced wireless settings will increase the transmit power at the expense of bandwidth. The net effect may result in improved effective range. Experiment with reducing the 2.4 GHz mode from the default setting of Up to 600 Mbps to Up to 289 Mbps. Similarly, reduce the 5 GHz mode from Up to 1300 Mbps to either Up to 600 Mbps or Up to 289 Mbps.

[mickburrell]

Thanks - I'll try that