Need Advice: Dual Band Routers

[The Big Lebowski]

Hey guys what's up. I just got a dual band a/b/g/n/ac router. I got it because my last router was 2.4GHz only, and there's way too many competing networks at my new apartment. It's to the point that a 2.4GHz network is just not going to be an option for me. Now wires are not my style, but I know they're better, so I'm going to accept them for my game consoles. But I do need wireless for my portable devices, so 5GHz looks like my only option for them. If any of that sounds confusing or just plain wrong so far, tell me what. I'm coming here for advice not to show off my (lack of) networking aptitude.

Testmy.net says my 25/5 connection is true to its name when I plug in my laptop at the modem, and when I plug it in at the router. But over wireless? It goes down to an average of maybe 6/2, but it varies wildly and drops the connection frequently. I've tried out two brand new routers now, and I get the same results. InSSIDer reports way too many 2.4GHz frequencies in the neighborhood, so I guess that's gotta be my problem.

Trouble is, most of my devices aren't 5GHz compatible. Nice to figure that one out after I spend $130 on the dual band router. So I have some network upgrading in my near future. One goal is to use the external hard drive I have as a shared drive for my other devices to access media from and make backups to. But my concern is this whole dual band thing.

If I have, say, my smartphones on the 5GHz band/network, my laptops and printer on the 2.4GHz band/network, my Xbox 360 and Wii U wired to the router, and my external hard drive plugged into the router's USB 3.0 port, are they all going to talk to each other and play nice? Or can things on the 2.4GHz band/network only talk to other things on the 2.4GHz band/network, etc.?

Sooner than later I need to upgrade the wireless cards in my laptops, but I wanna know they'll still print and so on if they're not on the same band/network as the printer.

I'm saying band/network because at least with my router you do actually set up separate networks for the two separate bands. You can make them the same SSID and key if you want, or you can make them different. On first impression I think I'd rather make them different, but let me hear your thoughts. My logic is if I can force my 5GHz compatible devices to use only the 5GHz band/network, then they'll get away from all the chatter on the 2.4GHz band in my neighborhood and see improved speed. Confusing? Just plain wrong? Let me know.

Much obliged,
The Dude

 

[L&LD]

You will be able to see all your network no matter which connection a specific device is using as long as they are on the main wireless networks (and not the guest WiFi with 'internet only access' enabled).

Separate ssid's for both bands are recommended: you'll know how you're connecting with each device and can decide properly which to choose.

Keep your 2.4GHz band to 20MHz width for best performance.

You may also want to try these links for more info in getting a better network happening.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=98452&postcount=150

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=101034&postcount=51


Remember to test both bands for which channel is giving you the best throughput (don't rely on inssider - you need to test it yourself).

Also keep in mind that testing with a phone or tablet will not give you the best results - those devices are just too slow (wirelessly) to show true increases in network optimizations.

Use a laptop with the latest stable drivers for the network card and if it is dual band; even better (one system with just the bands being different will show you where you'll get the best outcome you need; range or throughput).

 

[The Big Lebowski]

OK brother, you have my thanks. It sounds like I'm on the right track then. I'm not setting up a guest network. If my guests want to use my network I'll give them full access. So as for the other networks (2.4GHz and 5GHz), if my devices can talk to each other across bands/networks, I'll configure my 2.4GHz network and my 5GHz network with different SSIDs in order to force my 5GHz devices to connect on the 5GHz band/network. I'll make sure to do testing with a laptop instead of a phone etc. I just need to upgrade my laptops' wireless cards first. In the meantime I'll set my 2.4GHz network to 20MHz width, and mess around with some of the other settings you talked about in those other threads. My router is a Buffalo WZR-1750DHP by the way.

Anyway you've set my mind at ease (for now) about the possibility of being able to build a real home network despite a hostile wireless environment. But maybe you can do one better and point me in the right direction for information about setting up my external hard drive as a shared drive on the network.

This is a very common thing to do with home networks, I know. But I've never done it myself. My router has a USB 3.0 port, and my external hard drive (LaCie Rikiki 750GB) is USB 3.0. So I'd like to be able to backup my laptop to it wirelessly, like on a daily or weekly schedule. But my laptop HDD is only about 200GB full, which leaves plenty of room on my Rikiki to store music, photos, and video as well. So I'd like to be able to access/stream media from it to my laptops, smartphones, and Xbox 360. Conversely, I'd like to be able to copy media (especially photos) from my smartphones to the Rikiki. And of course I want direct file explorer access to the Rikiki from my laptops over the network to transfer media files to it and manage files on the drive. I should probably mention my smartphones run Android and my Laptops run Windows 7 and Windows 8.

So maybe some of you guys who've done this a few times can tell me how much of my equipment and concept need to be re-evaluated, and then point me to some further reading and how-to guides for any of my more realistic goals.

Much obliged,
The Dude

 

[stevech]

Backup of large amounts of data via WiFi/Router USB drive will likely be very, very slow, as compared to a NAS or merely plugging the USB drive into the PC.

 

[azazel1024]

So long as you know you'll be living under the limitations of wireless speed access, it sounds fine. I can't speak to your specific router (I missed it, did you mention name/brand?), but most that have a USB port in the last several years also support DLNA. Outside of that, all that I have seen in the last few years support SMB on them, so you should be able to stream media that way (at least to devices that support SMB).

One limitation you may need to look in to is video file size. Weirdly, the media players I have for my TVs stream >4GB files just fine, but they WILL NOT STREAM from my Netgear 3500L. Smaller files work just fine, but anything over 4GB just won't work (and yes, the drive is NTFS formatted). They don't mind streaming off my windows server box at all.

Just thought I'd mention that, as I have no idea if there are any similar issues out there with other routers.

Personal opinion, but I'd leave it up to the individual devices how they connect to the router. I would not make seperate SSIDs, or if you did, I'd leave guests sharing the 2.4GHz band and leave your personal SSID as 2.4/5GHz.

Everything will work just fine that way and best of all, your devices can decide for themselves which band is working best at the time. Windows at least seems pretty intelligent about switching between bands (in my experience) to preserve maximum speed. It isn't instantaneous, but it work very well (generally within a few seconds, about how it manages swaping access points as one gets a better signal/speed on the AP you are roaming toward).

This of course is somewhat dependent on Wifi drivers too (experience here is with Broadcom and Intel Wifi drivers, but both work similiarly in my experience).