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Any benefit to disabling legacy 11a/11b?

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Nerva

Occasional Visitor
I'm looking at the settings on my new router, and noticing that I can choose the modes it supports, such as b/g/n vs just g/n, and a/n/ac vs just n/ac. Since my laptop, phone, printer, TV, etc. all support the newer standards and don't need 11a or 11b, I'm wondering if there's any benefit to disabling support for the older stuff on my router -- perhaps the backwards compatibility incurs some unnecessary overhead, for example?
 
You would limit your susceptibility to unknown devices being able to connect to your WiFi, but you also would be responsible to remember this setting when troubleshooting any connection troubles for an older device added to your network at a later date.
 
I'm looking at the settings on my new router, and noticing that I can choose the modes it supports, such as b/g/n vs just g/n, and a/n/ac vs just n/ac. Since my laptop, phone, printer, TV, etc. all support the newer standards and don't need 11a or 11b, I'm wondering if there's any benefit to disabling support for the older stuff on my router
Yes.
... perhaps the backwards compatibility incurs some unnecessary overhead, for example
Exactly. (There are timing compromises and compatibility broadcasts that come into play for backwards compatibility.)
 
I thought I read somewhere a while back that the auto setting was the way to go. I wonder if on auto it would run an ac only mode if there were only ac clients????
 
I thought I read somewhere a while back that the auto setting was the way to go. I wonder if on auto it would run an ac only mode if there were only ac clients????
Probably ... until I walked by with my ancient HTC EVO android?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the HTC EVO mention. Reminded me of that animated video years ago about the guy trying to buy the iPhone 4 because it has the wifi's and the bigger gb's. Funny video.
 
Keep the legacy stuff turned on actually - it's not just your WLAN, but neighbors that might have legacy gear still running...
 

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