Help me understand dual channel wireless...

[millercentral]

Up until recently I had been keeping the SSID of both my 2.4ghz and 5ghz network the same on my AC66U, thinking that was the best way to enable "dual channel" wireless networking.

However some of our devices (iPads in particular) were having regular connectivity issues, and upon reading more here I learned its better to separate the SSIDs for each radio. So now this is how I'm configured:

2.4Ghz:
- SSID: Wireless
- Wireless Mode: Auto (b/g protection checked)
- Channel Bandwidth: 20 MHz
- Control Channel: 11 (least occupied according to inSSIDer)

5Ghz:
- SSID: Wireless 5Ghz
- Wireless Mode: N + AC
- Channel Bandwidth: 40 MHz
- Control Channel: 40 (the wireless status indicator in the upper right lists it as Channels "38 + 40")
- Extension Channel: Auto

So my questions comes down to this: For 802.11n devices that support both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz radios (iPad, my laptops, etc), should I be selecting the "Wireless" SSID or the "Wireless 5Ghz" one in order to get the best performance? I though there were options for Wifi to use both radios simultaneously, if so, how does that work?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[r00t4rd3d]

Your SSIDs should be named different. You cant use the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands at once on a single device, well technically you can with 2 adapters but it wont double your speed like you are thinking.

5Ghz band is faster but doesnt have much range. 2.4Ghz is slower but has more range. Which band you choose depends on the devices location and the intended function of the device. Normal PC's, mobile devices, etc normally should go on the 2.4Ghz band. Gaming PC's, servers, network storage, streaming devices and things that require fast speeds should be on 5Ghz.

A few more things to add. You should keep your Wireless Mode set to Auto unless you have problems. On your 2.4 band I see you have b/g protection enabled, do you have old devices with only b or g adapters in them? If so I would get rid of them or update their wireless adapters. Your wireless speed for all devices is limited to the slowest device on your network. So lets say you have 1 old wireless g device on your 2.4 band, every device that connects to that band will be limited to the speed of wireless g, 54Mbs, even if they are wireless N or AC capable. This is another consideration to make when choosing what devices goes on what band. Pile the old and slow devices on 2.4Ghz and the new and shiny on 5Ghz.

 

[millercentral]

On your 2.4 band I see you have b/g protection enabled, do you have old devices with only b or g adapters in them? If so I would get rid of them or update their wireless adapters. Your wireless speed for all devices is limited to the slowest device on your network. So lets say you have 1 old wireless g device on your 2.4 band, every device that connects to that band will be limited to the speed of wireless g, 54Mbs, even if they are wireless N or AC capable.

First, thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.

I guess I misunderstood what that "b/g protection" setting was for? The popup help tip reads: "Tick b/g protection to allow b/g devices to connect to RT-AC66U without affecting 11n devices, but this increases the router's workload." I implied that to mean that with it checked, the rest of the network would not be slowed by a B/G device connecting to the network.

I do not have any b/g devices currently connecting to my network as far as I know (is there any way to identify them from the router admin pages?), but ideally would like to support those bands for the odd one-off device like a digital camera or some kids toy, for example.

Lastly, can you help explain how Dual-Band (aka "300Mbps") 11n features work? I found this FAQ page on ASUS site, but it says to set the 2.4GHz radio to 40MHz or 20/40MHz, which seems to conflict with the advice on this site to set it to 20MHz... What is the best way to get the fastest possible 11n performance on the AC66U?

Thanks again.

 

[r00t4rd3d]

What is the best way to get the fastest possible 11n performance on the AC66U?

A lot of it is in the adapter you use, not all wireless adapters are the same. Using a 3x3 wireless N adapter can get you up to 450Mbps where a 1x1 only gets you 72Mbps. In order to get the best possible use from your AC66U would be to get 3x3 AC wireless adapters for all the devices you can. The default wireless settings for the router are pretty much good out of the box speedwise.

Read this:

http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2010/02/the_black_and_white_worlds/

 

[cmillar6]

Your SSIDs should be named different. You cant use the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands at once on a single device, well technically you can with 2 adapters but it wont double your speed like you are thinking.

5Ghz band is faster but doesnt have much range. 2.4Ghz is slower but has more range. Which band you choose depends on the devices location and the intended function of the device. Normal PC's, mobile devices, etc normally should go on the 2.4Ghz band. Gaming PC's, servers, network storage, streaming devices and things that require fast speeds should be on 5Ghz.

A few more things to add. You should keep your Wireless Mode set to Auto unless you have problems. On your 2.4 band I see you have b/g protection enabled, do you have old devices with only b or g adapters in them? If so I would get rid of them or update their wireless adapters. Your wireless speed for all devices is limited to the slowest device on your network. So lets say you have 1 old wireless g device on your 2.4 band, every device that connects to that band will be limited to the speed of wireless g, 54Mbs, even if they are wireless N or AC capable. This is another consideration to make when choosing what devices goes on what band. Pile the old and slow devices on 2.4Ghz and the new and shiny on 5Ghz.

Running G clients on the 2.4GHz band doesn't throttle N clients to G speeds. It does hinder performance slightly but the router doesn't cut the speed down to G. I've got an old wireless G printer on my 2.4GHz band and my N clients run just fine at N speeds.

 

[Grump]

A few more things to add. You should keep your Wireless Mode set to Auto unless you have problems. On your 2.4 band I see you have b/g protection enabled, do you have old devices with only b or g adapters in them? If so I would get rid of them or update their wireless adapters. Your wireless speed for all devices is limited to the slowest device on your network. So lets say you have 1 old wireless g device on your 2.4 band, every device that connects to that band will be limited to the speed of wireless g, 54Mbs, even if they are wireless N or AC capable. This is another consideration to make when choosing what devices goes on what band. Pile the old and slow devices on 2.4Ghz and the new and shiny on 5Ghz.

Can confirm b/g devices don't drop n clients to 54mbps. Also, AC is only 5ghz, so they definitely aren't affected by the b/g clients since they're 2.4ghz.

It's not easy to get rid of g only devices, ps3 and wii come to mind.

It's not easy to move all n clients to 5ghz, ps4, wiiu, nest, and honeywell come to mind.

If your device supports and gets good signal on 5ghz, leave it on 5ghz. If its borderline move it to 2.4. My phone supports 5ghz but doesn't get coverage in the backyard, so I leave it on 2.4.