Needing good performance WLAN

[inf]

Hi all, my first post here actually...

I bought a new desktop PC for christmas, and I set it up on my bedroom. at the moment it's the only place where to put at the moment in the current house. I also have a Macbook Air.

At the moment I have Apple Time Capsule as my wlan ap which is connected to a cisco cable modem (also has a wifi, which sucks). Now with the new PC in place, the only way I can get Internet access i through wifi, so I had to buy a pcie wlan card for the PC (D-Link DWA-556).

The PC get a very bad reception levels in wifi in the bedroom. And I think it's because the bad performance of the Time Capsule. So I'm lookin a new WLAN AP for the house.

I have read review from the site and I'm thinking I'm going to get the Netgear WNDR3700.

So would this be a good purchase, or can you recommend a better one?

Also I think the D-Link PCIe adapter in the PC might be pretty crap? So if you can suggest a better adapter for the desktop pc I'm open to suggestions. I don't know and haven't found any adapters that support 5GHz N mode.

 

[thiggins]

Are the PC and Time Capsule in the same room?

Shut off the WiFi in the Cable modem if you are not using it.

You won't find dual-band PCI adapters. They don't make the chipsets required. Use a USB adapter or buy a bridge type adapter that connects via Ethernet like this one. Either will let you get the antenna up from behind the PC.

5 GHz will have less range than 2.4 GHz. Also be sure to use WPA2/AES security or you will get lower speeds.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

You won't find dual-band PCI adapters. They don't make the chipsets required.

The OP was looking for PCIe, I think. While I haven't tried it, this vendor sells a PCIe card with an Intel Ultimate-N 6300 (dual-band / MIMO) card pre-installed. They also list a bunch of other options, including bare boards.

I agree with you that something like the WGA600N is likely a better solution - I just wanted to point out that if you're dead set on it, you can get a dual-band PCIe solution.

 

[inf]

Are the PC and Time Capsule in the same room?

Shut off the WiFi in the Cable modem if you are not using it.

You won't find dual-band PCI adapters. They don't make the chipsets required. Use a USB adapter or buy a bridge type adapter that connects via Ethernet like this one. Either will let you get the antenna up from behind the PC.

5 GHz will have less range than 2.4 GHz. Also be sure to use WPA2/AES security or you will get lower speeds.

Thanks for the reply...couple of questions...

PC and TimeCapsule are in different rooms, and in the between there is thick walls.

I actually had an nameless usb-wifi adapter at home and tried it, and got a much better results with it than the pcie cards.

Couple of questions more if you don't mind?

Would I get better results with the Netgear WNDR3700 than the Time Capsule performance wise?

And would the WGA600N or WET610N be a better choice? How about if I buy them both. Do they work nicely together or shoud the main WLAN Router be also from Linksys to make it work better?

Would I get better result if I replace the Time Capsule

 

[thiggins]

It's hard to say is you'll see significantly better results unless the "nameless" USB adapter is 802.11g and not N.

I haven't tested the Time Capsule, so can't comment on its performance. All I can tell you is that the WNDR3700 is the highest performing N router I've tested so far.

If your current performance is good enough for your needs I would not throw more money at it.

The main advantage of using wireless Ethernet bridges is that you can put them on a very long (Ethernet) cable. So you have a lot of flexibility on placement, which can really help improve signal level and performance as a result.

 

[inf]

It's hard to say is you'll see significantly better results unless the "nameless" USB adapter is 802.11g and not N.

I haven't tested the Time Capsule, so can't comment on its performance. All I can tell you is that the WNDR3700 is the highest performing N router I've tested so far.

If your current performance is good enough for your needs I would not throw more money at it.

The main advantage of using wireless Ethernet bridges is that you can put them on a very long (Ethernet) cable. So you have a lot of flexibility on placement, which can really help improve signal level and performance as a result.

The nameless stick was N dongle but seems only 2.4GHz.

I'll do some testing today and will move the time capsule to a little bit better place and see if if yields any better results. If no I'll get the wndr3700 tomorrow.

How does the WET610N actually work? Do I first connect ethernet cable to it from the pc and after that connect it to my wireless network?

 

[thiggins]

How does the WET610N actually work? Do I first connect ethernet cable to it from the pc and after that connect it to my wireless network?

Basically, yes.

 

[wishbone]

Wet610n

I've been very happy with the 610, using two of them on my network, one connecting two ethernet devices with a switch. Very happy with the way they work.

 

[inf]

I got me an WNDR3700 yesterday and the signal levels and the wlan performance went up much better. I'm at the moment using a USB stick (Netgear WNA3100). The signal is pretty good (using 2.4GHz N-WLAN).

But I'm still thinkin of two possibilities to make the network work well. At the moment it mostly works, althought he connection quality sees dropout in perfomance once in a while

1) If I get another WNDR3700 (i can get them pretty cheap) can I use it to do the same thing than the Linksys WET610N? I would put the other 3700 to my living room where the cable connection is, and the other would go to the bedroom where the PC is. So can I use the other 3700 as a "network extender" or a wireless ap and connect to pc to the one in the bedroom with ethernet cable, and the bedroom-3700 would connect to the living room-3700 wirelessly. Would this work? I tried to find settings for this in the control panel of the 3700 but couldn't find any or did i miss those?

2) Or Buy the Linksys WET610N and connect the pc to it and the linksys would connect to the wndr3700 in the living room wirelessly. Is the linksys model compatible with other brands or will I face issues if I use two different brands?

 

[wishbone]

Right now my WET610's are linked to the same router (might be the 37AV) with no issues, so it should work for you. I think you could make the two 3700's work as well, but would need a powerline or coaxial network to have it function as an AP.

I could be wrong on that, however. I am still a novice at this stuff!

 

[thiggins]

Use the Wireless Repeating Function menu on the WNDR3700.