Problems with dir-655?

[jpw94]

I recently purchased a MacBook. This might have no bearing on the situation as whole but I will present as my facts as possible so I can get some advice from everyone.

I noticed that speed of in wireless access had suffered considerably lately. I never noticed it with my Windows computers but, again, it might have no bearing.

I have a dir-655. All of my wireless devices are g receivers. The MacBook can communicate over N also. I had concluded after a lot of fiddling that perhaps my dir-655 is having some problems (only about a year old) so I purchased a netgear N/dualband and a dir-825. Both newer devices seemed to give me excellent response. So, I started to conclude that the 655 was indeed sick. I then decided to change my router settings on the 825 from n&g only to b/g/n and found my response and reception seemed to suffer similarly. So, I went back to the 655 to confirm its settings. it turns out that it is in n&g mode so, my theory seems to be flawed.

Can anyone advise me my me dilemma. I would happily stay with the 655 if there is a configuration I can set to make it optimal speed and reception.

Thanks in advance.

 

[thiggins]

If your problems started when you purchased the MacBook and occur when both the MacBook and your 11g devices are active, then the MacBook is the culprit.

Running a mix of draft 11n and 11g devices on the same router will result in reduced performance for both. The reason is that when 11n and 11g clients are active at the same time, the 11n device must slow down to wait for the slower 11g. Draft 11n routers aren't very efficient at implementing the "waiting" for the 11g devices, so speeds for both suffer.

Try setting your router to "g only" mode.

 

[jpw94]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm still struggling with these routers.
My focal point is my Macbook.
I've just set the 825 to have the 2.4 band to b/g only and the 5.0 band to do n only.
My macbook is capable of n/5.0 but it does not see the ssid of the 5.0 network.
Am I doing something wrong?
I am tempted to go buy and Apple router (hoping the windows side will work.) Is that a prudent option?

 

[thiggins]

Make sure you have different SSIDs for the two radios.

Try setting the 5 GHz radio bandwidth mode to 20 MHz.

 

[cpmac524]

I've got an iMac and I had trouble with my dir-655. Had a really hard-time connecting at times. It seemed it was the d-link's Auto-channel scan that was the culprit. Try to disable it and pick 1 channel.

 

[jpw94]

I disabled 2.4 and still did not see the 5.0 network until a moved closer.
So, the 5.0 issue is cleared up and I see it is what I have read here that 5.0 range is less powerful than 2.4.

Is there any way to increase it with some tweaks?
I see I need to go to g/n only, fix a specific channel (?).
Anything else? I'd like to solve this on the 655, if possible as it is the least expensive option for me.

Thanks all!

 

[jpw94]

Update: I operate the macbook in clamshell mode when in my office (connect to a large display.) Clearly, the macbook has antenna issues when it is closed. When I open the lid, I do see that 5.0 network so I am headed to the Apple store to have them address this problem of reception.

I will update as soon as I have some information to share.

 

[jpw94]

Sorry for this seemingly hap-hazard approach.
Well, I am still not convinced it is the macbook that is the issue.

So, let me review:

I am switching between dir-655 and dir-825.
When using the dir-655, the control interface shows that my macbooks is at 95-100% signal strength but the rate is <5mpbs.
I an attempt to have some type of comparative data, I am performing speedtest.net to determine throughput. When with the dir-655, it is MISERABLE. I have a 8mbps connection and I rarely get above 3.

What should this tell me?

When using the dir-825, i am switching between the 5.0 and 2.4 bands.
In summary, 5.0 is better than the 655, and 2.4 is surprising good in the speedtests averaging 8.0 with uploads at 3+. I sometimes get 10+ uploads on 2.4 band.

I'm VERY confused. Key issues:

is it the router (655) or the macbook antenna?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[bobbodavis]

Might not be a hardware issue at all.

1) Are either of your routers using mixed mode? Perhaps the 825 is N only and the 655 is in mixed. Mixed mode will be worse than strait-up N.

2) If using the 825 in 5.0 ghz you'll get better throughput at close range than you will with the 655. There's no one competing with you on that 5.0 ghz band, whereas your 655 is only 2.4ghz and is most likely competing for air space with several of your neighbors. Try changing the channel on your 655 to see if it helps improve your speeds. You should use something like net stumbler to determine what channels everyone else around you is using and then get as far away from them as possible.

3) Are you using the same encryption on both routers? Seems as though the higher the encyption, the slower the speeds. I.E. no encryption is faster than WPA. WPA is faster than WPA2.

 

[jpw94]

Everyone has been so helpful.

So, I believe it was not an issue with the MacBook nor an issue with the dir-655. The suggestions on settings helped improve speed dramatically.

I stuck with the 655, have it in mixed mode. Moved the router about 5 inches to improve range, selected channel 10 (fixed) , turned off WMM enable and turned off extra wireless protection.

So, prior i was getting 3-5mpbs average downlod on speedtest.net and .8 on upload. now i average 10+ download and 2+ upload - no exaggeration.

Thanks all for the helpful hints and insights!!!

Happy not to have to buy another router!