DELETE vs. Disable the 2.4Ghz Interface?

[mrlewp87]

I would only try this action IF .. the router- IQrouter in my case, would then free up more bandwidth for the single Wireless 5G Interface? Question based on likely false notion that some level of bandwidth, or ??? is reserved for each radio/ band?
Before offering up any of a couple dozen screenshots, and/ or data samples, I just wondered about going one step further than a simple "Disable", to a Remove or Delete choice for the 2.4G Radio Interface? Pretty sure it's an option in the IQrouter. I know you can reName each band, but thought I saw a Delete button. Sorry, I should've double checked
The back story; Basically, the last real positive improvement to our home network; upping from 12mb to Bonded 25 mb service. (Actual line rate always shy of 22mb)
The next 2 "moving UP" choices- Dual Band w/ ActionTec T3200, and then adding the amazing?, most "intelligent"?? IQrouter (in the -> DMZ of the A'Tec).... were both let-downs with very disappointing results.
When moving to Dual band and the ActionTec T3200, general browsing seemed slower, downloads- slower. I was curious about having to choose one
of the 2 Wifi bands, which led to giving the A'Tec "Band Steering" control. I hoped for something better. If anything, it was worse!
Then, reading all the love (elsewhere) over the IQrouter.... I went for it. The price made it "comfortable", but seemed a tad low to match the hype. A 20%+ drop in "effective"(not actual term) Line Rate- @ 16.03mbs, and not at all any faster than before! By the way, the sum of the 2 line rates reported by the A'Tec (1st Dual Band) very nearly = the 21-22mbs Rate shown after 1st "bonding" with a Sagemcom 4320. And the "attainable " rate reported by the IQrouter is also near 21+mbs. In other words our Line Rates from Windstream have held up.
Rather than put the A'Tec in Bridge mode, the instructions simply have you turn Off it's Wifi and enter the IQr in it's DMZ. That means DHCP remains ON for the ActionTec (why??), and its also doing NAT, at least so I think.
Perhaps I've been too focused on that max. of 6mbs Tx Rate, as reported by the IQr for all network devices, considering our Upload rate is barely 1 mb? The Rx rates for all never drop below 24mbs, and sometimes jump much higher. Bugs me though, ...not often will the 40 Mhz ch. Mode appear in any device's stats. And that's on *5Ghz band* only, with Mode set on 80Mhz (default)

 

[degrub]

A device placed on the dmz port is wide open to the internet. It has to have the firewall, dhcp for all devices connected to it, qos, etc.
The actiontec is just passing everything through to it.
If you cannot live with double nat and the actiontec cannot be put in bridge mode, then that is the only choice, short of replacing the isp eqpt if that is an option.

If you leave the AT active, then you will need to turn off the radios if you use another AP nearby. Turning off the radio will give you all the cpu back you would ever get.

Sounds more like you have wireless interference from nearby APs. Have you tried to do a wireless survey and see what other systems are using on wireless channels ?

Don’t forget, even with the strongest AP signal or bandwidth, if the client is not as strong, the connection throughput will be limited to the weaker of the two.

 

[mrlewp87]

** I've gone back into the IQrouter to check. Perhaps I've misused the term Interface in my initial post? The "Interface" Overview page lists 4 items, each with the option to DELETE! Guest, LAN, WAN, and WAN6 (?).
The Networks Overview page lists all the default Networks, but not referred to as Interfaces as I did. And they all have the REMOVE option. I suppose my question would then be revised to ask about "removing" the 2.4Ghz "Network". But now I see that it would have to apply to all the other Disabled networks, were there to be anything beneficial come from it. Remove them all that is, except the 5Ghz Network.

 

[mrlewp87]

(Haven't figured out the Quote function here)
Re: "double NAT", and ActionTec "bridged"
--- Is it really double NAT, IQrouter in A'Tec DMZ? And I believe NAT can be turned off in ATec (?) And yes, the ATec can be bridged! If memory serves me (??) pretty sure general setup instructions have the user bridge certain routers (gateways), if NOT an ISP supplied device. I've bridged a Windstream gateway before, and seen the instructions for the ATec. I'd then need to open ports in the IQr for TiVo services.

Re: ATec Wifi.
--- As noted, both radios are OFF.

Re: Wifi Surveys
--- I'll post images when home. The IQr is supposed to alert in Red text about certain or potential interferences. None reported. Even so, while still using the 2.4Ghz band, I had changed it to chan 11, due to neighbors on chan 1. Previously on Auto, the IQr was choosing ch 1, so can assume no issues.

 

[mrlewp87]

I have a habit of taking screenshots, then adding notes and questions not really meant for Public consumption ;-) These images may look a bit messy from white-outs, edits and re-edits of text.
In many of my images I'm questioning the 6 mbs Tx numbers. I've about come to accept it as the norm. In all of them (dozens) I'm within 12' or less of the router, running tests or simply viewing the router pages. The Transmit power of the IQr is at less than half it's max, by the way. By default it was even less- 35 mW?
NetSpot is one MAC app that gives some good info. Can't run inSSIDer on the MAC. I like the scans and graphs it does. (just remembered I may have it on my Vista notebook)

This first image is 2 areas of the Wireless Overview page, combined into 1 view.

Then, a slice of the LAN Interface Config section. In it I point out the default DNS settings, and note a couple items I'm curious about. True/ False?; the Level 3 DNS take priority over anything in the ActionTec, and for all devices - unless** you've manually set DNS entries in 1 or more devices on the LAN?

These next 2 images probably deserve to a new thread, because there's something going on here I've never seen before. There's a "ghost" Wifi signal which only appears in IQr Surveys, and in NetSpot's "Discovery" Scan. It's noted as "OPEN"!? I noticed the "unknown" weeks ago, didn't pay much attention to it. Just this morning I realized the MAC no. linked to the "unknown" in the list of 2.4G networks (IQr Survey, when I was still using that band)... is the same MAC no. appearing with the un-named 5G network in the NetSpot Scan! (last image) It moved!, from one band to the other, or so it appears. And in both cases, it copies the channel used by each band.
If I were to "hazard" a guess, perhaps a "Guest" network? Yet, they're all Disabled! I even disabled a network the other day, to see if that cleared it from the surveys. An odd name which I can't recall, perhaps even "Unknown". The unknown / un-named in next 2 images- MAC no. starts with F, ends with a 2.

(ALL in this IQr Survey are neighbors )

Finally, the NetSpot Survey. Note the un-named/ open network , now on the 5G band and reporting on the same channel as our IQrouter-7165. (older image when still using both bands, but still shows the ?? network has moved to the 5G band, ch. 149. Same as my IQr...-7165)