In what condition you need manual wireless data rate?

[Ben]

In every AP or router we can find auto data rate option, that is the device could change the data rate between 1M~54M.

But in some special AP and router we can see that they provide single data rate option for each rate(such as lock in 18Mbps). What does it do? In what condition we need to set the AP like that?

Could somebody provide some 'success story'?

Thank you very much guys, I'm just need your answers to argue with some geek.....

 

[thiggins]

Every AP "advertises" the link rates that it supports so that clients looking to associate can know whether they are compatible. If you lock the AP at a specific rate, it advertises only that rate.

If you set the rate to one that a client doesn't support, then it won't be able to associate. So if you set it to, say 130 Mbps, which is one of the draft 11n rates, then 802.11g clients would not be able to associate.

 

[Ben]

Every AP "advertises" the link rates that it supports so that clients looking to associate can know whether they are compatible. If you lock the AP at a specific rate, it advertises only that rate.

If you set the rate to one that a client doesn't support, then it won't be able to associate. So if you set it to, say 130 Mbps, which is one of the draft 11n rates, then 802.11g clients would not be able to associate.

Hi there

Thank you very much for your reply...but I want to know the advantages of locking the speed.....

 

[jdabbs]

The rates available are not arbitrarily chosen; each corresponds to a particular modulation scheme. Since some schemes are more resilient to interference than others (ex: 11b's HR/DSSS > 11a/g's OFDM) forcing a connection at a lower data rate is preferable to being unable to connect at all (or sporadically).