Radio question

[stafli]

I'm not so good when it comes to the radio part of a wireless router, so i have a question:

I'm using the .38_1 version on my RT-N66U. Yesterday I purchased a wireless HP-printer "Photosmart 7520" (released in 2013). After connecting it to the router, i experienced regular "drop outs" (printer losing contact with the router for about 15 seconds about every second or third minute). My encryption setting are WPA2-personal + AES (which the printer is sopposed to handle).

After reading some support posts, i found that HP recommends "g-network setting". There is a setting in the printer; you can either choose "Use 802.11b-communication" or "Use 802.11b/g-communication" (none of the boxes are ticked). Other settings:

Wireless mode: Automatic
Hide SSID: no
Channel width: 20 MHz
Channel: 1


I came around the problem by enabling "b/g-protection" on my N66U - now i all works. As I understand it, that setting might slow my entire 2.4 GHz network down, so my question is; is there a way around this? Can one of the two mentioned tick boxes help me to be able to disable the b/g-protection? Or can I tweak any router setting? I don't want to experiment with the printer settings too much, as I might lose all contact with it...

When reading the printer manual, it says it's supposed to handle 802.11b/g/n...

 

[DrTeeth]

My HP Officejet 6500A just died. It was an absolute bloody nightmare to configure and get working on wireless. Contrast this to the Canon Pixma MG 6450 that has replaced it - so much easier.

I'd suggest a refund and get a Canon .

 

[ScottW]

Make sure you have disabled the 7520's "Wireless Direct" feature.

The 7520 can connect to an existing wireless network (which is what you want), AND it also has the ability to create it's own wireless network, so that devices can connect directly to it in situations where there is no existing wireless network.

Having "wireless direct" enabled, especially if anywhere close to your existing router, is guaranteed to cause interference problems.

 

[CaptainSTX]

In theory it could slow down your network in actual practice it may not make any difference in your situation.

While your printer is active as a G client it would drop your link rate to 54 Mbps. Many handheld wireless devices have problems achieving rates even this high so the drop in link rate isn't going to make much difference to them. A PC with a good WiFi adapter can and will exceed 54 Mbps under good conditions. (Lack of interference and and other nearby WiFi APs.)

I would suggest that you install inSSIDer on a PC a survey your Wifi environment. Perhaps you can find a less congested channel than 1 and this will solve the dropping problem and you can use the N only mode on your router.

If not then just stay in the protected mode on whatever is the best channel as determined above. You can run some LAN speedtests (Not Speedtest ) and see what happens to to LAN speeds when your printer is turned off, turned on and idle and printing.

If you can't live with the impact then you will have to dig further for a solution.

Also be sure for any devices that have 5 Ghz radios you use that band when the devices close enough to the router to get a good signal. They 5 Ghz radio won't be impacted by running in the protected mode on 2.4Ghz.

 

[L&LD]

With your settings as described, you are already set for optimum performance.

The b/g protection checkbox allows g devices to connect without slowing down N devices. The only downside is the router is working a little harder (no problem; the N66U can handle this).

Just curious if you tried anything other than channel 1 when your printer was in N mode? A higher 2.4GHz band channel almost always has a better connection and throughput than the lower channels in my experience.

To test if the channel makes a difference, uncheck the b/g protection, set the printer to n mode and try channel 11 or 6 and see if you can finally ban all g devices in your setup.

 

[stafli]

Thanks all of you for your advice. As b/g-protecttion doesn't seem to do any harm, I decided to stick with that for now. To answer some of your questions:

No, I never tried anything but channel 1. After examining with inSSIDer, I actually found that ch 1 is the least crowded (a lot of wireless stuff in my neighborhood).

 

[L&LD]

You're welcome.

Don't rely too much on what inssider shows - actually testing the channels in your immediate area is always the only way to know for sure in your specific situation.

Take a look at this post to see what I mean (even though it is testing the 5GHz band - the same can be seen for 2.4GHz band too).

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=101034&postcount=51

 

[d_v_us]

Thanks all of you for your advice. As b/g-protecttion doesn't seem to do any harm, I decided to stick with that for now. To answer some of your questions:

No, I never tried anything but channel 1. After examining with inSSIDer, I actually found that ch 1 is the least crowded (a lot of wireless stuff in my neighborhood).

Actually I've been trying to figure out how to change the channels on my HP wireless printer (Officejet 8600)...have you had any success in finding where to do that?

 

[stafli]

Actually I've been trying to figure out how to change the channels on my HP wireless printer (Officejet 8600)...have you had any success in finding where to do that?

You don't need to do that. When you change the channel on the router, all connected devices will change their channel automatically.