Strongest Wireless N Signal Router

[markro1]

I have a Linksys WRT610N and the N signal in my small apartment barely reaches 30 ft. to my WET610N in my living room. I was using DD-WRT for a while on it but the lack of usable QOS plus the occassionally glitches with various features was driving me a bit crazy. Plus even after cranking the power up it still never reached anywhere near N speeds like 13Mbps...
I am starting to think my walls are lined with lead.

My only real requirements for the router are:

1) Stability
2) Face melting signal strength on N networks with Dual Band 2.4/5Ghz
3) Gigabit Switch
4) A workable QOS implementation for my VOIP phones

I dont need USB storage, I have a NAS for that, I dont need USB Print I have a Wls printer for that. I dont need BT I have server for that. I dont need crazy WAN throughput I have 12Mbs Cox cable with no sign of FIOS.

I kind of like the Buffalos with the external antennas. They seem to be cheap compared to the Linksys, DLink etc

Do any Ext. Antennas work with N?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[tipstir]

I have a Linksys WRT610N and the N signal in my small apartment barely reaches 30 ft. to my WET610N in my living room. I was using DD-WRT for a while on it but the lack of usable QOS plus the occassionally glitches with various features was driving me a bit crazy. Plus even after cranking the power up it still never reached anywhere near N speeds like 13Mbps...
I am starting to think my walls are lined with lead.

My only real requirements for the router are:

1) Stability
2) Face melting signal strength on N networks with Dual Band 2.4/5Ghz
3) Gigabit Switch
4) A workable QOS implementation for my VOIP phones

I dont need USB storage, I have a NAS for that, I dont need USB Print I have a Wls printer for that. I dont need BT I have server for that. I dont need crazy WAN throughput I have 12Mbs Cox cable with no sign of FIOS.

I kind of like the Buffalos with the external antennas. They seem to be cheap compared to the Linksys, DLink etc

Do any Ext. Antennas work with N?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Mark

Mark the USB feature on the wireless router it a gimmick, never get the routing speeds of a true NAS. Still I know I have more than I need but I need more power in routing HD requires so much. BT client built into the router I don't need such a feature either.


Can you drill into the drywall or use electrical POL. Might want to invest in that. This way the wireless AP can reach those dead spots in your APART. ESR-9850 used in mix mode with 50mW for wireless is pretty strong. I have brick fireplace between me and the ESR-9850 in area where most wireless router can even get received strongly.

 

[markro1]

It looks like the Buffalo I was looking at:

WZR-HP-G300NH

Has extremely high power but it doesnt necessarily translate to extra long range. The Netgear 3700 appears to be king in the range category. The buffalo looks like the antennas arent expandable either.

Also the stock buffalo QOS appears to be uplink only....

It is crazy how difficult it seems to find a a router I like. I have used everything from stock cheap dlinks to dd-wrt linksys to monowalls and it seems like there never is anything suitable.

Maybe I should be looking at APs instead.

Mark

 

[markro1]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I keep glancing at a few other technogies like MOCA or Power Line - but my apart is kinda old and I dont think PL would be good. And I am not so sure about MOCA it seems to be very new - althought Directv is now pushing as part of their Multiroom Room View DVR service. I might look into that cause that really is the what I am looking for. I keep on threatening my wife to start drilling holes everywhere. I swear if I ever build a house my toilet is going to have Cat6

 

[tipstir]

It looks like the Buffalo I was looking at:

WZR-HP-G300NH

Has extremely high power but it doesnt necessarily translate to extra long range. The Netgear 3700 appears to be king in the range category. The buffalo looks like the antennas arent expandable either.

Also the stock buffalo QOS appears to be uplink only....

It is crazy how difficult it seems to find a a router I like. I have used everything from stock cheap dlinks to dd-wrt linksys to monowalls and it seems like there never is anything suitable.

Maybe I should be looking at APs instead.

Mark

But most AP are only 10/100 not 10/100/1000. Trendnet and EnGenius seems to be teaming up they have the smoke detector AP selling under the Trendnet name that has 4 ANT in there. But that's not better than ESR-9850. DD-WRT stuff is like a science experiment gone crazy. But wireless hardware degrades then your back out looking for something else to use.

TEW-673GRU with it extra chipsets might be overkill for me but as a wired router is enough power to get my task done. Wireless feature of it not the strongest. Well I got 3 new wireless routers to use they don't have AP features so I got to force them to be use as AP. I have older Belkin MIMO G found that at max dirt cheap I use that as 802.11g AP prior before everyone else I got. Only doing a move to this house 4 years ago I can't find the PWS for it. Never had issue with it in our townhouse APART. Oh well.

Buffalo I have gear I have too much of it 2x router/ap and 1x WDS that failed under DD-WRT. They don't seem to hold up that well with wireless degrading. That top of the line Buffalo has 800mW reported here SNB. Might be a move for you to get into. I'll take a pass. Building home made router never the same as these routers though. To me it doesn't have much of a backbone.

 

[occamsrazor]

Don't know about QoS functionality, but for high transmit power, have you looked at some of the Ubiquiti range, e.g. the Bullet M series?

http://ubnt.com/bulletm

PS - I haven't used them, they just seem pretty cool to me....

 

[thiggins]

Before you go looking for another router, you would be better off understanding why your performance is low.

Try 5 Ways To Fix Slow 802.11n Speed

You should also do a site survey to see what your RF environment is like:
How To Fix Your Wireless Network - Part 2: Site Surveying

Are you using 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz?

Do you get similar slow performance if you use a notebook vs. the WET610N?

It's always best to understand what the problem is before you try to fix it.

 

[markro1]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am familiar with Netstumbler I have used it in larger bldgs to do some basic mapping. I will take a look at it and see if I can pinpoint the drop off.

When the WET610 is connected to the B/G SSID it shows a link speed of 6.5Mbps and when it is on the N network it is 13.5Mbps. So that leads me to think it isnt an issue with the N radio NW that there is significant loss on BG side of things as well.

I have moved the router and mounted it on the Wall but that didnt seem to do much.

Things I can try:

I have a Trendnet N bridge I just got that I will try out maybe it is an issue with the WET or the placement of the WET. There are a bunch of other NWs around me most of them b/g. My apartment is basically an open area which strikes me as strange to the signal loss.

You are right Mr. Higgins diagnosis and understanding will got alot farther than buy new equipment. But sometimes desperation and frustration set in.

I will try a few things.

1) Placement of the WET / Swap it with the Trendnet
2) A site survey to figure out the drop offs - my wife has an Intel N card in her laptop so looks like that is my Netstumbler.
3) I will try playing around with channels on the N radio of the router.

I have an old crappy Dlink - I wonder should I convert that to a B/G AP and just use the WRT610 as N only?

I will report back my findings.

Thanks for your help.

Mark

 

[thiggins]

When the WET610 is connected to the B/G SSID it shows a link speed of 6.5 Mbps and when it is on the N network it is 13.5 Mbps. So that leads me to think it isnt an issue with the N radio NW that there is significant loss on BG side of things as well.

Hold on. Dual band N routers do not let you set both radios to the same band (2.4 or 5 GHz).

So when you refer to the "B/G SSID" that would be the 2.4 GHz band radio, which also functions in N mode.

The "N network" is probably your 5 GHz radio.

If you are trying to use the 5 GHz radio, that could account for your poor performance, since 5 GHz range is lower than 2.4 GHz.

Make sure you are using WPA2/AES security or you will be limited to 802.11G speeds and link rates.

I also recommend that you set the WRT610N to 20MHz mode in 2.4 GHz. Set it to the least crowded channel using 1, 6 or 11.

I would not try jumping to using another bridge right away. Instead use your N laptop and an application like LAN Speed Test and see what sort of speed you get.

Then connect the laptop (or another computer) via the WET610N (make sure you shut off the wireless radio on the computer) and run the speed test again.

 

[tipstir]

Tim,

TEW-673GRU does let you set both 2.4GHz and the 5GHz at the sametime. One for you guest the other one for your LAN.

 

[tipstir]

Mark,

iSSIDer pretty good for spotting the dead area's.

 

[thiggins]

TEW-673GRU does let you set both 2.4GHz and the 5GHz at the sametime. One for you guest the other one for your LAN.

I said there is no router that will let you set both radios to the same band. Dual-band, dual-radio routers will of course let you have both radios active simultaneously.

"Guest LAN" capability just enable multiple SSID and use VLANs to keep traffic separated. All those LANs are still on the same radio.

 

[tipstir]

I said there is no router that will let you set both radios to the same band. Dual-band, dual-radio routers will of course let you have both radios active simultaneously.

"Guest LAN" capability just enable multiple SSID and use VLANs to keep traffic separated. All those LANs are still on the same radio.

I was reading though it and the way they have it reads..

Under Basic Setting..

Wireless Enabled
2.4GHz Channel 11 20/40Hz 802.11b/g/n mix
SSID Mynet
Passcode: givethemfreedom

5G Enabled
5GHz Channel 40 20/40Hz 802.11a/n
SSID Myopennet
Passcode: givethemliberty

Trendnet has both wireless are active at the same time. So you're saying it's the same network. Well sure it is. But they don't have option for additional SSIDs. 1 for each band. But both can operate at the same time.

 

[markro1]

I did some testing with both Bridges and various locations in my apartment and changing various channels and disabling antennas etc. I basically was copying large files through the bridges to my laptop from my server using Teracopy. For me it was a real world application and it was simple to do.

The results were basically no matter the location of the WET the transfer speed was basically 4MB/s. Also the signal strength/speed displayed in the Gui of the WET never changed it always says 13.5Mbps and never goes above 66%. That goes against my transfer speeds of 4MB/s of course which lead to believe the display was incorrect.

Thanks for the responses folks.

 

[tipstir]

I did some testing with both Bridges and various locations in my apartment and changing various channels and disabling antennas etc. I basically was copying large files through the bridges to my laptop from my server using Teracopy. For me it was a real world application and it was simple to do.

The results were basically no matter the location of the WET the transfer speed was basically 4MB/s. Also the signal strength/speed displayed in the Gui of the WET never changed it always says 13.5Mbps and never goes above 66%. That goes against my transfer speeds of 4MB/s of course which lead to believe the display was incorrect.

Thanks for the responses folks.

Teracopy I really didn't seem much improvement using that software. Vista and 7 have those features built-in XP didn't though.

 

[thiggins]

I did some testing with both Bridges and various locations in my apartment and changing various channels and disabling antennas etc. I basically was copying large files through the bridges to my laptop from my server using Teracopy. For me it was a real world application and it was simple to do.

The results were basically no matter the location of the WET the transfer speed was basically 4MB/s. Also the signal strength/speed displayed in the Gui of the WET never changed it always says 13.5Mbps and never goes above 66%. That goes against my transfer speeds of 4MB/s of course which lead to believe the display was incorrect.

Thanks for the responses folks.

13.5 Mbps is the link rate. So is the the original problem solved?

 

[stevech]

My only real requirements for the router are:
...
2) Face melting signal strength on N networks with Dual Band 2.4/5Ghz
3) Gigabit Switch
...
Mark

Strong signal from wireless router is nice, but it won't fix a weak signal from the CLIENT(s). This is an imbalance. Like the PA system in a rock band.

Gigabit switch: just get an outboard one. cheap. Most unlikely you'll reach 100Mbps net yield at the IP layer with 11n, so a 10/100 router is fine.