Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 19:33 Post subject: Absolute best settings for wireless bands...
Given the following two assumptions:
1. I have no neighbors and thus zero interference or competition for channels.
2. I'm generally more concerned with range over performance. My high priority devices are all wired.
I'm currently running Mixed mode, Wide HT40. It looks like almost all of my 2.4Ghz devices are negotiating HT20 (1 channel) so I could probably get better range by switching to HT20 channel width and not lose a whole lot in performance.
However, should I leave the mode at "Mixed"? I don't have any B devices that I know of, so I'm wondering if I change it to NG-Mixed will I see any difference?
That being said, one of the devices grabbing HT40 on 2.4Ghz band is my work laptop. It has an Intel 6200 AGN card in it. I'm wondering if I could connect it to the 5Ghz network instead.
Right now, I have it set to Mixed mode, VHT80. I think the Intel 6200 only supports N mode on 2.4Ghz so if I set the 5Ghz radio to AC/N-Mixed, will I have an issue?
What settings are you guys using? _________________ Routing:.......Asus RT-AX88U (Asuswrt-Merlin 384.14) Switching:....Netgear GS608_V3 & GS605_V4, TrendNet TEG-S82G & TEG-S50G
Just to follow up, I changed 2.4Ghz from HT40 to HT20 and also changed to NG-Mixed.
So far I haven't seen any negative impact and as expected, I got about a 3dB bump from the change to HT20. Obviously, the devices that were using HT40 got a drop in link rate but some of the HT20 devices got a significant boost in link rate.
For example, my work laptop dropped from 270 TX (HT40) to 144 TX (HT20) but one of my single-stream Linksys PCI cards went from 24M TX to 36M TX. _________________ Routing:.......Asus RT-AX88U (Asuswrt-Merlin 384.14) Switching:....Netgear GS608_V3 & GS605_V4, TrendNet TEG-S82G & TEG-S50G
By setting the 2.4Ghz band to HT20 only and Mixed mode, with the 5Ghz band on Mixed VHT80, I got my work laptop to prefer the 5Ghz band over the 2.4Ghz as well as a Linksys AE1000 USB dongle that is about 20 feet from the router.
After some amount of testing and tweaking I currently have the following settings working for me. I define working as the router being stable (not hanging or rebooting) and reliable (getting the expected speedtest.net results).
I had the 2.4GHz set to 20MHz for a while but recently tested and realized that the speeds were slow.
Yeah, it's all about what you're wanting.
If you want maximum throughput at close range, then you want 40Mhz channels, which effectively doubles your bandwidth.
However, I am looking for coverage in some far away places, like the patio. 40Mhz channels create overhead, which results in about a 3dB transmit loss. At extreme range (like on my patio) I found that 40Mhz actually provides about HALF of the actual throughput that a 20Mhz channel provides. So I was hurting my performance at range by using Wide HT40. _________________ Routing:.......Asus RT-AX88U (Asuswrt-Merlin 384.14) Switching:....Netgear GS608_V3 & GS605_V4, TrendNet TEG-S82G & TEG-S50G
After some amount of testing and tweaking I currently have the following settings working for me. I define working as the router being stable (not hanging or rebooting) and reliable (getting the expected speedtest.net results).
For some reason channel 153 is no longer showing in my 5GHz channel list. Trying channel 149 results in the router getting assigned to 153 on the status page. Trying other channels in the 140+ range causes the router to not show up on the client/laptop. Any ideas why this is happening?
I have in the past but I keep mine on 80Mhz for max throughput on my two AC devices. _________________ Routing:.......Asus RT-AX88U (Asuswrt-Merlin 384.14) Switching:....Netgear GS608_V3 & GS605_V4, TrendNet TEG-S82G & TEG-S50G
I have in the past but I keep mine on 80Mhz for max throughput on my two AC devices.
I've now put it back to 80Mhz and it's working ok. Strange thing is that when I'm selecting the Channel there is no channel 153 as an option, however, when I select channel 149 and apply the settings the status page shows the 5Ghz as on channel 153 + 155 I don't get it.
Because I'm using 149 and it reports 149 + 153. I believe this is inherent to the interface and is basically indicating that it's using (149 + 151) + (153 + 155).
A spectrum analyzer can confirm this. _________________ Routing:.......Asus RT-AX88U (Asuswrt-Merlin 384.14) Switching:....Netgear GS608_V3 & GS605_V4, TrendNet TEG-S82G & TEG-S50G
Because I'm using 149 and it reports 149 + 153. I believe this is inherent to the interface and is basically indicating that it's using (149 + 151) + (153 + 155).
A spectrum analyzer can confirm this.
It's happening in 80MHz. The procedure I follow is:
- select 80MHz
- apply settings
- look for channel 153, it's not listed so select 149 instead
- apply settings
- view status-wireless page to see the 5GHz band on channel 153 + 155
Because I'm using 149 and it reports 149 + 153. I believe this is inherent to the interface and is basically indicating that it's using (149 + 151) + (153 + 155).
A spectrum analyzer can confirm this.
It's happening in 80MHz. The procedure I follow is:
- select 80MHz
- apply settings
- look for channel 153, it's not listed so select 149 instead
- apply settings
- view status-wireless page to see the 5GHz band on channel 153 + 155
If you set Channel Width to VHT80 / 80Mhz and Extension Channel to "upper" then what you might be seeing is a peculiarity in the DD-WRT interface.
The last useable 80Mhz block in 5Ghz would be 157 + 159 + 161 + 165 and I'm not sure DD-WRT allows that to be selected. The next 80Mhz block before that is 149 + 151 +153 +155. I imagine it's setup in blocks, not allowing you the kind of granularity you're looking for.
If you set the Extension Channel to "lower" does something change? I might suggest also posting this to the big monster thread. _________________ Routing:.......Asus RT-AX88U (Asuswrt-Merlin 384.14) Switching:....Netgear GS608_V3 & GS605_V4, TrendNet TEG-S82G & TEG-S50G
If you set the Extension Channel to "lower" does something change? I might suggest also posting this to the big monster thread.
Selecting channel 149 only provides "upper" as the extension choice. Selecting 157 provides no choice, extension is blank/empty. Selecting 165 provides "lower". Likewise, channels 136, 140, 144 are all empty extensions.
BTW - selecting and applying a channel with an empty extension causes instability - 5GHz doesn't show, router slows and other issues.
and it's working ok. Strange thing is that when I'm selecting the Channel there is no channel 153 as an option, however, when I select channel 149 and apply the settings the status page shows the 5Ghz as on channel 153 + 155 
I don't get it.