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[testiles]

  I'm recently hooked up a new DIR-655 router to my home network - a wired Windows XP desktop, and two wireless laptops - and was moderately pleased with the increased speed.

  The wired, Ethernet connection was capping out at 100 Mbps, as expected, but the laptops were seeing a steady 130 Mbps transmission rate.

  Now one laptop is wireless-N and the other wireless-B. On further investigation, I found the N should have more speed. And in fact, I could not transmit hi def movies from desktop to the N laptop as I had hoped.

   Saw the sticky topic "300 Mbps connection requirements!" and made all the changes suggested -- with GREAT success!. After upgrading the wireless N adapter driver and the 655 to 1.21 (it found this release on its own), setting router to transmit just B and N, changing to 20 - 40 Hz channel width, etc. the wireless N laptop began seeing a steady transmission rate of 270 Mbps!

    Life was good. Even high def movies shuttled effortlessly across the network. Then, I decided to use Shareport and upgraded to 1.32NA....

   Well, the wireless- N laptop now sees a transmission rate of 11 - 45 Mbps. I mean, I am watching pictures on the Internet slowly "paint" like in pre-Broadband days!

    Interestingly though, the wireless-B is stilll seeing 130Mbps.


     Any ideas from anyone on what I can do??



     T

[testiles]

    Sorry the other laptop is wireless-G, not wireless B.

     It's late and I'm a bit tired.........



     T

[rekd0514]

I am seeing really low numbers as well in the wireless status in the router with the 1.32NA firmware. This is even on an all wireless N network. I know I was seeing much higher numbers before. I am seeing 108-54mbps right now. I was seeing a little better with 1.31NA, so I may switch back to that one.

[testiles]

  Wow, Rekd, you too?

  Yeah, the Wireless-N is really bad, staying more on 11Mbps than 45Mbps.

   But either is unacceptable.

   And the ONLY thing I changed was doing the 655 upgrade to 1.32NA and upgrading the Shareport Utility on that laptop.

   I have already shut down Shareport USB and uninstalled the Shareport Utility. Didn't help.

   Now,  I will try your suggestion and downgrade to 1.31, see what happens.


    Really wish I could go back to 1.21. I was an idiot......


   T

[lotacus]

I very rarely see 300Mbit connection even with their touted dwa-160 adapter. The only time I will see it is if i'm within a 10' range of the router with no obstructions. Any furthar and I am anywhere from 54 - 270, but mostly at 108. I may as well just got an old Linksys wrt54gs router. haha. I suspect the only true compliant router for the final N specs anyways will be the dgl-4500 since it has simultaneous transmission on both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies, which should drastically increase the reliability of the wireless Its just too expensive for me to purchase at this time.

I'm seeing all this with the 1.22f/w I know with the 1.3x firmware, it was stated they improved the reading of the rssi to be more accurate so that's probably why you are seeing a difference in connection speed.

[bigeyes0x0]

The DGL-4500 supports both bands but it only support one band at a time, you better get a DIR-855 or DIR-825 for simultaneous transmission on both bands. Similar dual band routers from Linksys is WRT610n and from Netgear is the WNDR3700 http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30925/96/ which struck gold IMO.

Lastly a wireless n router does not need to support both band, not to mention simultaneous, to be certified as a final n product.

[bigeyes0x0]

@OP: There's no way your wireless-G client can get 130Mbps, that's weird or more like totally impossible. About your n laptop which brand, model the wireless client is. As stated in the sticky you followed some wireless client does not support 40Mhz bonding and some disabled it by default for 2.4Ghz band (like the Intel 5300) so you should check that, a driver update may reset this setting.

Lastly use http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider to check for any interference. For example I chose channel 13 here and it works wonder, hitting 300Mbps a lot of time with DWA-140 over a 2 meter distance.

[lotacus]

I should try channel 13 if I can find the *right* drivers and the *right* firmware.

[testiles]

 Some very interesting comments! Thanks.

 Lotacus you say that in 1.32NA "reading the rssi is more accurate and may explain why the change in connection speed". Can you explain what rssi is?

 Big Eyes, I was suspicious of the 130 Mbps connection speed as well since I thought wireless-G capped out at around 50 Mbps. But that's what is displayed as "Connection Speed" in the Windows Network Connection Status window in Vista. If you can't trust Microsoft, who can you trust? hehehe

 The wireless-N laptop is an HP using a Broadcom network adapter if that helps. I can find out the exact number for the adapter but the adapter got the connection speed of 270 Mbps after I upgraded its driver (and did the other items in the sticky topic). So I would assume it is ok with 40 Mhz bonding. Then it all went away with the 655 1.32NA upgrade. Are you saying I should upgrade the adapter driver again??

  By the way, I'm looking forward to checking out inssider when I get a minute this weekend. Thanks for the suggestion and the link....

  ....the meter for the strength of the wireless signal is at maximum and says "Signal Strength: Excellent" but maybe there is more going on.... and inssider can reveal it.


    T

[bigeyes0x0]

wireless G is capped out at 54Mbps including Super G on the DIR-655. To read the rate correctly, get in your router web interface, you will see each of your client rate under Status -> Wireless page.

What I meant about your wireless-n driver is to go to Windows Device Manager, open up its properties page then go to the Advanced tab and check for any relevant setting there. I don't have a broadcom so I can't help you much more than this.

[testiles]

  Ok, here's an update.

   First off -- and I know this will make me lose all credibility -- it turns out the laptop I thought was wireless-G actually is also an N!!!

   Bigeyes I found the D-Link Wireless status page you mentioned and it said I had two wireless N clients. I got the laptop I thought was G a good while ago and just assumed it was G. But I now see the label says 802.11 a/g/n. My bad... apologies to Microsoft for the crack... :==))

   D Link status says the "former G" laptop is getting around 120 Mbps. I says the signal is nearly 100%.

   Secondly, the "original" wireless N laptop is nowing getting up to its old connection speeds. What did I do?.....

   ... well Verizon is coming to install FIOS tomorrow and ofc bringing their own modem/router. They advised me to change the IP of the D-Link since I plan to keep both routers active. So I changed the ip and rebooted the D-Link, and voila, the old connection speeds returned!!!!

   I'm sure its not because of the IP change but because of the reboot -- but seriously, I have tried the reboot before and it did not change anything. Go figure!!!


  Continued in next entry...

[testiles]

  ...D-Link Wireless Status says that laptop is getting 240 - 270 Mbps. But for some reason, high def movie transmission is still somewhat choppy....

    Wireless Status also says it is only getting at most 70% of the signal.

    I plan on using inssider to see if I have any interference, as you suggested Big.

    I am also going to see if I can improve the connection speed on then newly discovered N.


    Hey Big.....thanks man for your support.


      T

[bigeyes0x0]

Good for u .
Well, about your "former G" laptop, you should check its wireless interface card like I said, whether it supports 40MHz bonding and whether that feature might be disabled in Device Manager.
To improve your wireless signal there's an answer in the Dlink America DIR-655 FAQ about how to position your DIR-655 antennas. It might help you.

About your new ISP and modem, I think running double router is not a good idea, especially when you need to forward ports. So you should ask them how to bridge that modem and use only the router in the DIR-655. The other way is to run the DIR-655 in bridge mode either by hacking (hint: searching on this forum) or turning off its DHCP server, firewall, QoS... basically any routing feature and connect the modem to a LAN port of the DIR. BTW the hacking way didn't work for me somehow, it just doesn't work so you might have a safer bet with the latter.

[tentimes]

Since 1.32NA I cannot get 300MBs pon the same hardware as I did before the upgrade. No amount of playing with it will bring this back. It's yet another serious and show stopping bug in 1.32NA (which has now been out months with no fix)

I've spent the morning on small network builder trying to pick another router as I am getting close to kissing my monewy goodbye on this one.

[bigeyes0x0]

For me, it works over 2 meters and through one wooden ceiling and a desk.


So you might wanna to try more but if your patience has run out, nothing can stop you. In that case, best of luck with your next router .