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[Darkknight]

Was on here last night looking for some reason why my transfer speeds were unbearably slow for 802.11n (~ 3MB/s on 5GB x-fer according to Teracopy). I didn't really find anything useful in that regard here, but I did find information elsewhere, and after some experimenting based on that I was able to get a 300%+ increase to ~ 10MB/s (still slow  ) transfer rate.

Backround:

DGL-4500 v.A1 w/1.02 -> DWA-160 v.B1
1GB wired NAS -> Laptop

Same floor, 1 room away.

Have a DWA-552 on the bottom floor, 1 room away, same speeds when transferring files.

I was streaming a movie over the network to my laptop, usually this isn't a problem, but for whatever reason last night it was giving me a headache. I've been avoiding addressing the issue of 3MB/s transfers since I got the DWA-160 (also have a DWA-552, same speeds) but I just couldn't get the network to keep up last night. So, I broke down and started working with the transmit settings on the router making only 1 or 2 changes, then reboot, retest, etc. What I found that seemed to worked best so far was to set the RTS threshold & Fragmentation threshold to max, and to uncheck "use short GI". I have yet to further tweak the settings for improvement, but after the last change & router reboot, the transfer speeds immediately increased. I was on 2.4Ghz, and I switched to 5Ghz while testing changes (about 5% increase in speed just doing that), I will eventually get around to testing 2.4G as well, but for anyone else having similar issues, try making those 3 changes and see if it helps. At worse, you'll only have to change them back and reboot the router. I'll update this thread again after I've done some more tests.

Lycan, it would be nice if you can pass along a request for a 5Ghz version of the DWA 552, as it stands, that adapter is forcing me into a more crowded 2.4Ghz environment. I'm also open to any pointers as to what tweaks to make to better optimize my network.

[Darkknight]

Switched it back to 2.4Ghz, and I actually saw a further speed increase. The location of the DWA-160 had a much larger impact on speed in 2.4Ghz mode than it did in 5Ghz mode. Moving it a few feet was the difference between 6Mb/s & 11Mb/s. Using the DWA-552 (only works on 2.4Ghz), I went from a previous steady 3MB/s to a whopping 13MB/s. It's on a different floor, on a more crowded band, and further away, and it still smokes the DWA-160.

Will try to get some more testing squared away this weekend.

[FurryNutz]

Curious, are these settings you are referring to on the 4500 or ur other unit? Where are these settings on the 4500?

[FurryNutz]

Ok, I found the settings, I forgot I disabled the 4500's wireless to test a different brand wireless to make sure my MacBook Pro Wireless was performing OK. Those 2 items have been doing great and no disconnects there. So I switched back to the 4500 N wireless only mode and have changed the advanced wireless settings using your suggestions. Going to see if there is any change in the random disconnects. Other than the wireless disconnects, I'm happy with the 4500. Hope the wireless gets some attention on the next release.

[Darkknight]

What security settings are you using? WAP2? I have found that my iphone often sees deauths when security is enabled, and my intel based (4192?) 802.11g internal laptop card gets deauthed all the time. If I run my wifi in the clear, no problems. I also don't see any disconnects using the dwa-552 or dwa-160, just (previously) slow speeds.

Regular browsing does not show any really noticeable effects even with the deauths. Streaming video content can get problematic, but if I'm using the laptop, I'll just switch to N before I start watching. I run my laptop to an LCD TV when streaming video through it so I don't need to move it, and using the dongle is less of an issue.

The disconnects are a very small price to pay for an otherwise, extremely stable router. TBH, I don't understand why people knowingly (i.e. have seen reviews on *any* post 1.02 f/w) still upgrade. You buy the router primarily for what? Wired & wireless network connectivity. Who cares if you can plug a d@mn USB HDD/printer or whatever into the router if it can't do what you really bought it for?

[FurryNutz]

I'm using WPA2 using AES cipher as stated by Dlink in there requirements for using wireless N model only. My iphone is not the problem connect and keeping connected since it's a 1st gen iphone. My MacBook Pro Laptop is the only wireless N device on my network and sees this issue of the disconnects.

[Darkknight]

Update:

The transfer speed seems to have gone back to 3Mb/s at some point. I didn't notice when exactly, because streaming 720p content works fine on only 3Mb/s. I went to playback some 1080p content. When that was jittery, I checked and my speed was low again on the DWA 552. The DWA 160 was the same as before, some something must have changed on the system with the DWA 552. I experimented with a lot of different settings, but nothing seemed to make it work. I updated the AR5008 driver to 7.7.0.396 and instantly it went back up 10-11MB/s. I dunno, maybe the driver had changed during a windows update session and I didn't notice. I still haven't seen the 13MB/s speeds again, but I'll keep working on it.

[FurryNutz]

wonder what make the 13Mb speeds work for ya. LOL. well let us know. Hope it working well though.

[Beeder]

Odds are, you've got a neighbor on a nearby channel that is messing with your wireless bandwidth. The channels in Wifi overlap. The only channels that don't overlap with a 20Mhz channel width are 1, 6, and 11 here in the U.S.  If you've got your channel width set to 40Mhz (or Auto), you can get higher bandwidth if nobody's nearby, but only channel 6 will work at this setting.

If you're at channel 6 and your neighbor is at channel 9, for example, your connection will work, but the bandwidth (and speed) may be reduced, depending on the strength of the neighbor's signal.  

It's possible that one channel works better than the others for you, so you might want to play with the router settings and turn off Auto Channel Scan and try various channels as an experiment (but most users will do best leaving this on).

[update:] I just noticed that you're seeing these speeds at 5GHz.  My comments were for 2.4GHz.  I doubt you're seeing neighbor's 5GHz networks, although some spread-spectrum phones can do significant damage to the signal.  Also, 5GHz tends to be even more line-of-sight, and things like mirrors and metal will wreak havoc with your signal.  3Mb is pretty slow--seems like you'd probably get better performance using the 2.4GHz frequency.