Help a NUBE!!

[jenkinsjeffery30]

I am in no way computer savvy. I believe my 11 yr old daughter knows more than me! But I am pretty good at looking things up on the net, following instructions, and by doing so am learning more every day. I came across this site and downloaded the inSSIDer to try and figure out the best channel to run off of so I can get the best wireless signal. Ok let me start with what I have, and what im running on my network. I have time warner high speed (not turbo) modem, with a Netgear WNDR3400 wireless router, running windows 7. I have a two story home (i know thats where a lot of my problem generates) two laptops, a Wii, two ps3s that run simultaneously playing online games (MW3!). The ps3 are upstaairs, and mine is at the far end of the house, sucks for me! Moving the router would be nice,but I rent and dont want to spend the $ to do that, and dont want visible wires everywhere. I run on wep because that was the only way to get the Wii on the wireless, if that makes any difference. So ive been looking at the inSSIDer and playing with the channels to try and find a less congested channel. I dont know what the RSSI means. Is a lower # better or worse?? Also the max rate is 144, where some on the list are up to 300. Can I change that or is that a router issue? Netgear is no help of course, they want to run a PREMIUM SERVICE to fix there problem. I got them to do it for free one time and it really helped. My download spped hardlined to the router is 23+mbps, but when on wireless the best i can get is 11 mbps, ten feet from the router, upstairs im getting maybe 5mbps. When Netgear first fixed the problem it worked almost as well as when hardlined in. Is there just too much congestion on one network? Would a range extender or anntenea help? I hope this was enough info...

[Stephen]

jenkinsjeffery,

Wow quite the setup you have going there. Ok, so first off, RSSI. RSSI is basically your signal strength. The following will help you in understanding it:
-30dBm = Awesome
-60dBm = Good
-80dBm = Meh
-90dBm = Bad

Secondly, you can purchase extenders, better routers (wireless n for example), or AP's (Access Points) and extend your network. There are multiple ways of doing this and quite frankly, I don't feel one is more correct than the other. I would do a good Google search on each of those and see which one you think you can follow directions on and set up easiest.

Third, congestion will slow your network. Now, if you live in a subdivision you are going to have to be dealing with all of your neighbors networks also. Most routers are set to "auto" for a channel so they usually jump between channels 1, 6, and 11 as those channels do not overlap (the same goes for Wii's, playstations, xbox's, etc. What does that mean for you? You should probably avoid those Channels as much as possible. I find that in most subdivision, using channels 3 and/or 8 will work out better as there is less congestion and less overlap from the other most commonly used channels.

Stephen

[jenkinsjeffery30]

Thanks Stephen. I am trying different channels to find the best one. 3 and 8 do seem to work best, but I think I may upgrade the router and add an extender as well. Anything to help my bullet lag in MW3! But then what will i blame then? lol

[max805]

What does Max Rate mean?

[Tyler]

What does Max Rate mean?

Max Rate is the maximum data rate that is supported by the access point.

[Stephen]

Max Rate is the maximum data rate that is supported by the access point.

Just to add to this, the following are general max data rates according to 802.11b/g/n

.11b - 11Mbps
.11g - 54Mbps
.11n - 248Mbps

[ua549]

Just to add to this, the following are general max data rates according to 802.11b/g/n

.11b - 11Mbps
.11g - 54Mbps
.11n - 248Mbps

AFAIK the maximum data rate for 802.11n is 600Mbps. That said, most equipment I've used maxes out at either 450Mbps or 300Mbps.

[Stephen]

ua549,

I just posted standard generalizations of max data rates. The truth behind .11n is that there are several possibilities of it's max data rate so I just threw down a generalization. Like you said, the actual max data rate is 600Mbps, but equipment you have used varied in it's max data rate

[Romattman]

Hi jenkinsjeffry30 .... I have a similar set up to yours, etc Wii,PS3, several laptops/tablets. To solve some of the overloading of the wi-fi, I purchased a pair of modules, one which connects from the wireless modem to the nearest wall plug, the second can be plug into any other wall pug in the house allowing me to hard wire any unit without running ethernet cable all over. Additional modules are available as well. By hard wiring some of the units helped to alleviate some of the strain on the actual wireless network.One can Google for these modules, very handy. I also find a bit faster download speed with hard wire Vs wireless.Hope this helps!