Airport Extreme and WIN7 computer

[scottmacd]

Hello all!

This is driving me nuts.

I have an Airport Extreme router, two iPads, an iMac, an eMac, a Dell running XP (ethernet connected) and a Toshiba running WIN7.

Everything except the XP is connected wirelessly.

When the WIN7 box is connected to the router and I ping it, I get slow ping responses, dropped packets and the occasional connection drop. Response is unbelievably slow - kinda like an unreliable dial-up connection.

When the same WIN7 box is connected wirelessly to a NETGEAR router, it performs flawlessly, albeit at 802.11g instead of 802.11n.

Questions:

1) Is there some compatibility issue with WIN7 and the Airport Extreme?
2) Is there some setting on the Airport Extreme that anyone knows about that addresses this?

The driver for the NIC on the WIN7 box is up to date.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[psxguru]

How far away is the win7 box from the AE?

How is the AE radios setup? 2.4GHz b/g/n? 5GHz n?

What other devices are using 802.11n? 2.4 or 5GHz

Is the netgear the same distance as the AE from the win7 box?

 

[scottmacd]

AE was set up 5GHZ n, NETGEAR 2.4 g.

The problem with the AE occurs whether the NETGEAR router is on or off - in fact it was discovered while the netgear router was unceremoniously lying on top of a pile of electronic junk ;-) .

The only other wireless devices are the iMac and two iPads which were not actively in use when the problems occurred.

The netgear router was sitting right next to the AE, anywhere between 10' and 20' from the WIN7 laptop. No matter where I took the WIN7, the same thing occurred.

Ideas?

 

[squeakr]

No issues exist with Win7 and AE explicitly. It sounds as though your laptop may not be a solid performer on the 5GHz band or you have some interference. Do speed tests have issues and reveal high latency or erratic results? By the nature of it, a 5GHz signal has less usable range than a 2.4 GHz signal. Is the power set to max, and the Multicast and sideband turned on within the AE? Are the settings optimized for the Win7 box (as there are many items that can be disabled or tweaked within the wireless hardware settings? Have you run a site survey from the iMac (there is an include wifi app for that within Lion?

 

[psxguru]

I presume your AE is a simultaneous dual band model?

Give your 2.4GHz and 5GHz different names so you know for sure what frequency you're connecting on.

Change the radio modes to 2.4Ghz b/g/n, and 5GHz n only (press option before clicking radio modes if it's not showing the combination you want)

 

[scottmacd]

Bingo...

Once I set the AE to 2.4Ghz only, everything is golden.

Thanks much for your advice - much appreciated!