Could someone please explain something about n, b and g wifi?

[ss957916]

I've discovered that pressing alt when clicking the wifi symbol brings up more details.

I thought the n standard was 5GHz, but at the moment my PHY Mode (?) is 802.11n but it's on channel 2 (2.4GHz).

Could someone please briefly explain how they differ/what affect they have?

I'm having massive wifi issues and am trying to better understand all the various settings etc.

 

[stridemat]

The mode you are currently connected to allows non 'n' computers to connect to the network. The only downside of this is that the 5Ghz network will slow to a 2.5Ghz network when there is a b or g device on the network.

What are the issues you are having with your WiFi?

 

[ss957916]

The mode you are currently connected to allows non 'n' computers to connect to the network. The only downside of this is that the 5Ghz network will slow to a 2.5Ghz network when there is a b or g device on the network.

What are the issues you are having with your WiFi?

I thought the Extreme was simultaneous dual band?

 

[stridemat]

What age is your extreme? The newer ones are dual, the older ones are not.

 

[cube]

Option-click the radio mode in Airport Utility for the full list.

 

[Peace]

You need to open the airport utility app and change the wireless network name for 5G to something other than the regular wireless name.

Like this :

 

[Intell]

N can run using 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. B/G can only do 2.4Ghz. And don't forget the higher the hertz the less range it has. This means the 2.4Ghz will go farther the 5Ghz as long as there is no interference.

 

[ss957916]

You need to open the airport utility app and change the wireless network name for 5G to something other than the regular wireless name.

Like this :

Why should I do this?

 

[stridemat]

You don'y have to do anything but if you do then all your 'n' capable devices can connect to the faster network, while the others connect to the slower network.

 

[DoFoT9]

Why should I do this?

this reason\/\/

You don'y have to do anything but if you do then all your 'n' capable devices can connect to the faster network, while the others connect to the slower network.

highly doubted that most general users would realise the difference.. but yea

 

[ss957916]

Could someone please briefly explain how they differ/what affect they have?

Would anyone be able to explain the basics?

thanks

 

[-aggie-]

Would anyone be able to explain the basics?

thanks

Here's a start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

 

[ss957916]

Here's a start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

With respect, I do understand how to search the internet but I came to a forum because I was hoping for some discussion.

 

[stridemat]

The link -aggie- posted has all the information you need to understand the different types of networks. If you still have specific points you want to discuss after reading about the subject, we will try our best to answer them.

 

[GGJstudios]

This should answer some questions:

The Basics: An Airport Extreme Guide to Wireless

 

[DoFoT9]

Would anyone be able to explain the basics?

thanks

nobody else keen? ok ill explain

im going to presume that you do indeed have the dual band Airport Extreme, and that you have a mixture of 802.11g and 802.11n wireless devices on your home network.

802.11g, as you might know, runs at 54mbps (theoretical). it uses the 2.4GHz spectrum to send radio waves to other devices. devices that use this technology may be iPhone, iPod Touch, and older MBPs (before Penryn).

802.11n runs at 300mbs (theoretical) and uses the 5GHz spectrum. all newer apple computers use this technology.

now, when it comes to Airport Extremes with dual band - you have to manually set it to the dual band settings. otherwise it will run in a mode that allows both 5GHz and 2.4GHz computers to connect to it. i.e. g/n devices alike connect at the g frequency (2.4GHz).

this has a pretty large impact on performance of the 802.11n computers, instead of the upper limits of 300mbs, its now somewhere around 150mbps.

if you are just web browsing, sharing music, downloading etc, you wont notice a difference by changing to dual band. but if you stream 1080p movies to your home theatre, copy files across the network constantly, and do large backups to a networked drive - then you probably should use dual band.

any questions?