How do I get the very best performance out of my new Airport Express (2012)?

[Firesign3394]

I just purchased the new Airport Express to be used as my primary router because I liked the sound of being able to manage it from my iOS devices, as well as the advertised simplicity of setup. After leaving it on its default settings, I look at the speeds that my devices are connected at, and they are very low. Here they are:

MacBook Air - 86 Mb/s
Toshiba Laptop - 130 Mb/s
iPhone - 52 Mb/s
New iPad- 65 Mb/s
AppleTV - 65 Mb/s

I thought this was a dual band router, meaning it can broadcast two networks at once, both up to 300 Mb/s each, and if I had a mix of older G devices and newer N devices, they would hop on separate frequencies for highest performance.

I am not sure why this I am getting speeds like this. All the devices are within 20 -25 feet of the router.

I also have a modem/router combo that does wireless G, but the wireless is turned off. Would there be a benefit to me turning on the wireless on that router, and leaving the new Airport Express to supply wifi to Wireless-N devices only,and if so, how would I configure the Express?

Thanks

 

[killmoms]

Your best bet is to probably set up the 5GHz network to be 802.11a/n-only, and the 2.4GHz network to be 802.11b/g-only.

You will never see the maximum theoretical bandwidth though, that simply doesn't happen with wireless.

 

[zerolight]

Are we expecting a new Airport any time soon? I need a new router - am kinda hoping Apple launch a new faster ac router and support for that in the new iPhone.

 

[marzer]

I thought this was a dual band router, meaning it can broadcast two networks at once, both up to 300 Mb/s each, and if I had a mix of older G devices and newer N devices, they would hop on separate frequencies for highest performance.

Clients auto select the best frequency based on signal strength alone, not the allocation of other clients on either frequency. In that case you can create 2 SSID's and let your legacy clients hook to the 2.4ghz and newer clients hook to the 5ghz.

They may have improved it with the newer Express but my older Express does not provide as fast a connection for clients that my TC does. I just assumed they used less capable transceivers in the smaller AE.

 

[M0esmac]

2012 Airport isn't 1Gb/s, it's only 100Mb/s. I think that's why you can't get better speeds.

 

[Firesign3394]

2012 Airport isn't 1Gb/s, it's only 100Mb/s. I think that's why you can't get better speeds.

I'm using wireless