Wireless N Settings

[pmerrill]

What setting Wireless N configuration is required for 300 Mbits? I have a TP-Link 1043nd and it seems I can only get it to connect at 130 Mbits, even though it's set for Wireless N.

The stock firm could be set to 300 MBits but it would dropout and freeze.

My current setting are attached. Do I need to change the channel number or the width???

[DoesItMatter]

Welcome to the world of Wireless-N configs.

There is no correct answer unfortunately.

It all depends on interference around you.

Ideally you should stick to channels 1, 6, and 11

Try 6 and try both settings (2nd chan above / below)

If neither of those work, choose Channel 1 and 2nd chan above

then try channel 11 and choose 2nd chan below

WPA2-AES has to be set for Wireless-N

Also - update your laptop drivers - those need to be current
in order for the connection to be stable above 130/150 mbps

And also be aware the speeds shown in Windows are not always
the true connection speed - some driver manufacturers only
show the MAX possible speed, not the ACTUAL speeds.

[pmerrill]

Try 6 and try both settings (2nd chan above / below)
WPA2-AES has to be set for Wireless-N

FYI, I don't have the setting 2nd chan above / below, I only have
20 MHz
40 MHz (2nd chan. above)
40 MHz (2nd chan. below)

In addition, my Encryption settings are:
None
WPA2 PSK
WPA PSK
WEP
WPA RADIUS
WPA2 RADIUS

I don't have WPA2-AES, do I need to do something to turn it on???

[pmerrill]

Looking through the OpenWrt forum, I was wondering whether SSHing into the router, editing the wireless config line from

option 'encryption' 'psk2'

to

option 'encryption' 'psk2+tkip+aes' or option 'encryption' 'psk2+aes'

followed by a reboot will fix the 300n problem?

I also saw a solution on OpenWRT that indicated:

uci set wireless.radio0.noscan=1
uci commit
reboot

Would that be a better solution?

Out of curiosity, why wasn't this setting available in the interface anyway???

[DoesItMatter]

Looking through the OpenWrt forum, I was wondering whether SSHing into the router, editing the wireless config line from

option 'encryption' 'psk2'

to

option 'encryption' 'psk2+tkip+aes' or option 'encryption' 'psk2+aes'

followed by a reboot will fix the 300n problem?

I also saw a solution on OpenWRT that indicated:

uci set wireless.radio0.noscan=1
uci commit
reboot

Would that be a better solution?

Out of curiosity, why wasn't this setting available in the interface anyway???

No - Wireless N need WPA2-AES only - no other encryption works
This is a design requirement for Wireless N operation

The noscan option is a violation of wireless radio airspace, thats why
its never set by default but yes, you can enable it via command line
whenever you want.

[pmerrill]

No - Wireless N need WPA2-AES only - no other encryption works
This is a design requirement for Wireless N operation

I'm not sure I understand? I get what you are saying, Wireless N needs AES to work and needs 2 channels to work at 300 Mbits/sec as each channel can only do 150.

My router is wireless n, it has the setting (AES) with stock and it works (but poorly). With gargoyle, it has the two channels setting but it does not seem to have an AES selection, even though it's supported with Openwrt.

Is this a bug (feature?) with Gargole? Is there some additional setting that gargoyle makes behind the scenes that enables AES that's not made visible with the gargoyle interface?

I'm assuming that since I can't see AES on the interface page, I won't be able to turn on AES through gargoyle and won't be able to get wireless N?

I don't understand why changing the options in /config/wireless to include +AES should not work?

[pmerrill]

Could be we've gone down a rabbit hole. Been reading about psk2 settings and openwrt (http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/wireless#wpa.modes) it seems that psk2 setting includes ccmp which uses AES, so psk2 is the same as psk2+aes. Effectively, gargoyle and openwrt have chosen aes by default. Given the bugs with tkip, it's probably a wise choice.

So now I just need to figure out why I can't get wireless n to my router when the device is 3 m away. Perhaps a setting in the wireless driver in the pc...

[mix]

Could be we've gone down a rabbit hole.

Yes. Bottom line, only WPA2 CCMP (AES) encryption or better is supported at 802.11n max speeds. Any other mode is provided for backwards compatibility, and as such is also operates at lower speeds. This is standard knowledge. Google it. The only other way to get the maximum speeds supported by a 802.11n router is to completely disable encryption.