Poor reception on tp link W8960n and advice needed

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mpvincent

83 posts

Master Geek

#103556 10-Jun-2012 20:39

Hi there,

I replaced my wireless g adsl model W8960n as there was a lot of positive recommendations here. However I seem to be getting worse reception from it than I was from my old modem. My main machines are downstairs in the house, but the modem has to be upstairs as that is where the phone jack is.

Any thoughts in what I could do to improve things? The aerials, does it matter which whey they point?

Also the modem doesn't really provide too much feedback on the devices that are connected (eg what their ip addresses are, what wireless mode g or n etc.). Can anyone recommend a firmware upgrade and setup?

Many thanks

Mike.

igiveup

24 posts

Geek

#638671 10-Jun-2012 22:50

Hi mike, can't help with the lack of reception it's a thing that I don't have a problem with.
If you go into the user interface of the modem, click on "Device Info" then "DHCP" you will find
The Host Name, Mac address and the I.P address of each attached devise.
If you click on "Wireless" then "Advanced" you will find the other info you asked about.

Just a hint from an old fart, don't update the firmware until you have sorted out the basics, and even
then I would say leave it be. Unless someone can give you a damn good reason to do so.

As far as setting up goes if you ran the disc that came with the unit you just follow your nose.
I won't give you any advice on the actual setup in case I put you crook.
Cheers.
Kevin.

farcus

1558 posts

Uber Geek

#638685 11-Jun-2012 02:03

try different channels instead of using the default (automatic) setting.
e.g. on my buffalo router on channel 11 I get around a 67% connection but on channel 1 I get a 91% connection.

DrStrangelove

368 posts

Ultimate Geek

#638687 11-Jun-2012 04:44

Install the WiFi monitoring application called inSSIDer on your PC and then check which channels are least used.

The channel selection it generally 1, 6 and 11. These are the non overlapping channels for best signal.

Also check all the devices which have 802.11n available are using 802.11n, this will give you better data throughput and improve connectivity. It won't improve signal strength but.

If you have no 802.11g clients, then you can set the modem to run only 802.11n.

If you still have the old modem, reinstall it and check what channel it was using and then set the new TP-Link modem to use the same channel.

mpvincent

83 posts

Master Geek

#638690 11-Jun-2012 06:35

Thanks for the advice

At the moment I am getting around -60db from my desktop. I am running a mix of g (laptop, mobile, and ps3) with a couple of n devices.

I will have a play around with the software to see if a different channel will make any difference. I note on trademe there are sme people selling aerial extenders which look to be 10m long cables. Would anyone recommend this as a way to get thesignal where it's needed? I guess I could run a longer aerial ofnone of the two external aerials?

Mike

Jaxson

8044 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#638691 11-Jun-2012 06:55

I got a little wifi analyzer app on my android phone, which shows all the available wifi networks in the area. As above, I used this to pick a channel that was 'empty' in my area, which was different to the default option within the modem.

DrStrangelove

368 posts

Ultimate Geek

#638692 11-Jun-2012 06:59

-60dBm is not that bad. What distance are we talking about?
I get approx. -60dBm at 15metres with bandwidth of approx. 80Mbps on 2.4GHz 40MHz.

Different router though, but the mechanics are the same.

Are you attempting to access something that requires more than 24Mbps? A NAS or file server fmaybe?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#638703 11-Jun-2012 08:20

-60dB is a good usable signal strength.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

mpvincent

83 posts

Master Geek

#638705 11-Jun-2012 08:25

Thanks - the -60DB is where my desktop is, however the main issue is with my samsung TV which has a wireless N adaptor. Its probably a wall and 7-8metres further away and only gets 2 bars of signial on it usually.

Can anyone recommend a free iphone/ipad app to test wifi signals around the house?

Mike.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#638711 11-Jun-2012 08:30

There aren't any iOS WiFi testing apps - Apple don't permit them.

mpvincent

83 posts

Master Geek

#638714 11-Jun-2012 08:38

Thanks - my wife has an android tablet so will have a go with that.

Cheers

pacificsurfer51

60 posts

Master Geek

#639839 12-Jun-2012 18:30

Been doing tests on my wireless routers. TP-Link WR1043 N Router off the cable modem at 1 metre away: channel 6 @ 30 dBm. Wireless G router 1 metre away: channel 11 @ 40dBm. Using android wifi analyzer. Probably pays to benchmark channel settings on your router.

mpvincent

83 posts

Master Geek

#639929 12-Jun-2012 21:36

Thanks for all the advice. Turns out the problem was with my Samsung tv I was trying to connect. It was using a Samsung wireless dongle which doesnt seem to like he wireless setting 20/40mhz bandwidth in the advanced wireless setting. Changking it to just 20mhz has fixed the problem.

Im not sure what I have lost by doing that but at least it's more stable now.

Mike,

DrStrangelove

368 posts

Ultimate Geek

#640186 13-Jun-2012 13:13

2.4GHz frequency, 40MHz wide channels are just two 20MHz channels, one being the primary and the other being the secondary.

Where the Access Point (AP) is configured as a 40MHz wide channel, only the primary 20MHz channel will be used for clients that support only a 20MHz signal where maximum connection speed is around 130Mbps on two data streams.

Most USB Dongles that I'm aware of, are only a single data stream, so this places data throughput at around 65 -72Mbps as the maximum on a 20MHz channel.

With distance and signal interference many 40MHz connections become unstable and often perform worse than a 20MHz channel. By reducing the channel width to a single 20MHz you can reduce interference, boost signal quality and thus bandwidth.

Many devices have a 40MHz intolerance bit set which means they do not support 40MHz channel width.

The only down side to all this is that the WiFi router/modem AP will maintain a connection speed of the lowest connecting device.

This means on a TP-Link TD-W8960N configured for high speed Notebooks and etc at 300Mbps (2 data streams (2x2) at 40MHz channel width on the 2.4GHz frequency) may be slightly impacted by a client data stream at a connection speed of 65-72Mbps. This means you may see your notebook (high-speed) WiFi client downgrade it's connection speed to 65Mbps during times of high multi access connections from both the 65Mbps client and the 300Mbps client.
This is not a problem with the TD-W8960N, it's just the way WiFi works.

This is why people attempt to remove all 802.11g WiFi clients from a network as at a connection speed of 54Mbps they are the lowest common denominator.

20Mhz should still provide the ability to view compressed video without any problems.

In short, You should be fine using 20MHz channel width.