I have a wireless networking problem. I’m not asking anyone to actually solve my specific problem because I know this isn’t a technical support forum. All I’m asking is if anyone knows of a known situation relating to my problem.
I cannot connect wirelessly with wireless N equipment. I have tried three wireless G adapters and routers and three wireless N adapters and routers. Wireless G equipment connects with no problems. Wireless N equipment will work when wired, but not wirelessly. I’ve tried this on three laptops, two of which are running Windows XP, and one running Windows Vesta Ultimate 32-bit edition.
Unless all your N equipment is by the same manufacturer that’ll be your problem. N still hasn’t been fully standardised so there are lots of incompatibilities between equipment from different sources.
Are you saying the N routers won’t work (wirelessly) at all, or that they won’t allow full N connections? If the answer is “at all” for all 3 setups I would suspect some sort of RF interference from other wireless gear, or firewall (or similar software) incompatibility. N gear should fall back to G or B mode unless you’ve locked it to N only mode. Is there some common gateway or firewall software running on all the PCs?
Yes, I’m saying that N routers won’t work at all wirelessly. I have tried running them on different channels. I have disabled all firewalls. I’ve set it up to run in all modes.
This is why I’m so puzzled by this: I think I’ve covered all the bases.
Even with no security enabled and fully visbile SSID keys?
The only substantive difference between your G and N setups (I can see) is that the notebooks would all need PCCARD or USB N adapters. Did you specifically turn OFF all the notebooks built in wireless G cards (via external switch or BIOS) before you inserted the N cards/adapters and loaded the N adapter drivers & software?
I have tried it with no security, WEP and WPA. SSID is visible. I have set it on G only, on N only and mixed. I have used the 20mhz and 40mhz channels. I have tried channels 1, 6 and 11.
I’m sorry, I’m not being clear. I don’t mean switches on the router or changes via the router setup page. I mean did you physically turn off the notebook’s internal G/B wireless cards (switch is typically on the notebook chassis or via notebook BIOS setup) before inserting the N cards?
Well… I’m out of ideas. Modern wireless routers are pretty much plug and play and the N wireless spec is a supersets of B/G and can drop down to that mode if required. If both N routers + cards are refusing to work period I’d wait till the spec gets settled out later this year.
My best setup to date has been using a Linksys MIMO router with the notebooks built in G mode. I tried the MIMO PCCARD adapter, but it gave virtually no real world speed, connection quality or performance boost over the notebook’s native G mode so i returned the adapter. The MIMO router, however, gave MUCH getter coverage (under G mode) than the Linksys G wireless router I was using. If I were you I’d just get a decent N wireless and use it in G mode.
