My PC's wifi card only wants to connect to 2.4ghz N

it says the connection speed is 150mbps even though it, and the router, support 5ghz

shouldn't it be 300mbps at 5ghz?

is there any way I can force it to use the higher frequency? I want to make sure Im getting maximum bandwidth.

wifi card: Intel Wifi Link 5100 AGN
router: Linksys E3000

 

Use the intel proset drivers. In the adv driver settings, enable auto 20/40mhz, and I think that's it.

 

Do you have 5 GHz transmission enabled on your router? Usually you have to create a separate SSID and WPA2 key for 5 GHz networks.

 

I have 5ghz and 2.4ghz enabled on the "basic wireless settings page" of the router's web interface. The SSID and Passphrase for both networks are the same though, could that be messing it up?

Also in the advanced driver settings for 5ghz 40/20mhz Auto is enabled, 2.4ghz is set to 20mhz.

EDIT: Well this is weird. I changed it so the SSID for 5ghz was different and now my wifi card sees both networks instead of just one - but when I connect to the new 5ghz network it disconnects from the 2.4ghz one. Hm. Any ideas guys?

EDIT 2: and here's something else kinda weird, but unrelated - I have my very old desktop PC plugged into it on a wired connection and the blue connected light to show an active connection is always on for that slot - even when that PC is turned of, even when I turn that PC's PSU off with the hard switch and unplug it from the electrical outlet. It doesn't do this for any other wired device. Any thoughts?

 

wired recieves a minimal of power from ethernet. An extension of this is PoE.


Anyhow, you must also set to WiFi-N, WPA-PSK, WPA2, AES, otherwise, the settings won't be *perfect* for N (but given the speeds you already get, I'd assume they are set correctly?).

EDIT:Also, is there a "good neighbor policy" enabled?

 

I have both the 5ghz and 2.4ghz configured similarly, Wifi-N only, WPA2-PSK with AES. The only difference apart from the SSID is 2.4ghz is set to 20mhz range only and 5ghz is set to auto range 20-40mhz.

Here's something very odd: when I connected the ethernet plug into the router from this netbook the PC connected to both wireless connections, instead of just the 5ghz. Then when I disconnected, it was back to just 5ghz. Of course I didn't check the 192.168.1.1 interface to see if it was really connected to both, I'm just taking Windows' word for it.

Also the ethernet power thing...where is it drawing this power from if the PC isn't plugged into anything? This is an 8 year old machine (mobo: Asus P4t 533-C) which I'm quite sure has no working battery anywhere on it. No other device connected via ethernet triggers a light on the router when it's powered down. I'm really baffled.


and good neighbor policy? The first thing I did was turn off guest access, if that's what you mean.

 

and to clarify it's not really a performance issue, my speed connected to eithet the 5ghz or 2.4ghz is pretty much as good as it gets for the package I have from my ISP - it's just me wondering about a feature not working right.

 

You can only connect to one type of network at a time, either 2.4 or 5 GHz but not both.

 

Isn't the whole point of a dual band router you connect to both for double the bandwidth?

 

Also shouldn't the connection to 5ghz be 300mbps, not 150mbps?

 

Simultaneous dual-band and dual-band are two completely different things. Some routers are capable of simultaneous connections and some aren't. I'm guessing your router or AP isn't capable. Also, "draft-N" equipment can be only 150Mb/s and still be classified as N... it was only under "draft-N 2.0" (I think) that 300Mb/s became a standard. 300Mb/s usually requires a 3x3 antenna configuration, because to achieve 300Mb/s it uses MIMO technology to open multiple Rx/Tx channels. Also, the reason that the little blue light stays on even when the desktop is not on, is that there is always power to the MoBo if the power-supply is connected to an outlet. Unplug the powersupply from the outlet and wait about 25-30 secs for the capacitors to drain, and the light will go off.

EDIT: For some reason I missed that your router was the E3000... that is simultaneous dual-band capable... Hmm... let me think..

EDIT2: I've never owned the Intel 5100 card, but I can't seem to find a clearcut answer as to whether it's simultaneous dual-band capable. It seems, IMO, that it's only capable of one band at a time, but it's going to have better throughput and range with 5GHz. Is there any way you can dedicate the router to 5GHz only mode? If not, try looking at a 3x3 adapter... like the 5300 or 6300... or an Atheros card, preferably out of an Apple.

 

Well I can confirm it's a Draft N wifi card in my notebook, so that clears up the speed issue - I guess it doesn't support simultaneous dual band either.

How would making the router 5ghz only benefit me, though? I'm intrigued. Right now this netbook is the only device connected wirelessly, and it's 5ghz capable.

 

2.4GHz has proven many times to be slower in throughput and range, so if all you're devices that are going to be using the AP are 5GHz capable, enable that band only, so that your card won't fall back on 2.4GHz. You can go into the router's configuration and enable mixed (B/G/N), B/G only, N-2.4GHz, or N-5GHz.

 

It has separate settings for each band, right now both are set to N only. What do you mean by fall back on the 2.4ghz? Right now I have my notebook set to connect to 5ghz, I can't imagine any situation where it wouldn't be able to connect to that, but would have access to 2.4ghz.

 

Simultaneous dual band is not about using both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and added together. Routers can be simultaneous dual-band but that means that they can run 5GHz band for one computer to connect and 2.4GHz for another to connect. It's impossible to connect to both bands at the same time from one computer.
There's no such thing as simultaneous dual band capable card either- router has two radios so it can set one at 2.4GHz and the other one at 5GHz but your Wi-Fi card has one radio- so it's either 2.4GHz or 5GHz situation.
BTW three antennas are not required to connect at 300mbps- two are enough.
It all depends on how many spatial streams are in use and it's rather complicated.
Back to the point OP- make sure that you use 40MHz channels. Intel 5100 is notorious for causing problems.
Higher frequency has potential for higher bandwidth but your speeds won't be any better unless your 2.4GHz band is over-crowded.
I think this post is a mess- to many things at once- sorry for that

 

Interesting, I had been confused as to whether the 300mbps speed was from being connected to both bands or just a faster connection on the 5ghz band, thanks for clearing that up. I haven't had any issue with my wifi card itself, it's worked perfectly since I bought this PC. I was concerned with it getting 150mbps on wireless N instead of 300mbps, but since its only Draft N that makes sense now. I guess everything's good to go.

Should I leave UPnP enabled? I noticed it was enabled by default on this router, I've never seen that before. If I have it turned on I don't need to forward ports manually right (eg: for Xbox Live to work properly).

 

I'd leave it on- exactly for the reason you've mentioned. Makes life easier as you don't have to manually forward ports.
As for 300mbps- you should be able to achieve this speed on Intel 5100- just make sure that channel width is 40MHz. You can’t get 300mbps with 20MHz width. Intel had dome unusual settings so make sure that the advanced driver settings on your computer do not contradict those on the router.
If I'm not mistaken some old Intel cards refused to use 40MHz channels in 2.4GHz- check what happens if try change it to 5GHz and set 40MHz there.

 

I was about to do what you suggested and change the 5ghz width to 40mhz instead of Auto and...I have changed nothing and I just checked the connection - now it's 300mbps, and has been all day I guess (I hadn't checked). It was 150mbps every other time I've used it.

What the hell Intel?
(Or Microsoft, or Cisco?)

EDIT: and IPv6 is enabled now for some reason, before it always said No Internet.

EDIT 2: Unrelated question- what is this option in the connection properties advanced menu to enable FIPS compliance? Isnt WPA2 with AES already kind of as secure as it gets?

EDIT 3: and now that I check the connection again it's back down to 150mbps. Hm.

 

Anyone know what could be causing the connection speed to fluctuate like that? It seems like a 50/50 chance it says 150 or 300. Once in a while it says 243, too.

 

My guess is the dual band config is taxing the router's capabilities. Try ramping down your 2.4ghz antenna to mixed b/g and leave your 5ghz antenna on N only. After you apply the settings, it would be helpful to unplug the router, wait 30 seconds, then plug it back in. You could even repeat a couple of times just to be sure the settings stick.

The idea is that with one band running at 54mbps and the other at ~270-300mbps your router won't fluctuate from trying to run two bands at the highest speed. Also make sure both bands have different SSID's and that the encryption is the same. If wpa2 with aes encryption isn't working, drop down to the less secure wep-64bit with aes. You don't have to keep it like that, but just to see if it works or not can't hurt.

Of course you could always leave security off and just use MAC address filtering. That's the hardest code to crack imo.

I hope somebody suggests something that eventually works for you. I've heard good things about the E3000 so I'm surprised you're having issues getting full functionality out of it.

 

There's no such thing.

That's the easiest one actually- it's not even a security measure. Take a minute to read about this at smallnetbuilder otherwise you may cause a lot of trouble for someone with recommendations like these.

 

Sorry, I meant a 64-bit WEP key. Quote from Netgear's site:

WEP has three settings: Off (no security), 64-bit (weak security), 128-bit (a bit better security). WEP is not difficult to crack, and using it reduces performance slightly.

It's been a year since I researched MAC Address Filtering, at which time a network hacker who made a living compromising networks told me this was the best method to stop a hacker. Thanks for the correction.

 

I forgot about one thing- in order to achieve 802.11n speeds you have to have WPA2 security so setting it to WEP would cause the network to max out @54mbps.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the MAC address the same for every device of a particular model device? Seems like that wouldn't be very secure, as an outsider could easily spoof MAC addresses of common wireless devices till he found one that worked.

Also I'm very happy with the router, it works great, I'm just curious about some of this wireless weirdness. It's not a big deal at all, since my connection speed to my ISP obviously isn't 300 mbps (the port on the modem Motorola SBV5120 connecting to the router is only a 10/100 port anyway).

Since there's no traffic on the 2.4ghz band would it really tax the router to maintain full speed on the 5ghz band? I'll try setting it to b/g only and see if anything changes. Any idea on the ipv6 weirdness?

EDIT: Wait till you hear this one. I tried disabling the 2.4ghz band altogether and my speed on 5ghz dropped all the way down to 17-24mbps and stayed that way. Now I'm really stumped.

 

First six characters in MAC address are vendor specific (all devices by a given vendor have the same ones) but the rest is unique.
You don't have to do any guesswork either. Please don't take this discussion any further in this direction- forum rules prohibit discussion on bypassing security measures.

As for load on the router caused by two bands- it's not the problem. There are two separate radios and 500MHz CPU that can do a lot more than just keep the connection @300mbps (it's not like it takes care of 300mbps throughput- it's just the speed you are connected at)
nemt- are the Intel drivers up to date (and Linksys firmware while you're at it)?

 

Intel drivers (13.3.0.24 ) and Cisco firmware (1.0.02) are both up to date.

 

I've found the most recent Intel drivers to be problematic on my system. Try one of the older sets. Intel's archive goes back to the beginning of the year, and there are a few available. I'm rolling the 13.2.1.5 set, dated May 2010 and they seem to be OK.