Worth it? Adding access point

[hat]

I have an ASUS RT-N66R router. The router is capable of wireless N, as are most of my devices in the house. To my knowledge, the only things in here that do not support N are the two PS3 consoles we have (which surprised me, I thought they would be N). I wanted to run my router in N only, instead of supporting the older networks... but that drops support for the PS3. I'm considering adding an access point to create a separate WLAN (in G mode) for the PS3, so I can run my router in N only mode and still have a way for the PS3 to connect. I would simply wire them up, but sometimes we move them out of the bedroom into the living room, so a wire isn't the best idea. I'm hoping this way we can have better performance for both our N devices and the PS3.

 

[jboydgolfer]

isnt "N" backwards compatible?

 

[RCoon]

so I can run my router in N only mode

Why on earth would you need to do this?

 

[R-T-B]

Why on earth would you need to do this?

In the wireless-G era, there was a slight performance boost from running in G-exclusive mode.

No idea if this is still the case.

 

[bonehead123]

I'm not a networking expert by any means, but your device is backwards compatible. And since it has both 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands available, I would to try to separate the devices that way, before buying another router to use as an access point (unless you already have 1).

I have a my stuff set up this way, with the slower devices (2 OLD Roku's and an OLD chromebook) getting their wireless (G) signals from the 2.4ghz band, and everything else (new roku's/cells/my new lappy) on the faster 5ghz (AC) band.

This works well for me but of course, YMMV

Good luck with your solution !

 

[hat]

I'd be willing to try that, but I don't know how to do that or check it to verify whatever device I want to check is on the 5ghz band... And what if my n devices aren't 5ghz capable?

I'm all for smarter use and optimization. I'd rather set up my router better than I already have it and use it more efficiently. In my router settings I noticed there are two different pages for 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The SSID for both pages are the same. I suppose I could change the SSIDs to read something like "Brain Scorcher 2.4" and "Brain Scorcher 5" and try to specify it that way?

 

[hat]

Well, I did that and it seems to work. The 5GHz support in my house is disappointing, though. Only my Dell Venue 7 and fairly new laptop can see it.

 

[remixedcat]

I would add an AP instead of an extender anyday. extenders degrade your existing router as well as halving your b/w

 

[taz420nj]

Whether or not your router will benefit from running in N-only mode is dependent on the number of radios the router has. Cheapo routers usually have one radio, and in this case N performance will suffer if G is enabled. Not only that but with G enabled you don't have the ability to do 40MHz wide channels which is required for 150Mbps connections. If the router has two or three radios, then it can do simultaneous G and 150Mbps N (three radio routers can do G as well as N in the 2.4 and 5GHz ranges simultaneously) without a performance hit - so disabling G in a two or three radio router is pointless. And yes there will be separate SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5GHz bands, but they are (usually) on the same VLAN. And when I set up a dual band router that is exactly how I name them.

And at the point the PS3 was released, I'm pretty sure N was still in draft. Not only that but using Wifi for a game console is pretty much sacrilege. That's why it has a GigE port.