Joined
·
1,686 Posts
I use wifi to connect to my HTPC and stream HD video in mythfrontend on my laptop, to watch TV in bed. But when the neighbors are doing downloads or I heat something in the microwave it gets real choppy, so I did some research about switching to 802.11a. (5GHz)
Turns out that the newest revision of 802.11n (Draft 2.0) uses the 5GHz and 2.5GHz bands simultaneously, automatically routing media streams through 5GHz, because it has a much faster bandwidth and it's in a very non-polluted area of the radio spectrum. 5GHz has traditionally been dicey because freqs that high have a hard time penetrating walls with 'a', but 'n' MIMO technology makes up for that and gives connection ranges up to 250'.
Very little equipment can do Draft 2.0 yet, but I have an Intel 4965AGN miniPCI card in my laptop which can, using the kernel drivers in 2.6.27 and firmware from the intellinuxwireless project. (/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode) Most laptops use a miniPCI wireless card, so you could swap yours out, although if you don't have multiple antennae you won't really get the benefits of MIMO.
# lspci |grep Network
10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
I've found only a couple of routers that can do Draft 2.0, and my choice is the DLink DIR-825, which I recently snagged for $65 on eBay (no power adapter), although they normally run $130. There does not seem to be a way to turn off 2.5GHz in this router unfortunately, nor a way to turn off beacon for cloaking, and DLink support is unresponsive to email so I guess I have to fscking call them.
How do you know that you've actually connected at 'n' speeds? Any time you connect at more than 54Mb/s (iwconfig), you are running 'n'.
Just an FYI for you cream-of-the-crop running Linux. Consider getting out of the 2.5GHz band. It's considerate of your neighbors, gives much higher bandwidth, is much less polluted, and is highly secure as it's unlikely the neighborhood kids will try and hack you in 5GHz.
Turns out that the newest revision of 802.11n (Draft 2.0) uses the 5GHz and 2.5GHz bands simultaneously, automatically routing media streams through 5GHz, because it has a much faster bandwidth and it's in a very non-polluted area of the radio spectrum. 5GHz has traditionally been dicey because freqs that high have a hard time penetrating walls with 'a', but 'n' MIMO technology makes up for that and gives connection ranges up to 250'.
Very little equipment can do Draft 2.0 yet, but I have an Intel 4965AGN miniPCI card in my laptop which can, using the kernel drivers in 2.6.27 and firmware from the intellinuxwireless project. (/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode) Most laptops use a miniPCI wireless card, so you could swap yours out, although if you don't have multiple antennae you won't really get the benefits of MIMO.
# lspci |grep Network
10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
I've found only a couple of routers that can do Draft 2.0, and my choice is the DLink DIR-825, which I recently snagged for $65 on eBay (no power adapter), although they normally run $130. There does not seem to be a way to turn off 2.5GHz in this router unfortunately, nor a way to turn off beacon for cloaking, and DLink support is unresponsive to email so I guess I have to fscking call them.
How do you know that you've actually connected at 'n' speeds? Any time you connect at more than 54Mb/s (iwconfig), you are running 'n'.
Just an FYI for you cream-of-the-crop running Linux. Consider getting out of the 2.5GHz band. It's considerate of your neighbors, gives much higher bandwidth, is much less polluted, and is highly secure as it's unlikely the neighborhood kids will try and hack you in 5GHz.