DGN1000, how to find best channel to use and connecting at 150mbps?

skanky · 18 Dec 2010 at 22:11

i have one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-165-NG and at the moment for wireless, i have set the channel selection to "auto" but i'd like to, for my own peace of mind, find out which channel has the best coverage all over my house whilst avoiding nearby network.

long story short, i guess i'm after a program where i can walk to different rooms/locations, run something for it to show the networks it can see (plus channel) and i can make a best guess choice myself. even better if there is program can do all the work for me? eg, walk to a room, click, walk to another room, click then calculate results at the end etc.

also, the router is capable of connecting wireless client at speeds up to 150mbps given compatible adapters blah blah. however i have 2 laptops that show that they are only connecting at 54mbps:
-"Dell Wireless 1505 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card" (dell d430)
-"Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN" (lenovo x201s)

both machines using windows 7, any idea what i'm doing wrong? in both cases using wireless drivers from the respective company's site instead of windows update.

rctneil · 18 Dec 2010 at 23:20

Have a look at InSSIDer. It will show neighboring networks and their wireless channels

By the way, how do you check what speed you are connected at?

skanky · 18 Dec 2010 at 23:58

i'll check that app out, thanks.

for connection speed, im going by the wireless properties (win7: control panel/network+sharing then click on the wireless network name next to the signal bars)

im sure theres going to be a proper way but this'll do me, for now.

skanky · 19 Dec 2010 at 02:23

-found out why my dell was only connecting at 54, it needed drivers for the 1505 card, but typically, dell offer no current w7 x64 driver for that card as what was loaded seemed to be the windows driver. so whereas i had flakey wifi, where i am now, its quite stable so far and copying files to my server is much much better!

also with that driver i installed the dell utility which a) has a site survey so no need for the additional inssider app and b) the tray icon changes colour depending on the signal strength so much better than the default windows icon!