creating an ad-hoc wifi network with 802.11n (5ghz)


Recommended Posts

I live in an apartment where I can easily see over 40 wifi routers within my area. This causes major interference and I frequently get dropped connections. Is there a way to set my laptop (connected to ethernet to the router) to broadcast wifi signal at 5ghz (I have intel wifi link 5300) just to see if it will ease the problem.

any ideas?

  On 21/02/2010 at 17:29, nullie said:

Yes, Intel MyFi which is included in the Intel WiFi driver package. You have to manually install it. Won't do 5GHz, though, and I believe N mode can't be done using ad-hoc mode, only access-point mode.

Yeah, for some reason i remember that being the case. 802.11A (5Ghz) didn't have Ad-hoc support either and i think it's a carry over from that.

  On 21/02/2010 at 22:05, iobilly said:

is this a limitation for any wifi adapter?

No. As far as I'm aware, only some wi-fi adaptors support 802.11n ad-hoc. Check your wi-fi adaptor's settings. If you can't find it then chances are, it doesn't support it. It should work on the 5GHz band as I don't see any reason why it shouldn't.

Check the following link. There is support for creating a Ad-hoc network with 802.11a (the 5GHz) with mentioned Intel adapter. You will have to unable it via device properties.

How to access and configure advanced Wi-Fi adapter settings

Just to be clear there is no Ad-hoc support for native 802.11n (, may be available as vender specific feature). As you can see from the configuration you have to switch back to either 802.11b/g or 802.11a for Ad-hoc networks.

So why don't you just get a N router? What channels are these other routers running on? Set yours to be as far away as possible from the strongest signal channels.

You can use something like netstumbler (free) to see what channels the other networks are on - for example if quite often 6 is default. If so then make yours 1 or 11.

Yeah I have something simillar. but this is what I get from inSSIDer: I get upwards of 40APs.

2mzkxn4.jpg

I get disconnected about twice a day and I need to restart my router before I could reconnect wirelessly (even if I am on channel 5, and based on Inssider, nobody is on that channel). I also tried another router (borrowed it, running DDWRT, WRT160N) and this happens too on that router.

Sort them by signal strength.. And 1 channel away not really going to help much - you want to be as many channels away as possible. Only worry about the ones that have some strength to the signal.

Well if you borrowed a N router and it was still happening.. How would a ad-hoc be any better? What networks do you see on the 5ghz?

Like I said you need to be as far away as possible 5 and 6 are 2 close together - I agree channel 1 would prob be your best option.

There is overlap on the channels

post-14624-12669632577746_thumb.jpg

Notice channel 6 starts at

2424.5

Channels 2 thru 5 are still in this range - but channel 1 ends at 2424.5, so no overlap.

So you normally see channels 1, 6 and 11 used the most since these give the best separation.

edit: You can also look to turning your fragmentation setting lower, and your RTS threshold setting and you could see if enabling CTS can help - it can be helpful when there is interference. But these setting can effect performance.

Take a look at your netstat -s, are you seeing lots of retransmits, errors?

Edited by BudMan

IPv4 Statistics

  Packets Received                   = 298513
  Received Header Errors             = 0
  Received Address Errors            = 11
  Datagrams Forwarded                = 0
  Unknown Protocols Received         = 14
  Received Packets Discarded         = 1428
  Received Packets Delivered         = 367666
  Output Requests                    = 259672
  Routing Discards                   = 0
  Discarded Output Packets           = 4068
  Output Packet No Route             = 8
  Reassembly Required                = 0
  Reassembly Successful              = 0
  Reassembly Failures                = 0
  Datagrams Successfully Fragmented  = 0
  Datagrams Failing Fragmentation    = 0
  Fragments Created                  = 0

IPv6 Statistics

  Packets Received                   = 38686
  Received Header Errors             = 0
  Received Address Errors            = 0
  Datagrams Forwarded                = 0
  Unknown Protocols Received         = 3
  Received Packets Discarded         = 49
  Received Packets Delivered         = 85907
  Output Requests                    = 80834
  Routing Discards                   = 0
  Discarded Output Packets           = 827
  Output Packet No Route             = 90
  Reassembly Required                = 0
  Reassembly Successful              = 0
  Reassembly Failures                = 0
  Datagrams Successfully Fragmented  = 0
  Datagrams Failing Fragmentation    = 0
  Fragments Created                  = 0

ICMPv4 Statistics

                            Received    Sent
  Messages                  701         697
  Errors                    0           0
  Destination Unreachable   689         693
  Time Exceeded             0           0
  Parameter Problems        0           0
  Source Quenches           12          0
  Redirects                 0           0
  Echo Replies              0           0
  Echos                     0           4
  Timestamps                0           0
  Timestamp Replies         0           0
  Address Masks             0           0
  Address Mask Replies      0           0
  Router Solicitations      0           0
  Router Advertisements     0           0

ICMPv6 Statistics

                            Received    Sent
  Messages                  1643        3073
  Errors                    0           0
  Destination Unreachable   279         277
  Packet Too Big            0           0
  Time Exceeded             0           0
  Parameter Problems        0           0
  Echos                     0           0
  Echo Replies              0           0
  MLD Queries               0           0
  MLD Reports               0           0
  MLD Dones                 0           0
  Router Solicitations      0           705
  Router Advertisements     93          0
  Neighbor Solicitations    596         1495
  Neighbor Advertisements   675         596
  Redirects                 0           0
  Router Renumberings       0           0

TCP Statistics for IPv4

  Active Opens                        = 7656
  Passive Opens                       = 1906
  Failed Connection Attempts          = 158
  Reset Connections                   = 278
  Current Connections                 = 20
  Segments Received                   = 339012
  Segments Sent                       = 231891
  Segments Retransmitted              = 2431

TCP Statistics for IPv6

  Active Opens                        = 121
  Passive Opens                       = 118
  Failed Connection Attempts          = 5
  Reset Connections                   = 116
  Current Connections                 = 0
  Segments Received                   = 2677
  Segments Sent                       = 2675
  Segments Retransmitted              = 16

UDP Statistics for IPv4

  Datagrams Received    = 22272
  No Ports              = 1268
  Receive Errors        = 27
  Datagrams Sent        = 22983

UDP Statistics for IPv6

  Datagrams Received    = 68401
  No Ports              = 33
  Receive Errors        = 16
  Datagrams Sent        = 74289

How do I do the RTS? I remember seeing CTS on DDWRT, but I dont have access to that router anymore.

Maybe your router does not support tweaking these settings? I would give it a go on channel 1 for a while before looking to tweak those settings.

On a bit of a side note - unless your specifically using ipv6 (are you using homegroups?) couldn't hurt to disable it. Some routers can have issues with it. Its easy enough to disable with a reg entry -- google for it. Just as its easy enough to turn it back on - remove the reg entry you created.

So you could look into that as an option as well - but again I would give it some time running on channel 1 before making any other adjustments.

Well if your using homegroups then you have to leave IPv6 enabled. It was just a thought - your router should be fine, normally if they don't like ipv6 they have issues right away. So how is it working on channel 1?

Your are facing noise/interference issue here. RTS/CTS will not help you in this case as it is designed to resolve issue with congested wireless network & near-far scenarios.

Do you have 802.11a under 802.11 Mode? BTW which device are you working with?

If you have 802.11a mode go for it. It is likely that you will find less interference from 802.11a networks as 802.11a coverage area is smaller then 802.11b/g networks.

If 802.11a is not available, there isnt much you can do. Because the actual solution is to either sheild or suppress the interfering signal. However, you may try to reduce the Fragmentation Threshold. I recommend you try 1520, 1008, and 514. And see which one gives is the least errors.

On channel 1, it seems to be a bit better, but I still get dropped connections. Also. whats strange is that sometimes when I get disconnected, I cannot reconnect at all. I cannot even access my router's web setup (even from a wired desktop). I have to reset the router completely. This was also the case with the linksys WRT160N running DDWRT.

My router is Zyxel P-2602HW-D1A.

I have tried to set the fragmentation threshold to 1520 I will observe what will happen.

edit: i am also iobilly. seems i have logged into an account i dont use...

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.