Which 802.11 mode is in use by a device?

[RoConno]

I guess my first question is can a D-Link Dir-601 operate in 802.11g and 802.11n mode at the same time? I have a D-Link Dir-601 WiFi router and was wondering if there is a status page that would tell me if a device is connected to the router in 802.11g or 802.11n mode? I have some devices that are "N" capable and some that are "G" capable. Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

[alkemyst]

I am not familiar with DLINK but anything you can see will be through it's GUI so I'd check there.

B, G, N can all be attached at once unless you turn that off. If a B device attaches with G or N you take a big hit as everything needs to dumb-down to the lowest common denominator. Your G and N devices will see speeds a little better than pure B, but not much.

With G and N only enabled the hit is not so bad as G is decent for most internet needs. If you do file sharing you will see the hit more apparently as you N devices throttle down to G beckon intervals.

If you need to support both N and non-N (or G and non-G) devices a dual band/dual radio works great. I have a security camera/guest network on 2.4GHz offering G speeds due to my cameras. I have a 5GHz network that is pure N.

 

[mammador]

Most routers allow for concurrent signals.

In the admin control panel (in most routers, the device's IP address is needed to access it - usually it's 192.168.1.1) you can check/uncheck the b/g/n function.

Even though most wifi-capable nodes are N these days (well n has been around for 2/3 years now), some models still are b/g. I usually set my home network to b/g/n, in the event a friend/relative/gf comes round with an older device.

 

[mammador]

Also, it would be NIC-specific (so to speak). If a given node has an n NIC, then it will receive n traffic. If a another host has a g NIC, then it will only receive g traffic.

 

[RoConno]

Thank You alkemyst & mammador for the help. I was able to find the information on the router's info pages. Got my questions answered. Thanks again.

 

[stevech]

use of 802.11g and 802.11n is on-going by client. That is, if laptop A is 11g only, and laptop B is 11g/n, the routers sends/receives data packets (frames) in the mode that each client laptop supports. It's sequential of course, because any one frame is sent to one laptop/device, and vice-versa for the from-client data frames.

There are a few 802.11 management data frames sent in a generic format so that all client types can receive - such as the beacon that advertises the existence of the AP/WRouter, and its SSID.