How to set-up a DUAL BAND wireless network.

this is a great review. however, what if your original base station is connected to a wired network (via the ethernet out) as well? How would this scenario be handled? Would the wired network be connected to one of the ethernet ports on the new router (working as both a wireless and wired bridge)?

Your diagram is very similar to what I ended up with. And it seems to be working WAY better than with the mixed network. A couple of differences though:

1. I am using the new AEBSn as to be my firewall and connect via it's WAN port to the DSL/Cable Modem. I can't think of any major pros/cons either way.

2. The hardwire, or bridged connection is a CAT5 cable between one of the AEBSn LAN ports, to one of the old AEBS LAN ports (the WAN port on the old AEBS is not used).

Also just as a note, I had to set "Allow this network to be extended" on the AEBSn, and set bridge mode on the old AEBS.

This setup appears to work well . I was using a netgear 854 as a mixed b/g/n ..but from observation and in reading the 'pre-n' standard, it seems like the only way to get near the peak performance is in the 5.8 Ghz space.. This unfortunately forces one into a multiple router configuration.

So I grabbed an N.. it's in bridge mode to the existing B/G/N .. I'm getting way better throughput on the Mac than I did in mixed mode, and can still access everything on the network. We'll see how it functions during the next week or two in terms of holding connections and the like . the 5.8 also makes sense in my environment which has a lot of 2.4 GHz wireless,cordless, and yes, even microwave oven traffic..At any given moment, there are 30-36 access points visible, all in channels 1- 14 !

Not sure if we'll ever see a consumer router that can dual-band 5.8 and 2.4 traffic simultaneously.. and, if we do, it will cost as much as two separate routers.

I am trying to do the same thing. But currently have no use for the n network, just a networked disk.
So I would like the "connection" from AEBS old (has internet) main base station to the AEBSn to be wireless g.
Doing what I think is correct config manual and still get steady amber on AEBSn, everything else still works.
BTW I am doing config of AEBSn via ethernet direct to ABBSn.

PB G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Do you want to have the second base station some distance away from the first, is that why you want the connection wireless. If it is you want both base stations to participate in a WDS network.

If it isn't and both base stations are near to each other you would be much better off setting it up as per the diagram and having 2 (g) networks, things would move much faster than in a network of participating base stations.

I tried the dual band and it didn't work well for me, as soon as I would start streaming to the AE the n network would start suffering, even using the 5Ghz band, ended up using the dual..

My other AP is a Netopia which is really powerful and using some other technology on top of G to perform better, maybe that's why it's running the N network down...

Glyn-

One quick question about the dual-band setup: Can devices on the g side communicate with devices on the n side of the network (i.e., share files) or are the two bands separate? Can a Macbook on the n side connect to an Airport Express on the g side and stream music via AirTunes? I have both g and n devices and want to set up a dual-band network but I want to make sure some of the devices can still be networked.

It seems like the devices should be able to communicate since the old and new Airport Extremes are connected via ethernet...but no one who I've spoken with at Apple seems to be sure about this.

I set this exact scenario up using the new 802.11n extreme and a 802.11 express unit. Works beautifully, allows everything to communicate at its max speed, and devices on either network can communicate with each other seamlessly.

Glyn, Nice writeup.

I posted yesterday in this forum, that when I went to the 2 frequency network, the AEBS problems stopped happening. I was having AirDisks drop, could not re-authenticate, etc. Since adding an Airport Express on 2.4GHZ for th g/b nodes, all is hunky-dory. It has been 24 hours and the AirDisks are still online and running. Didn't happen with a singular AEBS(n) running on 2.4 withb/g/n mix. THey kept losing connectivity and bad authentications on the AirDIsk stuff.

Apple has a way to go on this device. I am just hoping when the Apple TV shows up, it "just works" because if it doesn't, I will be sad 😉

I've done some testing and here are my findings:

- 2 Computers, 1 C2D N enabled and iMac G only in 2 diff rooms
- 2 AX to stream music
- Transfer of a 446 Mb avi file from Airdisk to C2D
- 2 Wifi Networks: 1) G only from a Netopia 2) Depending from settings from AE(n), Both Base Station are placed aside. When G network is available both AX are connected.
- With or No airtunes means a stream to the 2 AX from iMac while transferring the 446 Mb file to the C2D.

446 MB / AE(n) 5 Ghz N / No Airtunes / Netopia Off / 2:47
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz N Only / Auto Ch / No Airtunes / Netopia Off / 2:13
446 MB / AE(n) 5 Ghz N / No Airtunes / Netopia On / 3:14
446 MB / AE(n) 5 Ghz N / With Airtunes / Netopia On / 3:20
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz N Only / Auto Ch/ No Airtunes / Netopia On / 2:29
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz N Only / Auto Ch / With Airt / Netopia On / Unusable
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz Mixed / Auto Ch / No Airtunes / Netopia Off / 2:17
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz Mixed / Auto Ch / With Airtunes / Netopia Off / 3:03

Here are the findings:

- Without any G network (meaning no Airtunes possible) the 2.4 Ghz N Only performs much better than the 5 Ghz N

- While streaming Music the 2.4 Ghz Mixed performs better then the 5 Ghz N (Dual Band Network)!

These are my findings with my settings, it could be different, but I'm pretty sure you will find the same behavior on your side. And BTW, the theoretical thru-put means nothing, only real life usage testing is worth something. So on my side I'm going for a single mixed network.

Hope this sheds light for some of you.

Micha