(Ed: This was originally written in 2009 when I was reviewing the WNR 3500)
As I finish up the third day of frustrating testing with the Netgear WNR 3500 Wireless-N Gigabit router, I’ve come to a simple realization: There just aren’t enough channels at 2.4 Ghz to make 300 Mbps wireless N work.
Wireless-G has 11 channels (conveniently numbered 1 thru 11). There does seem to be a bit of a bleed into adjacent channels, so if your neighbor has a router at channel 6, you may not be able to set yours to channel 5 or 7 and get reliable connections.
Wireless N gets to 300 Mbps by combining 4 adjacent channels into one big, fast 300 Mbps channel. So the channel options become more limited:
Channels 1 – 4, 2 – 5, 3 – 6, 4 to 7, 5 to 8, 6 to 10, and 7 to 11. So there are only 7 possible choices.
But where it gets difficult is if you have neighbors or interference in any of the 802.11 channels. If channel 3 is being used by a neighbor, then you only have 2 choices:
6-10 or 7-10.
If you have a neighbor on channel 3 and a neighbor on channel 7, then you don’t have any choices, aside from upgrading to dual-band wireless N, which will give you channels and 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.
