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Whenever I enable WiFi password on my network, all the Mac's in the house drop to 802.11a, instead of N.

Here are the screenshots of a password-less world.

MacBook Air:

Without Password - MacBook Air

DGND3700 - Netgear Router Settings

Without Passowrd - Netgear Settings

Now as soon as that password is enabled (WPA2-PSK [AES]) - all connections automatically drop to 802.11a, and so does the transmit speed.

I would understand if this was the case with TKIP or both TKIP&AES being enabled, but I only go for the AES.

Why is this the case? Can you recommend a solution which would prevent 'a' from ever being connected to, and only 'n' be the functional network.

Thank you.

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Most likely, your 802.11a network is encrypted and your 802.11n network is not. So with encryption enabled, it can only connect to the 802.11a network. With encryption disabled, it can only connect to the 802.11n network. The configuration problem is most likely on the other end. – David Schwartz Dec 27 '11 at 6:58
Thank you David. With the router in question - netgear dgnd3700, I can enable/disable 2.4GHz b+g+n and 5.0Ghz a+n; of the networks I can't actually choose whether it will be only a or n. Thus Encryption/Password as far as the UI is letting me see is for all network types in that 2.4 or 5GHz spectrum. Now as far as the 2.4, when enabling it - the connection defaults to 'g', and not 'n' anyway. – RomanT Dec 27 '11 at 7:59
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1 Answer

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Ended up being a bug. Asked to downgrade the firmware by Netgear to a previous build.

EDIT:

Firmware installed version was V1.0.0.12_1.0.17, and I was asked to install V1.0.0.12_1.0.12

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Can you be more specific? Who asked whom? Specific firmware numbers? More info on that bug? That could make the answer very helpful for other people affected by the same issue... – Alois Mahdal Jan 22 at 23:21
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