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I have an Encore ENHWI-2AN34D as a wireless repeater in my WLAN. The router is a TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND 300 mbps N and the repeater is 300 mbps N too, but when I check signal strength with inSSIDer or Ekahau HeatMapper it shows me that router's max rate is 300 mbps but the repeater only shows 54 mbps.

I have both configured for mixed mode G/N.

How can I get that repeater signal to be 300 mbps N same as the router?

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You can't do this with official, certified firmware. WDS and 802.11n do not go together, officially. You need WDS to repeat and you need 802.11n to get 300Mbps.

Note that the hardware can't do WDS and 802.11n at the same time unless either no encryption is used or WPA2-AES is used. So if you're using WEP, WPA, or TKIP, it's not possible with any firmware. Test with no encryption or WPA2-AES to see if your firmware can do it. (Who knows, maybe they were willing to break the rules.)

Because of this kind of silliness and the various quirks in manufacturer firmware (what can you do if there's a bug the manufacturer won't fix?) I strongly recommend not buying a WiFi router or access point unless it is supported by some form of open source firmware such as Tomato, OpenWRT, or DD-WRT.

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  • David thank you, a lot of information!! I will check all you told me.
    – Sergio
    Mar 8, 2012 at 3:52
  • David if I update my repeater firmware with last dd=wrt firmware ( this is possible because my repeater is supported). Can I get more speed or working in N radio mode???
    – Sergio
    Mar 25, 2012 at 21:12
  • Yes. With DD-WRT, you can run WDS and 802.11n up to whatever speed your hardware supports (typically 300Mbps), so long as you use WPA2-AES encryption or no encryption. Mar 25, 2012 at 21:20
  • thank, one more, if the LAN is working in this way even support G radio from some laptops or other that no have N radio card??
    – Sergio
    Mar 25, 2012 at 21:26
  • Yes, so long as you leave the mode set to mixed in the configuration. Mar 25, 2012 at 22:47

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