Wireless

[BuffaloBrian]

Please note that there are many variables here.  The legal limit set by the FCC is to never transmit OVER 30 dbm.  To accomplish that, the average power setting will be lower since the peaks must remain under 30 dbm.  The dbm being reported in DD-WRT firmware is NOT the peak power, but the average power setting.  It also doesn't include gain from antennae, etc.  So 20 dbm power setting gets close to peak power of 30 dbm.  It is similar to comparing audio amplifiers and comparing peak power to RMS/average power.

The FCC report logs the peak power measured out of the antennae, not the internal chipset setting.  As some have found, the performance is superior to competitors in real-world testing.  Of course, everyones' mileage may vary, but please also know that since Buffalo HP routers are flirting with the limits of FCC, certain channels have to be detuned additionally to keep peaks down.

Also, spurious emissions outside the band of 2400-2483 have different limits, so lower and higher channels (e.g. CH 1 and 11) have additional requirements for lower power to keep their spurious emissions below the cap.

Center channels will give optimized performance.  Additionally, the nature of Wi-Fi is that 20 MHz will transmit at higher power as well, so to accomplish max power, 20 MHz channels and center channels should be selected.

-Brian

[BuffaloBrian]

Please note that there are many variables here.  The legal limit set by the FCC is to never transmit OVER 30 dbm.  To accomplish that, the average power setting will be lower since the peaks must remain under 30 dbm.  The dbm being reported in DD-WRT firmware is NOT the peak power, but the average power setting.  It also doesn't include gain from antennae, etc.  So 20 dbm power setting gets close to peak power of 30 dbm.  It is similar to comparing audio amplifiers and comparing peak power to RMS/average power.

The FCC report logs the peak power measured out of the antennae, not the internal chipset setting.  As some have found, the performance is superior to competitors in real-world testing.  Of course, everyones' mileage may vary, but please also know that since Buffalo HP routers are flirting with the limits of FCC, certain channels have to be detuned additionally to keep peaks down.

Also, spurious emissions outside the band of 2400-2483 have different limits, so lower and higher channels (e.g. CH 1 and 11) have additional requirements for lower power to keep their spurious emissions below the cap.

Center channels will give optimized performance.  Additionally, the nature of Wi-Fi is that 20 MHz will transmit at higher power as well, so to accomplish max power, 20 MHz channels and center channels should be selected.

-Brian

[mishax1]

Continueing here after contacting the support.

High latency and packet loss on WZR-HP-G300NH with BrainSlayer's firmware now have the same issue with the new ALPHA build 16783 from Buffalo site. please read my post on DDWRT forum: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=86413&highlight=latency

"Hi all,
After testing a few connection methods at www.pingtest.net with a local server I've got the following results:

-BrainSlayer ddwrt (15962/earlier) over l2tp/pptp connection got ~35ms + 0-2% packet loss.

-Buffalo ddwrt(14998) over l2tp/pptp connection got ~18ms without packet loss.

-When the router was set to DHCP + win7 l2tp got ~14ms without packet loss.

The HW was ARRIS(cable modem) > WZR-HP-G300NH > wired 1gbit connection to a laptop."

With BrainSlayer's firmware AND with the new buffalo ddwrt build 16783 I am getting a 20ms increase in ping and sometimes a small packet loss, This doesn't happen with the windows l2tp / pptp connection nor with build 14998 from buffalo's website.

NOTE: Tests made over an Israeli ISP (bezeqint).

[guidows]

two issues

1) The firmware has problems with Firefox (windows). By example, if I go to wireless, add a virtual interface in Firefox, I only receive a white screen. That happens in many other parts in DD-WRT.

2) I can't get a "client" wireless connection. I'm using the unofficial DD-WRT (BrainSlayer) and I have no problems if I configure my Wireless as a client of another Wifi. It gets an WAN IP with no problem and serves as a NAT for my home. But when I try to do the same thing with the official Buffalo builds, it's not possible to connect with the other router. That's is very annoying because the main reason for me when I choosed the WZR was the wireless client function.

I'm coping the ifconfig from the buffalo firmware and from the BrainSlayer.

Buffalo's Firmware

root@DD-WRT:/tmp/var/log# ifconfig
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:10324 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:625983 (611.3 KiB)  TX bytes:7776 (7.5 KiB)

br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          inet addr:192.168.11.1  Bcast:192.168.11.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2863 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2423 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:265924 (259.6 KiB)  TX bytes:1440832 (1.3 MiB)

br0:0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          inet addr:169.254.255.1  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2889 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2423 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:311322 (304.0 KiB)  TX bytes:1440832 (1.3 MiB)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:1056 (1.0 KiB)  TX bytes:1056 (1.0 KiB)

wifi0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:11684 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1819
          TX packets:68 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:499
          RX bytes:1064015 (1.0 MiB)  TX bytes:11454 (11.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:2 Memory:b80c0000-b8100000

BrainSlayer's

root@DD-WRT:~# ifconfig
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:1D:73:91:46:AE
          inet addr:201.215.5.172  Bcast:201.215.5.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:10426880 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3400147 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:163723255 (156.1 MiB)  TX bytes:262085938 (249.9 MiB)

ath0.1    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1828511 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2766280 errors:0 dropped:35 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:159943968 (152.5 MiB)  TX bytes:3634493138 (3.3 GiB)

br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          inet addr:192.168.1.1  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3827148 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:5847473 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:423204784 (403.5 MiB)  TX bytes:4179601455 (3.8 GiB)

br0:0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          inet addr:169.254.255.1  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2020268 errors:0 dropped:3 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3595266 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:321810468 (306.9 MiB)  TX bytes:774189740 (738.3 MiB)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:826 (826.0 B)  TX bytes:826 (826.0 B)

wifi0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:73:91:46:AE
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:14765683 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2951311
          TX packets:5765555 errors:27150 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:499
          RX bytes:3318876021 (3.0 GiB)  TX bytes:3479801391 (3.2 GiB)
          Interrupt:2 Memory:b80c0000-b8100000

[dyelton]

I tried adding a custom service under Services Priority for QoS (TCP/UDP port 4072) and clicked save and it locked me out of the router.  That's to say thatI could no longer access the router's setup page, it just gave me a 404.  The router appears to function at this point, I can ping it and all wireless and wired traffic flow normally.  QoS seems to even work, at least for the MAC address that I have listed.

I unplugged the router and plugged it back in and I was able to get to the router's setup again, but as soon as I clicked add/edit under Services Priority it does the same thing again...and again.  Unplugging the router and plugging it back in brings it back every time.  So now I'm stuck...I can't add/edit/remove this custom service, and it doesn't even show up in the list of services to add to QoS.

**EDIT**

It looks like this only happens when using Chrome (even though the 404 occurs with other browsers after it happens until a reboot is completed).  When editing via Safari everything is ok and I can actually commit the change(s).  Not as big of a deal for me as it was previously as now I know to just not use Chrome when making changes to settings on the router.

[gahgah]

Changing settings in GoogleChrome made my router go crazy. No access the router's setup page, just a 404, even wired. But i could see wireless signal...

Tried everything, simple reset, 30/30/30, etc. Thought it was bricked...Suddenly, it started working again..

Do you suggest go back to build 14998? 

When it was running user friendly it did not occur.

Actually, it happens with IE too..if i change anything with this fw the router stops working, and has to be reboot...

can´t set static ip, can´t port foward manually, the pppoe drops constanstly etc

[crabnebula]

Will there ever be an update to fix the wireless dropout issues that have been there forever with dd-wrt?

[windracer]

I think 16783 bricked my router? I just got a new WZR-HP-G300NH and got it set up with the version of DD-WRT it came out of the box with (DD-WRT v24SP2-MULTI (03/21/11) std (SVN revision 16519)).

Then I saw on the support web site that a newer version of the Buffalo-branded DD-WRT professional firmware was available (V24-SP2 build 16783) so I downloaded that and attempted to upgrade.

The upgrade process failed, and now my router just has a green power light and a solid red DIAG light. If I reboot it, I see all of the lights flash on briefly, and then it's back to just power and diag.

I'm no stranger to DD-WRT (I've been running it for years on my trust Buffalo WHR-HP-G54), so I've tried the 30/30/30 reset, but the router seems to be completely unresponsive. Is there anything else I can try, or should I return it to my place of purchase (Amazon)?

[irishtr]

TFTP method is your last chance.  Look up how to do on DD-WRT forums as here probably wont have any clue!

[irishtr]

Thing that pisses me off the most with this router is the inability to maintain a solid 300Mbps... Sure the first 1-2mins it shows that but then all wireless devices drop down to 130/65.  I have tested all these devices on other routers and they successfully maintain 300Mbps all night and day long.  Yet Mr HighPower Buffalo with any version of Bufallo F/W from 1.74-1.76 along with any DD-WRT (Buffalo/DD-WRT provided) always drop down to a lower rate!

I know its not my laptops/locations problem as they seem to work fine with every other router I've tested capable of 300Mbps solid with same exact settings matched into the WZR-HP-300GN (which no clue why should be more than capable of this feat with its hardware specs) alas the problem ultimately lies with the firmware/drivers designed to run it and unfortunately it hasn't been fixed since its inception!  Plenty of complains all over the web, here, DD-WRT...  Which is a shame, product had so much potential to end up a failing.

[windracer]

---

irishtr wrote:

TFTP method is your last chance.  Look up how to do on DD-WRT forums as here probably wont have any clue!

---

Thanks ... I tried the TFTP method multiple times without luck. I ended up returning the router to Amazon and they sent me a replacement. This one won't upgrade to 16783 either, but I'm just going to leave it alone now and not risk another bricking.