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Old 12-02-2012, 11:16 PM   #1
6charlong
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Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi router?

I need help to find the right router for my Kindle Fire HD. At present I only have a 2.4GHz router but watching movies the KFHD keeps dropping the signal, 20+ times in a film. It usually reconnects after awhile but that sort of spoils the movie.

It happens when I'm watching Amazon movies, Netflix or Youtube so the problem seems to be at my end. The Kindle has dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi and is advertised as having the fastest Wi-Fi connection.

I'd appreciate hearing if you've found a dual band Wi-Fi router that works well with the Fire HD. Thanks ahead of time.
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Old 12-03-2012, 03:09 AM   #2
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I'm assuming that your current router is a G router? If it is, have you tried changing the channel that your wireless network is operating on? Your problem with the connection dropping is an interference problem rather than a speed problem, so simply changing the channel might solve the problem. Try changing between 1, 6, and 11 to see if that helps, but if you live in an area saturated with wireless networks on all channels, you might need to get a 5ghz router.
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Old 12-03-2012, 03:30 AM   #3
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Yes, that's good advice. I found that I needed to change the channel on my router when my next door neighbour set up her router to use the same channel as mine. The symptom of that, too, was a constantly-dropping connection.
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Old 12-03-2012, 07:08 AM   #4
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I agree with the above. Make sure your router is not a "B" band (slow) router and you are using at least a "G" band router set in g & b mode or g mode only.

Here are two programs that are free that scan for routers and give graphs to show channel usage for your computer.

Do a Google search for "Vistumbler" and "Inssider" and run ether one of them. Then look at the usage graph and then you can chose a channel for your router that is best for you.

Router collisions will gum up/interfere with data transfer if your router and your neighbors are on the same channel and the signal strength of the other router (s) is strong compared to yours.

There are several good android apps that also do the same thing that you can run on your fire.

Look and try WiFi analyzer for example.

Tho a dual band router is a nice choice.
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Old 12-03-2012, 09:22 AM   #5
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A dual band router is not going to make your connection any faster - a device has to pick one or the other band. But channel conflicts are less likely on the 5ghz band, as not very many devices even support 5ghz. Found that out after getting a dual band - and only my bluray player is even capable of 5 ghz.
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Old 12-03-2012, 04:32 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by DuckieTigger View Post
A dual band router is not going to make your connection any faster - a device has to pick one or the other band. But channel conflicts are less likely on the 5ghz band, as not very many devices even support 5ghz. Found that out after getting a dual band - and only my bluray player is even capable of 5 ghz.
Not only that but 5GHz has a shorter range than 2.4GHz.

In addition to trying other channels, you may want to try a range extender/repeater if distance poses a signal problem. These work very well with excellent customer support in the U.S. I use the SR10000.

Amped Wireless Repeaters
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Old 12-03-2012, 05:15 PM   #7
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Yes, that's good advice. I found that I needed to change the channel on my router when my next door neighbour set up her router to use the same channel as mine. The symptom of that, too, was a constantly-dropping connection.
Happens to me too. I live in an apartment building people moving in and out. I'm always fighting to keep my channel. I finally switch routers and that fixed it for me. I had linksys and bought a netgear. It seems everyone here has linksys routers for some reason.
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Old 12-03-2012, 08:01 PM   #8
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Rather than locking yourself into a specific channel, most routers have an "Auto" etting that will dynamically change to the channel with the least interference.
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Old 12-03-2012, 11:58 PM   #9
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Many thanks to all of you.

Following your advice my first step was to find and download the free WiFi Analyzer from the Amazon apps store. It gave me several surprises.

My neighborhood has lots and lots of Wi-Fi routers. Mine was shown on channel 11 along with several others. It recommended I switch to channel 1, 5 or 6 but before I could do anything everything changed. Now those channels were overloaded and it recommended something else. As I watched it was almost like watching a game of tag with the routers in the neighborhood chasing each other up and down the list until it looked like nothing was safe.

I had lots of fun walking around the house with the Kindle in hand measuring signal strength throughout the house. I had been trying to watch videos in almost the worst location I could have chosen. At least now I know where to settle to watch a video.

BTW, it turns out the router I got for Christmas a few years ago is a dual band router but the 5GHz band is the worst unless I'm sitting pretty close to the router which is actually impractical without re-wiring the house.

Thanks again for the help.

Last edited by 6charlong; 12-04-2012 at 12:02 AM.
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Old 12-04-2012, 12:22 AM   #10
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We have a Cisco E4200 dual band. The 5 GHz band has double the throughput and all of our newer devices --- the HP touchpad, an HP laptop, 2 Sony laptops (more than 3 years old), and the Surface RT can use 5 GHz. But the router is on the second floor, the 2.4 Ghz signal can be accessed from all around the house (we have 4 floors), the 5 GHz only reaches devices on the same floor. A nice feature is the guest network, you can allow friends/guests to use your WiFi, but they cannot share your local network resources. All 3 networks are active at all times.
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Old 12-04-2012, 01:47 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by 6charlong View Post
Many thanks to all of you.

Following your advice my first step was to find and download the free WiFi Analyzer from the Amazon apps store. It gave me several surprises.

My neighborhood has lots and lots of Wi-Fi routers. Mine was shown on channel 11 along with several others. It recommended I switch to channel 1, 5 or 6 but before I could do anything everything changed. Now those channels were overloaded and it recommended something else. As I watched it was almost like watching a game of tag with the routers in the neighborhood chasing each other up and down the list until it looked like nothing was safe.

I had lots of fun walking around the house with the Kindle in hand measuring signal strength throughout the house. I had been trying to watch videos in almost the worst location I could have chosen. At least now I know where to settle to watch a video.

BTW, it turns out the router I got for Christmas a few years ago is a dual band router but the 5GHz band is the worst unless I'm sitting pretty close to the router which is actually impractical without re-wiring the house.

Thanks again for the help.
Yep that's how it is here. My new router Auto changes the channel as mention is the post above. So I no longer have to fight anymore. I have 30MB DL speed so we can have many devices going and no issues whatsoever.
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Old 12-04-2012, 03:03 AM   #12
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Originally Posted by 6charlong View Post
My neighborhood has lots and lots of Wi-Fi routers. Mine was shown on channel 11 along with several others. It recommended I switch to channel 1, 5 or 6 but before I could do anything everything changed. Now those channels were overloaded and it recommended something else. As I watched it was almost like watching a game of tag with the routers in the neighborhood chasing each other up and down the list until it looked like nothing was safe.

I had lots of fun walking around the house with the Kindle in hand measuring signal strength throughout the house. I had been trying to watch videos in almost the worst location I could have chosen. At least now I know where to settle to watch a video.
The continually shifting landscape of nearby access points is a byproduct of them all interfering with each other. If you're still having problems, you should try switching channels anyway just to see if it helps. In my experience, the auto channel setting doesn't always find the best channel (this varies by router).
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Old 12-04-2012, 03:33 AM   #13
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It should also be noted that the auto channel setting itself can cause disconnections when enabled. When the access point channel changes, all clients connected to the access point get booted and need to re-scan before reestablishing the connection. Because of this negative side effect, many routers won't actually switch channels until the interference is so bad that any data exchange is impossible, so the feature essentially disables itself until it's a measure of last resort, and even if it does switch when interference is reasonably bad, if you're in an area with a lot of interference on all channels, your router might switch frequently, leading to frequent disconnections. It's better to manually find a channel that works rather than relying on the auto setting.

Last edited by AZImmortal; 12-04-2012 at 03:39 AM.
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Old 12-04-2012, 01:17 PM   #14
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Another thing to consider is the antenna on the router. Most antennas that come with the router are very low gain and omnidirectional. You can get high gain omnidirectional antennas at places like Frys for not too much money. These will extend the signal farther by increasing the signal strength.

You can also get a very high gain directional antenna for a router. But you will need to be within a narrower coverage area with the antenna pointed in your general direction. The good thing about a directional antenna is that it won't pick up much signal from the sides or the back, or top and bottom, so if positioned properly you can eliminate a lot of the signals coming from your neighbors. In the direction which it points, it will produce a high signal strength because it is focusing the signal in one direction rather than all around.

Last edited by jswinden; 12-04-2012 at 01:30 PM.
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