Yo,

I couldn't get much advice about going dual-band wifi, so I took a blind leap. Here's what I found out. Please note these quick (read: sloppy) little tests aren't up to scientific standard, and aren't on even ground in a some ways. There need to be some upstream tests, with different file sizes, both run in N only mode. Also, there shouldn't have been any other devices on the 2.4Ghz - which there were, but interestingly it didn't cripple the 2.4Ghz network much.

I bought a Linksys E3000 Router and WMP600N Dual-Band PCI adapter . I tried 5ghz to avoid the noise in my area - a lot of packets were getting resent (which may have had more to do with my old router, than interference).

Anyway, some quick & qualitative observations:
5ghz has really limited range and object penetration. The direct signal path is ~40 feet - down 1 floor, through 3 walls (of course, wireless signals bounce so this may not be the actual path). I tested this on a laptop MiniPCIe Intel 5100ABGN, not the linksys - I've already returned it & I explain why below.

I did some quick downstream file transfer test between my desktop (wired, gigabit ethernet) and laptop using a 500MB and 1GB file. I'm showing you the screen from the 500MB file test, which is representative of everything else (I got lazy and only took one screenshot). Note I took the screen early on the 2.4ghz test, so add an extra second to that one.

5GHZ:

2.4Ghz :

Note the 5ghz was set to use channel bonding on N-mode only, whereas 2.4 was set to 20mhz only in mixed b/g/n mode. Moreover, there was an active g device on the network, so all of this should have put 2.4Ghz at a disadvantage. Yet, the transfer remained slightly faster in 2.4Ghz in all of the downstream file transfers (1GB & 500GB)

To make this more useful, I should have adjusted some settings to make the networks as similar as possible before comparing them. So nothing AT ALL definitive here, just my results. I'm interested to hear yours.

Some other important things to note: the linksys adapter is the only dual-band PCI card I can find at major online retailers, so I figure someone else might be looking at them. The card was pretty bad. Picture the above graphs with more troughs and peaks instead of a plateau - more latency & many wild throughput dips. It's a Ralink-based wireless chipset (of which I've owned 4) and they've all exhibited the same problems. The antennas were also weak - 2dbi (I don't blame the router, I got good-great signal from every adapter but the Linksys). File transfers peaked at 6MB/s, with averages btw 2-3. I'll be waiting for another vendor to make one; personally, I'm partial to Atheros (and hoping Intel makes some PCI cards too).

While searching for some better dual-band antennas, I was hard pressed to find any that didn't cost at least twice as much as the card itself. Not many aftermarket options here unless you're willing to spend some serious money.

So, I'm going to try a more inventive & surprisingly cheap approach - I'm going to grab a MiniPCI-e to PCI-E adapter, pop in an Intel Dual-Band wifi card, salvage some laptop antennas from a busted laptop and run them out of the rear I/O slot - mostly for the sake of experimentation. I just want to see what gives good results when the market is currently offering so few options. I'll post back when/IF it works

Interesting report Phoenix! Thanks.

D-LINK DWA-556!!!!

I'm a bit clueless but on a related note:

We have 8 wireless phones around the house (from a central location, the signal has to travel up to 60+ feet through walls over 2 floors and a basement). We found the nominal 5GHz phones had very poor range. Had to go out of our way to get "older" 2.4GHz phones which work "everywhere" inside. Apples and oranges.

Wireless b/g is just about worthless for range in our house -- can't get 30 feet out of it though the walls (with our antennas). Wireless N works "everywhere" -- I think at 2.4 in our case (but, I am clueless).

I solved my wireless problems by getting some Netgear Powerline adapters. One comes right off the 2Wire modem/router and by my desktop in the other room is another powerline feeding a Dlink DIR-625 N router. I can pick up a usable signal from the Dlink at least 200 feet from the house.

Are you saying you get 200ft of Wi-Fi range? Now I know where to camp when my internet goes down.

Seriously though, how do these devices work - especially with wireless? After reading the product page, I still don't exactly understand what they do. Do they somehow send an ethernet signal through the wiring of the house?

Yes, they send the signal straight through the home wiring. The only catch is homes in America have 220 V wiring. Typically, the electrician will divide the load in your house where one phase of the 220 or one leg of 110 feeds a certain room. The other leg will do a different room to divide the current fairly equally. So if your original powerline feeds the wrong leg for the room which you wish to plug in the other powerline in, you are SOL. Does that make sense. I wanted to feed the DSL signal to my office out in the barn, but the office is on another leg of 110V so I have to get into the circuit breaker box out there and switch the wires around so it is on the same phase and I have not done that yet.

It's pretty idiot proof too. I got a kit at WM that cost 70 bucks that had two identical powerline adapters. One goes right by my 2wire modem/router and feeds right off one of the ports. The other is in my office in the house. It feeds the Dlink which puts out a great signal for my Droid X which supports N speed. My computer in my sig feeds off of one of the ports on the Dlink.

I was looking at Fry's and they have kits that have three powerlines in the box for about 90 bucks.

And I do get about 200 feet of range out in the pasture behind my house. I have Verizon wireless here where I live and the 3G signal is almost non-existent. So when I'm driving down the road coming home I get all my email and other stuff around 250 feet from the house. It's cool and aggravating at the same time since I can't get a 3G signal here. I have ATT DSL at the house and a Verizon Network Extender so my phone gets it's cell phone signal from the little VNE box tied to my DSL. The network extender range is only about 100 feet max in the house.