I have Netgear WLAN Router, how can I can howmany laptops can be connected simultaneously?

I have Netgear WLAN Router (connected to Broadband through DSL), how can I know howmany laptops can be connected simultaneously to the Router?. How I will know?.

Also I can see "Data Rate/Channels: 1-54MBps / 14 channels)". What is the Channels meaning here?. is it Maximum of 14 laptops can be connected simultaneously?.

Thanks in advance.

Reply to
santa19992000
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In article , wrote: :Also I can see "Data Rate/Channels: 1-54MBps / 14 channels)". What is :the Channels meaning here?. is it Maximum of 14 laptops can be :connected simultaneously?.

No, there are 14 frequency bands allocated, with different subsets of those being legal to use in different parts of the world. My probably incorrect recollection is that channel 14 is only authorized in France (which doesn't allow some of the lower-numbered bands.)

When the radio is transmitting on a particular "channel", then the peak energy is going to frequencies near the official channel. However, with 802.11b there is also significant energy transmitted in the two frequency ranges on other side of the centre. This causes some degree of interference with transmissions on those other channels -- for example, if there is a nearby device transmitting on channel 8 then the energy it transmits in the range allocated to the centre of channel 6 might turn out to overwhelm the energy from a more distant device which is transmitting its peak energy in channel 6.

Because of this overlap and potential for interference, you will often hear the guideline that that if you have multiple devices in an area, you should set them to be 5 channels apart, such as using channels 1, 6, and 11. That should be understood as a guideline and not a hard rule, though: it depends on your antennae and the signal strength from the overlapping chanels -- and there is a lot of redundancy in the transmitted data. Someone did an analysis of the energy patterns and determined that in all but the worst cases (device very close to each other), you could safely use channels that are only 3 apart, thus getting 4 effectively non-overlapping channels in the range of 11 that are permitted in USA/Canada.

802.11g works on similar principles, but is defined in such a way as to effectively "hard-code" the 1/6/11 guideline -- you only have a choice of 3 channels for 802.11g.

802.11a does NOT work on the same principles, and all of its channels can be used without interference.

:I have Netgear WLAN Router (connected to Broadband through DSL), how :can I know howmany laptops can be connected simultaneously to the :Router?. How I will know?.

It depends on -which- Netgear device you have. The reference to 54 megabits per second and to channel 14 lead me to suspect you have one of the 802.11g routers such as Netgear's WGR614. It is often quite difficult to find information about how many devices an AP/router supports. What you are looking for is the "size of the MAC table" or "number of entries in the ARP table".

I happen to have researched this figure a couple of weeks ago for the Linksys WAP54G. Linksys apparently told someone the limit was 5000. One highly respected wireless expert over in alt.internet.wireless (the place I suggest you post nearly all your wireless questions to) tested the Linksys WAP54G and found it can handle 253 clients.

I'm going to hazard a guess that your Netgear might be the WGR614v4. If so, then if you look in the reference manual in the Key Features of the Router section, you will find:

Parents and network administrators can establish restricted access policies based on time-of-day, web site addresses and address keywords, and share high-speed cable/DSL Internet access for up to 253 personal computers.

253 is the same number given in the v1 and v5 reference manual; I'm not going to bother looking at the v2 and v3 reference manual for completeness ;-)
Reply to
Walter Roberson

just be aware that there is likely to be a much lower limit on the number of simultaneous wireless devices (as opposed to devices connected via ethernet)

alt.internet.wireless is a good place to ask, but i would be surprised if the Netgear can handle more than 15 or so wireless devices.

Reply to
stephen

So, what else is new? ;-)

People with amateur radio licences can use other channels as well as much more power.

Reply to
James Knott

[other good points snipped for brevity]

Japan, actually. They started out with _just_ 14, but now they also (or instead?) allow 1..13. France also had some weirdness. It involved only allowing channels from say 10 to 13 or something like that. I can't seem to find it so I'm tempted to think they've conformed to the ETSI range of 1..13. Canada allows 1..11 like the usa and apparently the rest of the americas (give or take things like the mexican quirk that you can't use 1..8 outdoors).

This is all about the 2.4GHz band for 802.11b (and, mostly, g), and that makes 11 channels available. The other three simply aren't legal to use. But wait! Add channels 36, 40, and 44 in the 5GHz band for 802.11a, for north america, presumably including canada, and you get 14 channels total. Isn't marketing great?

I've taken this from appendix a of a cisco aironet ios config guide. A bit of googling suggests this is the working version but there may be some more quirks hidden in laws and regulations around the world.

[snip!]

I think the thing can do at least two out of three, at least one of which is `a', or maybe all three, since no other combination has a `14' popping up anywhere in north america.

:-)

Reply to
jpd

Is that with standard WiFi gear, or do you have to do some ID thing? Would putting your call sign in the SSID field count?

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

I haven't investigated the details, but your call sign has to be included somewhere. You might be able to use the higher channels, that can't otherwise be used. And of course modified or home built equipment is entirely legal and can run up to 1000 watts. Now, all I have to do, is modify my microwave oven, to send & receive data. ;-)

Reply to
James Knott

I am looking for howmany maximum laptops over Wi-Fi can be supported?. How can I findout?. My Netgear Router had web interface. Is it based on MAC entries or ARP entries?. I wanted to know Is there any table can tell me the Max supported entries for that Router?.

Reply to
santa19992000

What does netgear say ?

Reply to
Al Dykes

In article , wrote: :I am looking for howmany maximum laptops over Wi-Fi can be supported?. :How can I findout?. My Netgear Router had web interface. Is it based on :MAC entries or ARP entries?.

ARP is a protocol for discovering MAC addresses, so the two are synonymous for this purpose.

:I wanted to know Is there any table can :tell me the Max supported entries for that Router?.

I know of no publically available table with that information.

Under reasonable assumptions about what -kind- of Netgear you had, I already pointed you to Netgear documentation that said 253 was the limit.

But really we need you to define what it means to "support" a laptop. Do you mean "The maximum number that can be associated at the same time, with all of them doing nothing except keeping the device busy renewing the associations", or do you want to give some kind of performance metric -- .e.g, the maximum number that you can have all trying to transfer data at once with you still getting at least some specific number of kilobits per second of throughput when measured over (say) 1 minute.

How many plates can you hold in your arms? Now how many plates can you hold in your arms and still do something useful with the plates? Different questions.

Reply to
Walter Roberson

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