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I read an article that said if I have a wireless n router and a wireless g access point, that I should give the g access point a different SSID from the n router and block g devices from accessing the n router.

I don't get this. Wouldn't all network traffic everything eventually go through the n router? If I had a g device and was connected to the g access point, wouldn't I still have the same bandwidth had I only had the n router?

And also, wouldn't this prevent seamless network access? If I had a g device and I walk from one room to the other, and the range of router and access point do not extend to the respective rooms, then if I walk from the g room to the n room, my device would have no connection.

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  • Are you imagining the two access points are wired together? Also, can you link to the article you're referring to?
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 5:06
  • This is actually two questions. Firstly, yes you should give it a different SSID, it's a different wireless access point. Regarding the other question I'm not sure, but I don't think it's necessary to change anything else if your current config works.
    – Ynhockey
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 5:20
  • In the scenario you presented where you moved from one APs range into another, Most clients would not react well to that kind of change. In the worst cases you might have to reinitialize the device, and at best you would have to rescan, rediscover, renegotiate, and reconnect. Its the rescan that causes the problem. if the client supports both N and G, then it will see the advertisements for the G network, but fail to configure for it, because the remembered network is N. kinda the opposite of your scenario, but G -> N works, where N -> G does not.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 5:20
  • @DavidSchwartz. One is a router and the other is an access point only. They are wired together.
    – Mars
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 5:25

2 Answers 2

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If both the G network and the N network have the same name, the wifi client will treat them as the same network, switching to whichever signal is supposedly strongest. That may be the 2.4ghz g, 2.4ghz n, or 5ghz n. Depends on the radiation in your vicinity.

If the g and n networks have separate unique names, it's like two separate networks as far as the wireless is concerned. The client won't jump between them. This may be useful if you know the G is garbage due to overuse or wireless congestion, but still need the G for non-n clients.

If you can set the two with unique names is up to the firmware in your router. Typically it will be in the advance wireless setup section.

If you can, there may also be an option to segregate the two wireless networks as vlans as well. Same could apply to the wireless vs wired. This would put each on their own lan.

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Additionally, "G" devices will fail to operate on the "N" network if it's set to performance mode, but will work in compatibility mode. I separate my "G" wireless printers, so that the "N" laptops can run at full speed. Compatibility mode WILL slow down "N" devices.

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  • How about N devices and AC devices? If a router is an AC router, will N devices slow down AC devices?
    – Mars
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 0:46

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