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802.11a on a 802.11n only Router?

charco

New Member
Hi all,

I have a question with my surface pro 1st gen.
I have an Asus RT-N66U router with latest fw installed.
The router works fine with all other 802.11n devices (laptop, cell phone, tablet)
However, the network performance on my new surface sucks.
When transfers large files from my desktop, it takes way longer than even my five years old Fujitsu (with Atheroes 802.11n WiFi)
In Task Manager, it shows the WiFi connected to a 802.11a network rather than 802.11n.
This is the funniest part, as my router is set to be running as 802.11n mode only on 5GHz band!!
Even worst, the speed that my surface and my router can only negotiate to 81Mbps, while even my Samsung Galaxy S3 can do 150Mbps with just 1 Antenna.

My question is, has anyone has issue with 802.11n network? Is the reported 802.11a just a bug on windows side? and the network performance of surface is just that poor?

I tried to verify the driver, but apparently MS screwed the driver up, as the option listed in the link below not even there
How to enable 802.11n Mode Wireless Connection for Windows 8

Thanks
 

daniielrp

Active Member
Is Bluetooth turned on on your surface? If so turn it off and see if that makes a difference...It shouldn't being a 5Ghz network, but worth a try.
 
OP
C

charco

New Member
Is Bluetooth turned on on your surface? If so turn it off and see if that makes a difference...It shouldn't being a 5Ghz network, but worth a try.

My Surface actually can connect to 802.11n on 2.4GHz, and it actually doubles if I disable BT!!
However, 5GHz still stuck with 802.11a.
 

sdreamer

Member
Check your encryption AES or TKIP? Had a buddy who is having problems with 802.1n speeds. Changing from AES to TKIP got his speeds up. Using G on AES seem to be fine, so there was something going between his Surface Pro 1 and the router when using 802.1n AES encryption.
 

Magic

New Member
I'm getting the same thing. Linksys router in AP mode at 5GHz 802.11n. Surface reports it as 802.11a @244Mbps. My 2.4GHz router reports as 802.11n. Speeds are OK, appears to be a typo in the driver that makes all 5GHz networks 802.11a. 11a only goes to 54Mbps.
 
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