This post is about poor wireless n performance I experienced when using a Netgear DGN1000 Wireless ADSL modem router.  I was connected to the router with an HP Pavilion DV6-3112SA laptop, which has a wireless adapter based on the Ralink RT3090 wireless chipset.  This chipset supports wireless n and the router is described as supporting 802.11 b/g and some n features.

The problem was that when accessing certain websites, the pages would take so long to load that I received a Page Cannot Be Found error.  Hotmail was particularly bad, I often couldn’t load the site at all.  If I connected the laptop to the router with a network cable, performance was fine and a different laptop connected to the same router had no problems.  Updating all drivers and firmware made no difference.  I disabled the laptop’s built-in wireless and installed a Linksys USB wireless n adapter.  The problem remained.  I realised that the other laptop I’d connected to the router with no problems only supported 802.11 g, so I wondered if wireless n was the issue.  I reconfigured the router to only support 802.11 b/g and the problem was solved.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, the DGN1000 is described as supporting 802.11 b/g and some n features.  Unfortunately, it appears the n features have some compatibility issues.  I’ve since connected the laptop to a Netgear WNR2000 router, which has full wireless n support and had no problems at all.