NETGEAR RangeMax™ NEXT Wireless Router WNR834B User Manual
Fine-Tuning Your Network
6-13
v1.2, January 2007
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Advertisement Period
The Advertisement Period is how often the router will broadcast its UPnP information. This
value can range from 1 to 1440 minutes. The default period is 30 minutes. Shorter durations
ensure that control points have current device status at the expense of additional network
traffic. Longer durations may compromise the freshness of the device status but can
significantly reduce network traffic.
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Advertisement Time To Live
The time to live for the advertisement is measured in hops (steps) for each UPnP packet sent.
The time to live hop count is the number of steps a broadcast packet is allowed to propagate
for each UPnP advertisement before it disappears. The number of hops can range from 1 to
255. The default value for the advertisement time to live is 4 hops, which should be fine for
most home networks. If you notice that some devices are not being updated or reached
correctly, then it may be necessary to increase this value.
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UPnP Portmap Table
The UPnP Portmap Table displays the IP address of each UPnP device that is currently
accessing the router and which ports (Internal and External) that device has opened. The UPnP
Portmap Table also displays what type of port is open and whether that port is still active for
each IP address.
Optimizing Wireless Performance
The speed and operating distance or range of your wireless connection can vary significantly based
on the physical placement of the wireless router. You should choose a location for your router that
will maximize the network speed.
The following list describes how to optimize wireless router performance.
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Identify critical wireless links.
If your network has several wireless devices, decide which wireless devices need the highest
data rate, and locate the router near them. Many wireless products have automatic data-rate
fallback, which allows increased distances without losing connectivity. This also means that
devices that are further away may be slower. Therefore, the most critical links in your network
are those where the traffic is high and the distances are great. Optimize those first.
Note:
Failure to follow these guidelines can result in significant performance degradation
or inability to wirelessly connect to the router. For complete range and
performance specifications, please see
“Wireless Communications” in
Appendix B
.