Preamble Type is an easy router option that can boost the performance of your wireless wifi network slightly. Most of the routers or firmware has the default setting for the Preamble Type as long. We will explain what is Preamble Type in router settings, what does Preamble Type do, and what you can do to optimize the setting.
What is Preamble Type
Preamble Type setting means that it adds some additional data header strings to help check the wifi data transmission errors. Short Preamble Type uses shorter data strings that adds less data to transmit the error redundancy check which means that it is much faster. Long Preamble Type uses longer data strings which allow for better error checking capability.
Preamble Type Long vs Short
In general, there are two main cases that you will need to use Preamble Type long settings.
1. You have older devices that requires Preamble Type Long to connect. Preamble Type short is made available with later technologies, if you have some older wireless cards, you will need long Preamble Type for it to connect.
2. You are using wifi in an area with high interference or low signal strength. Preamble Type is by default an error checking utility or function that helps with the data transmission. Long Preamble Type can improve the transmission if the wireless signals are weak.
Why is Default Preamble Type Setting Long
The key is compatibility when routers utilize Long Preamble Setting out of the box. The router companies want to make sure that their hardware and software is compatible with as many devices as they can at the cost of some performance. So you will most likely encounter default factory settings for Preamble Type to be long or auto.
You can typically change the setting under Wireless or Wlan under “professional” or “advanced” tab.
How to Optimize Your Preamble Type Router Setting
The easiest way to optimize your Preamble Type setting is to set it to Short. You will be able to achieve the best performance with this setting.
Now, if your wireless devices stop their connection after changing the Preamble Type to short, simply change the setting back. This means that your wifi device or clients do not support Short Preamble Type.
In addition, you will have to experiment and compare for the performance difference if your area has strong wireless interference.
Secondly, if are using wireless extenders, additional access points or repeater, make sure that you set the Preamble Type to be consistently Long or Short for all the devices. This is important to improve the performance of your network.
Relevant Preamble Type Issues
Preamble Type Asus
Preamble Type Dlink
Wireless Preamble Type Setting
Best Preamble Type
Netgear Preamble Type
Preamble Type Motorola
hi, Thank you for this good article. My wife is pregnant and I was surfing the web to find what setting is good and has no effect on her. Thank you.
which is best for the use short preamble or long preamble????
Short preamble for better performance but if you are on low signal or far away from router then use Long preamble…
i can not find this option in my huwaei router 626 cpe ?!!
Nicely understood the difference between Preamble Type Short or Long. Thanks.
if i prefer Long Preamble Type then it increase my laptop connectivity
Can preamble type short help to reduce signal of wifi
Sad to say, this article is nothing more than a really nice fairy tale.
The RF preamble is at the RF transport layer and contains only fixed data patterns. These patterns are chosen specifically to improve the chance that a radio will successfully synchronize the receiver’s carrier frequency (achieve carrier lock) and the modulated data bit clock (achieve bit sync) before the start of the data packet.
Unlike the venerable AM, FM and now defunct analog TV signals, the 802.1 radio signal is a suppressed carrier modulation type. There’s no residual carrier to lock on to without demodulating the signal to reconstruct it, and quality of the demodulation depends on the carrier error. The preamble pattern jump starts the pyramid scheme.
A short preamble increases the chance that a radio will fail to achieve carrier lock and bit sync before the data packet begins. Error correction doesn’t work when the error rate is 50% (if it did you could just guess “1” for every bit. You’d be right half the time and you wouldn’t need a radio at all.)
So…
1) It’s not about error correction.
2) It’s not about the error rate.
3) Its about getting a data packet or missing one entirely.
4) If you miss more than 1 of 80 packets the re-transmitted packet traffic exceeds the cost of the longer preamble.
If you have a low RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) you need long preambles.
If you have a lot of other RF and Wifi sources you need long preammbles.
If you live out in the woods in a small building and you don’t have a wireless phone and you don’t have a cell phone, short preambles will probably work just fine.
Everyone except for the 3 people described in the preceding paragraph will do better with long preambles.
wow thank you so much for this. Helped me to nail down my problem. Most concise answer I’ve seen on the issue.
Yeah why bullshit, cuz it sounds logic.
Absolute bullshit….. you don’t know what you are talking about
Why is it absolute bullshit? At least provide reasoning when you call out things as you see it, which in OP’s case, he did
What would I need to do do to become your Padawan…
Thank you for the truth and clarity @Oliver_Street Minus the belief, myth, folk lore and wishful thinking and it’s just mystical how the dang thing works correctly when the feature’s definition is clarified (sarcasm is my goto place)
The article is correct and you don’t know anything. There’s no magic like carrier lock and pyramid in preamble.
Preamble is just a set of checking bit added for every transfer. Preamble long means it has longer bit and short means shorter. When the receaving devices get a data transfer it will see this bit, if its not complete then it will consider the data is damage/error. Thats all.
Long preamble did not guarantee faster throughput in any circumstance, it had nothing to do with signal and connectivity. Most of the reason it still exist is because of compatibility with old devices (802.11b). Any other reason is just myth because no one can predict when will the interference kick in.