Do I have a bad router? Very weak signal on 2nd antenna on dual-band router

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

I have a Netgear WNDR3700v3, which is a dual-band router. Here is what I see in inSSIDer:



I eliminated all other signals so that only the two SSIDs coming from the router are visible. I am sitting about half a foot away from the router with my laptop. The top signal is from the 2.4 GHz antenna. It seems fine -- it's strong.

The bottom signal is the one that's troublesome -- labeled as "DD-WRT-N" -- why is it so weak?? This is the one from the second antenna. This second antenna is supposed to be 2.4/5 GHz capable. However, I am running it in 2.4 GHz mode, NOT in 5 GHz mode. I am currently not able to detect anything in 5 GHz; I'm still waiting on my dual band wireless adapter to arrive. (That's why I'm putting both antennas in 2.4 GHz mode.)

Is my router faulty??

 

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

Bump.

Anyone have experience with dual band routers and the signals from each radio/antenna?

 

[Medion]

I'm no expert in this, but I've never seen a dual-band router where one is run at 2.4ghz and one can be run at 2.4 OR 5ghz. The two bands ARE 2.4 and 5ghz. Your router, based on my limited understanding, should not be putting out two 2.4ghz channels. Now, the standard can be adjusted, IE, you can set them to N-only, or mixed mode, but they are still 2.4ghz and 5ghz, respectively.

With that said, higher frequencies don't travel as far as lower frequencies. With dual-band enabled on my Linksys E4200v1, I can grab a signal on my phone from the mailboxes about 300 feet from the house. The 5ghz band makes it about 25-30 feet before being totally useless. At 5 feet from the router, I get signal strength very similar to what was in your screenshot (although my 5ghz band did a little better than yours did).

EDIT:
http://www.netgear.com/landing/dual-band.aspx

According to Netgear, your router operates simultaneous 2.4ghz and 5ghz frequencies, just like mine and just as I stated.