Switching modes to 802.11n on TP-Link TL-MR3040

So I downloaded and installed the openwrt image for my TP-Link TL-MR3040. Everything is set up and running good, but I noticed in the hostapd.conf file there is a line:

hw_mode=g

I'd love to up the speed a bit, since the MR3040 supports N. But I've been around the block a few times, and I know it's never that simple.

Are there any gotchas or bugaboos I should know about as far as how to change my Openwrt Piratebox on my MR3040 over from running 802.11g to 802.11n? Also, aside from objective transfer tests, is there anywhere I can go via ssh to verify if it's indeed running n instead of g?

You can verify the settings in

/etc/config/wireless

Here is an example from our Example output page.

Quote

config wifi-device 'radio0'
option type 'mac80211'
option channel '11'
option macaddr 'f8:d1:11:a9:xx:xx'
option hwmode '11ng'
option htmode 'HT20'
list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
option disabled '0'

Per default the n mode is active.
You may want to change htmode to HT40+, you can use the following command.

sed -e 's:HT20:HT40+:' -i /etc/config/wireless

Remember:
Upload is pretty slow (for several reasons).
Download is limited by USB and CPU power. The USB stick can usually go to a maximum of 20MB/s on a PC... the read rate on those small devices is slower AND it mostly depends on the USB stick.
I contributed a while ago to this OpenWrt USB benchmark page.

best regards Matthias