Wireless Router Strength = Weak. Solutions?
06-21-2010 | 08:49 PM
#16
yo
problem with repeaters is if your signal is low already, you are repeating a crappy signal. the devices you want to use are VERY demanding and will bring a router to its knees. i have lived this in my house due to my numb nutz electrician who "forgot" to drop cat6 to all the rooms i wanted it in (all of them) when we built our house.
with that said, a new router (dual band) would certainly help. older routers tend to bork out on CPU power (meaning, running heavy wireless traffic in combo with wired traffic slows the ability for the router to properly manage the load). some of the higher end router are coming with better hardware internally. Where i work, i run VOIP (phones on internet) as well as a huge LAN load on my netgear OTS router. If I allow wireless to run, my whole network suffers, not from the load of the network, but from the load on the CPU in the router that controls QOS, etc. So, i installed a seperate router for wireless, plugged right into the wired router.
my point is, if at all possible, try to drop a hard line to a good location so you can split the load to another router/switch. it is a pain, but BY FAR the best solution. my entertainment room depends on a solid internet connection. i at any given time will have;
me playin the ps3/xbox
my kiddo playin the wii
my wife working/streaming netflix
my gaming/workhorse pc bit torrenting or serving music to my buds
any one of my 5 other laptops doing something useful (folding, etc)
my direct tv box getting info for itself
my psp downloading demos/new games
my NAS backing itself up, or serving stuff to the house
seems like alot, but i am not really kidding. I wish there was a better solution that was COST EFFECTIVE. but there is not. there are expensive solutions, and i dont have a budget for those. both at home OR work....
good luck
josh
problem with repeaters is if your signal is low already, you are repeating a crappy signal. the devices you want to use are VERY demanding and will bring a router to its knees. i have lived this in my house due to my numb nutz electrician who "forgot" to drop cat6 to all the rooms i wanted it in (all of them) when we built our house.
with that said, a new router (dual band) would certainly help. older routers tend to bork out on CPU power (meaning, running heavy wireless traffic in combo with wired traffic slows the ability for the router to properly manage the load). some of the higher end router are coming with better hardware internally. Where i work, i run VOIP (phones on internet) as well as a huge LAN load on my netgear OTS router. If I allow wireless to run, my whole network suffers, not from the load of the network, but from the load on the CPU in the router that controls QOS, etc. So, i installed a seperate router for wireless, plugged right into the wired router.
my point is, if at all possible, try to drop a hard line to a good location so you can split the load to another router/switch. it is a pain, but BY FAR the best solution. my entertainment room depends on a solid internet connection. i at any given time will have;
me playin the ps3/xbox
my kiddo playin the wii
my wife working/streaming netflix
my gaming/workhorse pc bit torrenting or serving music to my buds
any one of my 5 other laptops doing something useful (folding, etc)
my direct tv box getting info for itself
my psp downloading demos/new games
my NAS backing itself up, or serving stuff to the house
seems like alot, but i am not really kidding. I wish there was a better solution that was COST EFFECTIVE. but there is not. there are expensive solutions, and i dont have a budget for those. both at home OR work....
good luck
josh
06-22-2010 | 12:14 AM
#17
Yeah, a 100mbps hard line wins above all, but if that's not possible then the choices are : 1) powerline network with runs at 100-200mbps, or 2) A new router running an updated draft or finalized version of 802.11n with multi band/MIMO.
At work we run a separate corporate wireless 802.11n router, a guest 802.11n router, and then the physical lan on its own patch and all three segments converge at the firewall.
My home router I can segment out into 4 VLAN's with dedicated speeds and encryption methods, as well as hook it up to USB storage to use as a network share that's even accessible from my work PC, but separate from my actual computer.
At work we run a separate corporate wireless 802.11n router, a guest 802.11n router, and then the physical lan on its own patch and all three segments converge at the firewall.
My home router I can segment out into 4 VLAN's with dedicated speeds and encryption methods, as well as hook it up to USB storage to use as a network share that's even accessible from my work PC, but separate from my actual computer.
06-22-2010 | 12:25 AM
#18
06-22-2010 | 06:57 AM
#19
Forester Specialist
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,985
From: Sonoma County
Car Info: '98/'04 Foresters (S & XT)
I have my Apple Time Capsule (Wireless Router/backup drive) in the living room grabbing the signal from the cable modem right where it comes into the house. From there, I've extended the network with a second Airport on our desktop - which receives strong signal from the Time Capsule, and repeats it to our laptops (both wife and I have MacBookPro laptops), and wherever we wander throughout the house, we can stream Netflix.
06-22-2010 | 07:36 AM
#20
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 837
From: up in them guts.
Car Info: 2008 Forester XT Sports
if you have DSL;?
apple base station here. but remember the other issue could also be that you, like myself, are more then 3000 feet away from a central office....making ADLS not work to the signal strength as needed.
granted i dont know if you have DSL or not, but because i live way in BFE up on a hill, the signal strength through the line depends on the weather for me, believe it or not....
although, tons of good information here. thanks everyone.
apple base station here. but remember the other issue could also be that you, like myself, are more then 3000 feet away from a central office....making ADLS not work to the signal strength as needed.
granted i dont know if you have DSL or not, but because i live way in BFE up on a hill, the signal strength through the line depends on the weather for me, believe it or not....
although, tons of good information here. thanks everyone.
06-23-2010 | 03:24 AM
#22
Run a cable if you need to depend on it or are pulling loads of data through it. WiFi sucks (yes, it does actually) though it can be convenient and useful from time to time for certain things. That said I have just finished implementing a 3rd Cisco system using WLC controllers and AP's, which is nice, but extremely expensive - and it's been rock solid even for the general user community. At home I have a Juniper 5GT-WLAN which is (IMHO) the best home/small office solution for something like this, and it's easy to use. Can be found on eBay for around $250 used and they run for ever on any firmware. It can be a mild pain to run a cable (I have wired many many houses where it "couldn't" be done) but then it's run and you can have a switch at the far end for more ports if needed. Don't try to repeat a weak signal and expect it to work well... Back to the old "fast, quality, or cheap - choose two" thing.
06-23-2010 | 03:52 PM
#23
i totally agree wombat. wireless does suck. the only reason it works for me, is i sit 20 ft line of site from it for lappy surfin' on the couch/living room.
<off topic>
and what bugs me as much are "laptops" that practically burn a hole in my lap when using one. sweaty top of my thighs is REALLY uncumf.......i have not found one, mac or windows, that runs cool enough to be a true "laptop" without some sort of device/platform between me and it.
</off topic>
josh
<off topic>
and what bugs me as much are "laptops" that practically burn a hole in my lap when using one. sweaty top of my thighs is REALLY uncumf.......i have not found one, mac or windows, that runs cool enough to be a true "laptop" without some sort of device/platform between me and it.
</off topic>
josh
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