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Creating a robust WiFi Network in large radio unfriendly house - expert advice welcomed
Hiya I have run a home network comprising 5 Netgear routers (Used as Wireless AP/Hub) with about 8 wired Ethernet points. The WiFi network is very important to us in all areas of what is a fairly...
There should be no issues with using both 2.4 & 5. These two frequencies do not interfere with each other. Using the fastest mode possible. Seldomly, you may have to downgrade the mode if have an older device.
Within a frequency band, each AP should use a separate, non-overlapping channel. At 2.4 GHz, this means using channels 1, 6 and 11. Do the same for 5 GHz. If two APs must use the same channel, put as much distance as possible between them.
Do not use overlapping channels, like 1 and 2. This is the worst case scenario for Wi-Fi between each channel will perceive the other channel as noise, which can significantly impact speeds. It's actually better to use the same channel because devices can politely coordinate with each other to use the channel. This is an excellent explanation that is fairly easy to understand.
Your setup (i.e. APs connected to an Ethernet backbone) is fine.
When your main router becomes unreachable, does Internet access still work?
You said the network runs very slowly when the main router goes south. Does that include device to device communication or only Internet access?
Have you tried using a network sniffer to analyze the traffic on your network?
Thanks for reply and good to know that the overall premise is fine.
The system tends to run fine for a week or so and is heavily used by myself and 3-4 other users playing games, streaming TV or just connecting/disconnecting tablets and mobile phones.
Then yes, the system will seem to go slow and almost always the main router will be unreachable. The other routers are normally fine and in general there is still full network connectivity and at least some internet access albeit slow. A hard reboot sorts the issue.
The issue of failure to allocate IP addresses may be unrelated but also seems to be cured by a reboot of the main router.
I'm aware that I am using the oldest and cheapest router as the main one - is it possible it can't keep up or is in some other way incompatible with the newer routers?
I'd be happy to use a network sniffer to look for problems - any products you can recommend? Any tips on what I should be looking for would also be useful? I'm reasonably technical but as you may guess not a network specialist.
Cheers
Steve
If a hard reboot cures everything, then it's probably the router. It's not so much that it can't keep up but more like a bug that takes a long time to manifest itself. It could be, for example, a memory leak that slowly consumes all resources on the router to the point where it stops working properly. You may have to replace it. It's too bad that D6400 of your isn't working well. Personally, I would suggest you get a dedicated ADSL modem and separate router. All-in-one modem/routers are more expensive to replace and often buggier. Plus you have the flexibility to switch ISPs without throwing out the router.
As far as network sniffers are concerned, Wireshark is popular. It's free, too. The learning curve is a bit steep. You will have to decide if you want to climb it. I'm starting to think that it may not be worth your time. You could just run it and see if something unmistakably obvious shows up, like a broadcast storm that congests your network. Alternatively, look at the Network graphs in Windows Task Manager and see if one or more PCs are receiving a lot network traffic.
Thanks,will take a look with Wireshark and at least give it a day or so :-)
Do you have any recommendations for a dedicated modem and seperate router that would be suitable? Obviously Netgear preferable as rest of my kit is Netgear.
Cheers for help so far
Steve
Netgear only has 2 modems: the DM200 and the DM111PSP. You should check with your ISP for compability as well as for a list of recommended modems. Although this is a Netgear forum, I don't work for Netgear so I have no problem advising you to research other brands. A modem is pretty basic. As long as it implements the DSL protocols used by your ISP, they should all be remarkably similar.
Netgear's routers are here. Unlike modems, a router can be somewhat of a personal choice due to the software features and reliability. I have a 2+ year old R7000. I now use it as an AP but it had no issues as a router. Being 2 years old, it is a bit underpowered for CPU intensive activity, like port forwarding and QoS. I never used these features so that never bothered me. Depending on the speed of your Internet, this may not be an issue because the CPU limitations only become apparent with high-speed service (>300 Mbps or so). I still think it's a great value. Many of the more expensive routers are overkill. You would probably not benefit from a tri-band router since you have multiple APs.