Problems with Multiple APs

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fastoy

fastoy

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My son-in-law has his cable modem and router in a bonus room over the garage. Hence it is some distance away from the rest of the house. This causes the expected problems with wireless coverage. To address that we have added 2 APs in other parts of the house. The router is an Asus RT-AC68U. The remote APs are D-Link DAP-1522s. The are all set to use the same SSID and pass phrase. The D-Link DAP-1522s are connected via CAT6. The Asus RT-AC68U is set to use channel 6 and one of the D-Link DAP-1522s uses channel 1 and the other channel 11.

The problem is that devices connected via wireless tend to stay connected to the AP where they connected initially even when there is a stronger signal. The result is really slow or marginally functioning wireless sessions in areas where there is an alternate AP.

This same phenomenon occurs regardless of wireless device, e.g. Windows 7 PC, iOS device, or Android device.

Is there a different configuration I can set or different set of hardware to overcome this?
 
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Inssider tends to be the easiest tool to use. The actual signal level is not as important as the signal level of your neighbors. You can actually get pretty good performance on a low signal level as long as there is not a lot of competition. The reverse is also true you can have maximum signal level and get unusable connection if you have a strong interfering signal.

I would bet just outside the closet door is going to be a bit better than in the closet. It all depends what the walls and such are made out of.

Wireless placement is a lot of trial and error.
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bill001g

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They are designed to work that way unfortunately. You can change the roaming aggressiveness setting in some nic cards but you then run the risk of it hopping back and forth too much. You will take small outages every time it moves because it must regenerate the keys. This can not really be resolved with consumer grade equipment. Commercial stuff has the ability to force the clients to move by loading special drivers so a wireless controller unit can control the AP and the client machines.
 
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fastoy

fastoy

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Thanks. I was afraid of that.

Plan B is to relocate the Asus RT-AC68U to nearer the center of the house. I suspect it has a strong enough signal to reach all over if it were centrally located. That'll take some cabling and relocating some power.

Plan C is to simply put a strong Access Point in the center of the house and turn the radios off on the Asus RT-AC68U and the D-Link DAP-1522s. What would be a good Access Point to use this way? I need both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.
 
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bill001g

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Although some AP have a little better coverage than others you will not find ones that are significantly better. Even the best commercial ones have about the same coverage. The manufactures all figured out the best combination of antenna and radio power that are pretty close to the maximum allowed by law.

If you have issues with electrical power and your preferred location this is what makes a real AP worth the extra money. Most true AP can be powered by PoE and it is much easier to get a ethernet installed in many location compared to electricity. When you talk semi commercial stuff I like ubiquiti AP. They actually give away their controller software. Now their controller can not actually solve your issue like the Cisco or Aviya stuff can but it also does not cost more than a small car for the device either. The reason these are so expensive is they even allow the IP address to change. Cisco used to have a video of a guy doing video conferencing walking down the hall getting in a elevator and going to a different floor and not dropping his connection.

In your case unless you can get very lucky and get good usable coverage from a central located AP like you propose you are just going to have to live with this issues.

I many time recommend using different SSID in these cases but it is mostly personal preference. It takes just about as long to pick a different AP to connect as it does to just turn the radio off and on to force it to move to the stronger signal.
 
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fastoy

fastoy

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Thanks. I looked yesterday and there is power in a central closet. The former owner had CenturyLink fiber to the house in there. There's also coax so all I need to do is fish 2 GigE runs (in and out) into the closet. I'll replace the router at the modem end with an 8-port GigE switch.

So I'l go from the wall to the modem. Modem to Asus RT-AC68U in the closet. Back from the Asus RT-AC68U to the 8-port switch and all should be better. I'll turn off the radios on the D-Link DAP-1522s. We'll have to see how good it is.

An alternative is to just move one of the D-Link DAP-1522s to the closet and turn off the radio on the Asus RT-AC68U. But the D-Links are only N. That would require one less GigE run.

Do you have any thoughts on how to "test" the coverage just in case the closet isn't a good place? I guess I could just move the Asus RT-AC68U in there without doing all the wiring, just power it. Then turn off the D-Link DAP-1522s and walk around the house with inSSIDer. What level signal would be "good?"
 
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bill001g

Titan
Aug 9, 2012
28,323
2,755
125,640
Inssider tends to be the easiest tool to use. The actual signal level is not as important as the signal level of your neighbors. You can actually get pretty good performance on a low signal level as long as there is not a lot of competition. The reverse is also true you can have maximum signal level and get unusable connection if you have a strong interfering signal.

I would bet just outside the closet door is going to be a bit better than in the closet. It all depends what the walls and such are made out of.

Wireless placement is a lot of trial and error.
 
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