Multiple Routers from Single Modem

tssvinay · Jan 18, 2018

Dear Experts at TH,

I have one main router on the Second Floor in my SOHO setup with IP x.x.1.1 to which my ISP's fiber is connected. I have two other routers on Ground and First Floor for which I have changed the default IP to x.x.1.2 and x.x.1.3. I have configured DHCP on my Second Floor router (Main Router) to be x.x.1.100 to x.x.1.199. I have two LAN Cables running from the Second Floor to the Ground and First Floor routers. Both are on auto channel and 2.4 GHz connections.

I have 2 laptops and 3 mobile phones at home (Oneplus 3T, Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4). Around 10 desktops and 3 laptops at the office on the Second Floor. All LAN wired desktops work without any problems. Only issue is with WiFi.

Issues:

1) My 3T has severe problems connecting to the WiFi networks. Frequent disconnects, IP Configuration Failure etc. If I'm on the First Floor access point and I try to connect to the Ground Floor, it never switches properly to the Ground Floor access point. I have to either end up restarting my phone or router or both. Internet and Network works when connected though. After repeated failures, I leave my WiFi on and sometimes it just connects after a little while.

2) The Xiaomi phones are comparatively better. They are able to switch the connections some times. But they have lot of problems too.

3) Laptops are better devices among the lot. They are stable most of the time. But while switching from Ground Floor to First Floor or vice versa, they face issues like the above. But not as frequent.

Am I doing something wrong ? Or do I need to change some configuration ?
Is it due to channel conflicts ? Tried putting Channel on Auto / Used inSSider to see if there is congestion due to too many networks on the same channel.
Is it a DNS issue ? I have not assigned any DNS particularly in the settings. I'm guessing this maybe the reason for this..

Also, I have separate SSID's but same passwords for the Ground, First and Second floor routers.

I have configured DHCP in the below manner..

Main Router - x.x.1.1 - DHCP IP Pool from x.x.1.10 to x.x.1.200 (iBall Baton 150N)
First Floor - x.x.1.2 - DHCP IP Pool from x.x.1.10 to x.x.1.200 (D-Link 2750U 300 MBPS)
Second Floor - x.x.1.3 - DHCP IP Pool from x.x.1.10 to x.x.1.200 (Digisol 300 MBPS HR - 3400)

Its becoming extremely frustrating losing WiFi like this and its making me go bonkers. I need to be able to access my office network drives and internet from all the floors.

Can someone please read my post and help me out ?

Thanks in Advance !

Best Regards
Vinay

kanewolf · Jan 18, 2018

Roaming between WIFI sources with home network hardware is hit-or-miss. The connection is at the mercy of the device rather than the WIFI sources. You could switch your WIFI infrastructure over to the Ubiquiti UniFI system of access points. They have optimizations for fast handoff between the nodes.

bill001g · Jan 18, 2018

Yours is a very common description of the WiFi roaming issue. The end device is in full control of which signal it chooses. Since the end device only has a single radio and it is using it to communicate with the router is can not search for a better signal. The best it can do is when the signal gets really bad it will drop its connection and then at that point search and connect to the best signal. There is no common definition of "really bad". You can to some extent change this on some devices with something called roaming aggressiveness but you take the risk it now spends all it time jumping back and forth.

The only real solution would be to have the wifi network be in control and tell the end device when to switch like a cell phone network does. Some commercial vendors like HP or Cisco have drivers you can load but it so expensive and hard to support even large companies do not use it a lot.

Things like ubiquiti and some of the newer mesh system try to force the end device to reconnect when they know there is a better signal. It mostly works but you still take outage when it has a issue reconnecting quickly. It solves the problem to a point of staying connected to the wrong AP but it is not a seamless switch you still take a tiny outage. In general most people are not actually walking around their house switching from AP to AP while actively using the device. Something like a VoIP on a WiFi would not work well, you would defiantly hear the outages.

tssvinay · Jan 18, 2018

Thanks for the answers kanewolf and bill001g.. My problem is not automatically connecting to the best WiFi points. I'm alright with manual switching as well. But even then my phone and laptop are giving multiple problems. My 3T rarely connects to WiFi even manually. It tries to connect for 2 to 3 mins and then gives me IP Config Failure message or it just doesn't connect altogether.. I wanted to know if I got the settings part wrong..

bill001g · Jan 18, 2018

It should make no difference. What you can do to test is change the SSID to different values on the devices. You can then force a connection to different ones and see if it work better or worse. It should be fine on any but sometime device will not choose the closest. All I can think of is one of your AP is have some kind of issue.

kanewolf · Jan 18, 2018

Yeah, when having problems like this, setting each WIFI source to a unique SSID is the only way to troubleshoot.

tssvinay · Jan 19, 2018

bill001g :

kanewolf :

Sorry for not elaborating on this and DHCP in the OP.. I have separate SSID's but same passwords for the Ground, First and Second floor routers. So there should ideally be no conflict due to this reason..

I have configured DHCP in this manner..

Main Router - x.x.1.1 - DHCP IP Pool from x.x.1.10 to x.x.1.200 (iBall Baton 150N)
First Floor - x.x.1.2 - DHCP IP Pool from x.x.1.10 to x.x.1.200 (D-Link 2750U 300 MBPS)
Second Floor - x.x.1.3 - DHCP IP Pool from x.x.1.10 to x.x.1.200 (Digisol 300 MBPS HR - 3400)

If my understanding is correct, now the Main Router will be assigning IP's from 10 to 200 for every connection being made. The other two routers would also be assigning IP's similarly as per the instructions of Main Router. So my entire home cum office network will get receiving IP's from the range of 1.10 to 1.200 and there should not be any conflict ideally.

I am not really an expert on the subject by any means. Whatever little I know is by reading on the Internet and trying to troubleshoot and figure out stuff by myself. Have I done something wrong here ? Or do I need to tweak some settings please let me know..

Thanks bill001g and kanewolf for taking the time to help me out !

Best Regards
Vinay

bill001g · Jan 19, 2018

You can only have 1 dhcp server on your network. it needs to be disabled on everything except the router that has internet

tssvinay · Jan 19, 2018

bill001g :

Oh ! Got it.. Changed everything from DHCP to automatic .. except main router.. Thanks..

I will let you know how it goes !

kanewolf · Jan 19, 2018

The main router is the only device that should have a DHCP server enabled. The other devices should be configured as access points. Here is the sticky on using a router as an access point -- http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/36406-43-convert-wireless-router-wireless-access-point

tssvinay · Feb 28, 2018

Thanks Kanewolf. The sticky is very helpful.

smorizio · Feb 28, 2018

also on your phone and hardware make sure there firmware up to date to fix any bug problems.

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