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Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:13 am
by Noel
I need to setup a big house with a Wi-Fi network.

Basically I'm going to place 3 AP with the same name and login credentials.

Anyone here who can suggest me a good AP to use for this?

Thank you.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:54 pm
by vanisher
You can use most AP's as long as you use the right channels... Look for an AP with the new AC standard on 5Ghz.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:31 pm
by Noel
Thank you. I have some "old ones" here, but was wondering if there is anything better.
Will stick with what I have for now (edimax)

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:03 pm
by vincenttor
if you want this flawlessly like a mobile phone network so that you have roaming.
No switch between aps manually etc, ubiquiti is a winner, and there are some others but this is one of the "cheaper" and working systems that are easy to set.
i believe a set of 3 aps cost about 180 ? not sure but you will have to look on some sites and find the cheapest.

Aruba has a nice AP as well that can do the same, but the price is much higher and you can achieve this with mikrotik and some ohters but with those solutions you do have to know what you are doing otherwise it could be taking some time and giving problems.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 11:05 pm
by Romac
I have just purchased and in installed two Ubiquiti ap's. They work great. I have one on the ground floor and one on the second floor. Everywhere I have excellent wifi reception. Devices roam from one ap to the other without noticing. The management software is vey nice to setup and monitor your devices and traffic. Just one downside: the price.....


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Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 1:06 am
by marck
Have a look over here;

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless ... ed?start=1

At 5 GHz the Ubiquiti disappoints compared it's peers

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 6:47 pm
by vincenttor
thats about the new AC wifi if im correct.
not sure if the TS wants this, on 2.4 it worked pretty good if you ask me.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:54 pm
by Noel
Does look really nice, but as mentioned expensive.
And yes. 2.4 Ghz will be fine for now.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 5:02 pm
by jeroen_
Best thing to do is run Ethernet between them and then put them in the same VLAN (or ignore the VLAN word and you'll be fine too)

What you do have to watch out for is that you configure them almost the same: same SSID, different channels, but do not mix different options like 20mhz, 40mhz or 80mhz channels. If you do mix the latter there are various wireless clients which will drop for a few seconds to change their radio to the new settings, and that means if you walk around the house while for instancing Facetiming your connection temporarily drops.

If all those settings (except channel) is the same, your roaming should be perfectly fine.

Do, please use WPA2 where possible and choose a LONG not-easily guessed password.
Do, disable WPS (the stupid button trick) as there are some people who are very concerned about some tricks with that.
Do, also check with NetStumbler (Windows) or WiFi Explorer (Mac) or similar tool what channels are being used already in the area of the AP and adjust channels and/or TX/RX to account for this. Managed APs tend to do these better in automatic fashion, hence why you pay more.

As for AC, unless you have a 3x3 attenna, little you will really notice in a speed increase. I simply try to get Ethernet to any location that needs high and consistent throughput and also importantly: consistent latency. For laptops/tablets etc for a bit of browsing though wifi is fine. Most opensourcy platforms (openwrt, DD-WRT) that do AC are relatively immature btw. Eg a Nighthawk r7000 is not very well supported, they work, but not at the level of reliability one would expect.

If you have a Linux capable box in your network and you are a wee bit paranoid, run arpwatch and ndpmon on it so that you can at least see when somebody is joining/using your network.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 11:21 am
by mrqnapper
Hi,

@noel I am wondering how this works for you now? Which AP are you using? I am looking to improve my Wifi network since it's not working at all places in the house like it should. Kids and wife complaining :) So its time to improve.

My setup:
I have a D-Link DIR-868L Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router (placed on the attic), which is behind the Xs4all Fristbox 7360 router (which has the wifi disabled). I have this due to the settings possibilities the D-link offers and which I prefer above the Fritsbox. The D-link was the best router at the time I bought it according to the small network builders test. smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-r ... r-reviewed

This is working fine for nearly all spots in the house. Only at some places the connection is not stable and gets lost to often.
First trial to improve things was including a TPlink av500 power-line adapter (TL-WPA4220KIT) which has two Ethernet connections and and wifi. It offers the possibilities to change the ssid into the same as the D-links. So in theory one should expect seamless going from one to the other Ap. It looks like this is not working and even both AP are interfering with each others signal. The Ethernet part works fine (for x-box and streaming/ recording from and to the nas).

So now I am thinking of upgrading towards a more powerful set-up which will blow all other wifi signals in the area away :) and give access everywhere without hassle.
So can I keep the D-link in place and have one or two AP instead of the TP-link one. And if so which one to choose? Are the D-link ones OK or are the ones mentioned here (Ubiquit, Engenius) better? And can they be used in combination with the D-link router?
Or is my set-up already ok but just needs some tweaking?

Good to mention: I have a RFXcom on the attic as well, sending signals to KIKA devices, I use an dect- telephone set with the Fritzbox and have several Z-wave devices (all working fine).

I am very interested to read your best practises / advise here.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:08 am
by mrqnapper
Very interested to read your advise / best practises :) Which AP do you advise for my set-up? Should I have a look at D-link? Or use one which works together with the D-Link router as well?


Wiechert.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:23 pm
by r_255
Yesterday i was at kruidvat and my eye fell on the dir 505 for something like 23,- euro.
As i had some wireless range issues and got sick of changing my wireless network while walking the house i decided to try it.

So far i am happy with it as it does extend my range.

Even thinking to buy one more to cover those last miles ;o)
Image

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:59 pm
by kriz83
U do know that a repeater halves your data throughput, right ?

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:53 pm
by Noel
As the house had LAN connections in about every room I got some cheap Edimax EW-7206APg Access Point's.
I connected the 3 AP's to the LAN around the house, and gave them all the same SSID name and security key.

When walking around in the house with a wifi needed device, it will now connect to the best signal and keep the connection all the time.

For now it is even working better as I would have thought it would do.
The AP's are all on the same channel, but I might change this later.

Re: Wifi network with 3 AP's

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 3:33 pm
by mrqnapper
Thanks for all the input.

I finally decided to go for a D-link dap-2695 Access-point. As far as I can judge for now it is working great. No loss of wifi signal until now.

W.