Super crowded space

[bradr]

Netspot (OSX) shows 488 radios in my office space. It is medical office building next in a major hospital, with a university right next door.

Add in that the building is line of sight with a major airport, so that takes out a lot of channels. One netgear router is reporting 5Ghz channels 52,56,60,64,100,104,108,112,116,120,124,128 are DFS, so not available. Leaving only 36,40,44,48,149,153,157,161.

It is in a medical building so there are numerous other sources of signal, MRI's. It is also along a bus route with the electric busses, those things are super noisy according to my am radio testing. Someone here pointed out AM radios are great for general idea of signal sources.

I usually just buy better consumer grade wireless routers and run them in AP mode. I read the reviews here on snb and read the forums and try to pick the router with the better wireless chipset. Often just using one of the higher end ASUS or Netgear routers.

I am trying one of the Netgear R9000. It just does not seem to have that great of radio strength. Firmware version 1.0.3.10 made the router way more stable, faster, and greatly improved radio performance, but it still seems to be way below ASUS RT-AC3200.

I have looked a lot at Ubiquity, EnGenius, and even a Meraki and Cisco. I just look at the radios they are using and they seem so expensive for what you are getting. I don't see that they are that much better. I guess the advantage is you can put 300 AP's up and let the controller do the management/switching.

We are an office of 45 people, so I am not sure we need all that wireless gear overhead. We cover with 4 routers. When I first got here they had Ubiquity routers, but they were super cheap ones, very old, and not well configured.

I guess what I am looking for is strategies/approaches people have used in this crowded of a space. Go get a Cisco controller and 10 APs? Most of the wireless consultants seem to be just pimping gear.

 

[thiggins]

What is causing you to make a change? What problems are you trying to fix?

 

[bradr]

What is causing you to make a change? What problems are you trying to fix?

Thanks for the reply.

That Netgear R9000 just dropped its radio again yesterday. It went into off mode, and nothing would get it back on. The selections on the router admin page were disabled. I had to factory reset it. I watch the temperatures a bit. One of the ASUS RT-AC3200's had temperature issues, which is why we picked up the Netgear in the first place.

My theory, right now, is that this is such a crazy busy space that the 5Ghz radio has to work hard, so they get hot. The Netgear is up around 152 degrees. I turned the temps for the fans to kick on the 5Ghz chip down and that seems to help. The CPU and 2.4G temps are always fine.

We have one office that is not that far from the router, but I think there is an issue with a wall between the office segments. Signal drops of greatly after going through past that wall. I can just buy another ASUS/Netgear and run a wire back to that space. Just more asking am I nuts for pursuing that approach, or is it time to consider a 'bigger' approach.

 

[Trip]

Hi Brad. Read your concerns -- all valid. First off, a nod to being as brand-agnostic as possible and focusing only on what's best for the use-case. That said, when it comes to dense environments, I have found by experience that there's Ruckus, and then there's everything else... BeamFlex, PD-MRC -- it's the real deal, especially for clients that are pre- AC Wave 2. Do the Google/Reddit due diligence and I think you'll find that to be the case, too. (Meraki and Aruba also come up, but more so for ecosystem maturity in other areas)

Long story short, I'd put in a proper business-grade wired router, and switch(es) if needed, then Ruckus Unleashed APs (onboard controller, self-healing mesh with wired backhaul, very easy setup). I'm showing price points as low as $250-400 per AP for the 300 and 500 series stuff (Amazon-referenced), which would potentially be all you need, depending on your throughput goals and max client numbers in any given area. If you handle the labor yourself, then you could probably get a solution in place for <$2K, and earn back a good bit of that CapEx in would-be opportunity cost recovered across your 45-person staff...

Another thought, since this is for a business, how about just getting a solid referral for a local IT/tech outfit that could build this out and install it for you? It would probably add another several hundred to couple thousand to the bill, but depending on how valuable your time is, it may be worth it just to know that it's done right the first time.

Just a few thoughts for you and the business to mull over.

 

[thiggins]

So you're not having problem with dropped connections or insufficient bandwidth?

First, you're wasting money with the R9000 because its main differentiation is its 60 GHz 11ad radio. That doesn't help your heat problem, even if you are not using it.

If you have Ethernet where you need to locate your APs or the option to add it, there is really no need to put in anything other than 2x2 AC APs. We just did two roundup articles, showing there are multiple decent options around the $100 price point that don't require expensive controllers.
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33159-2x2-ac-access-point-roundup
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33191-2x2-ac-access-point-roundup-part-2

The TP-Link EAP-225, which typically runs around $75, did pretty well.