3 ADSL to 3 LAN - Help appreciated

[bfts]

Hey Everybody,

I have so many questions, so many loose ends that I don't know where to start, but hope you guys can help me out.

I'm trying to set up / improve our network in a Bolivian Hostel.

I am currently employing 3 ADSL lines (two with 3 MBit/s, one with 2,5 MBit/s), those lines are connected to a pfSense box (pfSense 2.1 - Intel Pentium D CPU 3GHz, 2 GB RAM).
On the inside I have 3 LANs, one for internal office use, one for 4 (hopefully soon 6) PCs that are for client internet surfing and a 3rd LAN that operates the WiFi for client use.

The 3 ADSL lines and the 3 LANs are connected to a TL-SL2210 WEB Managed Switch and from there VLAN to the pfSense box.

I would like to improve the available bandwidth for the Office LAN when necessary, that is when we stream something off the net in the bar (which is on the office LAN).

I would also like to improve connectivity for the WiFi, currently it happens again and again that clients are just not able to connect.

The WiFi is set up with two TP-Link Routers (TL-WR941ND with original firmware & TL-WR941ND with DD-WRT) both in AP mode, the pfSense Box is running the DHCP server.
Often enough I have 120 clients on the DHCP server and especially on the 2nd AP I often have 80-90 clients connected.

I wonder if it would help to just buy any other (TP-Link) Router/AP to reduce the number of clients connected to that AP or if a major brand AP (Linksys is probably the only other better brand I can get) would really make a difference.

As for improving Office LAN bandwidth, I tried the pfSense Traffic Shaper, but it seems to kill the whole firewall functionality and everything goes offline once I start using the Traffic Shaper. I wonder if that might be because the LANs and WANs all come in on VLANs?
Will I be able to shape traffic with my set up in the first place or should I bridge the LAN-VLANs to another NIC and then deploy the shaper on that (something that was suggested before on the pfSense forum, when I was using the 3 LANs on 3 different NICs).

Another thing I am wondering, it seems like often enough I have problems with DNS resolving, I suspect that my ISPs don't like it if you use public ISPs (as Googles 8.8.8.8) and they prefer me using their DNS. Of course I have set up pfSense to use their DNS with their connections but still resolving seems to take ages sometimes. So I wonder if it would help to install tinyDNS on the pfSense box?

Finally, pfSense often gives warnings about my Gateway Status or the Gateways even go down - the offline /gateway down problem can usually be resolved by re-starting the modem.
I wonder if this could be a modem problem, as I'm routing so many connections through "home grade" modems.
I have no access to my modems, so I would have to ask my ISPs for better modems or if they would configure one if I buy one.


(As for network equipment brands I only find TP-Link, the most simple D-Link routers, 1 or 2 LinkSys and one shop that has UBiQUiTi equipment.)

Any help/hints much appreciated!

 

[Brandon]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're way overloaded. You're at a sizing point that you might want to consider some better equipment. Throughput isn't going to be great for your Wifi as it sounds like you tend to have a lot of people on it at any given time.

It's hard to say where to start. PF is a great start, but I really don't know how it scales. I would suggest going to a different AP. I really like Ubiquiti's Unifi system. I've installed more of them than I care to count, they just seem to work. You can buy a 3 pack for around $200 in the US (I can't say elsewhere). I use the Unifi in my own home, it covers my 2,200 ft house and acre lot very well.

As for traffic shaping, that's a whole different can of worms. I'm really not familiar enough with PF to comment on that, I've only used it for home application (Single DSL). I currently have two internet connections in my house, but I'm using an ASA and VLans for my traffic shaping.

 

[alandavid]

Hello

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're way overloaded. You're at a sizing point that you might want to consider some better equipment. Throughput isn't going to be great for your Wifi as it sounds like you tend to have a lot of people on it at any given time.

It's hard to say where to start. PF is a great start, but I really don't know how it scales. I would suggest going to a different AP. I really like Ubiquiti's Unifi system. I've installed more of them than I care to count, they just seem to work. You can buy a 3 pack for around $200 in the US (I can't say elsewhere). I use the Unifi in my own home, it covers my 2,200 ft house and acre lot very well.

As for traffic shaping, that's a whole different can of worms. I'm really not familiar enough with PF to comment on that, I've only used it for home application (Single DSL). I currently have two internet connections in my house, but I'm using an ASA and VLans for my traffic shaping.

Thanks for help.