Help with my Apartment network that includes a 5GHZ Bridge

[Mitski]

I have been struggling with the Wifi network in my apartment and have switched out equipment several times. Here is the situation.

I have combined apartments so that now my Media room, office area, and kid’s rooms are on one side, and the living room and Master bedroom are on the other. The Media room side has all new wiring throughout to all those rooms, and this is where the cable modem is coming in.

Currently I have the cable modem connected to a Netgear WNR3500. I chose Netgear because their routers will also act as a bridge. So this Netgear is acting as a Wifi access point for laptops. It is connected wired to a 16 port giga-switch, which has the media center, several PC's, the PS3, and most importantly, my 4TB media server. It is also acting as a bridge to a second WNR3500 in the living room area.

The second Netgear is acting as a bridge and also a Wifi access point to "light up" that part of the apartment (laptops in the Master Bedroom will not reach the Media Room Wifi). Wired it is connected to a Netgear Digital Entertainer 8000, which plays movies and music from the Media Server.

There are several problems with this setup. First of all, to support being a bridge, Netgear will only support WEP (!). So security in my mind is compromised. Most importantly, I am getting network performance issues playing movies. These were rare at first but over the last 14 months have become worse and worse.

What i would like to do is replace this system with a simultaneous dual-band system... I would like to have the Wifi for laptops only use the 2.4Ghz channels, and then use the 5ghz channels strictly for the bridge.

So starting from scratch, what devices A, B, C and D could I use to create the following setup in the best way:


Apartment Area 1 - Wired Network- PC's - Media Server
16 Port Switch 10/100/1000
II
[Wifi N Router (Device A)] ==> Cable Modem
II
[5GHZ Bridge (Device B)]
~
~
~
~
~
[5GHZ Bridge (Device C)]
II
4 Port Switch 10/100/1000
Apartment Area 2 - Wired Network - Media Center - PC's
II
[Wifi N Access Point (Device D)]


Note: Device A+B can be one device if possible, and Device C+D can be one device if possible.

Thanks for any advice,

Mitch in NYC

 

[thiggins]

You're probably getting reduced performance because of neighboring networks, cordless phones, etc. that may have come online since you first set up.

Also, since you're limited to WEP for the WDS bridge, you're really running at 802.11g (54 Mbps max link rate, ~20 Mbps max. usable throughput) speed.

Using 5 GHz as a bridge is good in theory. But 5 GHz has poorer range.

I'd skip using WDS and instead get a non-WDS bridge like the Cisco / Linksys WET610N. It operates like a client, so you'll be able to use WPA2/AES and get the full N link rates. It also frees you to use any router, not just those supporting WDS.

Then, if you want to add wireless in the area where this bridge is, just buy another router and convert it to an AP, or reuse the WNR3500 if you buy a new dual-band router.

Personally, I'd find a way to get Ethernet between the apartments.

 

[Mitski]

Thanks for the response Tim. Unfortunately ethernet was an oversight and is currently not an option.

I took your advice on the WET610N. In setting it up I set the IP Address outside the DHCP range as per your review in the article and it does seem to work fine on the second wired network.

I also replaced one of my WNR3500 with the WRT610N and am now using that as the router. I am using the other exisiting WNR3500 as an AP connected to the WET610N.

I have a couple of questions.

The WRT610N gives you the option to set the 2.4 & 5 GHZ networks to have seperate SSIDs. Initially I set them up the same, and when I looked at the WET610N, it's staus said it was connnecting via 2.4GHZ. So I then set the 5GHZ SSID to have a different name, and now have the WET610N attach to the 5GHZ SSID. This is working fine, but I am wondering if this is the best setup. I actually have some of my laptops now connecting to the 5GHZ SSID, and while I see a noticeable improvement (especially with video streaming from the NAS) on the network performance at 5GHZ, if you move to far away it degrades quickly. So you have to manually change the network to the 2.4GHZ SSID. What I am wondering, is it best to set both radios SSID to be the same, and let the system "work it out" for itself?

Note that there are very little options on the WET610N, and you cannot tell it to only connect at 5GHZ, so the only way to control it is via the SSID. When I checked the status after my initial setup the WET was basically doing nothing, and I wonder if both SSIDs were set the same and video was streaming if the WET would "bump up" to 5GHZ automagically.

My second question is with the WNR3500 as the AP. It is currently set to have the 2.4GHZ SSID (you cannot set the SSIDs differently for the radios, I guess because it is not simultaneous). How can I confirm that I am actually connecting using it? Tracert will not show hops inside your Private Network to your Gateway. I tried NMap and that did not work out as expected. I can connect manually to the AP via it's IP address. I actually have the DHCP coming from the WRT610N set at the 192.168.1.100-150 range, and then have several "fixed" devices set with IP addresses outiside that range. So the WET610N is 192.168.1.253 and the WNR3500 AP is 192.168.1.254. Is there some way or some tool I could use to see if I am actually connecting wirelessly to the AP?

Thanks,

Mitch in NYC

 

[thiggins]

Glad to hear the WET610N worked for you.

In general, Wi-Fi clients don't have much intelligence when it comes to choosing the AP they associate to. The only way to reliably make clients connect to the AP you want is to use unique SSIDs for each AP (and radio in the case of dual-radio APs). Otherwise the client will just find the first strongest signal and associate with it.

The WNR3500 is a single-radio 2.4 GHz only router. Again, you need to give it a unique SSID to control client connection.

 

[ricaroofers]

The first thing in your network is just a security, then you might need to specify the connection of your gadgets. You could put a bridge on the two apartment and another router after that for the rooms.SEO Services

 

[Mitski]

This blizzard we are having here in NYC has a definite benefit to me, working on my Wifi network!

I read your article on determining problems with your Wifi network.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...x-your-wireless-network-part-2-site-surveying

Excellent. If you are monitoring this thread I highly suggest all go read it. I had completely forgotten about NetStumbler. Unfortunately it did not work for me on my Dell laptop, but it led me to inSSIDer from Metageeks which is really quite sweet. I suggest you update the article with this tool.

I guess I did not get the concept that AP's do not communicate with each other; that they are in essence working independently. What then initiates a transfer from one to another? If you are walking in a facility from one part to another, and you are associated with the AP where you started, and there is another AP at the other end, what causes the transfer? Anything? Is is simply a failure of signal? I guess what I am asking is as you walk, your connection to the first AP degrades more and more and thus your connection speeds degrades. If the second AP now has a much stronger signal, but you are still associated with the first AP with a weak connection, what will initiate the transfer to the second AP?

Ideally of course, you always want to be associated with the strongest and fastest signal you have available.

Mitch in NYC

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the tip on inSSIDer. Article has been updated.

The client decides how and when to move to another AP. Algorithms vary, but tend to be "sticky" for consumer wireless adapters. In many cases the connection literally has to die to make the client switch to another AP.

There are some clients that have Roaming controls in their network adapter properties. You should see if your clients do.