I have a network spread across 2 floors and need to move the ADSL connection from the upper floor to the lower floor
On the lower floor there is a telephone point for the ADSL next to where a laptop is normally located. On the upper floor there is an ethernet attached postscript printer an ethernet attached PC and an ethernet attached laptop. Both laptops occasionally move around the house and need wifi.
There is a netgear WGT624 108G wireless router that operates as a 108G/54G AP and ethernet switch on the upper floor. It routes into the box provided by the ISP. This is an 11G wireless router, and adsl modem. It has 1 ethernet port 1 TV port (not used) 2 voip ports (1 used) and the telephone line. The ISP box only runs IPV4. It is possible that the ISP will change this box for a box that supports IPV6 in the near future. I do not want to replace this box by one of my own as I think that it will be more trouble than it is worth.
Moving the ISP box to the lower floor gives me a problem of how to connect the kit on the upper floor to the isp box. I need some form of bridge which allows for IPv4 and IPV6. Wireless only links are probably not good as large file transfers become very slow. The upper floor is reinforced concrete and I have no intention of trying to drill holes through that.
There is co-ax for the TV in both locations. This carries both terrestrial and satellite TV. I believe that satellite prevents the co-ax being used for data.
I don't think that the WGT624 can be used as a bridge and even if it could the whole thing dies as soon as you start a wireless bit torrent session. It could however remain as a 10/100 switch
The house is not in a highly populated area but Kismet can still see about 17 other 2.4GHz networks. The signal strength is normally low. Things are not being helped by an ISP who appears to be rolling out wireless ADSL routers that transmit 2 2.4G 40Mhz 11n networks. One for the ADSL subscriber and the other for any passing subscriber to their network. There does not appear to be a nice unused not overlapping channel, especially not 6 which is what the WGT624 uses for 108G
In our previous house the WIFI signal seemed much more stable than it is in this house. I have looked at the signal strengths with Kismet. Within 0.5m of the APs the strength os the signal varies between about -20 to -45. An average is probably about -30. The variation on the ISP box is probably lower than that of the WGT624 but the average may be worse.
On the floor below the signal strenghts range from about -53 to -75 but with the average around -57 to -60
Downloading a 4GB file to an XP SP3 laptop using the netgear drivers, the netgear management software was displaying link rates varying from 1 Mbps to 108Mbs. I would guess that the average was just under 54Mbps. The real data transfer rate came out at around 22Mbps. The file transferred was an mpeg file that the virus scanner does not touch and the CPU did not exceed about 60% (WPA encryption). Transferring the file to the other laptop with a slower disk but on 100M ethernet was about twice as fast. I was going to try the same thing using the WIFI on the ISP box but as soon as I connected the wg511t to the ISP network, the laptops CPU went to almost 100% and stayed there. The encryption was the same as the WGT624. This was without starting the data transfer. Swapping between the networks swapped between 100% CPU and 0% cpu I have not yet found the cause of this but it may mean that the WG511T will have to be replaced.
Is the highly erratic performance caused by all the other networks. Their signal strengths are really low -85 to -89? We have DECT phones but these are 1.9GHz, the microwave oven was not running, it was daylight with no lights or dimmers. The two networks have different SSID and use channels 6 & 11
If there is a problem with interference, would a move to 11n 5GHz improve things or will the concrete floor just kill the signal?
My preference would be not to use the radio on the isp box and put in wireless AP & Bridge that will work with IPV6. I am also reluctant to spend money on end of life 11G kit.
Are there any ideas for an AP & Bridge?
An alternative is possibly powerline. All the circuits used by the kit are protected by fuses. There are a couple of others with RCD breakers. There is also a breaker for the board and a breaker for everything. We do have a big heat pump to keep the house nice and warm. This runs off a separate board. There are also the fridges the freezer and the circulating pumps for the heating as well as lots of low energy (flourescent) lights but only 1 dimmer. I believe that a good 200MHz powerline bridge should give about 50 Mbps of data but I am not sure if my conditions are reasonable. There is also the Belkin Gigabit powerline which appears to either work wonderfully or not at all. I suspect that the powerline may be the cheapest solution as the WGT624 can be retained as an access point and switch. If powerline works reasonably is likely to be faster than WIFI. Comments on this option are welcomed.
The house is not very big at 180 sq M
Thanks
On the lower floor there is a telephone point for the ADSL next to where a laptop is normally located. On the upper floor there is an ethernet attached postscript printer an ethernet attached PC and an ethernet attached laptop. Both laptops occasionally move around the house and need wifi.
There is a netgear WGT624 108G wireless router that operates as a 108G/54G AP and ethernet switch on the upper floor. It routes into the box provided by the ISP. This is an 11G wireless router, and adsl modem. It has 1 ethernet port 1 TV port (not used) 2 voip ports (1 used) and the telephone line. The ISP box only runs IPV4. It is possible that the ISP will change this box for a box that supports IPV6 in the near future. I do not want to replace this box by one of my own as I think that it will be more trouble than it is worth.
Moving the ISP box to the lower floor gives me a problem of how to connect the kit on the upper floor to the isp box. I need some form of bridge which allows for IPv4 and IPV6. Wireless only links are probably not good as large file transfers become very slow. The upper floor is reinforced concrete and I have no intention of trying to drill holes through that.
There is co-ax for the TV in both locations. This carries both terrestrial and satellite TV. I believe that satellite prevents the co-ax being used for data.
I don't think that the WGT624 can be used as a bridge and even if it could the whole thing dies as soon as you start a wireless bit torrent session. It could however remain as a 10/100 switch
The house is not in a highly populated area but Kismet can still see about 17 other 2.4GHz networks. The signal strength is normally low. Things are not being helped by an ISP who appears to be rolling out wireless ADSL routers that transmit 2 2.4G 40Mhz 11n networks. One for the ADSL subscriber and the other for any passing subscriber to their network. There does not appear to be a nice unused not overlapping channel, especially not 6 which is what the WGT624 uses for 108G
In our previous house the WIFI signal seemed much more stable than it is in this house. I have looked at the signal strengths with Kismet. Within 0.5m of the APs the strength os the signal varies between about -20 to -45. An average is probably about -30. The variation on the ISP box is probably lower than that of the WGT624 but the average may be worse.
On the floor below the signal strenghts range from about -53 to -75 but with the average around -57 to -60
Downloading a 4GB file to an XP SP3 laptop using the netgear drivers, the netgear management software was displaying link rates varying from 1 Mbps to 108Mbs. I would guess that the average was just under 54Mbps. The real data transfer rate came out at around 22Mbps. The file transferred was an mpeg file that the virus scanner does not touch and the CPU did not exceed about 60% (WPA encryption). Transferring the file to the other laptop with a slower disk but on 100M ethernet was about twice as fast. I was going to try the same thing using the WIFI on the ISP box but as soon as I connected the wg511t to the ISP network, the laptops CPU went to almost 100% and stayed there. The encryption was the same as the WGT624. This was without starting the data transfer. Swapping between the networks swapped between 100% CPU and 0% cpu I have not yet found the cause of this but it may mean that the WG511T will have to be replaced.
Is the highly erratic performance caused by all the other networks. Their signal strengths are really low -85 to -89? We have DECT phones but these are 1.9GHz, the microwave oven was not running, it was daylight with no lights or dimmers. The two networks have different SSID and use channels 6 & 11
If there is a problem with interference, would a move to 11n 5GHz improve things or will the concrete floor just kill the signal?
My preference would be not to use the radio on the isp box and put in wireless AP & Bridge that will work with IPV6. I am also reluctant to spend money on end of life 11G kit.
Are there any ideas for an AP & Bridge?
An alternative is possibly powerline. All the circuits used by the kit are protected by fuses. There are a couple of others with RCD breakers. There is also a breaker for the board and a breaker for everything. We do have a big heat pump to keep the house nice and warm. This runs off a separate board. There are also the fridges the freezer and the circulating pumps for the heating as well as lots of low energy (flourescent) lights but only 1 dimmer. I believe that a good 200MHz powerline bridge should give about 50 Mbps of data but I am not sure if my conditions are reasonable. There is also the Belkin Gigabit powerline which appears to either work wonderfully or not at all. I suspect that the powerline may be the cheapest solution as the WGT624 can be retained as an access point and switch. If powerline works reasonably is likely to be faster than WIFI. Comments on this option are welcomed.
The house is not very big at 180 sq M
Thanks
