How Well Does it Work? Series....

[DaveMcLain]

I was just thinking that it would be interesting especially to some people who live in apartments or work in similar crowded wifi environments to have a couple of articles on how well a particular device/chipset does when dealing with crowded conditions. Some have to be better than others in an environment with several AP's all trying to send data at the same time on the same channel.

It would be cool to see if the choice of client makes a whole lot of difference or if the router itself can control the traffic.

I know you've always tested signal strength etc when testing routers but I'm not sure if this has been addressed or if it's even possible/practical to test.

 

[Biker]

I had an older D-link that worked 10yrs before it needed to be change. Was told it wouldn't last two yrs.
Now using a Linksysy RVS4000.
Already made a change to the unit, added heatsinks to hot/warm parts and a chipset fan to remove the heat from the switcher, which from the spec sheets can be very hot

 

[Biker]

Update,
on speaking about signal strength, wonder why the CPU in a router was not setup to read dB levels, I know my Modem does and it reads it out when I'm at it's configuration manager, download and upload.

 

[thiggins]

I was just thinking that it would be interesting especially to some people who live in apartments or work in similar crowded wifi environments to have a couple of articles on how well a particular device/chipset does when dealing with crowded conditions. Some have to be better than others in an environment with several AP's all trying to send data at the same time on the same channel.

It would be cool to see if the choice of client makes a whole lot of difference or if the router itself can control the traffic.

Nice idea but not practical to test, at least not for me.

From http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...-lans-collide-how-to-beat-the-wireless-crowd:

"As long as Wi-Fi products receive sufficient signal, the Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism built into the protocol coordinates their communication. This access method - similar to CSMA/CD used in wired Ethernet - makes sure that only one product transmits at a time, so that the data is understood by all receivers."

Wireless LANs actually work incredibly well, considering the myriad things that can negatively affect them. Problems are usually due to the STA's inability to properly "hear" the AP. This is can be due to neighboring APs overpowering the desired AP or noise generated by "smart" people operating on channels other than 1, 6 and 11.

In other words, it's not an equipment problem, but the lack of coordination among all the APs. The best solution to crowded environments involves human / social engineering to coordinate channel use. Unfortunately social engineering is usually more difficult than simply trying to throw "better" hardware at the problem.