Is wifi 6 the solution for my slow office network?

[L&LD]

Be nice! Tell her about the Asus/RMerlin magic too!

 

[businesstx]

I DID say that I was the most technical person in the office (and that's not saying much).... she just bought it because another girl in the office recommended it... I didn't even know till she walked in with it...

 

[businesstx]

I just googled RMerlin .....

 

[businesstx]

I just had a quick browse through https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/features

I can hardly understand a word .... way too technical for me ....

 

[thiggins]

The TL-WDR7660 is a three stream AC router. But most Wi-Fi devices are two streams, which is why you see the link rates that you see. By the way, make sure you set your 2.4 GHz bandwidth to 20 MHz. That band is too crowded to use 40 MHz channels.

Are you getting disconnects on Ethernet-connected devices? Did you run speed tests from an Ethernet device?

 

[Tech Focus]

I’ve been thinking stability matters by far more than anything else and my own reviews of router system always include stability at its 4 pillars. I myself switched from couple of my whole home setup primarily because of lack of stability. Analogy is one can drive a race car with multiple times faster in its peak speed but if you have to stop at every gas station in town, you won’t arrive to your destination for awhile. Be sure to look for stable router.

 

[businesstx]

@thiggins

I don't fully understand the stuff about 20MHz and 40MHz bands but will look it up. I didn't change anything on the router. It is as it came delivered.
Good point about ethernet. I only checked that the wired laptop was getting 1 Gbps and noted that it didn't drop any connections.

@Tech Focus
That is another good point which I only realised after this test. A stable connection is super important. A slower stable connection is better than a quicker unstable connection.

Not sure if this will affect the speed, but the Huawei Router has the 5G disabled. I only know this as it broadcasts a different SSID when it is enabled.
Also, I remember that I changed something in the Huawei settings when we started using it as an AP (maybe DHCP?)

I didn't change anything on the new TP-Link WDR7660. It's WAN port is disconnected. Only one of it's LAN ports is connected to the TP-Link 476G+ router.
I think the TP-Link WDR7660 switches between 2.4 and 5GHz automatically depending on the device.

Both devices were connected to the original TP-Link R476G+ (non-wireless) router using their LAN ports.

I also just realised I made a mistake in my original pic of the network. The Huawei router is connected to one of the TP link switches and NOT directly to the TP-Link 476G+ router.
That means I tested them using this setup i.e. connected to switch ST1

There is a reason for this. I think The wired PCs couldn't print on the wireless printer when it was connected direct to the TP-Link R476G+ router.

 

[businesstx]

The red circled link is wrong. The Huawei was connected to the TP-Link switch until just now.

The blue line shows how it WAS connected.

Now I have plugged it directly into the TP-Link 476G+ router (as per original image).

 

[coxhaus]

Sounds like another Band-Aid for your network until the next problem. Build a business network. The salaries for more than 15 people deserve it.

 

[businesstx]

Hi Coxhaus

The problem is I do not have the knowledge to build one. I wouldn't know where to start and I assume it would take a long time to understand what to do. I got through 6 or so pages of your post before my VPN disconnected but already I was getting confused with technical terms....

Also, the local 'professionals' that have setup the current network are not really experts at all (otherwise I wouldn't have these problems). Finally, the language barrier is a serious problem. My Chinese is limited and their English only stretches to 'hello'. Maybe it is time to take Mandarin lessons.

 

[thiggins]

Make sure the DHCP server is disabled on the TP-Link router that is acting as an AP. If you have more than one DHCP server on your network, it will cause connection problems.

 

[businesstx]

Will do.... thanks ...

 

[businesstx]

OK guys...

I was labelling all the cables and wall sockets on my network and realised I might as well take this opportunity to sort all the issues out together but slowly.

Therefore, I am putting a new post up with a view to slowly re-configure my network (I do not think it is suitable for this thread). Thank you for all your suggestions and hope for your input on the new thread.