Need help setting up network

[nyckylim]

Hi Guys,

I've recently subscribed to a fibre optic plan from my service provider with the following specs:

Download Speed: Up to 1 Gbps
Upload Speed: Up to 500 Mbps
International Bandwidth: Up to 100 Mbps

My setup is currently like the attached picture. The Huawei HG863 and HG256 (Wireless N Residential Gateway) is provided by the service provider. However, the HG256 is only providing ~100-300mbps on speedtest.net WIRED(if lucky, max 500mbps). On wireless, only ~25-50mbps. Therefore I'm considering to replace the HG256 with a new and powerful wireless router. Can someone please recommend one to me ?

Secondly, on the second level , I am using a WRT610n, connected to the PoE switch and out to the HG256 via Cat6 cable as an Accesspoint (turned off DHCP). However, I'm not sure if I should use the same SSID and Channel. I have no problem with different SSIDs. However, when I changed the SSID to the same name. I'm having weak connections.

Lastly, for level 3, I need another accesspoint with a LAN port as my room's cat6 cable is wired only to level 3. Therefore, hope someone can assist in choosing my equipments.

The last thing i would want is to buy a few routers and then realise that it is not good enough.

I sincerely thank everyone out here for their help.

Thank you
Nycky

 

[thiggins]

No consumer router is going to provide 1 Gbps of bandwidth. The Router Charts currently show the ASUS RT-N56U with highest download bandwidth of around 800 Mbps.

Your wireless speeds are about as good as it's going to get.

For multiple APs, I'd use different SSIDs and different channels (1, 6, or 11) for each one so that you can connect to the one you want and so that they don't interfere with each other. Otherwise, your wireless client will try to stay attached to the first one it sees for as long as it can, even if there is a stronger AP in range.

 

[stevech]

Wow.
That WAN speed must be rather costly for an individual or SOHO.

WiFi Access Points rather than routers provide additional coverage, or higher signal strength with overlapping coverage.

As said above, the best you can do with WiFi is to have a client that supports 40MHz mode and multi-streams, and a matching access point. Even with HD TV streaming, there's no need for more than about 15Mbps at the IP layer. Multiple concurrent HD streams need to be done via wired, not wireless.

 

[nyckylim]

HI Guys,

Thank you all for your reply.

I previously subscribed for this plan because I thought wireless N could go to 450mbps as stated on the e4200 link sys box. Guess they meant wired ?

To clarify, I would not be doing any HD streaming on TV. Mostly just YouTube on my MacBook pro. My main concern is to have a faster surfing speed and youtube streaming speed. As most of my computers are using wireless and the only system that is wired is the Network Video Recorder. Do you guys think that this plan is overkill?

If so, do you guys think I should change my plan to the following since I'm running mostly wireless and the bottleneck is in Wireless N ?

Download: 200 Mbps
Upload: 100 Mbps
International bandwidth: 25 Mbps

Then difference in both plans is around $200USD. I am paying USD$280 a moth for the 1gbps plan while the 200mbps plan is USD$80.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the fastest speed that wireless N can hit ? And if I'm mostly using wireless, does it mean that I should downgrade my plan as wireless would not be able to utilize 1gbps ?

As for router, based on the chart, I suppose that the Trendnet TEW-691GR would be the best choice to replace the Huawei HG256 as it the fastest 2.4GHz speed? Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you all once again.

Nycky

 

[thiggins]

If all your use is wireless, then yes, your service plan is extreme overkill. The "450 Mbps", or any number you see advertised on a product box is the maximum link rate. The usable application-level throughput is always much lower. See this article SmallNetBuilder's Wireless FAQ: The Essentials.

That test result you see in the charts for the TRENDnet has a red bar. That means it is using a three-stream N adapter. Go read the review to see the details.

 

[stevech]

HI Guys,

Thank you all for your reply.

I previously subscribed for this plan because I thought wireless N could go to 450mbps as stated on the e4200 link sys box. Guess they meant wired ?

To clarify, I would not be doing any HD streaming on TV. Mostly just YouTube on my MacBook pro. My main concern is to have a faster surfing speed and youtube streaming speed. As most of my computers are using wireless and the only system that is wired is the Network Video Recorder. Do you guys think that this plan is overkill?

If so, do you guys think I should change my plan to the following since I'm running mostly wireless and the bottleneck is in Wireless N ?

Download: 200 Mbps
Upload: 100 Mbps
International bandwidth: 25 Mbps

Then difference in both plans is around $200USD. I am paying USD$280 a moth for the 1gbps plan while the 200mbps plan is USD$80.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the fastest speed that wireless N can hit ? And if I'm mostly using wireless, does it mean that I should downgrade my plan as wireless would not be able to utilize 1gbps ?

As for router, based on the chart, I suppose that the Trendnet TEW-691GR would be the best choice to replace the Huawei HG256 as it the fastest 2.4GHz speed? Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you all once again.

Nycky

If you don't wish to waste money, you could reduce to any ISP speed like 20Mbps or so.

Out on the Internet, there aren't services that stream to you faster than that anyway.

 

[nyckylim]

I can roughly understand the theory of their "fake" 450mbps now.

Thank you all for your kind explanation.

Since stevech mentioned that there aren't any services that stream faster than 20mbps. I figured out that the 200mbps plan would work best since the international bandwidth is capped at 25mbps ?

I'm actually looking for a plan that provides the fastest speed, yet is not restricted by the router if i'm running wireless.

The 2 routers that I'm looking to get is either the Trendnet TEW-691GR or the Cisco-Linksys E4200.

Pardon my failure to evaluate the charts as I'm kind of a technical noob. If you guys dont mind, please recommend which router to get for best wireless performance and ultimate range performance. It could be either one of the 2 mentioned, or maybe another one.

Thank you all.

Nycky

 

[Mangusta1969]

Nyckylim,

What are the distances and number of walls/floors involved with your wireless setup? If they are significant, there may be better wireless router choices out there for you.

I was completely disappointed with the range capabilities of my E4200 in the 5GHz band; it also had some reliability problems when I operated simultaneously in both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands; I finally had to disable the 5GHz radio to get acceptable reliability.

 

[stevech]

could OP be pulling our legs, as they say?

 

[nyckylim]

Mangusta: I live in a 3-storey house.
Assuming a SIDE profile, the router is placed around the middle area of the living room which is required to cover about 10 meters left and 10 meters right of the house. I'm only getting approximately 3-5mbps in the room at the left most of level 1 now.

On the second level, the second router/AP would be placed in the far right room which is the masterbed room and cover the entire floor. For the second level, it is not very important as only the masterbed room and the room directly beside requires wireless.

On the 3rd level, it is a small area to cover. Therefore, it shouldn't be a problem.

Stevech: I do not get what you mean. Do you mind rephrasing ? Thank you.

Last but not least, kindly keep the router recommendations coming in.

Thank you
Nycky

 

[pw40b]

Wow.

Good Lord, that is amazing bandwidth.

I assume you are not in the USA, or else I will have to call BS, as I am sure that kind of bandwidth does not exist here (at least not residentially...and for less than $4k/mo).

As others have pointed out, you are at the point where your speed in downloading things from the internet EXCEEDS the speed that most (maybe all?) websites can upload things to the internet.

So therefore you are most likely wasting bandwidth, if not money.

If it's no big deal to you, then hey, enjoy yourself. Personally I dream of being able to have that kind of connectivity someday.

Paul

 

[Mangusta1969]

Thanks for the dimensions. You did not include the number of wall penetrations for your worst case wireless situation, but if each floor is approximately 20 x 20 meters (like your middle floor) you have a large area to cover.

Based on my experience in a large three story house that is 35 feet x 80 feet on each floor, you could probably get by with a single higher power/higher sensitivity 2.4GHz router/AP. My Ubiquiti PowerAP N is setup as a wireless router and is located on the first floor of an outbuilding, about 70 feet from the main 3 story house. Despite this less than optimum mounting location, I have steady 5-5.2Mbps throughput in all 22 rooms and 3 floors of the main house.

While my 5-5.2Mbps wireless throughput doesn't sound like much compared to your measured speeds, that is the effective throughput limit (as measured by speedtest.net) of my wired DSL modem. For comparison, when mounted in the same outbuilding location, my Cisco E4200 only covered about 8 of the 22 rooms and had some performance dropoffs to the 1Mbps levels in some of the distant rooms. The Cisco unit's performance was also variable at times, probably due to some interference from neighboring networks in my area.

I would give the PowerAP N a try. It is inexpensive, the twin antennas are upgradeable, and you could always expand your wireless coverage with additional units or higher gain antenna if you observe any performance issues.

 

[nyckylim]

Paul, it cost around USD$300 in Singapore. However, it is said to be only for Singapore while international is still capped at 100mbps.

Mangusta: The Ubiquiti PowerAP is one damm good looking router. Sadly, the 4 LAN port only supports speed up to 10/100. Hence, I would not be able to extend the gigabit network to 2nd level and 3rd level. Nonetheless, I've decided to use it as an accesspoint in both level 2 (replacing the WRT610n) and level 3 due to your superb review. I'm going to run out to get one in the afternoon if i have the time today.

EDIT: I just realized that the PowerAP WAN port only supports 100mbps max as well. If I'm connecting wired directly to the HG256 currently, I am getting about 300-500mbps. Does that mean i will be bottlenecked at 100mbps if i use the PowerAP as an accesspoint in level 2 and 3 ?

One thing to note, my HG256 router in level one is stored in an enclosed area measuring 170x26x200cm together with the circuit breaker. The sides and back are all concrete and the front door is made of metal. This could probably be why I'm receiving such weak signals. Attached is an image of my setup. Do not care about the unconnected 2 wires with the blue caps. they are cat6 cables meant for level 3 AP and Level 2 PoE switch.

As I've already have the wires done up. I would want to have an accesspoint in both level 2 and 3. Hope the Ubiquiti would be good. Let me know what you think about this setup.

I've also downloaded iStumbler for my MBP and the results are as follows:

Huawei HG256 router from the "enclosed area" to living room. ~ 9 meters. NO other walls except the ENCLOSED area metal door. 44% signal, 13% noise.

Linksys WRT610n router (acting as accesspoint) from level 2 to level 1 through a 4m deep concrete wall and flooring,
23% Signal 13% noise.

I do not know the benchmark for these results. So it would be great if you could decipher these numbers.

THank you very very much.

Nycky

 

[Mangusta1969]

Paul, it cost around USD$300 in Singapore. However, it is said to be only for Singapore while international is still capped at 100mbps.

Mangusta: The Ubiquiti PowerAP is one damm good looking router. Sadly, the 4 LAN port only supports speed up to 10/100. Hence, I would not be able to extend the gigabit network to 2nd level and 3rd level. Nonetheless, I've decided to use it as an accesspoint in both level 2 (replacing the WRT610n) and level 3 due to your superb review. I'm going to run out to get one in the afternoon if i have the time today.

EDIT: I just realized that the PowerAP WAN port only supports 100mbps max as well. If I'm connecting wired directly to the HG256 currently, I am getting about 300-500mbps. Does that mean i will be bottlenecked at 100mbps if i use the PowerAP as an accesspoint in level 2 and 3 ?

Yes, I would think you won't see performance approaching 100Mbps when you are operating over any wireless link with any brand of wireless router. The PowerAP N might limit your top end performance on wired links, but I doubt it will be a limiting factor on wireless links. I would suggest just using it as a high powered wireless-only access point and using your higher performance wired components to the maximum extent possible, especially in view of your reinforced concrete construction.

One thing to note, my HG256 router in level one is stored in an enclosed area measuring 170x26x200cm together with the circuit breaker. The sides and back are all concrete and the front door is made of metal. This could probably be why I'm receiving such weak signals. Attached is an image of my setup. Do not care about the unconnected 2 wires with the blue caps. they are cat6 cables meant for level 3 AP and Level 2 PoE switch.

As I've already have the wires done up. I would want to have an accesspoint in both level 2 and 3. Hope the Ubiquiti would be good. Let me know what you think about this setup.

I've also downloaded iStumbler for my MBP and the results are as follows:

Huawei HG256 router from the "enclosed area" to living room. ~ 9 meters. NO other walls except the ENCLOSED area metal door. 44% signal, 13% noise.

Linksys WRT610n router (acting as accesspoint) from level 2 to level 1 through a 4m deep concrete wall and flooring,
23% Signal 13% noise.

I do not know the benchmark for these results. So it would be great if you could decipher these numbers.

THank you very very much.

Nycky

I have used IStumbler extensively on several MacBook Pros to evaluate the performance of my E4200 2.4GHz wireless signal, my PowerAP N signal, and the signal strength of neighboring 2.4GHz networks.

Typically, with IStumbler I observed 20-32% signal strengths with a 13% noise floor from neighboring networks. I had a 35-42% signal strength with a 13% noise floor from my E4200 at distances of 100-150 feet from my E4200 source (several wood walls and 1-2 wood floors involved). I didn't have sustained performance above 2Mbps throughput (as measured by speedtest.net) unless I was above the 40% signal level with the E4200.

After switching to the PowerAP N, at the same distant locations, my received signal strengths jumped from 35-42% to a steady 59% signal strength. The noise floor also jumped a bit from 13% up to 18% or so, but I had a steady 5Mbps throughput, which was very close to the limit of my internet source connection (a DSL modem with ATT's Elite service).

Your concrete construction will likely reduce your signal substantially, so I would use the strongest wireless router available (like the PowerAP N) and you may have to increase the gain of the two detachable antennas from 5dBi to 8-10dbi to help with the reception of weak client signals.

In my experience, the received signal strength and noise floor numbers from the PowerAP N (Airview application) and the Mac's IStumbler application were roughly comparable, but the PowerAP N provides an easier to use and more sophisticated signal measurement capability.

Good luck with your setup and please post your performance results with whatever hardware solutions you decide to go with.

 

[nyckylim]

Hi,

I guess I will heed your advice and use it as an wireless-only solution. Unfortunately, it is out of stock in Singapore and guess I'll be ordering from Amazon and asking a friend to ship it since its also alot cheaper on Amazon.

Just wondering, does the PowerAP come with the Airview so I can see which channel is best to use ?

Also, thank you for recommending me iStumbler. I was previously using KisMac and WiFi Scanner from AppleStore. I think iStumbler is less complicating and its good to have the % rather than some numbers.

Regards
Nycky

 

[Mangusta1969]

Nycky,

The PowerAP N has a number of tools built into it, including the Airview utility and another tool called Site Survey. Site Survey does a quick scan of all the neighboring wireless networks and gives you a well thought out summary with the following headings:
MAC Address; SSID; Device Name; Encryption; Signal/Noise (dBm); Frequency(GHz); Channel Number

I couldn't be more pleased with this Ubiquiti device. It has been a much better performer than my now retired Cisco E4200, with far greater range, immunity to neighboring network interference, better throughputs, and better overall reliability (no reboots since installation).