Hello all,
I have been an avid reader of SNF but this is my first post so go easy on me!
I am actually looking for some advice on my setup as we have recently moved house, the new house is 3 story so I have been attempting to improve the coverage. The house like our last one has a BT ADSL line and until now I had a Netgear 3300 as 1 box router/modem solution, prior to that I used the NETGEAR DG834GT supplied by my ISP. The issue I was looking to address was a weak(ish) signal on the top floor. Last week I picked up a Netgear WNDR3700 which I installed as an Access Point off of the original NETGEAR DG834GT. As I would not be using the wifi on the master it seemed a shame to waste the 3300 which is why I used the DG834GT as the modem, this seemed to make sense and it gave me the option of maybe using the 3300 as an additional access point or repeater later on.
The 3700 was not easy to setup but eventually it was up and running and immediately I was not impressed. In my office on the top floor using istumbler and airRadar on my mac the 2ghz and 5ghz signal strength was weaker than both the ageing NETGEAR DG834GT (2ghz only) and 3300 (2ghz and 5ghz) I appreciate that the top floor of my house will present a challenge however I was expecting the new top of the line 3700 to at least out-perform my older gear especially the DG834GT. So based on that and some apparent reliability issues with this router I changed it yesterday for the E4200. Setup was a breeze this time however I am still a little under-whelmed, I am now seeing better 5GHZ than the 3300 which is good however over 2ghz the e4200 is still being out-performed slightly in terms of signal strength by the other two. I am seeing on the E4200 a signal strength of 30% on 5GHZ and 40-45%% on 2GHZ this is vs 45-47% for the 3300 and 45-50% for the DG834GT.
As of now despite all this I do have a usable connection everywhere inside the house but I am considering what to do next to improve it and also maybe cover our garage which is slightly detached by a few meters so we can watch stuff from our NAS out there (it is set up as a gym). I have attached a floorpan for the house, currently the modem and router are sited in the lounge (TOP left hand corner as you look at the plan) I know somewhere central would be better and I am thinking of moving it all to hall (which would be a bit of work) the reason it is there now is so I can hardwire the XBOX, AppleTV, NAS and our SKY+ HD box via ethernet. If I moved it I could move the NAS with it but would have to go to wifi for the devices.
So I suppose on the basis that there are far more knowledgable people on here what would you do? The options that have occurred to me so far are as follows:
• Leave the DG834GT where it is and run an Ethernet to the hall and locate the E4200 there. I’d retain Ethernet for the Xbox etc from the DG834GT and get the benefit of the wifi being more central. I’d have to the run the cable outside probably to do this and we’d be looking at a run of 15-20m I’d guess.
• Leave the DG834GT where it is and do the same as above only using powerline adapters in lieu of the Ethernet cable run. Easier but more expensive and I’d guess performance wise a straight Ethernet run would give better performance over powerline. I'd also add that I am short on plug sockets so on the basis that the PA needs to go into the wall and not an extension I'd need to get a passthrough one for which there is no gigabit option currently.
• Move everything to the hall and go to wifi for the xbox etc. I’d have to buy a wifi adapter for the Sky+ HD box to do this.
• Leave everything where it is and try and utilize the now un-used 3300 to extend the network somehow.
• Leave it all as it is and stop the bl**dy procrastinating!
• Another option that I have not thought of.
I am also wondering if the 10/100 ethernet port on the DG834GT is a bottleneck anyway? i.e. if the port is only putting out 100 MBPS then how can the N router give me the speed of a true 300 Mbps connection?
Many Thanks in advance.
Neil
I have been an avid reader of SNF but this is my first post so go easy on me!
I am actually looking for some advice on my setup as we have recently moved house, the new house is 3 story so I have been attempting to improve the coverage. The house like our last one has a BT ADSL line and until now I had a Netgear 3300 as 1 box router/modem solution, prior to that I used the NETGEAR DG834GT supplied by my ISP. The issue I was looking to address was a weak(ish) signal on the top floor. Last week I picked up a Netgear WNDR3700 which I installed as an Access Point off of the original NETGEAR DG834GT. As I would not be using the wifi on the master it seemed a shame to waste the 3300 which is why I used the DG834GT as the modem, this seemed to make sense and it gave me the option of maybe using the 3300 as an additional access point or repeater later on.
The 3700 was not easy to setup but eventually it was up and running and immediately I was not impressed. In my office on the top floor using istumbler and airRadar on my mac the 2ghz and 5ghz signal strength was weaker than both the ageing NETGEAR DG834GT (2ghz only) and 3300 (2ghz and 5ghz) I appreciate that the top floor of my house will present a challenge however I was expecting the new top of the line 3700 to at least out-perform my older gear especially the DG834GT. So based on that and some apparent reliability issues with this router I changed it yesterday for the E4200. Setup was a breeze this time however I am still a little under-whelmed, I am now seeing better 5GHZ than the 3300 which is good however over 2ghz the e4200 is still being out-performed slightly in terms of signal strength by the other two. I am seeing on the E4200 a signal strength of 30% on 5GHZ and 40-45%% on 2GHZ this is vs 45-47% for the 3300 and 45-50% for the DG834GT.
As of now despite all this I do have a usable connection everywhere inside the house but I am considering what to do next to improve it and also maybe cover our garage which is slightly detached by a few meters so we can watch stuff from our NAS out there (it is set up as a gym). I have attached a floorpan for the house, currently the modem and router are sited in the lounge (TOP left hand corner as you look at the plan) I know somewhere central would be better and I am thinking of moving it all to hall (which would be a bit of work) the reason it is there now is so I can hardwire the XBOX, AppleTV, NAS and our SKY+ HD box via ethernet. If I moved it I could move the NAS with it but would have to go to wifi for the devices.
So I suppose on the basis that there are far more knowledgable people on here what would you do? The options that have occurred to me so far are as follows:
• Leave the DG834GT where it is and run an Ethernet to the hall and locate the E4200 there. I’d retain Ethernet for the Xbox etc from the DG834GT and get the benefit of the wifi being more central. I’d have to the run the cable outside probably to do this and we’d be looking at a run of 15-20m I’d guess.
• Leave the DG834GT where it is and do the same as above only using powerline adapters in lieu of the Ethernet cable run. Easier but more expensive and I’d guess performance wise a straight Ethernet run would give better performance over powerline. I'd also add that I am short on plug sockets so on the basis that the PA needs to go into the wall and not an extension I'd need to get a passthrough one for which there is no gigabit option currently.
• Move everything to the hall and go to wifi for the xbox etc. I’d have to buy a wifi adapter for the Sky+ HD box to do this.
• Leave everything where it is and try and utilize the now un-used 3300 to extend the network somehow.
• Leave it all as it is and stop the bl**dy procrastinating!
• Another option that I have not thought of.
I am also wondering if the 10/100 ethernet port on the DG834GT is a bottleneck anyway? i.e. if the port is only putting out 100 MBPS then how can the N router give me the speed of a true 300 Mbps connection?
Many Thanks in advance.
Neil
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