Performance problems in two AP WLAN

[Fr0sT]

Does anyone know if the firmwares in the US differ from the firmwares in the EU? Thanks in advance! Awesome website by the way, too bad I found it only today..

 

[thiggins]

Does anyone know if the firmwares in the US differ from the firmwares in the EU? Thanks in advance! Awesome website by the way, too bad I found it only today..

For wireless routers, manufacturers frequently do have separate firmware to handle the different wireless settings required by various countries.

Just check / download the firmware from country-specific sites.
For the DIR-655, latest US firmware is dir655_fw_134NA.zip, while for the UK it's DIR655Ax_FW131EUB02.zip.

 

[Fr0sT]

For wireless routers, manufacturers frequently do have separate firmware to handle the different wireless settings required by various countries.

Just check / download the firmware from country-specific sites.
For the DIR-655, latest US firmware is dir655_fw_134NA.zip, while for the UK it's DIR655Ax_FW131EUB02.zip.

Thanks a lot. The thing is I manage the internet for 13 people, and I don't want to take the risk that the wifi goes down during the exam period. But I had few minor questions as I am looking for the maximum speed for all of the people of my building.

I have a fibernet internet 100mb/s down and 5mb/s up.
I am using the gigabit via the ethernet.
The rest so 11 people are using, G or N devices (and 1 person is still using the old B)


Now the question is how can I obtain the best speeds? (even if the wifi is a bit more insecure) what's the best solution for me?
wpa or wpa2?
tkip or aes?
20MHZ or 40MHZ transmission?

Because I found a lot of controversies all over the internet, that's why I was wondering...

What I did try is using access points to make sure the N speed is not drawn back: I used my main router to transmit in N only and I used another access point to transmit in G and B. The things is for some weird reason the access point (tried it with 2 other routers, disabled DHCP) is not working anymore after a few hours. I don't have a clue why?

Thanks a million!

Seba

 

[thiggins]

For best performance, keep the B/G and N traffic on separate access points / routers.

If you're running encrypted, you must use WPA2 /AES or the router will fall back to only 802.11g maximum link rate (54 Mbps).

I would use 20 MHz bandwidth in 2.4 GHz. Using 40 MHz bandwidth eats up too much spectrum and provides only a slight improvement.

Be sure your N router is set to N only mode. N and B/G routers should have different SSIDs and be set to different channels (1, 6, 11).

 

[Fr0sT]

For best performance, keep the B/G and N traffic on separate access points / routers.

If you're running encrypted, you must use WPA2 /AES or the router will fall back to only 802.11g maximum link rate (54 Mbps).

I would use 20 MHz bandwidth in 2.4 GHz. Using 40 MHz bandwidth eats up too much spectrum and provides only a slight improvement.

Be sure your N router is set to N only mode. N and B/G routers should have different SSIDs and be set to different channels (1, 6, 11).

Ok thanks but is WPA faster than WPA2 ? (less performance loss, more secure?)

The SSID of my main router and my second router used as access point are:
"Seba's fibernet" and "Seba's fibernet (G-devices)", do you think these names will interfere?

Regarding the channels there are a lot of occupied channels, check my screenshot: http://www.speedyshare.com/files/22856404/Knipsel.JPG

Currently my main router (dir-655) is sending in B/G/N, 20 mhz, WPA2/TKIP. As I said before my access points always gets stuck for some weird reason!

Suggestions?

Thanks once more.

Seba

 

[thiggins]

Ok thanks but is WPA faster than WPA2 ? (less performance loss, more secure?)

It is not. You will be limited to 11g speed if you use anything other than WPA2/AES.

The SSID of my main router and my second router used as access point are:
"Seba's fibernet" and "Seba's fibernet (G-devices)", do you think these names will interfere?

They won't interfere, but I would not use spaces or () in the SSIDs since that could cause problems with some clients. Use - or _ instead of space

Regarding the channels there are a lot of occupied channels, check my screenshot: http://www.speedyshare.com/files/22856404/Knipsel.JPG

Currently my main router (dir-655) is sending in B/G/N, 20 mhz, WPA2/TKIP. As I said before my access points always gets stuck for some weird reason!

Make sure your two APs are at least 3 meters apart. Closer than that and they can overload each other's receiver.

I'd swap the channels of your two APs, (move the G router to channel 1, the N to channel 11). This would get your signals above the interferers.

Are the APs getting "stuck" or the clients? See this.

 

[Fr0sT]

It is not. You will be limited to 11g speed if you use anything other than WPA2/AES.

They won't interfere, but I would not use spaces or () in the SSIDs since that could cause problems with some clients. Use - or _ instead of space

Make sure your two APs are at least 3 meters apart. Closer than that and they can overload each other's receiver.

I'd swap the channels of your two APs, (move the G router to channel 1, the N to channel 11). This would get your signals above the interferers.

Are the APs getting "stuck" or the clients? See this.

Ok, so if I change it from TKIP to AES, do I need to reconfigure all the passwords on all the computers? (as it's some kind of bad timing right now, exam period)

Ok so I'll change the device names and not use "(" & ")". The D-link DIR-655 (main router) and the NETGEAR wgr614v7 (access point, dhcp switched off) are at least 3 meters away from eachother.

So if I get this right, if I move my "G devices" to channel 1 (there are 3 other wifi's on that very same channel), it will "overrule" them?

And do you know why the "rate mbps" is that low comparing to the signal strength? http://www.speedyshare.com/files/22870395/Knipsel.JPG

The AP get's stuck. Not connectable anymore!


I don't know how to thank you...

Thanks a lot.

Seba

 

[Fr0sT]

Updated "version" of inSSIDer: http://www.speedyshare.com/files/22870585/Knipsel.JPG

Thanks!

 

[thiggins]

Ok, so if I change it from TKIP to AES, do I need to reconfigure all the passwords on all the computers? (as it's some kind of bad timing right now, exam period)

Probably not. You can just change the encryption method on the router. But clients will have to reconnect. That may confuse some people.

Ok so I'll change the device names and not use "(" & ")". The D-link DIR-655 (main router) and the NETGEAR wgr614v7 (access point, dhcp switched off) are at least 3 meters away from each other.

That's good.

So if I get this right, if I move my "G devices" to channel 1 (there are 3 other wifi's on that very same channel), it will "overrule" them?

It won't "overrule" them. But from the channel plot you provided, it will make both your routers' signals stronger than the other networks'. This can help with connection reliability.

And do you know why the "rate mbps" is that low comparing to the signal strength? http://www.speedyshare.com/files/22870395/Knipsel.JPG

Link rate is not directly related to actual throughput. The link rate chosen depends on many factors, most of which are in the client and beyond your control. Don't worry about it.

The AP get's stuck. Not connectable anymore!

This could be because you are trying to support too many clients per access point and / or too many clients total. How many clients are you trying to support anyway?

 

[Fr0sT]

Probably not. You can just change the encryption method on the router. But clients will have to reconnect. That may confuse some people.

That's good.

It won't "overrule" them. But from the channel plot you provided, it will make both your routers' signals stronger than the other networks'. This can help with connection reliability.

Link rate is not directly related to actual throughput. The link rate chosen depends on many factors, most of which are in the client and beyond your control. Don't worry about it.

This could be because you are trying to support too many clients per access point and / or too many clients total. How many clients are you trying to support anyway?

Thanks once again. So normally if everyone is online, there are 13 people.

2 people via ethernet. (including myself)
3 people via N wifi.
1 person via B wifi.
7 people via G wifi.

There might also be some smartphones sometimes (it's on G I guess), but rarely all the people are online at the same time.

(main router D-LINK dir-655 and AP NETGEAR wgr614v7)
Concerning my AP, do you know how I can reconfigure it again without resetting it? If I connect it to my computer via ethernet to configure, it automatically refers me to my dir-655. (but can't because it's allready disconnected from the dir-655). So I can't get the routerpage of my AP only the routerpage of my mainrouter. (because switched DHCP off on the AP).

Thanks

Seba

 

[thiggins]

Moved this discussion to its own thread because it was getting long.

Thanks once again. So normally if everyone is online, there are 13 people.

2 people via ethernet. (including myself)
3 people via N wifi.
1 person via B wifi.
7 people via G wifi.

There might also be some smartphones sometimes (it's on G I guess), but rarely all the people are online at the same time.

Your two APs should have no problems handling this many people.

(main router D-LINK dir-655 and AP NETGEAR wgr614v7)
Concerning my AP, do you know how I can reconfigure it again without resetting it? If I connect it to my computer via ethernet to configure, it automatically refers me to my dir-655. (but can't because it's allready disconnected from the dir-655). So I can't get the routerpage of my AP only the routerpage of my mainrouter. (because switched DHCP off on the AP).

I'm not exactly following you. But unless you want to keep the G and N clients on separate networks that can't communicate with each other, you should have one router, which (also serves DHCP) and one AP.
Convert one of the routers to an access point (probably the NETGEAR)
How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point and add it to the main router
How To Add an Access Point to a Wireless Router.

If you follow the instructions carefully, the AP will have a static IP address in the router's address space and you should be able to reach it easily for administration.

 

[tipstir]

Seba are your two AP's are they both on the same level or not? mW must be set differently in them, but what I can see on your iSSIDer they seem to be performing well. Even close to the ESR-9850 or TEW-673GRU or even Belkin N+ all 3 show up for me -45dBm. But that's with N150 (TX: 150 mbps / RX: 150mbps) using Realtek chip-set. Compared to Buffalo high power 802.11g PCMICA card that has 256mW shown on PassMark Wireless Mon 3.x. Even with that card I got -33dBm for RSSi.