WIFI Hardware

[rnichols]

Ok, I have been tinkering with access points for the Wifi here at the house. We have alot of apple devices.. like four ipads, five iphones, a nest, two macbooks.. A few windows devices. Everything I can have as wired is wired.

I have tired using an amped wireless ap and it hasnt been very stable at all, it keeps dropping the ipads, causing streaming issues to them from the tivo stream. The nest hates the WiFi and keeps taking it self offline.

Has anyone got some suggestions as to a good access point to use in this kind of enviroment? I would like to try to get decent speeds from it.. handle a few users... I have thought about apples products, but I would like some input from others.

I dont really want to add a router and so forth unless its just the best option to turn off the routing part and use the wifi only.

thanks

 

[thiggins]

Could be just plain interference. Are there a lot of busy networks in range? Have you tried another channel? Moving devices to 5 GHz? Using only 20 MHz mode in 2.4 GHz?

 

[rnichols]

Could be just plain interference. Are there a lot of busy networks in range? Have you tried another channel? Moving devices to 5 GHz? Using only 20 MHz mode in 2.4 GHz?

Ive had it set on 20MHz and auto.. Ive had it set to 20MHz and different channels.. It does the same on 5 GHz.. There are six different APs within range of me. I have had mine set differently than theres..

Thanks for the ideas,

 

[thiggins]

If you are having same problems with devices staying connected on 5 GHz and 2.4, it is likely not interference.

You can always try an Airport Extreme since you have mostly Apple stuff.

What did you have before the Amped and why did you change?

 

[stevech]

Ok, I have been tinkering with access points for the Wifi here at the house. We have alot of apple devices.. like four ipads, five iphones, a nest, two macbooks.. A few windows devices. Everything I can have as wired is wired.

I have tired using an amped wireless ap and it hasnt been very stable at all, it keeps dropping the ipads, causing streaming issues to them from the tivo stream. The nest hates the WiFi and keeps taking it self offline.

Has anyone got some suggestions as to a good access point to use in this kind of enviroment? I would like to try to get decent speeds from it.. handle a few users... I have thought about apples products, but I would like some input from others.

I dont really want to add a router and so forth unless its just the best option to turn off the routing part and use the wifi only.

thanks

possibly helpful: We have an iPad Retina; used with 3 different WiFi access devices in this house. No problems with disconnections. Speeds 20+Mbps down, limited by my ISP, not WiFi. Access device is within 20 ft where it gets used mostly. Access devices are all non-Apple, mostly sub-$50 WiFi. Most-used is a Cisco E1200 re-purposed as an AP.

 

[rnichols]

If you are having same problems with devices staying connected on 5 GHz and 2.4, it is likely not interference.

You can always try an Airport Extreme since you have mostly Apple stuff.

What did you have before the Amped and why did you change?

I had a Cisco WAP121 , still have it laying around here too. I was just trying to upgrade to a different wifi device to help the network. The wap121 was having to be reset once or twice a day and had other issues that I dont recall at the moment.

I have what I think is a decent setup at the house, got a ZyWall 50USG as the router, a netgear GS716T as the main backbone, and a GS108T operating at the other end of the house for the media stuff like the PS3, the TV,etc.

I am just trying to figure out if the device I have is the correct for what I am trying to do with it. Just want to have decent connectivity for the wireless devices and try not to have too much streaming issues..

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

How many wireless devices are typically active at a time? And what is the total streaming bandwidth you are trying to support?

 

[rnichols]

How many wireless devices are typically active at a time? And what is the total streaming bandwidth you are trying to support?

I have 6 wireless devices active at all times. The streaming is done on three of the six devices to a tivo stream. Even if its just one ipad doing the streaming it has issues. I am not 100% sure of the tivo stream requirements for the bandwidth.

 

[thiggins]

Are you sure it's not the TiVo Stream device itself? In a quick check of reviews for the device I didn't see any that said it produced flawless streaming.

Do you have similar problems with Netflix or other streaming sources to the same devices?

 

[rnichols]

Are you sure it's not the TiVo Stream device itself? In a quick check of reviews for the device I didn't see any that said it produced flawless streaming.

Do you have similar problems with Netflix or other streaming sources to the same devices?

Yes, problems with netflix/amazon. Even file copies on the macbook pro, the toshiba laptop, and the asus netbook.. It will just drop the network sit there for about 5 -10mins then error out, you have to disconnect the network, reconnect it and it works for about 30mins or longer then it goes back to it..

I set up a ping to the access point from each device that I could and watching it the ping times go from 15ms to 5,550ms and higher sometimes..

 

[thiggins]

Yep that sure sounds like an AP problem. When the WAP121 worked, did it stream ok?
I'm trying to figure out if it's a chipset incompatibility issue. The WAP121 is Broadcom based and so is the latest Airport Express.

Which Amped model are you using?

 

[rnichols]

Yep that sure sounds like an AP problem. When the WAP121 worked, did it stream ok?
I'm trying to figure out if it's a chipset incompatibility issue. The WAP121 is Broadcom based and so is the latest Airport Express.

Which Amped model are you using?

The WAP121 worked ok for the stream, but couldnt do more than two devices when it worked... that could have been a configuration issue or part of the going out part..

Amped Model AP20000G latest firmware..

 

[thiggins]

Ok. The AP20000G is Realtek based. So let's say no to other Realtek-based designs.

Let's chalk up the WAP121 to bad Cisco firmware. Their small biz products seem to be having a bad time of it lately...

You have no need to move to 802.11ac. In fact, could complicate things if part of the problem is chipset incompatibility.

I'd say try an N600 class router converted to AP to broaden your selection range. You can get a refurbed EA2700 in the Linksys store for $60 with 30 day money back.

 

[rnichols]

Ok. The AP20000G is Realtek based. So let's say no to other Realtek-based designs.

Let's chalk up the WAP121 to bad Cisco firmware. Their small biz products seem to be having a bad time of it lately...

You have no need to move to 802.11ac. In fact, could complicate things if part of the problem is chipset incompatibility.

I'd say try an N600 class router converted to AP to broaden your selection range. You can get a refurbed EA2700 in the Linksys store for $60 with 30 day money back.

Ok , i'll give that a whirl and see what happens. Thank you for your assistance on this, I will order that EA2700.

Thank you a ton!

 

[stevech]

might be an obscure battery life extension setting in the user device's WiFi config

 

[rnichols]

Thank you alot, I got the linksys install, did some testing and its ALOT faster than that amped. Even on SpeedTests to the internet. using SpeedTest.net on the Amped I got 15-25 mbps now on the new one Im getting 90-100mbps. which is a great improvement.

The ping times are far far far less now.. No lag time,etc..

Thank you again for a great recommendation!

 

[thiggins]

Glad it worked out. Thanks for the update.