You'll never guess how my girlfriend's home network is setup...

[KeithKman]

So my girlfriend has been complaining the internet at her apartment is running slow and is not that stable. Her roommate is in charge of all the tech in the apartment so I never want to get in the way. For the most part everything runs, but not smoothly. Well this past weekend her roommate was gone so I had a look at the home network to see if I could figure out why it's always ran so slow. What I found was pretty amazing.

Cable modem plugs into Apple AirPort Extreme that plugs into Apple AirPort Express. Two Apple AirPort Expresses set up in the apartment to act as repeaters. One is in the living room with the two routers. One is 50 feet away in the kitchen. The 2.4 ghz was running on channel 1. A quick wifi scan showed two adjacent apartments were running on the same channel.

Yes, you heard that right. I texted her roommate to ask why he had two routers plugged into each other and he said "Different frequencies, one runs a lot faster...5ghz (express)". I tried to explain to him yes that is true, but 5ghz is more for transferring files over the home network, which they are not doing. They are just streaming Apple TV and browsing the internet.

Download speed was 3.39 Mbps down, 0.81 Mbps up.

I unplugged everything except the modem and AirPort Extreme. Moved the 2.4 ghz to channel 4 (no one was using this channel), and speeds went to 24.24 Mbps down, 11.57 Mbps up.

The wifi strength was the same, if not better in their apartment just running the AirPort Extreme. When her roommate came home I explained to him what I did and the increase in speed. Their Apple TV streams a ton better too. I tried explaining the way he had it setup was hindering their network speed but he seemed convinced how he had it setup was better. I told him he could put it back how he wanted if he felt his way was better.

Anything I can say or do when I see him this weekend to better explain why having two routers and two repeaters on the same network in an apartment isn't a smart idea?

 

[jlake]

Anything you can say or do?

Probably not. Based on my observations over the years, when it comes to wifi problems with men, there is a lot of pride and ego involved.

I had a neighbor friend who had two routers double natted with same IP address of 192.168.1.1 and Dhcp server enabled on both. His solution was to power cycle them every 30 minutes when his wife and kids complained. That went on for 6 years. (I'm not kidding). I had asked him several times over the years if he wanted me to fix it for him and he said " no, it's probably the ISP." So finally after 6 years, his wife and kids had enough and made me come over and fix it. And he seemed mad. I fixed in 1 minute. True story.

 

[KGB7]

If you girlfriend pays for half of the Internet bill, then you should send him a bill for fixing his ignorance. Its only fair, since she wasnt getting what she was paying for from ISP.


But, ill bet he wont change anything back at all. So let it be and dont say anything.

If they are paying half and half, and he changes everything back, then he alone should pay for ISP bill, plus pay to your girlfriend for providing poor service.

 

[remixedcat]

Wow that is really crazy setup.

I thought that my crazy experiement with having a netgear router>amped wireless access point>amped wireless repeater was crazy he he. I tried that once for the hell of it. LOL.

 

[thiggins]

I would not have used Channel 4, even if no one else was using it. Since the non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11, channel 4 will look like noise to other networks and vice versa.

By definition, repeaters must operate on the same channel and band as the network they are repeating.

But it's always better to take repeaters out of the equation if they are not needed.

 

[Kris404]

I would not have used Channel 4, even if no one else was using it. Since the non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11, channel 4 will look like noise to other networks and vice versa.

By definition, repeaters must operate on the same channel and band as the network they are repeating.

But it's always better to take repeaters out of the equation if they are not needed.

That was my very first thought as well. Should have been 1, 6 or 11 based on this:

 

[KeithKman]

That was my very first thought as well. Should have been 1, 6 or 11 based on this:

Thanks for the heads up. I'll switch to one of those this weekend when I see her.

 

[Nerre]

That was my very first thought as well. Should have been 1, 6 or 11 based on this:

Based on that channel 6 is overlapped by channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10...

 

[thiggins]

Based on that channel 6 is overlapped by channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10...

Which is why professional WiFi installations use only 1, 6 and 11.

Next time you are in a mall or airport, fire up your favorite site survey tool. You should see only 1, 6 and 11 in use. Anything using another channel is probably a rogue.