Changing my daughter's house over to 5 GHz only

[coxhaus]

My daughter and granddaughter have been complaining about poor Wi-Fi performance. Her house is in one of those densely populated neighborhoods where the houses are close together. Right at first they were one of the first houses on the street and wireless 2.4 GHz worked fine. Now a couple of years later the neighborhood is full with wireless everywhere. I realized I still had my old 3 Cisco WAP321 wireless units. They are EOL but are supported until 2022 with a new firmware just a few months old. I decided I would try converting her over to 5 GHz using these old APs. If it works well then I will buy new Cisco wireless devices for her.

I went over to my daughters' for dinner. I configured the Cisco WAP321 wireless units. I powered up the first one logged on and upgraded the firmware. I then did a factory reset back to factory basics. I logged on and set the radio to 5GHz only creating a single point setup. I then did each of the other 2 by upgrading the firmware and then joining the single point setup. My new wireless network was done with 3 units running as one system. Since my daughter is using an ATT modem router setup I only configured VLAN 1 on the Cisco WAP321 units. My daughter does not need a guest network as they have 2 iPhones, 2 iPads and 2 laptops.

My daughter was surprised at how much faster the wireless was. There are still a couple of issues where I have 2 units a little close so roaming is not great in that part of the house. I need a couple of long CAT5e cables. The builder put the jacks close in my daughter and granddaughter rooms. I need to stretch the distance and probably turn down the power next time I go over there.

I left the 2.4 GHz running and just layered the 5 GHz wireless network over. This will give them time to move everything over. I then plan to turn off the 2.4 GHz wireless.

PS
These Cisco WAP321 wireless units are old non-AC wireless units and still faster than 2.4 GHz.

 

[L&LD]

coxhaus,

This is the reason I usually keep older routers that customers don't need anymore. There is always someone with lesser equipment.

The only thing I can suggest is that everyone needs a guest network. I do not let anyone on my main network even for 'a minute'.

 

[coxhaus]

Yes I guess it is good I did not get rid of the Cisco WAP321 wireless units. I think I ran these units for 7 years and now my daughter will run them. It is good there has been software support all these years.

PS
L&LD my daughter does not even own a desktop PC. All here devices are portable so I am not sure about a guess network. I don't think her devices can be trusted since they go off network. If I add a Cisco router to her network I probably will add a guess network since they are so easy to configure.

 

[L&LD]

The guest network is not for her devices, it is for anyone visiting their home to have internet service without having access to anything else.

 

[Internet Man]

Imagine the speed increase from upgrading to 802.11ac. I'd be surprised if their client devices don't already support it.

 

[coxhaus]

Imagine the speed increase from upgrading to 802.11ac. I'd be surprised if their client devices don't already support it.

You are correct. Her iPhone will have everything she needs. AC runs better. At some point I will upgrade her WAP321 to newer ones. I am kind of waiting for the new Wi-Fi standards to come out this fall. I think there will be deals out there.