How many wireless devices can one router/ap handle?

[greggman]

For example NetGear claims 32+32 on their dual band routers. 32 on 2.4ghz and 32 on 5ghz. Is that realistic? Note: I'm not asking about bandwidth I'm asking about the devices connected to the router. Apple on the other hand only claims 50 for their dual port router. I noticed buffalo's Japan site claims their top consumer routers are only good for like 6 people!?!? I'm guessing that's 9 devices? Or maybe they're using some other metric. My travel TLink TL-WR702N seems to max out at 15 devices.

Is 32 the theoretical maximum per channel? Is Apple claiming 25 per channel because it's closer to reality whereas netgear is claiming 32 but that will probably not work reliably? Is there some way to tell how many devices can connect to a particular AP since most specs don't seem to say it directly.

If I wanted to support more devices are they any routers with more radios or do I have to start using multiple APs? My use case is basically a bar/cafe where people usually have at least 2 devices each, a phone + either a tablet or a laptop. The cafe is not that large but can easily hold 60 people, 120 if it's a party and the tables are removed. That means with people sitting around 2 devices each I might need to support 120 devices. At a party I guess no one would be using a second device so still only 120ish.

If I do get another AP should I go pro or is consumer hardware good enough? Do I need to separate them (opposite sides of the cafe) or can I just put both next to each other given that the space is not that big and there aren't any physical barriers

 

[greggman]

I found this info on the Japanese Buffalo site which doesn't totally make sense to me.

First it says use at most 10 wireless devices per router. But then below that it says the WZR-G108/WZR2-G108 models can handle 14 devices. If using AES/TKIP then 12 devices.

WAPM-HP-AM54G54 on AES can handle 48 devices and on TKIP 50 devices

WAPM-APG300N・WAPM-AG300N on either AES or TKIP 50 devices

WLAH series・WLM2-AM54G54/HA・WLM2-A54G54/HA・WLM2-A54G54/H・
WLM2-G54/HA・WLM2-G54/H 50 devices on AES or TKIP but if on WEP they can't hit that limit (or that limitation doesn't apply) My translation skills aren't perfect.


I'm so confused though. Does using AES or TKIP allow more or less devices than say unsecured? Or does it matter? It doesn't seem like it should matter. but clearly it does at some level since there's examples of the same router having different limits depending on the method chosen

 

[thiggins]

Some access points limit the number of client connections. Routers usually don't.

The limits for use scenarios like yours are usually DHCP and bandwidth. You can address the first by shortening the DHCP lease time. The second can be controlled in some products, but usually not consumer routers. You would want to have some limit on per-user bandwidth, otherwise a few users could hog all the bandwidth.

I would look either at low-end SMB APs like the Cisco WAPs. ZyXEL also has some interesting devices for these applications like this one http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...-n-80211-abgn-dual-radio-business-ap-reviewed

Perhaps the different user capacities Buffalo is quoting is due to bandwidth limitations. 802.11n and ac devices need to be secured via WPA2/AES to enable link rates over 54 Mbps.

If you go with more than one AP, I would separate them for better coverage and be sure to put them on different channels (1, 6 or 11 for 2.4 GHz, any two channels for 5 GHz.)

 

[sfx2000]

Good rule of thumb is 10 clients per AP per channel - much depends on the anticipated traffic load and what type of traffic that is - Web vs. VOIP vs. streaming video vs. file transfers. It also depends on the client mix - B/G/N/AC. And then one has to consider the amount of bandwidth needed for each client and traffic type - which is beyond the capabilities of most consumer AP's.

For most consumer grade AP's - as Tim mentioned, they're somewhat limited by DHCP and bandwidth - 10 to 20 clients is typically about the most I would put on a single AP.

There's a couple of good papers out there that explain the challenges in more detail

http://www.aerohive.com/330000/docs...nsity_Wi-Fi-Design-Config-Guide_330073-01.pdf

I have a capacity planning worksheet somewhere in my document stash, if I can find it, I'll put it up on Google Docs for sharing...

sfx

 

[sm00thpapa]

25 devices on my WRT1900AC and it handles like a charm. 5 family members so this router is getting a real workout and the fan hasn't come on once.

 

[sfx2000]

Some access points limit the number of client connections. Routers usually don't.

Believe it or not - I've actually observed a Moto Surfboard CableModem/Gateway/AP reject connections - was back home at my parents' house, and they have an SBG6580 provided by their cable operator -- it would hold 15 connections full time - wifi or cabled up - plus one more - add another client, and it would toss out #16 and replace it... they actually had 14 devices on their network already (personal devices plus a home office)

Recently we had a family get-together, and folks were having trouble, so I put my airport express inline and let them attach to it as a router - double natted of course, and non-optimal, but when having more than 20 additional devices, e.g. tablets, smartphones, and more than a couple of laptops... I suspect within 2500 sq feet, we had around 45 or so clients trying to use the cable connection

 

[sm00thpapa]

Any router can handle 253 clients. Would love to see 253 simultaneously streams of 1080P video. I wonder if the router will over heat and blow up. LOL!

 

[greggman]

Sorry but no, any router can not handle 253 clients.

First off the question is about wireless devices. Most routers can handle far more wired devices than wireless devices.

second, even if you're talking wired devices I don't know where you think this 253 limit comes from. Nearly every router can be set to a netmask of 255,0,0,0 and an base IP address of 10,0,0,1 or something along those lines. That would be 16 million clients. But no router has the memory nor the CPU to handle 16 million clients. In fact most routers don't have the CPU nor the memory to handle 253.

There's other issues as well with wired clients. Too many on the same network end up with too many collisions resulting in really slow speeds. (not just bandwidth to the the internet but issues between each other).

But back to the original question, wireless devices have other issues as well, channels can hand handle so much noise. Radios in the router have to be tuned to a single channel at a time. And I'm sure a bunch of other factors.

I happen to know one of my routers has a 14 device limit because I hit it recently. Hence the question. Because I'd like to buy the router that will handle the most wireless devices and I'd also like to know what that limit is so I can then know if I need to by more access points.

 

[jerry6]

I have 18 clients on wireless and 4 wired on my asus RT N-66 or my AC -66 when it's back from repair .
What are the signs you've hit the limit on the router ?

Then there is this , printed on the lan DHCP server page

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol for the automatic configuration used on IP networks. The DHCP server can assign each client an IP address and informs the client of the of DNS server IP and default gateway IP. RT-N66U supports up to 253 IP addresses for your local network.

You can enter up to 128 static DHCP reservations. If filled, the Name field content will be pushed to the client as the hostname. If an invalid name is entered (such as one with spaces), then the name will only be used as a description on the webui itself (for example, "My Laptop").

 

[sm00thpapa]

I have 3 wired and 22 wireless devices connected to my WRT1900AC. All work flawless. I have 7 wireless streams of 1080P simultaneously with no issues.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[sfx2000]

Good to see some examples here...

Again - it's just a rule of thumb for capacity planning - since the use cases presented here are dual-band routers, it stands - 10 users per AP per Channel

I should expand this to 10 concurrent users on wireless - just having something attached, but not moving traffic doesn't really count as a user...

Normally what I've seen when getting close to capacity limits is that either connections start dropping (the WiFi radio shedding load), or that it becomes very difficult to attach... for wired and wireless users, typically you'll start having issues on the WAN side, either delays or outright not able to connect.

While most, if not all, SOHO routers may allow DHCP addressing for up to 254 addresses, for the most part... well, I think we all know where that goes.

They're limited mostly by memory - each client NAT table takes an amount of memory - newer AC class routers do have a respectable amount of memory, so even if you're not using AC, and have a fair amount of clients attaching to your network via wired and wireless, it might be a useful upgrade - that they also have more CPU horsepower and GigE on the WAN ports, this can also be a plus on higher bandwidth broadband connections.