Large Home small LAN

[shakyjake]

I am using a Cisco e4200v1 wireless router connected to DISHNET satellite. House is 7200 sqft with three floors and phone service is OOMA type. All clients are 11n capable and single ethernet is 10/100/1000. Five client PCs, three smartphones, three tablets, two laptops, printer, game console connect at various times (many simultaneous). Throughput and Internet connectivity is usually poor. Farthest distance client is 35 ft from router and is aided by Cisco A1000 extender (sub LAN). Some interference in line-of-sight by HVAC ductwork for clients. Win7 on all clients, one with Win8.1. Connectivity monitor (Windows) shows either no IPv6, IPv4 or just no IPv6 at most times of the day. Any suggestions on improving signal to clients? Would using the ASUS A68U work better at increasing throughput for 11n adapters and better if replaced by Netgear A6200 adapters?

 

[stevech]

I am using a Cisco e4200v1 wireless router connected to DISHNET satellite. House is 7200 sqft with three floors and phone service is OOMA type. All clients are 11n capable and single ethernet is 10/100/1000. Five client PCs, three smartphones, three tablets, two laptops, printer, game console connect at various times (many simultaneous). Throughput and Internet connectivity is usually poor. Farthest distance client is 35 ft from router and is aided by Cisco A1000 extender (sub LAN). Some interference in line-of-sight by HVAC ductwork for clients. Win7 on all clients, one with Win8.1. Connectivity monitor (Windows) shows either no IPv6, IPv4 or just no IPv6 at most times of the day. Any suggestions on improving signal to clients? Would using the ASUS A68U work better at increasing throughput for 11n adapters and better if replaced by Netgear A6200 adapters?

Does Dishnet provide acceptable speeds/throughput for PCs that connect via cat5, no WiFi?
Dish claims "up to" 10Mbps. Those satellites are 22K miles out there on orbit, and a round trip is over a half-second.

 

[shakyjake]

More

Well DISHNET claims "an amazing speed of 5 to 10 Mbps", closer to the 5. And yes the latency can be 1.5 sec often. Yes, the router is connected via cat5e. Still, the connectivity and speeds used to be far better. Now most times it drops randomly to a crawl similar to dial-up 33K. Some have suggested I need to use a more robust router to accommodate both space and multiple clients (that would be Cisco). I realize that the extender halves the throughput and that many users decrease available antenna outputs in 2.4 GHz. My query is mostly about where the choke points occur. If I can ever get LAN Speedtest to work, I might get some real figures. I'm guessing that most throughput speeds to clients are around 400Kbps. Any other suggestions? [AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and TimeWarner refuse to extend broadband in the area, as little as another 1000 ft.]

 

[jlake]

Try to isolate the problem. If you're not having any problems with a computer connected directly to the E4200v1 with Ethernet, then you can assume your problem is wireless. Then continue to isolate by removing the RE1000s. But if you haven't even connected a computer to the router via cat5e........how do you know?

Until you've properly isolated the problem, you're wasting your time. Just use process of elimination.

Range extenders are a last resort option. Try powerline adapters instead. They have powerline adapters with built-in wifi.

 

[shakyjake]

Good responses

Yes, I have connected a laptop via ethernet directly to modem and gotten decent speeds. Then the e4200 delivered nearly similar speeds except for the farthest client (35 ft). However, in the past two years, the connectivity and speeds steadily decline on 2.4 GHz. The laptops have mediocre NICs and moving a desktop PC a long distance (or run 75 ft cat5e patch) isn't practical frequently. Can't use CoE due to satellite TV and can't use powerline over ethernet due to home security system interference. The best solution is to connect a wired router and add multiple wireless access points around the house. But that requires pulling cat6e cable. The wireless configuration I'm using now worked acceptably well in the past, so I'm curious as to what changed. Do suppose the Cisco router needs a firmware upgrade due to changes in hardware?

 

[stevech]

Yes, I have connected a laptop via ethernet directly to modem and gotten decent speeds. Then the e4200 delivered nearly similar speeds except for the farthest client (35 ft). However, in the past two years, the connectivity and speeds steadily decline on 2.4 GHz. The laptops have mediocre NICs and moving a desktop PC a long distance (or run 75 ft cat5e patch) isn't practical frequently. Can't use CoE due to satellite TV and can't use powerline over ethernet due to home security system interference. The best solution is to connect a wired router and add multiple wireless access points around the house. But that requires pulling cat6e cable. The wireless configuration I'm using now worked acceptably well in the past, so I'm curious as to what changed. Do suppose the Cisco router needs a firmware upgrade due to changes in hardware?

Firmware update: No.
Large home = multiple APs.
What's CoE?

Please elaborate on why IP on Power wiring (HomePlug) cannot work due to home security system? Insteon? That would coexist, as would X10.

You'll need multiple APs connected by either HomePlug or MoCA, the latter being IP over existing TV coax - if that's present in enough rooms.