New Router or Not?

[belgiantrotter]

hello all!
I found this website a while ago and went through a lot of articles! This site is amazing! a treasure of information

but figures remain figures I've been going crazy in my router choices the last few years and I'm out of idea's...

Let me explain my situation:
I own a Linksys WRT610N. (I believe V1)
I have a big apartment (so all on same floor) with 1 very big living room. My router is located there. and on the complete opposite of the living room, I have a hallway and all bedrooms are situated there. Normal doors.
The walls however are all full concrete I believe. (rock solid building )

In the house the following needs wireless connection:

• - 2 iphones
• - 1 ipad
• - 2 laptops (built-in wireless, intel Wifi 5300 AGN)
• - 1 desktop (USB linksys WUSB600N which I bough especially for it dual band support) It performs Miserably!!
• - other devices are all wired.

Available wireless networks around my flat... well around 15... very crowded. I'm always trying to find the least crowded channel using inSSIDer.
most channels are 2.4 Ghz so I hoped a 5 Ghz network would be better.


My Problem:
in the bedrooms my signal is crap. on the 2.4 Ghz band its bad. on 5 ghz... no connection at all!!!

So I'm on the hunt again for upgrades as my router is still an old version and a draft N device.

I have now directed my focus on the following device: Netgear WNDR3700.
This for multiple reasons:

• - I've only had Dlink or Linksys... maybe Netgear can offer something where others have failed
• - it's both a router & repeater. if my signal is still poor I'll use both devices and setup a repeater.
• - if I look at this chart:
  http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...ng-netgear-wndr3700-reviewed?showall=&start=5
  In locations E & F, the signals are significantly better...

What is holding me up to buying it:

• - a newer version is due out soon. (would this help even further?)
• - the review of the WNDR3700 states "No innovation in 5 GHz range"
• - in case of bad performance will the WNDR3700 and WRT610N actually play nice side by side? the WRT610N as router & WNDR3700 as repeater?

any tips? suggestions? all are welcome

I'd like to be able to relax in my bed & use my ipad without any connection drops

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

A different router will not solve your problem and especially not your 5 GHz problem. 5 GHz signals are attenuated more then 2.4GHz when passing through walls and floors.

Your best bet is to try powerline networking to connect another access point at the other end of your flat.

 

[belgiantrotter]

I had a feeling the powerline option would have been offered
but this is not good news I have already tried that. Should have mentioned that already:
I didn't explain my situation extensively enough

I have a powerline in the flat which does the following: connect my cable modem with the router which is in another room. (my cable modem is installed where my cable comes in, in a small room near the kitchen)


entrance cable in Technical room
++> cable modem ----> powerline ******* powerline ----> router (in living room)

where
----> is a wired UTP cable
******* : powerline

if I would now (I have tested it already) add another powerline on the other side of the network (within the LAN network) I'm getting interference from both powerlines and my performance drops over time until I need to unplug all powerlines.
I think they "suffer" for one and other or something ...


I hope I'm clear enough in my explanation

greets

 

[thiggins]

What kind of powerline adapter are you using? Powerline, like wireless shares the same available bandwidth. But it's very important that all all your adapters are using the same powerline technology. Otherwise you will lose a lot of bandwidth.

I would also assign different security codes to the different adapter pairs.

 

[belgiantrotter]

all I have are HomePlug AV.

The current pair I use to link the modem to the router in another room is Devolo Dlan 200 AvPlus. (these are used to connect the Internet to the Router --> WAN side)

These are working wonderfully. My internet connection never drops, nor do I loose performance or speed. They operate well and I still need them to keep my internet operational.


I had another pair of home plug AV's to make a powerline connection after the router (the LAN side, from Router back into same wall but another plug and to bed room 2) for that i used the D-link DHP-307av

each pair had their own security code. but after 1 week of use I would notice performance drops on both and worse also on the one at WAN side. I think both interferred with each other.

this is why I stopped using the second pair on LAN side and invested in a new Router. (the WRT610N hoping to solve my coverage problem in the bedrooms)


are you saying If I would buy another pair of the same I have this would be better? even if they should not communicate with each other at all. since 2 are for WAN and the other 2 would then be for LAN.
using another pair would also offer me the possibility to use one with an integrated wireless.

 

[thiggins]

This illustrates the problem that powerline product manufacturers put their customers through.

There is no indication I can find that the Devolo adapters are HomePlug AV certified or comply with the HomePlug AV standard, while the D-Link adapters do state HomePlug AV in their specs.

Some "200 Mbps" adapters used a competing incompatible technology from a company called DS2. That company was purchased by Marvell and the technology has disappeared. If the Devolo adapters are old, they could use the DS2 technology, which could cause problems like those you refer to.

Even if the Devolos use HomePlug AV, it's possible that the problems you are seeing are firmware related. But I can't be sure.

All adapters share the same bandwidth. Homeplug AV has about 40 Mbps of available application level bandwidth. How much bandwidth does your Internet connection have and how much bandwidth are you trying to use on the LAN side

 

[belgiantrotter]

Interesting!!
But what is funny is that the devolo in my opinion have always performed better. This is why i kept this pair operational.

The others i dont use anymore.

I can follow that the best performance is achieved using same adapters. But what is 2 different loops or networks need to be setup? Wouldnt a repeater perform better?

For my lan speed, the higher the better. I would love to be able to stream HD video
As for the wan/internet speed... This is to become a challenge too: i have a 40 mbps now and about to upgrade to 50 mbps soon.


Greets

 

[thiggins]

Interesting!!
But what is funny is that the devolo in my opinion have always performed better. This is why i kept this pair operational.

The Devolo could be using a newer chipset or firmware.

I can follow that the best performance is achieved using same adapters. But what is 2 different loops or networks need to be setup? Wouldnt a repeater perform better?

Your wireless is bad enough without trying to use a repeater. You lose half the available bandwidth going through a repeater because the device has to receive, then retransmit. Given your thick walls, you might be lucky to get 10 Mbps or so at the far end of the repeat.

For my lan speed, the higher the better. I would love to be able to stream HD video
As for the wan/internet speed... This is to become a challenge too: i have a 40 mbps now and about to upgrade to 50 mbps soon.

Well, that's part of your problem, if not all of it. A HomePlug AV network has at most 40 Mbps of total bandwidth available. This is split among all adapters in the network, regardless of security code.

So if you are using all 40 Mbps of powerline network bandwidth connecting your cable modem and router, there is little left over for the LAN connection.

Why not try moving the router to where the cable modem is. Then use powerline to connect to the living room or to connect additional access points.

 

[belgiantrotter]

Thanks for all the tips!!
Moving the router to where the the modem is and then use only powerline throughout the house and some APs could be an option.

I'll only need to figure out how to get one device working: my hd cable receiver for television which needs a direct wan ip adress and not one assigned by the router on the other side of the powerline.
I believe some routers have options for that... Something called mac passthrough or something, isn't it?

Greets

 

[thiggins]

I'll only need to figure out how to get one device working: my hd cable receiver for television which needs a direct wan ip adress and not one assigned by the router on the other side of the powerline.

That's a problem. Multi-NAT routers will take multiple IP WAN IP addresses and share them to multiple private IP subnets.

But to do what you want, you'd need a router to route and bridge at the same time. I don't know of one (at least a consumer model) that will do that.

 

[belgiantrotter]

I'm not sure. if I upgrade to a faster connection, my ISP is installing a Motorola Modem with built-in Router & wireless. This device apparently detects the HD receiver and gives it an IP. all other ports can be used for LAN.

if this is true, i can then use an utp cable to plug it into the powerline and use switches and AP's through-out the house.

one thing that concerns me is the built-in wireless of that router that will just be useless since in an area of the flat where it will never be used...

anyway.
It's not clear that investing in a new router is quite useless,
powerline should probably be 1 brand and try to use it only for LAN and keep the WAN on one side of the wall

thanks for all the tips I need some further research on those modem specs...

 

[belgiantrotter]

mhh just realized, indeed that might be difficult the modem/router from ISP might well detect the HD receiver directly if plugged in directly. but in my setup that will be done after the powerline and on a switch... this will indeed be difficult...

mhhh only problems...