Q: Refining a Wireless Setup with 3 x AP's

[jmone]

I'm trying to get a good reliable coverage over a large setup (inside and outside), the house is two stories with solid concrete floors and double brick walls. So far my setup is:
1 x AC68U: Main Router located in the "Main" part of the house covering the main part of the lower floor. Running 274_4422 Asus
2 x AC66U: AP Mode (connected via Gigabyte to the main switch), one is in the ceiling to cover the top floor, and one under the deck to cover the outside and the end of the lower floor. Both are running 374.39 Merlin

All have the same SSID, and Password. I'm using 80mW for both 2.4 and 5GHz frequency. Bands being used are 149/153/157 on 5GHz, and 1/6/11 on 2.4GHz. As we are on a big block, there is no interference from any neighbours on the 5GHz band and only weak signals on the 2.4Ghz band.

It all works pretty well but I have a couple of Questions:
1) Roaming: Most of my devices (Andriod, iPhones, PCs) will not "roam" between the AP's and will only grab the stronger signal if you power cycle them. From what I've read, this is "normal" for many consumer devices but????
2) Any setting tweaks to improve the range (esp 5ghz)?

Thanks
Nathan

 

[stevech]

I'm trying to get a good reliable coverage over a large setup (inside and outside), the house is two stories with solid concrete floors and double brick walls. So far my setup is:
1 x AC68U: Main Router located in the "Main" part of the house covering the main part of the lower floor. Running 274_4422 Asus
2 x AC66U: AP Mode (connected via Gigabyte to the main switch), one is in the ceiling to cover the top floor, and one under the deck to cover the outside and the end of the lower floor. Both are running 374.39 Merlin

All have the same SSID, and Password. I'm using 80mW for both 2.4 and 5GHz frequency. Bands being used are 149/153/157 on 5GHz, and 1/6/11 on 2.4GHz. As we are on a big block, there is no interference from any neighbours on the 5GHz band and only weak signals on the 2.4Ghz band.

It all works pretty well but I have a couple of Questions:
1) Roaming: Most of my devices (Andriod, iPhones, PCs) will not "roam" between the AP's and will only grab the stronger signal if you power cycle them. From what I've read, this is "normal" for many consumer devices but????
2) Any setting tweaks to improve the range (esp 5ghz)?

Thanks
Nathan

"Roaming" - more accurately, network re-discovery. The usual suggestion is to give each AP a different SSID and the handheld user, when moving to dwell in a different area of the house for a time, hand-selects the "best/nearest" AP. Not much better you can do with consumer WiFi.

Tweaks to improve range: Antennas, antennas, antennas.

 

[jmone]

Thanks - that is what I thought on the roaming.

With the Antennas I could (for instance) run three off the AP in the roof so they are over each of the main rooms but what options would be worth looking at?

 

[Binar]

I'm trying to get a good reliable coverage over a large setup (inside and outside), the house is two stories with solid concrete floors and double brick walls. So far my setup is:
1 x AC68U: Main Router located in the "Main" part of the house covering the main part of the lower floor. Running 274_4422 Asus
2 x AC66U: AP Mode (connected via Gigabyte to the main switch), one is in the ceiling to cover the top floor, and one under the deck to cover the outside and the end of the lower floor. Both are running 374.39 Merlin

All have the same SSID, and Password. I'm using 80mW for both 2.4 and 5GHz frequency. Bands being used are 149/153/157 on 5GHz, and 1/6/11 on 2.4GHz. As we are on a big block, there is no interference from any neighbours on the 5GHz band and only weak signals on the 2.4Ghz band.

It all works pretty well but I have a couple of Questions:
1) Roaming: Most of my devices (Andriod, iPhones, PCs) will not "roam" between the AP's and will only grab the stronger signal if you power cycle them. From what I've read, this is "normal" for many consumer devices but????
2) Any setting tweaks to improve the range (esp 5ghz)?

Thanks
Nathan

I'm working to install almost the same setup 2 x ac68u AP's + 1 x ac68u

Can you tell me how stable the network is? can you posts/PM some of your settings?
I have a hard time getting a stable connection...

 

[jmone]

It has been rock solid (both WAN, LAN, and WiFi), though I did upgrade all the FW today (to the versions posted). What settings do you want me to post details on?

 

[Binar]

It has been rock solid (both WAN, LAN, and WiFi), though I did upgrade all the FW today (to the versions posted). What settings do you want me to post details on?

Sent you a PM

Answer when you have time plz

 

[jmone]

Actually it is a pretty straight forward setup (see a simplified pic of my NW).
- AC68U: Set this up as my main router and assigned a static IP address for the MAC addresses of the AC66U
- AC66Us: Set these up as Access Points with the same SSID/Password. No other changes in the SW. Connected them to my switch from the non-WAN port on the back of the routers.

I'll post some screen shots.

 

[jmone]

Some other Screen Shots...(all pretty basic).

 

[Binar]

Thank you. If you find a way to have your wireless devices choose the stronger connection ( jumping from router to router plz lmk). I don't think asus firmware would ever provide a fix since it's a feature of "enterprise " router but I hope one of the custom firmware ex kong or Merlin would allow it in the future

If I have more questions about your set up I'll let you know


Just curious what switch do you use?

 

[L&LD]

It may help to see if switching the specific frequency on the 2.4GHz band makes a difference for each router or AP. For example; you may find that the router works best on Channel 11 instead of Channel 1.

I have also recently discovered that the lower the channel; the better the throughput and range of my 5GHz band. Try Channel 44 instead of the 1xx Channels.


For the roaming part: have you tried setting the Roaming assistant option in your routers?

Wireless: Professional.


If those options are not available, I would take the two AC66U's out of AP mode and run them as Routers so that option is available (RMerlin's 374.39_0 build).


I would also set the Tx power to 100mW for both bands.

The following may give you further ideas into optimizing your network.


http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=103645&postcount=6

 

[joltdude]

Roaming assistant can make a big difference. Also separate SSID for 2.4 and 5... You do not need to be in routing mode. It works in AP mode just fine, but do have to have new enough firmware and enable for both bands separately It's not seamless but close enough

Sent from my Venue 7 3730 using Tapatalk

 

[jmone]

Thanks - Did some tweaks and will see how they go (all needed options are available in both Router and Access Point modes):

SSID: Separated SSID's for the 5 and 2.4GHz network and also assigned a "Guest" SSID on both as well.

Power: Upped to 100mW

Roaming Assistant: Enabled and set for -70dB

The Roaming Assistant "seems" to help but devices still takes a bit to switch. They can still sit holding on to a -78dB (measured from the device) for 10mins before switching to a stronger -50dB signal. I'll see how it goes.

I'm also going to get another AC68U to replace an old DD-WRT based router. This will give me 2 x AC66U and 2 x AC68U for full coverage with one set of IF's.

 

[jmone]

One thing that is killing me is trying to generate a Network Map that places al lthe devices in their correct part of the topology. I'd like to be able to see what devices are connected to what AP for example.

The ASUS Network Map just gives me a long list of all devices on the network but not which Switch/Router/AP they are conencted to (and for wireless what SSID they are using). Any ideas?