Router / AP Setup - must be Christmas..

[pbc]

Have some extra time with the holidays, and back to seeking out the best wireless performance in my home. My setup is as follows:

Basement Corner Equipment Rack (north side of basement near concrete garage):
- Rogers 1GB Ignite whatever it's name is modem set to bridge mode
- Asus RTAX86-AU (radios turned off), running latest Merlin beta
- RPi for Wiregaurd

Finished Basement Middle of Floor Ceiling Mounted
- TP-Link 620HD Access Point
- Channel 6 / 48
- 5GHz - 20/40/80 MHz Width
- 2GHz - 20MHz Width

Middle/Main Floor Family room (North East side of floor)
- TP-Link EAP225v3 Access Point
- Channel 11 / 149
- 5GHz - 20/40/80 MHz Width
- 2GHz - 20MHz Width

Upstairs Floor Middle of Floor
- TP-Link EAP225v3 Access Point
- Channel 1 / 40
- 5GHz - 20/40/80 MHz Width
- 2GHz - 20MHz Width

Unfortunately I believe I read that the EAP225 wall units do not have fast/seamless roaming, only the ceiling ones do.

Any suggestions on the above, in particular for:

1. Best way to set TX power or app I can use to help with this?
2. On the channel width's for 2GHz should I keep 20 or go with 20/40, or 40?
3. Same Q on 5GHz channel width
4. Similar to 2GHz where 1/6/11 are generally recommended, are their similarly recommended channels in 5GHz?
5. The AP's all have Band Steering as an option. Right now I have a different SSID for 2.4GHz and another one for 5GHz, instead should I be turning on Band Steering and keeping all SSID's the same?

Feels like everytime I google I get an article with slightly different suggestions! I should add that each floor is ~2000 sqft or so and the AX86 given where it's located (corner of the basement) doesn't do a great job even getting through the whole basement given the walls/doors, etc, hence the AP's.

Thanks!

 

[Tech9]

You'll need Omada Controller for active roaming technologies. It can be hardware device Omada OC200 or a PC running the software. Central management, captive portal, guest network, remote control, etc. features come with the controller.

Keep 2.4GHz @20MHz and 5GHz @80MHz in non-DFS range. I would keep separate SSID's for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands for better device control. Channels 1-6-11 are recommended only of everyone around is following 1-6-11 rule. If not, pick the channel with most available bandwidth.

 

[sfx2000]

Keep 2.4GHz @20MHz and 5GHz @80MHz in non-DFS range. I would keep separate SSID's for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands for better device control. Channels 1-6-11 are recommended only of everyone around is following 1-6-11 rule. If not, pick the channel with most available bandwidth.

This is good advice with the following exception...

Common SSID for 2.4 and 5 Ghz, as they are on the same network (BSS).

I would also recommend on placement with the AP's, focus the 5GHz where people generally are when using wireless, and then use the 2.4GHz as a foundation - the 5GHz overlays, and with common SSID, one should have fairly seamless connectivity - one doesn't want to get stuck on a sub-optimal connection if one doesn't need to -- a decent 2.4GHz connection is much better than a poor 5GHz one...

BTW - don't worry about "fast roaming" - this only applies to WPA/WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise where the target AP has to move the Radius shared secret from one AP to another...

For PSK connections, it doesn't do anything, and adds no value

 

[sfx2000]

Common SSID for 2.4 and 5 Ghz, as they are on the same network (BSS).

I know folks will take exception here due to sticky clients...

My thought here is don't break the network for everyone if one client is buggy/broken.

Most modern clients that have been out there since the introduction of 802.11ac - which is about 10 years now, should be generally good if the network is properly laid out.

 

[pbc]

You'll need Omada Controller for active roaming technologies. It can be hardware device Omada OC200 or a PC running the software. Central management, captive portal, guest network, remote control, etc. features come with the controller.

Keep 2.4GHz @20MHz and 5GHz @80MHz in non-DFS range. I would keep separate SSID's for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands for better device control. Channels 1-6-11 are recommended only of everyone around is following 1-6-11 rule. If not, pick the channel with most available bandwidth.

Is DFS range 160+?

 

[pbc]

I know folks will take exception here due to sticky clients...

My thought here is don't break the network for everyone if one client is buggy/broken.

Most modern clients that have been out there since the introduction of 802.11ac - which is about 10 years now, should be generally good if the network is properly laid out.

If I go with a single SSID should I also turn on Band steering on the EAPs?

 

[Tech9]

Non-DFS 80MHz channel occupies 36-40-44-48 or 149-153-157-161.

List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[coxhaus]

You might look at the Cisco small business wireless APs as they do not require a separate controller. And they setup using a wizard which makes it real easy.

 

[Tech9]

@pbc already has 3x TP-Link Omada compatible AP's. The hardware controller is currently $84 on Amazon. The software controller for PC is a free download. There is no point to replace good quality AP's just because something else doesn't require separate controller.

 

[pbc]

@pbc already has 3x TP-Link Omada compatible AP's. The hardware controller is currently $84 on Amazon. The software controller for PC is a free download. There is no point to replace good quality AP's just because something else doesn't require separate controller.

What does the Omada controller give me that if need in a household setting to improve the wireless experience?

Outside of easier ability to update and manage the 3 AP's, as logging in separately doesn't bother me. I think there is a free Omada controller for PC I would also use to do that but it caused me issues on occasion.

 

[sfx2000]

If I go with a single SSID should I also turn on Band steering on the EAPs?

Band Steering can help - it's a hint to a client station that it should start looking...

in 802.11, keep in mind that it is the clients that make those decisions, best the network can do is aid them.

 

[Tech9]

What does the Omada controller give me that if need in a household setting to improve the wireless experience?

Assists with 802.11r/k/v roaming tech, adds remote access, central management of all AP's, guest network with multiple login options, captive portal, network statistics and analysis, Omada app support, etc. For extra $80 the hardware controller it a good addition to your setup. Not mandatory, but will give you more use options of your hardware and potentially better/faster roaming.

 

[pbc]

The hardware controller is currently $84 on Amazon. The software controller for PC is a free download.
Speed Test

Not in Canada unfortunately.

Does the free software offer the same functionality as the hardware? Ie why would folks opt for the hardware instead if the software was free?

 

[Tech Junky]

why would folks opt for the hardware instead if the software was free?

Independent of having a PC powered on 24/7 or they don't have a PC to install it on.

 

[coxhaus]

How I test roaming. I have my wife using an Apple iPhone on 1 AP and I call her from the other AP. I then walk over so I roam to her AP the whole time talking to make sure when I roam that I don't lose conversations while roaming.

My Cisco APs work with this roaming.

 

[Tech9]

Not in Canada unfortunately.

105CAD is about 83USD today, Amazon:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07GX6GVB6/?tag=smallncom-20