Router Or Wi-Fi System: How To Choose

[thiggins]

Trying to decide between a router and a Wi-Fi System? This experiment should help you choose wisely.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

 

[WiFiNemesis]

Too many nodes in too small an area also can destabilize your system, causing devices to initiate roaming scans too frequently or cause co-channel interference, eat up airtime and reduce available bandwidth.

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Do any of the systems you've tested provide diagnostic tools to help avoid this problem?​

 

[thiggins]

Most Wi-Fi Systems have apps that guide node placement. But they do not expose the criteria used for guidance.

 

[pete y testing]

an example of that would be the NETGEAR WiFi Analytics

someone put quite some time into the app and how it works but as good as it is it only shows the relative diagnostics for the device its installed on as the devices antenna/s etc play a big part in the detection and readings

the asus lyra has thing with its install app that tells you what the signal strength is but again its using the mobile apps wifi and thus will only reflect what it thinks is a good spot etc

orbi doesnt really have anything to indicate where to put it ether , not sure on the other mesh / dw systems but im guessing they would be about the same

most systems have a light pattern that will indicated ether good / average or bad , but its not accurate enough to be exact

the way i found to get the sweet spot was to do a file transfer over ethernet read/write with the primary router and first node quite close together , once you get the max throughput available then move the first node further away and test again , if you get close to the previous max readings you still within good range and you can move further away and test again

at some point the backhaul throughput will start to drop from the max numbers indicating the sync rate of the node is dropping , so just before this point you will find the so called sweet spot remembering that 5 gig doesnt penetrate all that far so you may find that sweet spot may on be say 40 feet and 1 plaster wall away

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this issue i have is that once you find that sweet spot for the backhaul you may and will find that you have too much wifi signal overlap from the front haul of the primary router and the node and your client devices will struggle to roam due to this overlap , the solution to this in the past was to turn down the signal transmission of the fronthaul of each device to compensate

unfortunately most manufactures have removed power control from the gui and thus you cant turn it down to fine tune and get the prefect setup where you have great coverage and clients that are happy to roam

 

[RogerSC]

this issue i have is that once you find that sweet spot for the backhaul you may and will find that you have too much wifi signal overlap from the front haul of the primary router and the node and your client devices will struggle to roam due to this overlap , the solution to this in the past was to turn down the signal transmission of the fronthaul of each device to compensate

unfortunately most manufactures have removed power control from the gui and thus you cant turn it down to fine tune and get the prefect setup where you have great coverage and clients that are happy to roam

Txpower control has been put back into the Orbi Beta test firmware v2.0. I'm using it here to turn down the 2.4GHz. wireless, since I don't use it anyways. Hopefully having it in the Beta test firmware means it's going back into the next official firmware release, but time will tell on that one *smile*.

No problem here with mobile devices roaming...apparently the overlap is about where it needs to be. I have two areas where I use my mobile devices, and one is on the router unit side of the house, and the other is on the satellite side of the house. Mobile devices switch nicely between the two.

 

[WiFiNemesis]

Thanks very much.

this issue i have is that once you find that sweet spot for the backhaul you may and will find that you have too much wifi signal overlap from the front haul of the primary router and the node and your client devices will struggle to roam due to this overlap...

And that's what troubles me. I think I'm looking at a 5-node implementation (with ethernet backhaul between two of them), and I can readily imagine an app that says "node too far/signal strength too low." But do any of them also report "too much overlap on fronthaul"?

I thought perhaps the Google WiFi mesh product (for example), with cloud-based analysis, might automatically fine tune an installation to address this type of problem, but does anyone really know?

 

[pete y testing]

But do any of them also report "too much overlap on fronthaul"?

nope but i use an app called inssider3 to check these levels and the overlap and aim at -50db at the mid point between router and sat in the case of orbi

I'm looking at a 5-node implementation (with ethernet backhaul between two of them)

would have to be a very large house to need 5 of them

i have a 3500sq ft house and only need the orbi router and 1 x sat

 

[WiFiNemesis]

would have to be a very large house to need 5 of them

i have a 3500sq ft house and only need the orbi router and 1 x sat

Just more of a difficult layout. Essentially 6 levels staggered down a 40-degree slope. Two AC1900 class ethernet backhauled routers with three AC500 powerline WiFi extenders still leave dead spots and roaming hiccups. Thought mesh might be the answer, now not so sure...

 

[pete y testing]

Just more of a difficult layout. Essentially 6 levels staggered down a 40-degree slope. Two AC1900 class ethernet backhauled routers with three AC500 powerline WiFi extenders still leave dead spots and roaming hiccups. Thought mesh might be the answer, now not so sure...

have you got internet connectivity around the middle of those floors or can you get it there ?

prob a question for another thread