Small business network problems

[jd27]

Hi all - I've recently taken on the responsibility of setting up a small business network. This site has been a great resource, I've not been able to solve the few problems we are having from the articles so I thought I'd try a post.

Our network consists of a cable modem, two NetGear ProSafe FS116 switches, and a Linksys WRT600N. The basic setup is the cable modem connected to the Linksys, which then passes through the two NetGear switches.

We have between 6-8 people connecting to the entire network at one time. Nothing too heavy for the connection speed we are paying for. In fact, using sites like speedtest.net routinely returns very respectable results at around 17000 kb/s download and 2300 kb/s upload.

So no problems when connecting via ethernet.... BUT, the wireless set-up is super troublesome. I have it set-up with two networks, one on the 5Ghz and one on the 2Ghz bands. After preliminary testing with the MacBook Pro, the 5Ghz seemed to be much more reliable, so I've recommended we use that one as our main, secure, business WAN (we are 90% running on Macs, 10% on Win XP).

Since that decision I've been trying to optimize the wireless as much as possible. What's wrong with the connection? A few things... frequent dropped connections, slow test results, slow load speeds seen in real world browsing, and very oddly - there are places in the office (which is completely open space) where the signal is registering as strong to excellent, but we cannot connect to the internet. Very odd to me, and I now find myself logging into the Linksys control panel to 'experiment' with different settings. It's admittedly not a very technical approach to solving the problem.

At this point, I want to understand WHY it's so finicky, not just what setting fixed it.

Oh, a few more things worth mentioning.

1) Our offices are located in an area where there a quite a few competing wireless networks. I'm sure that is no small part of our problems. Are there any software solutions that will allow me to view those network configurations (in order to avoid the same channels, etc.).

2) For some reason, nobody's iPhone can connect to either the 2Ghz or the 5Ghz networks.

3) Both of our networks are currently set to use 40Mhz channel mode (it seemed to test better than 20Mhz).

4) I'm considering ditching the Linksys and trying another brand router, but I'm not convinced this will solve all of our problems.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!

 

[thiggins]

Welcome, jd27. Thanks for the very detailed description of your problems. That helps a lot!

1) Our offices are located in an area where there a quite a few competing wireless networks. I'm sure that is no small part of our problems. Are there any software solutions that will allow me to view those network configurations (in order to avoid the same channels, etc.).

I'm sure that it is not helping your situation. I would suggest performing a simple Site Survey to see what your environment is like.
How To Fix Your Wireless Network - Part 2: Site Surveying

2) For some reason, nobody's iPhone can connect to either the 2Ghz or the 5Ghz networks.

I suspect this is due to #3 below.

3) Both of our networks are currently set to use 40Mhz channel mode (it seemed to test better than 20Mhz).

Not a good idea, particularly running a mix of 11g clients. If you run a mix of draft 11n and "legacy" 11b/g clients on a draft 11n router, performance for both types of devices will suffer.

Since you have chosen 5 GHz for your "business" WLAN, I suggest you set it to 20MHz mode. That will give you a bit more range. Set security to WPA2. If you use WEP or WPA/TKIP, your speed will be cut in half.

Then set the 2.4GHz radio to 11g mode, since that is what the iPhones are. You can use WPA/TKIP or WEP on this band, since the big throughput drop is when running draft 11n only. Set the channel to the least used channel (1, 6 or 11) that you found in your site survey.

4) I'm considering ditching the Linksys and trying another brand router, but I'm not convinced this will solve all of our problems.

I wouldn't change the router until you do the above homework. As you said, it is probably not causing your problems.

 

[jd27]

Great feedback, thanks

Tim, thanks so much for your quick response and super helpful feedback.

I can't wait to pour through that article on Site Surveying as I expect to get a of great information from it. And now that you mention the potential iPhone cure... it seems really obvious. I shouldn't have missed that one. You're absolutely right, both of our networks are running in "N only" mode... a little common sense (or research on Apple's site) would have helped me figure out that the iPhones run on G, not N. Great catch, thanks again.

But back to the two radio bands... since everybody's laptop has an N card, would you still recommend I set-up the 5Ghz to a mixed mode and the 2.4Ghz to G only... or would you recommend N only on the 5Ghz, and G or mixed on the 2.4Ghz?

I am currently using WPA2 personal on both networks, and they are running with different names, with only one (the 5Ghz) broadcasting it's SSID. Ideally, we'd like to hide both, but with all the testing I've been doing it was just easier to broadcast the 5Ghz for now for really quick connections on the Mac.

Thanks again! I'm off to the article you pointed out now...

 

[thiggins]

But back to the two radio bands... since everybody's laptop has an N card, would you still recommend I set-up the 5Ghz to a mixed mode and the 2.4Ghz to G only... or would you recommend N only on the 5Ghz, and G or mixed on the 2.4Ghz?

Since you will be running only b/g clients on 2.4 GHz, set it to Wireless-G only. That will ensure the best compatibility. For 5 GHz, you can set it to Wireless-N only. You can try both Auto and 20 MHz mode on 5 GHz if you like. But my testing has shown 20MHz mode will provide better range.

I am currently using WPA2 personal on both networks, and they are running with different names, with only one (the 5Ghz) broadcasting it's SSID. Ideally, we'd like to hide both, but with all the testing I've been doing it was just easier to broadcast the 5Ghz for now for really quick connections on the Mac.

Do what you like with SSID broadcast. It helps a bit to deter casual snoopers. But it's not really that much of a security enhancement.

Let me know if the changes help any.

 

[jd27]

Again, thanks for your help Tim.

I've not had time to test up to now, but will implement your advice in the next day or so and let you know how it goes.

Best!