Suggestions on my Network

[OceanStateTuning]

Alright so quick story, I bought a second house that I am living in primarily right now, I still have my old house and need to keep wifi there for a while. My new Neighbor is also like a best friend to me so I have been using his wifi, he claims he sees speed difference and it works fine here so I will keep this until I switch my FiOS over here from my other house.

Anyway here is my current network:
Asus AC66U as my Primary Router/Switch. I am using this to repeat my neighbors WiFi Single. I am Running DD-WRT on this. I am repeating HIS SSID.

I have a few wired things on my network, Cloud Drive, Printer, Sony TV...

I am adding a couple of IP Cameras, 2 wired, possibly a wifi one soon. SO I went to buy a switch but saw a great deal on a D-Link DIR-655 on Amazon for less then $20, Gigabit ports on it.

My thoughts were to run a cat6 to this router from my asus to connect the cameras to as I need more ports anyway and broadcast a separate ssid in case I put a wifi so it does not clutter up my current asus that is already repeating and broadcasting.
BUT then I thought maybe I should move my ASUS to my attic wall facing his house to get it a little higher, put my new D-link in the basement to help my wifi down there (It is currently decent as it is mid floor BUT it is low) And run the same SSID on both my routers but keep them on a different SSID then my neighbors, this would make it better if say I add a Wifi Camera it would connect to the correct router and not slow down my connection much vs potentially putting too much on my Asus (I am pretty much always on wifi on my laptop, mine and my wifes cell phone, tablets and such)
Another thought is maybe pick up a dedicated router to act as the bridge between my house and his house, connect it to my Asus (put in attic) and then run the cat 6 to basement where I put the D-link (Put my Asus and D-link only on same SSID), Connect everything I need to and this should speed up my internet as it is not cutting my Asus speed in half.

Thoughts? It does work good now, I should probably not change it but I do need more only a few more ports so I have that D-Link and does look like it would be decent with its 3 antennas.

I put a wifi repeater in his shed for him as he had poor reception from his house (my first repeater I bought, cheap $20 plug in wall one) and I monitor it every once in a while and on occasion I see it picks up my house stronger then his house and will switch onto my Asus Router, When that happens his internet in his shed gets slow since its going through 2 repeaters.

I don't mind spending a little bit extra money right now as it is saving me roughly $100 a month by not getting a second Fios package, I do want to keep it setup so when I do switch my FiOS here there will not be much work into connecting the router to my Asus.

 

[L&LD]

Since money is not an issue atm:

Put the RT-AC66U in the best location to form a Bridge to your neighbors router (5GHz band recommended, if possible).

Don't use his SSID's!

You may need to run Ethernet cables (CAT5e or CAT6e).

Attach via Ethernet cable a new router (another RT-AC66U, RT-AC56U or RT-AC68U...) and put this on a new subnet. For example; if your neighbor is 192.168.xxx.xxx, set this new router to the 10.xxx.xxx.xxx or 172.xxx.xxx.xxx subnets.

I would test set up a new router in the middle of the area needing coverage and go from there - one (additional) router is infinitely easier than Bridge, Router, AP all with their own separate channels and ssid's to manage.


Now, use this as 'normal'. You may still need to buy a switch for your additional equipment - but your internet connection just doubled (no more repeater mode - the RT-AC66U is using the antenna to get internet and you're feeding the new router via Ethernet to the WAN port). Don't use this RT-AC66U as a WiFi point (disable the radio you're not using to Bridge to your neighbor).


Saving $100 a month will pay back this 'investment' in 2 or 3 months. A good deal and you'll have more hardware to play with in the end too.

 

[OceanStateTuning]

Since money is not an issue atm:

Put the RT-AC66U in the best location to form a Bridge to your neighbors router (5GHz band recommended, if possible). He just has a junk Cisco DPC3825 so 2.4Ghz for now, Maybe I will upgrade his for me... I mean him lol

Don't use his SSID's! - Was thinking it would be better to get away from this.

You may need to run Ethernet cables (CAT5e or CAT6e). No problem, doing massive construction right now!

Attach via Ethernet cable a new router (another RT-AC66U, RT-AC56U or RT-AC68U...) and put this on a new subnet. For example; if your neighbor is 192.168.xxx.xxx, set this new router to the 10.xxx.xxx.xxx or 172.xxx.xxx.xxx subnets. Okay my neighbor is 192.168.0.1, Could I just do 192.168.1.1?

Also I currently have all my firewalls and DHCP disabled since it is using his router, I would assume I would enable all this stuff again.

I would test set up a new router in the middle of the area needing coverage and go from there - one (additional) router is infinitely easier than Bridge, Router, AP all with their own separate channels and ssid's to manage. I need atleast one switch in my basement and one in the attic, to make it simpler for me. I don't need many ports so I assume just enable the wifi radios on both to keep coverage high/outside


Now, use this as 'normal'. You may still need to buy a switch for your additional equipment - but your internet connection just doubled (no more repeater mode - the RT-AC66U is using the antenna to get internet and you're feeding the new router via Ethernet to the WAN port). Don't use this RT-AC66U as a WiFi point (disable the radio you're not using to Bridge to your neighbor). Sounds good, so run it as "Client Mode" in DD-WRT, LAN port to the Ethernet port of Router of my choice, Should I have to do anything special other then setting a different address and ssid on the my router connected to the Asus?


Saving $100 a month will pay back this 'investment' in 2 or 3 months. A good deal and you'll have more hardware to play with in the end too.

My thoughts also, It will be probably towards fall when I connect this house up, I always like having extra stuff to play with, gives me options after


Forgive me if I don't sound very good at this stuff, I'm a Auto Tech not a IT guy lol.

 

[L&LD]

Considering that you want an AP anyway; buy yourself (er, I mean your neighbor ) at least a 5GHz router and only use that for your Bridge - this will still give him (most likely) upgraded 2.4GHz range and throughput too (while you let him keep your/his gift).

I would use a completely different subnet, not 192.168.xxx.xxx

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=14964


Starting from my post (#7) down may help you understand why.


And of course, you would then need to enable DHCP at least. I would also enable the firewall too.


Assuming you're putting 4 port switches in each location; you may want to consider to run 8 pairs Cat6e from the attic to the basement (so you're ready for the two GB Lan ports/cables you'll need for 'true' AC in a couple of years).

With the house under construction right now (easily accessible, non damaging upgrade) I would even be double wiring each room (at multiple walls).


The cable is 'free' compared to 'needing' to do it in a couple of years.

 

[OceanStateTuning]

Okay, Just to test this out I switch my router to client, Turned DHCP on the Asus (My main router), 172.168.1.1 and so on, wired connection works good, internet is fast.

I connected my D-Link DIR-655 LAN port to LAN port of Asus after switching to 172.168.1.2 and setting up the network, wired connection with my laptop I have fast internet working perfect but when I connect VIA WiFi I get a message I never got before, "DHCP is not enabled for "Wireless Network Connection""

I figure I will use this D-Link for now as my WiFi AP and also to have a few extra ports sway from the ASUS. (None of my current Laptops seem to pick up the 5Ghz anyway). Anyway I have DHCP enabled in the main router (asus) at my house and disabled on the D-Link (My AP) I would think this would be correct? Suggestions?

 

[OceanStateTuning]

Scratch that last thing, I forgot I was setup as a Static IP on the 192.168.0.* Network, working great!

So on the real AC networks that are coming up, They Require 2 LAN ports?

 

[L&LD]

Yup! Close to 'final spec' AC class products (after Wave 2, Wave 3? - probably will be introduced near the end of this year or early next year, my best guess) will require much more than a single GB LAN connection. Even AC Wave 2 will need a more robust backbone. By the time we get 8 antenna, 8 stream, 160MHz width and MU-MIMO as promised in the WiFi Alliance roadmap - at 6.9Gbps connection rates; even a pair of cables will not be enough.


http://blogs.aerohive.com/blog/the-wi-fi-security-blog/what-kind-of-uplink-do-you-want-with-that-ap

To make a long post short: for first-wave 11ac, make sure you have a gigabit-capable edge. For second-wave 11ac, the gigabit-capable edge is still sufficient, but you’ll need two cables.

As for your current setup: I'm going to make you do this again (maybe).

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/74-wan-to-lan


I can't process all the possibilities and combinations in my mind, but ideally, you really want the RT-AC66U as your main (not Bridge) router for best coverage and throughput according to the link above (comparing the DLink 655 and the Asus RT-AC66U).

Of course, the much weaker DLink may not get as strong a signal (or throughput) as the Asus, for your internet needs (but it may), but that is up to you to test and decide which configuration is the best setup overall for your current situation.

I didn't realize you could test this so fast, but glad to see it works.

So, will you switch the roles of the routers you have now and see if you can get any benefits?

 

[azazel1024]

I agree. Setup the Asus to bridge to his Wifi network and then setup your own SSID on a seperate channel. Otherwise its just all kinds of Wifi clutter in the same frequencies for both of you, especially if there is overlap in distance.

Do not put a router in the basement and one in the attic, unless this is a single story house and you are mounting the attic one low in the attic. Most access points and routers have omni directional antennas that have a HPBS (Half Power Bandwidth Signal) that is roughly 12-30 degrees in the vertical and a lot less gain further out than that. They often have secondary lobes that'll cover outside of that to some degree, but weaker.

My Netgear 3500L as a comparison is in my basement under my bedroom right next to the outer wall. Laying in bed about 5ft above the router and 10ft horizontal (so around 25 degrees from it) I get about -45dB of strength. If I place my laptop on the floor next to my bed (the bed it still between the router and my laptop) the signal strength goes up 4dB just by being more in to the sweet spot of the antennas. Stand up with the laptop a few feet higer up and it drops 3dB more than being on the bed was.

Really what you want, in most cases, is an access point or router on every floor. If you can manage it, especially on 5GHz, is putting each one on their own seperated channels so nothing connected to each router/access point steps on another one.

Of course if you have nearby networks, that is probably not the ideal solution, or most likely you won't have enough running in your house to worry about having all your routers/access points on the same channel (they'll handle interference just fine, its just that they are all sharing the same slice of bandwidth, instead of each one getting their own so you can spread device load around, potentially).

Otherwise you are both placing the routers/APs in locations where you are outside of the antennas sweet spots for large chunks of a floor(s) (because you are too close to being right above or below the router) and you are also placing at least one floor/ceiling between the router/AP and the devices, in addition to any interior partitioning walls.