Wi-Fi network setup for 3 floors

[MrB]

@rsaeon - You should setup your wifi channels manually. This way you are sure they are not conflicting internally and channels won't jump around because of neighbors wifi routers (which are most likely set to auto). But why fix something thats not broken.

@ak56u - I'll try to elaborate further. Just one example.
1. setup your primary routers fixed ip to 192.168.3.1 dhcp pool to 192.268.3.100 to 192.268.3.200
2. each of your extenders fixed ip 192.168.3.2 ... 192.168.3.3 ... 192.168.3.4 DHCP off
3. all wireless ssid and password same
With this there should be no ip conflict and you can plug and play routers as you like.

For wifi channels presuming you are using your c60 for now. Again just one example.
1. set basement wifi channels for 2.4g to channel 1 and channel width 20mhz for 5g set channel 36 and channel width 40mhz
2. set ground floor wifi channels for 2.4g to channel 6 and channel width 20mhz for 5g set channel 48 and channel width 40mhz
3. set 1st floor wifi channels for 2.4g to channel 11 and channel width 20mhz for 5g set channel 36 and channel width 40mhz
With this setup you will have no conflicts but will half your wifi bandwith. C60 is 10/100 router anyway.

Is your airtel router connected in bridge mode or as primary? IMHO you should get a good gigabit router for your primary first and experience your 300mb speed or downgrade your plan to 100mb for now.

 

[nithin1992]

I have four ~1k wifi routers set up as access points with the same SSID and password, at different corners of the house. Channels are on auto.

The transmit power is set to the lowest setting, so devices switch over easily this way and no access point overpowers the signal of another.

I've had this setup for a few years, so it's worked well across multiple generations of phones, tablets and laptops.

One person described this strategy as making 'pools' of wifi. It's basically a mesh network, without the mesh.

Does setting the transmit power to low help? I've not tried this and I'm hoping this might be the key to getting a good working setup. One issue I had is that the switching does not happen often enough while moving between floors / rooms.

 

[rsaeon]

You should setup your wifi channels manually. This way you are sure they are not conflicting internally and channels won't jump around because of neighbors wifi routers (which are most likely set to auto). But why fix something thats not broken.

Hey, thanks. I really hadn't looked up wifi channels or channel width before. I downloaded the open-source wifi analyzer android app and this is what I found at the four different access point locations:

Basically, it was a mess with overlapping channels. Each of coloured censor bars represent of the five wifi access points I have. The green and blue are on the same floor as me, the other three are on a different floor. The green is a different SSID/network than the other four (I really should turn down the transmit power on that since it has just one client).

So I spaced them out on channels 1, 5, 9 and 13:

If anything, at least it looks cleaner? Haha. Here, the blue SSID is the same as the green one above. Thanks again, it's good to learn something new.

Does setting the transmit power to low help? I've not tried this and I'm hoping this might be the key to getting a good working setup. One issue I had is that the switching does not happen often enough while moving between floors / rooms.

In theory, it should help with easy switching over.

Like today I learned that the four corners of the house has wildy varying wifi traffic. So if you have each of wifi access points on the least-congested non-overlapping channel (as I tried to do above) then you would get the best performance when you're connected to the one that's closest to you. A lower transmit power would encourage your device to switch over to the strongest signal (the nearest one to it). At least, that's my understanding.

A higher transmit power would keep your device connected to it and it'll be basically like having a shouting match over a noisy classroom.

 

[nithin1992]

Hey, thanks. I really hadn't looked up wifi channels or channel width before. I downloaded the open-source wifi analyzer android app and this is what I found at the four different access point locations:

View attachment 107647

Basically, it was a mess with overlapping channels. Each of coloured censor bars represent of the five wifi access points I have. The green and blue are on the same floor as me, the other three are on a different floor. The green is a different SSID/network than the other four (I really should turn down the transmit power on that since it has just one client).

So I spaced them out on channels 1, 5, 9 and 13:

View attachment 107649

If anything, at least it looks cleaner? Haha. Here, the blue SSID is the same as the green one above. Thanks again, it's good to learn something new.



In theory, it should help with easy switching over.

Like today I learned that the four corners of the house has wildy varying wifi traffic. So if you have your each of wifi access points on the least-congested non-overlapping channel (as I tried to do above) then you would get the best performance when you're connected to the one that's closest to you. A lower transmit power would encourage your device to switch over to the strongest signal (the nearest one to it). At least, that's my understanding.

A higher transmit power would keep your device connected to it and it'll be basically like having a shouting match over a noisy classroom.

In my case switching channels has not really helped. In the far corner of the house [this part is close to commercial places] has way too many overlaps on the 2.4Ghz band; every time I switch the channel it works for a while and couple of days later that channel is clogged as well. 5Ghz has minimal interference and hence many times my 5Ghz band has better range/speed than 2.4 even at farther points.

 

[rsaeon]

Yeah, I really need to upgrade these access points to 5GHz ones, 2.4GHz is far too crowded in my area as well.

And it turns out that I have some devices that cannot operate on channel 13, so I've changed it to channels 1, 6, & 11.

 

[nithin1992]

Yeah, I really need to upgrade these access points to 5GHz ones, 2.4GHz is far too crowded in my area as well.

And it turns out that I have some devices that cannot operate on channel 13, so I've changed it to channels 1, 6, & 11.

Yeah, I didn't know of this before and now to upgrade them all to 5Ghz is an issue. I currently just have my primary router that can broadcast on 5ghz.

At this point, I keep wondering if it's just easier to find and invest in a decent mesh wifi.

 

[john1911]

The above is only limited to the DECO M5 series, I have no idea about its other DECO products and whether they are also the same or not.

The interface is same in Deco M4 and E4 as well. I have used both of them and currently using three Deco M4 placed in three corners of the house. Using AC-66UB1 on Merlin (WiFi off) as the router and using three M4 as access points. Can't be more satisfied with the overall setup. Totally seamless switching, no dropouts. Earlier I was using 2 AC-66UB1 in AiMesh (it is shit).

Deco M4 has absolute lack of router features but when used in AP mode combined with a proper router, it just works.

 

[MrB]

One SSID, seamless switching, no conflict, with or without ethernet backhaul is what mesh does. It is the easiest/smartest way to solve this problem but this requires changing whole existing network and committing to one ecosystem (tplink, tenda, netgear, linksys, etc). Perfect for someone building a new network or hasn't invested in other equipment. I already have a bunch of perfectly fine gigabit 5ghz ac routers and ethernet backhaul, hence the slightly complicated imperfect alternative.

@rsaeon - once you learn this you can't ignore it. Now you can assess where you want improvement. That app is going to give you hell haha. I have used inSSIDer for years.
I did not recommend channel 13 to op for the same compatibility issues that you have with some devices. Otherwise channel 1 13 1 width 40mhz would give op max speed/range throughout his 3 floors on the 2.4hz band. Upgrading to 5ghz routers I recommend at least wave 2 ac routers, this will give you more config options in the 5ghz band.

@nithin1992 - switching channels will not improve range, it will just make sure your own routers are not conflicting with each other. Outside sources are just not in your control. I don't know if a mesh system without ethernet backhaul will work better for you. Congestion is still congestion right?

@john1911 - good to know that router + mesh works. No drop outs, seamless switching are great but do you get consistent high speed throughout your network? Will probably upgrade to wifi 6/7 like that in the future. Only problem is the clutter, I'll end up with 3 routers at same spot - ISP router, my router and mesh router.

 

[john1911]

@john1911 - good to know that router + mesh works. No drop outs, seamless switching are great but do you get consistent high speed throughout your network?

I didn't do iperf and don't have any local server. I have a 150Mbps plan and did speedtest (Ookla) and I'm getting full 150Mbps everywhere in the house. The first Deco is connected via ethernet and the other two have wireless backhaul.

It is tension free setup. I got it installed by my mom (I wasn't home) because there were way too many connection drops on video calls and getting anything more complex than Deco wasn't an option. I bought it mainly for the simplicity of setup because mom had to do it. I didn't expect it to perform as well and planned to connect it with ethernet backhaul when I get home but now I dropped the idea because it is already saturating my internet.

Those who have local servers running / very high speed internet might not be fully satisfied with the speed but it'll fully cover a typical user.

 

[Chaos]

Look for a solution like TPlink Omada or Ubiquiti Unifi. These are the best bets!

 

[MrB]

@john1911 - That sums it up perfectly. Thanks. Your post will help a lot of people.

 

[greenhorn]

just another possibility - If you dont want to spend money and don't mind getting your hands dirty, you may be able to flash your C60's with a third party firmware like openwrt and i believe that enables mesh on your current hardware - this is a possibility i found from googling - try at your own risk

TP-Link Archer C60

TP-Link Archer C60 Under Construction! This page is currently under construction. You can edit the article to help completing it. Dual Band wireless 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Based on Atheros chipset. Four 100MB LAN ethernet. One 100MB WAN. FIXME Any text with a light background (like this one)...

openwrt.org

802.11s based wireless mesh network

802.11s based wireless mesh network 802.11s is an open-source standard for connecting wireless devices without having to set up infrastructure. It operates on Layer 2 and makes sure that all nodes can see each other on a bridged Layer 2 network (as if they were all plugged into a switch). Any

openwrt.org

 

[RPisOP]

I want to set up a wi-fi network for my home. My home has three floors, which includes a basement, ground and first floor. Approximate
area of each floor is around 2800 sq.ft. My current setup and wiring is as follows:

I have a server room in my basement which is where I have Airtel optical cable coming in. Airtel has installed a company modem+router (300 mbs speed) in the server room.
From here, I have Lan cables going to 3 bedrooms on the ground floor and one bedroom on the first floor. I also have a Lan cable going to the home theater room in the basement.
I have a Netgear 10/100 switch installed with all the Lan cables plugged in and TP Link Archer C60 AC1350 router in every room. I have turned off the DHCP servers of all the routers
so that the IP Address is assigned by the Airtel installed modem/router and I have given different names to every router's wifi network.

I wanted to ask that is there any way that I can setup a single network throughout my home with multiple routers so that I do not have to change the wifi network every time I walk in a
different room/floor. If so, can it be done using my existing hardware setup?



P.S. My PC has a plex server which I use to stream media throughout to different devices in my home.

If you have a fairly high budget , i would suggest the Asus ZenWifi , it is really expensive however it is really really good , just recently upgraded to it , 2 of the bigger size models and 2 mini models all connected together, very good range and i lose like max 5-10 mbps from my 400mbps plan even through 2 walls, would highly suggest

 

[Chaos]

Here is my setup for a 5000sq ft 3 floor house.

- Ubiquiti UDM pro (Router+wifi network controller+NVR+firewall)
- Ubiquiti Unifi PoE+ switch 250w (for powering APs, cameras etc without additional wires + providing wired access)
- 5x Ubiquiti wifi 6 lite APs for bedrooms
- 1x Ubiquiti wifi 6 LR AP for double height area for better signal reception.
- 500m molex cat6a cable (not in picture)

Damage: 1.75L inr. I will add an additional 10g switch later for all wired connections. More APs can be added easily at a later point in time as and when required.

I had by house configured with additional ceiling level ethernet ports so that APs can be mounted on the false ceiling for best reception.