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CancerStick
Jun 3, 2011

CancerStick posted:

Possibly noob question. Please dont yell at me :smith:


I just ordered this about five minutes ago.

http://www.amazon.com/RT-N16-Wireless-N-Maximum-Performance-single/dp/B00387G6R8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top


Will my PS3 work with that?

So, I ended up getting this and I was worried over nothing. The PS3 works fine. But it turns out the problems that I thought were the old routers still continue. I'm not sure now what I am doing wrong. Can somebody help a networking moron. There has to be a few settings that are causing this.

Basically, the Asus RT-N16 was plugged in and no adjustments made. Basically, plug and play. I'm sure thats stupid to do, but hey, the internets worked! But what happens is it randomly... reboots? Maybe it's not so random. I'll be browsing on a desktop in another room and it will stop loading. I look down and see its trying to connect to the internet. It will eventually do it. I have looked at the router as it's doing this and it looks like it is still on, maybe the wireless light is dimmer/off. Some things i've noticed:

1.) On this PC I occasionally, usually after a "reboot" get a windows error that comes up saying there is another pc sharing the same IP.

2.) Sometimes when it is trying to reconnect it takes a minute or so. In that time I hit troubleshoot and windows does its thing and "resets the network card" or something. It works, but I think that's minor maybe.

3.) All day today it didn't do it. Nobody else was home. My PC was the only pc doing anything.

4.) I've noticed it maybe happens when theres a lot going on. I've seen it happen when I start to download a major torrent. It's happened when I go to play Counter Strike and I believe there is another PC in the house that was on WoW at the time. I have my PS3 hooked up right now to my desktops monitor. I turned off my PS3 after playing Battlefield for the first time with the new router and the minute I turned it off and turned my monitor to DVI I noticed the network had reset again. Had to have happened just as I turned off the PS3

5.) Household consists of 2 desktops, 2 laptops, PS3, and my cell phone connecting to the network.

EDIT: 6.) This may be the observations of a dumbass and mean nothing. In the Asus page it says of the current devices connected there is the ip of 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.4, and 192.168.1.5. In the LAN - DHCP server settings there is a box for Starting IP that says 192.168.1.2 and one that says Ending Address that says 192.168.1.254



Anybody familiar with this router for settings I can look at or change, or just anybody familiar with networking. I'm willing to bet it's something a person familiar with networking can diagnose. I'm in over my head, though.

Final EDIT: I figured this may give some people some idea of what my settings look like. Here are some random settings that I thought may be important, or maybe they don't mean anything.


Security Level: WPA-Auto-Personal selected. WPA2-Personal, WPA2-Enterprise, WPA-Auto-Enterprise also avail.
WPA Encryption TKIP+AES. AES by itself is avail also

Under Internet status:
WAN IP: Totally different then anything I ever see so that may mean jack poo poo
DNS: Two different 209 #s with one ending in .61 and one in .62.
Connecting type: Automatic IP

General Wireless Settings:
Channel Bandwith: 20mhz and 20/40 mhz. 20 is selected
Wireless Mode: Auto, b/g mixed, b only, g only, n only. Auto is selected.
Channel: Auto is selected. That and 1-11 are available.

Wireless - Wireless MAC Filter
MAC Filter Mode: Disabled


LAN-DHCP Server:
Starting and Endign address's as mentioned above.
Lease time: 86400

LAN-Route
Use DHCP routes? yes
Enable multicast routing: yes
Enable static routes? no

WAN - Internet Connection
Wan Connection Type: Dynamic IP

CancerStick fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Oct 18, 2011

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Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
When it says that there is another computer on the network with the same IP that's usually because it's correct. One of the computers may have a static IP assigned or the DHCP server on the router got confused.

You can set your network card as a static IP of 192.168.1.99 to avoid the clash of address. Set the subnet to 255.255.255.0 set the gateway as 192.168.1.1 and soppy the DNS addresses from the router settings as well.

This should keep this from happening until you find the computer/device which has a static IP or after a few weeks the IP leases should settle down. Basically all commuters should be set to automatic for tcp/ip settings.

CancerStick
Jun 3, 2011
I did what you said. Not sure what soppy the DNS addresses means tho.

I checked the tcp/ip settings of each device and everything was set to automatic. Would it be a good idea to set my PS3 to something like my PC? Like .98 or something?

Not sure if this matters, but when I noticed my pc got disconnected it wasn't just my pc that got booted. All computers would get booted and the log on the router would show it rebooted when we were disconnected.

Vinlaen
Feb 19, 2008

Can anybody tell me why I should NOT get the Apple Airport Express access point?

My home network is 100% Windows (except for my ESXi server which has Ubuntu servers, etc). However, my only wireless devices are an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2.

I'm looking for something with 802.11n (for max speed on the iOS devices), and that has decent range. (my home is small, but I'd like to use it at least on my front porch, etc)

I really like the idea of the Airport Express but just want to make sure it's the right one for me before I order...

(Also, where's the best place to order? Apple.com? [there is no close Apple store near my house])

BlackMK4
Aug 23, 2006

wat.
Megamarm
I see you posted over at [H] too. :v:

Vinlaen
Feb 19, 2008

Yeah, I like to get a bunch of opinions before making a decision :)

Ragingsheep
Nov 7, 2009
It's probably my router dying but I'm getting reports of sporadic slowdowns and dropouts from my dad (he's connected via a cable) and I'm having trouble accessing my router's config page but all it does is eventually timeout. Pinging the router directly gives me me about 2 to 3 timeouts for every 100 pings and the about a quarter of the pings will spike over 10ms. I've tried turning the thing on and off and also waiting more than 15mins before turning the router back on but it makes no difference.

On the other hand, the net still appears to work fine for me.

Ashex
Jun 25, 2007

These pipes are cleeeean!!!

Scaramouche posted:

You probably already got them, but I would warn you to stay clear of TrendNET; it's basically the cheapest crappiest stuff out there in my experience. I've had their hubs and switches foisted on me by past employers ('oh they're so cheap!') but they always have died on me within a year.

I haven't really heard much about them either but the reviews I saw for it were overall positive, I am going to do a bit of testing before I pass them on so hopefully I'll catch any issues.


I found this little guy but it looks to be discontinued and I can't find anything like it out there.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

CancerStick posted:

I did what you said. Not sure what soppy the DNS addresses means tho.

I checked the tcp/ip settings of each device and everything was set to automatic. Would it be a good idea to set my PS3 to something like my PC? Like .98 or something?

Not sure if this matters, but when I noticed my pc got disconnected it wasn't just my pc that got booted. All computers would get booted and the log on the router would show it rebooted when we were disconnected.

It sounds like the router is overheating or crashing if it's rebooting. You may want to consider flashing to dd-wrt, or updating the firmware on the router to see if you can improve stability.

Changing to static IP addresses won't help if there is a router issue.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Ragingsheep posted:

It's probably my router dying but I'm getting reports of sporadic slowdowns and dropouts from my dad (he's connected via a cable) and I'm having trouble accessing my router's config page but all it does is eventually timeout. Pinging the router directly gives me me about 2 to 3 timeouts for every 100 pings and the about a quarter of the pings will spike over 10ms. I've tried turning the thing on and off and also waiting more than 15mins before turning the router back on but it makes no difference.

On the other hand, the net still appears to work fine for me.

What is the existing router?

Either it's overheating or if it's old it may actually be dying.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Vinlaen posted:

Can anybody tell me why I should NOT get the Apple Airport Express access point?

My home network is 100% Windows (except for my ESXi server which has Ubuntu servers, etc). However, my only wireless devices are an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2.

I'm looking for something with 802.11n (for max speed on the iOS devices), and that has decent range. (my home is small, but I'd like to use it at least on my front porch, etc)

I really like the idea of the Airport Express but just want to make sure it's the right one for me before I order...

(Also, where's the best place to order? Apple.com? [there is no close Apple store near my house])

As long as you are happy with the 100mbit/s connection to the wired network or modem and the rather high price then I don't see an issue. However, when I was looking at including the airport express a number of posters commented on how terrible it is.

I will be adding the airport extreme base station to the OP at some point but not the express.

Ragingsheep
Nov 7, 2009
Hmm... I thought I wrote that. It's a Billion 7401VGP. It's only 3 years old if I remember correctly, certainly shouldn't be that much older.

It doesn't feel like it's overheating though. It might be a good excuse to get a new router though. Does the Asus N16 support the logging of how much each machine on the network downloads each month?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
If you want to log individual use of the connection and have it work properly you start looking at using something like pfsense. This replaces the router with a stand alone computer for the routing.

Have a look at pfsense in the OP.

There are other specialised firewalls that would do the same thing but tend to be at commercial prices.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Vinlaen posted:

Can anybody tell me why I should NOT get the Apple Airport Express access point?
Because you value your time and money? Because you want to have a proper wireless router rather than a halfass access point? Because you're running all windows and won't notice any apple-specific features? Because they're poo poo. Because a wireless router that will work well with all of your gear is half the cost or more?

How many reasons do you need?

fagalicious
Jan 15, 2004

WHAT FAG

CuddleChunks posted:

Because you value your time and money? Because you want to have a proper wireless router rather than a halfass access point? Because you're running all windows and won't notice any apple-specific features? Because they're poo poo. Because a wireless router that will work well with all of your gear is half the cost or more?

How many reasons do you need?

I have an airport express and I'm seconding this. Its horrible as a router. I bought it for the airtunes and tried using it as an access point, but the signal was pretty weak. I just use it for my outdoor audio gear now, works great for that. But dear god don't get one to use as a router or access point.

CancerStick
Jun 3, 2011

Devian666 posted:

It sounds like the router is overheating or crashing if it's rebooting. You may want to consider flashing to dd-wrt, or updating the firmware on the router to see if you can improve stability.

Changing to static IP addresses won't help if there is a router issue.

I changed outlets in case it was that and moved it to an area where it shouldn't overheat. That didn't fix it.

When it started messing up tonight there were two desktops, a laptop, and then the PS3 was turned on and it caused it to mess up. This is another time when a device being used causes the problem.

When it happened I ran to the router to see what it was doing. It doesn't look like it's turned off. Actually, the lights are all on when it happens.

With the PS3 remaining on, the internet was never able to return for some reason. My computer would find it, try to connect, wouldn't. Then the SSID would disappear and it would say no connections found. This went on for 5-10 minutes. I turned off the PS3 and within a few moments it found it and connected. With the PS3 off, though, while typing this post for about 10 seconds it lost the internet again.

So.. if it isn't physically shutting off is overheating not a probability? I have the latest Asus firmware version for the router. I'm not too sure about dd-wrt but I can probably figure it out if that would probably fix the issue. Is that the next step? I'm just unsure considering this is two routers in a row that are having a similar issue.

I checked all devices that are connecting. They are all set to automatic when it comes to the ip and what not. Nothing static. FYI

CancerStick fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Oct 19, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
I would recommend changing to dd-wrt at this point. From what you have described there are issues that appear to only relate to the firmware.
http://dd-wrt.ca/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16#Installation_:

Corn Nuts
Jul 16, 2003

Pillbug
I guess this is probably the most appropriate place to ask: What the hell is up with VDSL?

I recently moved into a new apartment and decided to try DSL for the first time. I admit I know pretty much nothing about DSL. I just assumed ADSL2+ was the standard so I ordered a new $60 ADSL2+ modem from newegg and 25mbit service from CenturyLink. After hours of trying to get it work, I finally looked up the specs of the leased modem that CenturyLink sent. It's a VDSL modem, which I've never heard of until now.

Wikipedia says ADSL2+ only goes up to 12mbit? I never knew this. Has VDSL always been the norm for upper-tier residential DSL service? I read that it is only available in limited areas. Nevermind, I misread it for ADSL. ADSL2+ is 24mbit.

I also cannot find any VDSL modems on Newegg, Amazon, or any other major retailers. The only ones I've found are high-priced ones at obscure online stores, or used ones from Ebay (which are still more expensive than a cable modem supporting the same speeds). I'm guessing there's some proprietary issues with VDSL?

Speed wise, VDSL seems about 25% faster than cable at my old place so cant complain in that regard. But I dont feel like paying the $6.00 monthly lease fees or shelling out for the more expensive modem. I think I'll switch back after my 6 month intro offer.

It also doesn't help that I cant flash this modem/router either, and I have OCD issues about bridging two wireless routers together.

Corn Nuts fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Oct 21, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
I've known about VDSL for a while now as at least one ISP in New Zealand is rolling it out. I doubt you'll be able to do much about the modem rental as there doesn't seem to be much choice with VDSL. However, this thread is orientated towards modem + router to get the best out of your connection.

To get your network functioning properly you'd need to connection the modem to the router via a wired connection. Any other features of the VDSL modem can be switched off, such as wireless and any other functions performed by the router. This is because combo modem/router/wireless are all horrible. If you go back to ADSL2+ you'll want to purchase a modem that will just pass the internet connection directly to a router.

Sano
Jul 14, 2011
I've been using my WRT54G for around 6 years now. I've been playing online video games for the PS2/PS3/360 in my basement (2 floors down separated from the router) and used to be a really good host when hosting game rooms. I've also been using it to browse with my laptop and it's worked well with it anywhere within the basement.

But recently I had to renovate my entire basement to fit a Gaming Rig I had built about a week ago. Because of the renovation I had made, my Xbox 360 is now a few steps further away from the router, and it was just enough to cause little to no connection between it and the router. The PC computer was not having much luck connecting to it either.

I asked a friend for a solution and he had suggested a repeater, so I got one of these... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124430
Setting it up was easy and I've connected to the router just fine with both the Xbox and Computer thanks to it.

But recently I've noticed the large amounts of lag in my video games like Halo reach, and I've become the worst host in any game. The connection tends to even drop at least once a night for both my computer and my Xbox.

For this week, Onlive (A cloud based gaming service) is giving everyone in the US any game in their catalog for just 1 dollar. So I launched their application and it has confirmed to me that my connection just downright sucks.



Is there any kind of solution anyone here can recommend? Was this repeater a waste of money?

Sano fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Oct 22, 2011

Triikan
Feb 23, 2007
Most Loved

Sano posted:

I've been using my WRT54G for around 6 years now. I've been playing online video games for the PS2/PS3/360 in my basement (2 floors down separated from the router) and used to be a really good host when hosting game rooms. I've also been using it to browse with my laptop and it's worked well with it anywhere within the basement.

But recently I had to renovate my entire basement to fit a Gaming Rig I had built about a week ago. Because of the renovation I had made, my Xbox 360 is now a few steps further away from the router, and it was just enough to cause little to no connection between it and the router. The PC computer was not having much luck connecting to it either.

I asked a friend for a solution and he had suggested a repeater, so I got one of these... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124430.
Setting it up was easy and I've connected to the router just fine with both the Xbox and Computer thanks to it.

But recently I've noticed the large amounts of lag in my video games like Halo reach, and I've become the worst host in any game. The connection tends to even drop at least once a night for both my computer and my Xbox.

For this week, Onlive (A cloud based gaming service) is giving everyone in the US any game in their catalog for just 1 dollar. So I launched their application and it has confirmed to me that my connection just downright sucks.



Is there any kind of solution anyone here can recommend? Was this repeater a waste of money?
That link doesn't work.

Sano
Jul 14, 2011
Should work now.
Weird, it worked when I had posted it.

I'll post a different link in case it happens again. here

headfake
Aug 6, 2011

For what it's worth, I just tried OnLive and got the same message, even though I'm sure my network connection is solid with no dropouts (wired gigabit Ethernet to the router, and I'm not getting any packet loss and speed is where it should be on speedtest.net). I suspect their servers are overloaded or something like that.

uapyro
Jan 13, 2005

Sano posted:

I've been using my WRT54G for around 6 years now. I've been playing online video games for the PS2/PS3/360 in my basement (2 floors down separated from the router) and used to be a really good host when hosting game rooms. I've also been using it to browse with my laptop and it's worked well with it anywhere within the basement.

But recently I had to renovate my entire basement to fit a Gaming Rig I had built about a week ago. Because of the renovation I had made, my Xbox 360 is now a few steps further away from the router, and it was just enough to cause little to no connection between it and the router. The PC computer was not having much luck connecting to it either.

I asked a friend for a solution and he had suggested a repeater, so I got one of these... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124430
Setting it up was easy and I've connected to the router just fine with both the Xbox and Computer thanks to it.



Is there any kind of solution anyone here can recommend? Was this repeater a waste of money?

I'm not sure if it's a DD-WRT issue, or what, but I've had issues with using DD-WRT as a repeater. I know it's not the same thing exactly, but my solution may help you or others.

Using RouterA with DD-WRT wireless, I have fast speeds. Using RouterB as a repeater hooked to A, wireless is very slow connecting through RouterB. If I connect a wire to RouterB to a computer, then wirelessly connected to RouterA, it's fast. It seems just extending the wireless connection is where the problem is.

If I remember correctly, I was getting around 1mbps or less on a 25mbps connection when it was running slow.

NOTinuyasha
Oct 17, 2006

 
The Great Twist
Repeaters are always lovely, buy a router with better range.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
Repeaters can work well if your backhaul (the signal you want to repeat) is 5ghz 802.11n and the repeater broadcasts on 2.4ghz. Very few people will have this particular setup, though. But, if you got it, rock it. Same-band repeating, is, as you noted, universally poo poo.

FWIW this is how Walmart distribution centers provide coverage for their parking lots (well, 802.11a for the backhaul, but same concept)

ryanbruce
May 1, 2002

The "Dell Dude"
So what's the thought on the ASUS RT-N12 router? It seems to be the slightly gimped version of the RT-N16 but at half the price. 300MHz Broadcom, non-MIMO, no USB. Though I guess at these specs I'd be better off with a refurb E2000. It has a special build of Tomato off the standard TomatoUSB trunk, anyone know why?

BTW: the RT-N16 is $10 less at Amazon.com right now after MIR until 10/31/11

Since the router is for my parents I'll probably convince them to spring for the RT-N16 since they're hoping to stream HD, but I'm just curious.

Triikan
Feb 23, 2007
Most Loved

Sano posted:

I've been using my WRT54G for around 6 years now. I've been playing online video games for the PS2/PS3/360 in my basement (2 floors down separated from the router) and used to be a really good host when hosting game rooms. I've also been using it to browse with my laptop and it's worked well with it anywhere within the basement.

But recently I had to renovate my entire basement to fit a Gaming Rig I had built about a week ago. Because of the renovation I had made, my Xbox 360 is now a few steps further away from the router, and it was just enough to cause little to no connection between it and the router. The PC computer was not having much luck connecting to it either.

I asked a friend for a solution and he had suggested a repeater, so I got one of these... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124430
Setting it up was easy and I've connected to the router just fine with both the Xbox and Computer thanks to it.

But recently I've noticed the large amounts of lag in my video games like Halo reach, and I've become the worst host in any game. The connection tends to even drop at least once a night for both my computer and my Xbox.

For this week, Onlive (A cloud based gaming service) is giving everyone in the US any game in their catalog for just 1 dollar. So I launched their application and it has confirmed to me that my connection just downright sucks.



Is there any kind of solution anyone here can recommend? Was this repeater a waste of money?

Does your repeater have a Clinton mode and an Ethernet port. The only suggestion I gave to troubleshooting the problem is to turn it onto client mode somewhere you get decent signal, then run a cord to your gaming devices, and seeing if it still is unacceptable.

Sano
Jul 14, 2011

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I really did waste quite a bit of money on a repeater.

I won't bother doing the clinton mode thing since my problems within 3 different devices.


Any routers you guys recommend?

possibly something with 2 or 3 times the range of the WRT54G

I don't quite understand specs on routers, so I'm not exactly sure which one of the routers from the opening post I should get.

Triikan
Feb 23, 2007
Most Loved
Whoops typo & auto correct; client mode. That isn't a permanent fix, obviously, just trying to troubleshooting your issue.

If you're not wanting to see if you can get it to work, you could always just buy bigger antennas for your wrt

Sano
Jul 14, 2011
do bigger antenna attachments actually work? Seems cheaper then buying a whole new router.

how do I know which antenna to get?

uapyro
Jan 13, 2005

Sano posted:

do bigger antenna attachments actually work? Seems cheaper then buying a whole new router.

how do I know which antenna to get?

I had good luck with this sort of big D-Link antenna. It was a square and measured between 12 and 16 inches. I got around 800 feet out of it when I was staying in a beach condo without internet. That's going over one building and lots of trees.

That's also boosting the power output to around 95mW.

Triikan
Feb 23, 2007
Most Loved

Sano posted:

do bigger antenna attachments actually work? Seems cheaper then buying a whole new router.

how do I know which antenna to get?

I'd just jump on eBay and either get the official Linksys antenna upgrade (Linksys HGA7T 7DBi TNC Antenna Kit + Bracket) or try your luck with the generic 9DBi kit for a little less. Looks like the linksys one is ~18 shipped, generic ~10 shipped.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Sano posted:

But recently I had to renovate my entire basement to fit a Gaming Rig I had built about a week ago. Because of the renovation I had made, my Xbox 360 is now a few steps further away from the router, and it was just enough to cause little to no connection between it and the router. The PC computer was not having much luck connecting to it either.

Repeaters are poo poo. Move your router upstairs to see if it will clear the obstruction that's gumming up your link to the computers downstairs. Otherwise, get some ethernet and start running it inside the house so that you can give yourself a decent wired connection. This will blow any halfass wireless solutions out of the water.


Wireless is a walkie-talkie system - both sides have to be able to hear each other reliably for it to work. If you buy a directional antenna to add to your router, that's helpful because it focuses the wireless energy in the direction you want it to go. Oh sure, you now lose out on feeding service to half your house but vroom vroom there goes the wireless right at your laptop.

Too bad the laptop is still using a lovely antenna built into the molding of the screen and even though you get tons of bars of signal now your own link back to the AP is just as weak as ever. Solution? Put another AP closer that your laptop can actually talk back to properly.


Wireless is rough stuff and home wireless is worse because every neighbor fires up their own little router and clogs the airwaves with their poo poo. Worse, you can't predict how an AP is going to handle the construction materials in your home or how well your laptop/phone/game console will work talking back to the AP. If you absolutely can't avoid using wireless, then do your best to play to its strengths - use directional antennas when possible, keep the distance between AP and clients short, avoid going through tons of walls as that will generally cock up the signal and when things are sluggish try searching for better channels. In the end, think of wireless as a convenience and that will hopefully keep your blood pressure low when you're dorking around with it, trying to get it to talk to your Gaming Rig.

Binary Badger
Oct 11, 2005

Trolling Link for a decade


fagalicious posted:

I have an airport express and I'm seconding this. Its horrible as a router. I bought it for the airtunes and tried using it as an access point, but the signal was pretty weak. I just use it for my outdoor audio gear now, works great for that. But dear god don't get one to use as a router or access point.

Also don't get one as a repeater either. There's something about its lovely, tiny, integrated antenna that makes it great for reception, but atrocious for transmission. I've only ever used it for hooking up wireless speakers. Using one as your main access point seems to only work if your wireless device is less than ten feet away from it.

The AEBS however, especially the latest version, is the bee's knees for any setup that is modern Macs (within the past 2 years) or has Broadcom wireless hardware. It's got the 3X3 MIMO setup and the best throughput / transmitting power of any of the Airport Base Stations, as mentioned in a recent Anandtech review.

Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Oct 24, 2011

Wheelchair Stunts
Dec 17, 2005

CuddleChunks posted:

Repeaters are poo poo. Move your router upstairs to see if it will clear the obstruction that's gumming up your link to the computers downstairs. Otherwise, get some ethernet and start running it inside the house so that you can give yourself a decent wired connection. This will blow any halfass wireless solutions out of the water.


Wireless is a walkie-talkie system - both sides have to be able to hear each other reliably for it to work. If you buy a directional antenna to add to your router, that's helpful because it focuses the wireless energy in the direction you want it to go. Oh sure, you now lose out on feeding service to half your house but vroom vroom there goes the wireless right at your laptop.

Too bad the laptop is still using a lovely antenna built into the molding of the screen and even though you get tons of bars of signal now your own link back to the AP is just as weak as ever. Solution? Put another AP closer that your laptop can actually talk back to properly.


Wireless is rough stuff and home wireless is worse because every neighbor fires up their own little router and clogs the airwaves with their poo poo. Worse, you can't predict how an AP is going to handle the construction materials in your home or how well your laptop/phone/game console will work talking back to the AP. If you absolutely can't avoid using wireless, then do your best to play to its strengths - use directional antennas when possible, keep the distance between AP and clients short, avoid going through tons of walls as that will generally cock up the signal and when things are sluggish try searching for better channels. In the end, think of wireless as a convenience and that will hopefully keep your blood pressure low when you're dorking around with it, trying to get it to talk to your Gaming Rig.

Why are repeaters bad? I've known of repeaters used in WISP equipment and numerous other uses with wireless signals. Is it just that wireless bridge consumer products tend to be poo poo or something to do with wireless repeating in general?

Ninja Rope
Oct 22, 2005

Wee.

CuddleChunks posted:

Too bad the laptop is still using a lovely antenna built into the molding of the screen and even though you get tons of bars of signal now your own link back to the AP is just as weak as ever.

Antennas increase both signal reception and transmission equally.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Wheelchair Stunts posted:

Why are repeaters bad? I've known of repeaters used in WISP equipment and numerous other uses with wireless signals. Is it just that wireless bridge consumer products tend to be poo poo or something to do with wireless repeating in general?

Repeaters decrease the bandwidth by half (theoretically) where they are using the same frequency. They also add latency with each hop across the network. It's variable how much performance will be affected. Any repeater set up will add latency which you want to avoid for gaming. For web surfing and streaming it generally won't be too much of an issue.

devmd01
Mar 7, 2006

Elektronik
Supersonik

CuddleChunks posted:

Wireless is rough stuff and home wireless is worse because every neighbor fires up their own little router and clogs the airwaves with their poo poo.

its me, im the lovely neighbor. Ubiquiti AP at the peak of my attic...haven't done a proper site survey, but let's just say that streaming pandora over wifi-only on my blackberry in every corner of my yard works just fine.

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CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Wheelchair Stunts posted:

Why are repeaters bad? I've known of repeaters used in WISP equipment and numerous other uses with wireless signals. Is it just that wireless bridge consumer products tend to be poo poo or something to do with wireless repeating in general?

As others have said - repeating the signal adds a little latency but generally halves the available bandwidth. Many repeaters have poo poo for antennas so they do a crap job of repeating the signal in the first place. Ugh, they're awful and if you can avoid them do so.


Ninja Rope posted:

Antennas increase both signal reception and transmission equally.

True, though you also are now more sensitive to noise. Improving the antenna on the AP side alone doesn't guarantee a quality connection if your client still has a crap transmitter. A balanced approach helps - using directional antennas on the AP if practical and a quality transmitter on the client side that has enough power to reach back and talk to the AP.

Hell, switching to directional antennas alone makes a huge difference since you can now reject all the garbage from behind your AP.


devmd01 posted:

its me, im the lovely neighbor. Ubiquiti AP at the peak of my attic...haven't done a proper site survey, but let's just say that streaming pandora over wifi-only on my blackberry in every corner of my yard works just fine.
Heheh right on. :hfive:

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