Help/Advice needed on adding an Access Point

My situation:

Cradlepoint MBR1000 as my router, connected to my Internet Provider (WISP). Wired Cat 5e from there throught the house. Because the house is rather long and the router is in one end, I installed a Linksys WRT54G as an Access Point in the den, to provide wireless for phones and tablets there. however, the old Linksys finally failed, so now my wireless access there is really poor.

I know very little about wireless networking, and had to find instructions on-line on how to configure the WRT54G as an Access point. Now that I need another one, I'd like a recommendation on what to get... another router that's easy to configure as an AP, or an actual AP device.

Another point... When I set up this configuration years ago, the neighborhood was fairly free of home networks, so I set the Cradlepoint on one channel and the Linksys on another one, fairly widely separated. Now, the neighborhood is really crowded, there really aren't any channels "clear", so I need to pick a weak channel that my Cradlepoint will overpower to get wireless to work. When I add an AP, should it be on still another channel, or do I put it on the same channel ad the Cradlepoint?

I "could" relocate the Cradlepoint to the den, and I think that would solve the wireless reception problem, but then I'd have the problem of getting the wired connections all re-routed.... I'd rather not deal with that since there's a lot of in-wall Cat 5e involved.

Reply to
Charlie Hoffpauir
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Can't beat wired Cat 5e. Not with wireless, that's for sure.

So ... you want to have two APs, both advertising the same SSID, both configured the same way, except on different nonoverlapping channels (i.e. any 2 of {1, 6, 11}.) Put both APs in the same L2 broadcast domain (subnet). Done.

As far as which APs to use ... well my unbiased if ignorant view is that Cisco brand "Aironet" APs are the best. If they're outside your budget, then any functional 802.11 AP, or router (if that router can be configured to operate as an AP, i.e. bridging through a "LAN" port, and not routing through the "WAN" port), should be fine.

Sure. If the strongest neighbor AP on say channel 11 is say at -85dBm, then use that channel and be happy. If the strongest neighbor AP on the channel is say at -70dBm, then that could be a concern.

5GHz is often an option nowadays, you know.

Different.

I hear you. When I moved into my house, I got into the crawlspace and pulled some Cat 3 hither and yon ... but that was 16; and I'll be damned if I'm going back into that crawlspace if I can avoid it.

Aaron

Reply to
aaron

Don't you need to insure the IP address space of the two access points don't overlap?

Reply to
miso

Address space sort of implies that both devices are running DHCP and offering up addresses to other devices, which should not be the case. You'll want to ensure that only a single device is acting as a DHCP server.

More to the point, however, you do want to ensure that both devices have unique IP addresses statically assigned, and those addresses are most often assigned outside of the DHCP scope.

Reply to
Char Jackson

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. This is really a follow-up post for anyone curious how it all came out.

I ended up buying a Ubiquiti UniFi AP. It seemed to get universally good reviews, and was relatively cheap on Amazon, and I could get it in 2 days (arrived this morning). I downloaded the software, connected teh AP to my router, and set it up. It initially set the channel to

11, even tho my across the street neighbor was using 11. So I left it there and sure enough, checking the signal on a Wi-Fi "Ap" on my cell phone, and it was great, even on the other side of the house. So Now my router wireless is on 6 and the Ubiquiti on 11, and I have excellent wireless signal throughout the house.

I wasn't at all sure I'd set everything right. Initially, I elected to include a "guest" access, but went back and deleted that after playing with reception a bit. If I'd left it available I'd have had to do some more configuring to limit what a guest could access, and I didn't want to get that involved in it.

Overall, I'd say it's a great AP, and pretty easy to configure if all you want is a simple AP. And, the range is much better than that of teh WiFI on my original router. In fact, I could probably disable the router's WiFi and just use the Ubiquiti to cover the entire house, now that it's "centered".

Reply to
Charlie Hoffpauir

Thanks for following up. Glad to hear that it's working out.

Reply to
Char Jackson

So you are saying put them on different IP addresses. I was thinking use the same IP address with both having DHCP, but then set the range of the DHCP in each WAP so they don't overlap.

This still seems to be potentially troublesome. As you move around the house, it seems to me the wifi client will try to hang onto the first WAP to which it is attached, even if the signal strength is better on the other client.

Reply to
miso

That's a *requirement* if both devices are on the same subnet, which they will be if they're connected to each other via their respective LAN ports.

"same IP address" is another way of saying "IP address conflict", which is a bad thing.

I don't see any benefit to running more than one DHCP server on a single subnet, even if you're careful as to how they're configured. I only see pitfalls. It's best to avoid it.

I expect that to be the case. By making the SSIDs different from each other, (and on different channels, of course), you'd be able to choose the one you want to use.

Reply to
Char Jackson

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