[PLUG] OT: Looking for some WiFi Networking Advice

Russell Senior russell at personaltelco.net
Thu Oct 15 01:29:00 UTC 2020


You aren't the exclusive user of the spectrum. All of your neighbors
are using the same channels and they may or may not be using the
spectrum at the same time. The 5GHz radios are slightly more immune to
the neighbors, because the higher frequency RF doesn't penetrate walls
as well.  If all the APs have the same SSID, then in theory your
devices should be able to hop from one AP to another one with minimal
drops, but unless the APs are helping steer the client devices to the
AP where they'll get the best connection, then you are dependent on
the client device OS for deciding when to disassociate from one AP and
try to associate to another one. I think generally, they'll try to
stick to the one they are connected to until they start to detect
packet loss.

You might want to look at the Ubiquiti Unifi stuff. With unifi, you
use "controller" software to help manage the client steering.  I've
never used it, but I hear generally happy sounds from people I know
who have.

-- 
Russell Senior
russell at personaltelco.net

On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 6:05 PM Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
>
> Russell,
>
> The main problem I hope to solve with a mesh network is to be able to walk
> around the house and not drop my phone calls. The house is about 3000 sq ft
> - long and narrow ranch style. I have two wifi access points, both 2.4 and
> 5.0, hard wired to the switch, which is at one end of the house, and the
> APs are in the middle and at the other end of the house. I get dropped
> calls as I move around the house most of the time. I use to use 2 OpenWRT
> dumb APs in the same configuration, and still had lots of dropped calls.
> Since March, I have had to rely on the wifi for my main computer, and it
> seems to go in and out as I sit at my desk, both 2.4 and 5. I resort to
> rebooting the APs every couple of days. There is some correlation to when
> the a/c starts - maybe interference from the a/c blower as it starts and
> runs? I don't think there is much congestion on our network, as there are
> only two of us using it: 2 computers and one cell phone. I resorted to hard
> wiring the Rokus etc a long time ago as they kept dropping in and out.
>
> Thanks for your suggestions!
>
> Mark
>
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 1:30 PM Russell Senior <russell at personaltelco.net>
> wrote:
>
> > It doesn't actually matter, but where are you located? Portland is
> > primarily Comcast territory. Where are you that you are a Cox
> > subscriber?
> >
> > If you have wired connections to your wireless access points, you
> > don't need fancy "mesh" equipment. Instead, you just need devices that
> > can be configured as "dumb APs".
> >
> > I don't actually know anything about eero, except for a general sense
> > about how they sort of have to work. I have a lot of experience with
> > mesh networks generally. My humble opinion is that mesh networks are
> > usually the wrong solution to your problem, since most people's
> > problem with wifi is congestion, and mesh networks only make
> > congestion worse. So, generally, I think you are on the right track
> > with wires. More people should bite the bullet and either run wires
> > yourself or hire an electrician to run wires for them instead of
> > pissing around with meshes.
> >
> > Any consumer off-the-shelf "router" can be turned into a "dumb AP" by
> > turning off its DHCP server, setting a unique static IP, and
> > connecting to your ethernet cable through a LAN port instead of the
> > WAN port. You might want to consider an access point that can be
> > reflashed with OpenWrt, and then you can configure it as a dumb AP,
> > have it fetch its own address via DHCP from a gateway device, and not
> > worry about which port you are plugged into.
> >
> > The one feature of "fancy" wifi gear that OpenWrt and traditional dumb
> > wifi network devices typically don't have is fancy mechanisms for
> > pushing devices onto less congested devices and channels. You are
> > mostly going to have to hope your devices pick a good AP to connect to
> > in different areas of your house. There are some tricks you can use to
> > make this more deterministic.
> >
> > So, there's my advice.
> >
> > --
> > Russell Senior
> > russell at personaltelco.net
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 12:11 PM Mark Phillips
> > <mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
> > >
> > > I need to upgrade my home wifi network with a high speed mesh network
> > > (primarily for better phone coverage in my house - I make a lot of video
> > > calls to the UK). I have Cox Gigablast on my wired network. The issue I
> > am
> > > running into is that the "base" unit of the eero units and other vendors'
> > > boxes have to connect to either (1) the cable model or (2) the router and
> > > not the switch. My modem, router, and switch are all in a cabinet above
> > my
> > > desk in the office, so (1) I don't need wifi in the office and (2) I
> > don't
> > > relish the thought of having a wifi transmitter sitting 3 feet from my
> > head
> > > 12 hours a day. I want to connect the wifi boxes to my wired network in a
> > > couple of different rooms away from the office. Eero (and other vendors)
> > > says the "base" unit has to act as a gateway (my router does that now),
> > so
> > > it cannot be after the switch. Any suggestions on how I can get a high
> > > speed mesh network in my house and not take a daily showert in 2+ GHz
> > > radiation? I also want to use the wired network as the backhaul channel.
> > >
> > > Please don't start a discussion on the health effects of wifi radiation.
> > > Just assume I am so unscientific and superstitious that I believe in wifi
> > > gremlins and I don't want them invading my head.;)
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > Mark
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org
> > > PLUG mailing list
> > > PLUG at pdxlinux.org
> > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > _______________________________________________
> > PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org
> > PLUG mailing list
> > PLUG at pdxlinux.org
> > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> >
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug



More information about the PLUG mailing list