Dealing with spotty wireless

[tami]

So I've consistently had issues with spotty wireless in my home (same home as when I posted this in 2014).

Back then, I had a WRT54GL (which I'm still using as an extender, plugged into an Ethernet port in another part of my home), and then I got an ASUS N66U as suggested for my main router.

Wifi on the N66U has been pretty decent. I'd say it's stable.

In the age of these new wireless extenders, I also bought a 3 pack of one of the newer wireless devices (I'll leave it to you to guess between all the recent devices that have come out lately--they're a ton of media coverage on them) and the Internet connection drops all the time. I'm now using Nest wifi cameras and in looking at a 30 minute segment on my device, I'd say I'm up in bits and chunks of maybe 2-3 minutes a pop.

Sometimes I have days of stability. Sometimes I don't. I'm not moving devices. In fact, nothing is being moved at all. The weather isn't acting all funky and there's nothing out of the ordinary happening to cause interference, as far as I know.

So...what is interfering with my connection here?

 

[razel]

So you are using 4 wireless source devices in one home? One router and three mesh wireless routers. I can't give any direct responses since your setup detail is vague, but I'm guessing that you need to ensure that all is connected as one wireless mesh, not a double NAT and having so many wireless sources is just adding noise.

All 4 of your sources are yelling. Yes, the mesh ones can yell at a different frequency (voice) but all still yelling in the same space.

 

[tami]

I don't think that's what it is. WiFi was spotty before the mesh.

 

[JackMDS]

Sure it would stay "Spotty", if your solution is "Spotty" too.

Since when "ton of media coverage" is a Testament of good solution.

No matter what "they tell you (Ton or Not), Extenders per-se are most of the time Not a Good solution, they cut into hald the Signal post the spot that they are at.

As a result if One just need a low level functional signal for simple Browsing they might solve some issues. but for real Load their bandwidth is Most of the Time useless.

So you are using 4 wireless source devices in one home? One router and three mesh wireless routers. I can't give any direct responses since your setup detail is vague, but I'm guessing that you need to ensure that all is connected as one wireless mesh, not a double NAT and having so many wireless sources is just adding noise.

All 4 of your sources are yelling. Yes, the mesh ones can yell at a different frequency (voice) but all still yelling in the same space.

It is not three Routers, it is one Wireless Router and two Extenders sold as an overprices Package. The Router in question or not the best around, and extenders are probably the regular "Junk" in a fancy plastic Box.
----------------------------------
In general.

As usual if One wants a Good Strong Wireless to cover a large or obstruct enviroment, One buys a very good Wireless Router plus (as many is needed) Access Point (or Wireless Routers configured as Access Point)
and use CAT6 to connect them.

 

[tami]

Are you suggesting that the WRT54GL and the Asus should have that level of performance? Because both of them are known to be pretty good devices.

So I'm trying to see if anything in my home here would be interference. Thing is, I don't know what to look for.

 

[Genx87]

Consumer grade wireless is pretty crappy for the most part. How many devices are connecting to these radios? The more load you put on them the less performance and or spotty connectivity you will see. And cramming more radios into an area often times makes it worse.

 

[tami]

How many is too many? 3-5? I'm not using that many devices at all. Most of my setup is still wired.

 

[simas]

how is your wireless organized - did you run the wire to a few access points (APs) , at least one per floor? or are you relying purely on magic of extenders/retransmitters? if yes, can you still return those things for refund?

if you can - wire everything. for those things you can not wire (tablets, etc), set up access points that are connected by wire to your switches and set your devices to use the SSID created. do not use extenders unless you absolutely must.

 

[tami]

Yeah. I guess this is a bigger unsolvable technical mystery. I'm a mostly wired setup with APs on each floor, yep. I don't know. Maybe some electricity interference like my fridge or the house is affecting connectivity. It's so odd.

 

[Zstream]

2.4 or 5g? I've had issues with prior routers beam-forming and AiRadar. My netis router, Linksys, d-Link all had issues. I settled on an Archer C7 as it had the best reception out of them all. Unfortunately, it kept on crashing every day and I had to replace it.

What I'm getting at is, I've always had good luck with 2.4 over 5 for range and stability. Also, multiple AP's will cause issues as your device is trying to switch between them. Ensure that if the -db is at a certain threshold, the extender will disconnect.

 

[boomerang]

If your problems are exclusive to the camera's, perhaps the camera's are not configured the best? I had issues with a Foscam until I assigned a static IP in the camera configuration. Requesting an IP through DHCP in the camera configuration or assigning one using the router configuration led to problems with video feed dropping out, nearly impossible to pan, tilt, etc.

 

[tami]

Both 2.4 and 5g are issues. My device finds the closest and most reliable AP so it's not an issue. But just a note, you mention that there are stability issues with that - this was an issue too before I had multiple APs.

@boomerang - the cameras aren't the only affected devices.

 

[ylin0811]

Did you segment each ap on its own channel for the same frequency? Wireless roaming probably isn't supported on home based routers, but it's worth a try.

 

[tami]

Yes, I have my main router on channels 7 and 156 (2.4 and 5ghz) and my other router is on channel 6. Don't know what it could be...

 

[ylin0811]

2.4ghz channel 6 and 7 do interfere with each other. They should be spaced 6 channels apart
Channel 1, 6, and 11.

 

[tami]

Good to know. I'll try that. Thanks.

 

[tami]

Not sure this is all I need to do - I also found a neighbor's (?) WiFi running on channel 4. I don't think it's causing interference but maybe.

It's still spotty. Not sure it's AS spotty, but it is definitely not perfect yet.

 

[tami]

Anyone have other ideas for me?

 

[Fardringle]

Run a program like wirelessnetview and see how many signals are nearby (and how many are overlapping). If there are a lot, there's really not much you can do about it except try to use the least crowded channel out of 1, 6, and 11. If there are not a lot of other signals, then just look for the best of those three channels.

 

[tami]

What's the equivalent Android app? My wired desktop isn't gonna be much help with this app.

 

[Sean Kyle]

You need to try channel 1, 6 and 11 and hopefully it will be better

 

[Fardringle]

What's the equivalent Android app? My wired desktop isn't gonna be much help with this app.

Wifi Analyzer is a decent (and free) option.

 

[ylin0811]

How far is your extender from the main router? Try moving the extender closer to the main router to see if that helps. I think there might be an interference somewhere causing the disconnects, but would be hard to tell without using the professional wifi spectrum analyzers.