Extending WIFI range

[Guruprasadh]

Hi all, I live in a duplex home. The ethernet cable from the service provider is connected to the DIR 816 dual band router which supports 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz and it is placed in the first floor. Both bands are active. Sadly, my room in ground floor don't receive good wifi signal. So I installed Zyxel wifi router in my room. A ethernet cable of length approximately 30 meter runs from LAN1 ethernet port of DIR 816 to Zyxel WAN port and from Zyxel LAN1 port ethernet cable runs to my computer. At last, my computer gets good internet speed. My internet speed is 75 Mbps and I can successfully achieve it 5Ghz band in other device. But in speed test result in PC, shows 65 mbps. Why this anomaly? How can I fix it?

 

[razel]

65 is not that far away from the up to 75 that you're paying for. I assume that PC is wired as well. I would do a test using different speed tests especially during off hours. speedtest.net, fast.com, download large files from MS such as the Win10 ISO.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, that's in the ball-park, as they say. ("Close enough")

Does your service provider "over-provision"? Comcast and FIOS both do, here in the States. By your username, I'm guessing you're from India? I'm not too familiar with ISPs over there, and if they over-provision at all.

They may also be rating your internet speed at raw line capacity, and there's overhead for framing, error-detection/correction, modulation, channel bonding, etc., which means that your actual "goodput" is going to be less than your line speed. (One reason ISPs in the US over-provision by default; they don't want to be sued.)

Then of course, there's "internet overhead".

 

[Guruprasadh]

Thanks for the reply. Connection to my PC is wired. I tested speed in 5GHz band and I got 75 mbps. But in this wired connection to the second router it is not providing 75 mbps. I suspect Zyxel is the problem. Or I may have wrongly tweaked network connection. When I directly connect to the ethernet without any router, I get 75 mbps speed. If I extend the range of wireless connection (no other device is using internet), I observe the speed drop. So I suspect a theory behind all this.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, that makes more sense now. You've got a wired connection, from ISP modem, to primary router (wired), then to secondary router (wired), then to PC (wired).

In that case, yes, it is kind of weird to be losing out on 10Mbit/sec of your internet connection speed. At those speeds (less than 100Mbit/sec), all of your routers in the chain, should be capable of routing full ISP speeds. Do you have the two routers connected LAN-to-LAN (in that case, it would only really be testing the WAN-to-LAN of the primary router, and the router's switch ports on the second router)? If so, then something is flaky with the second router.

Edit: Upon reading your OP, I see that you've got your ISP plugged into your primary router's WAN port, and then your secondary router's WAN port is plugged into the LAN port of the primary router. Which is setting you up for double-NAT, which is not a preferred arrangement, and possibly part of the explanation for the slowdown that you're seeing.

How old is this Zyxel router? Is it a 'G', 'N', or 'AC' router?

Regardless, if you just want to use it as a wireless AP, then you need to connect it LAN-to-LAN to the primary router, and then disable DHCP and NAT on the Zyxel.

If it's older than AC, I recommend replacing it with a newer (even AC750 or AC1200) router.

My preference is for Asus routers, either an AC66U or AC1750 (same H/W), or newer. I don't like to mess with anything slower. (Unless it's for a grandmother that only checks e-mail and surfs the web. But what if their grandkids come over? That's one reason why I try to stick with AC 2x2 routers at a minimum these days. They aren't expensive, $40 or so for one.)

 

[Guruprasadh]

Thanks @VirtualLarry . I found the problem. Now, I get the full speed provided by ISP to my PC. I have set Zyxel Operation Mode to "Wireless ISP" and changed the Wireless mode to "Client" instead of "AP". But the problem is Zyxel router wireless disappeared. It appears like trading Wireless network for wired connection. Is there a way to overcome the problem?

 

[VirtualLarry]

By setting operation mode to "WISP", you are using the wifi as the WAN connection on the Zyxel, and not using the wifi for connections from other devices. That really doesn't sound like what you want, if you are using the Zyxel to extend your wireless network in your home.

The fact that you are now getting full-speed wired connections on the Zyxel, when wired into your primary router, simply seems to show that it's no longer processing packets that arrive at the switch in the back of the Zyxel.

In other words, you could, at this point, replace the Zyxel router, with a dumb unmanaged Gigabit switch, and get the same results that you're seeing. But of course, that won't give you the wifi access either.

I think that the Zyxel router, is probably just too old and slow for what you want it to do.

What model and year of mfg is it?

 

[JackMDS]

Thanks I have set Zyxel Operation Mode to "Wireless ISP" and changed the Wireless mode to "Client" instead of "AP". But the problem is Zyxel router wireless disappeared. It appears like trading Wireless network for wired connection. Is there a way to overcome the problem?

Hmmm.. the all point of "Client" mode is to turn a Wireless Router to Act as a Wireless card with Ethernet port (Aka as Wireless Bridge).

You have two options...

1. Spend some time on educating yourself about Wireless Networking.

2. Leave everything as is. Get an inexpensive Wireless Router plug it to one of the LAN ports of the Zyxel and configure the New Wireless Router to work as a Normal Access Point. By doing so you actually creating a real two transmitter Repeater that does not lose Bandwidth.

Example - https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Wir...05&sr=8-16&keywords=asus+wireless+n300+router

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

 

[VirtualLarry]

Edit: Upon reading your OP, I see that you've got your ISP plugged into your primary router's WAN port, and then your secondary router's WAN port is plugged into the LAN port of the primary router. Which is setting you up for double-NAT, which is not a preferred arrangement, and possibly part of the explanation for the slowdown that you're seeing.

Regardless, if you just want to use it as a wireless AP, then you need to connect it LAN-to-LAN to the primary router, and then disable DHCP and NAT on the Zyxel.

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

 

[Guruprasadh]

Spend some time on educating yourself about Wireless Networking

Really did that and found the mistake with configuration. Now, wireless and wired connections are working good. PC is receiving full speed guaranteed by the ISP and wireless is working good. In fact, typing this reply from my laptop connected to wireless network.

I think that the Zyxel router, is probably just too old and slow for what you want it to do.

What model and year of mfg is it?

Way too old. I forgot when I bought it. I think around the year 2012. I read a DIY blog about extending wifi range and indeed I succeeded doing it. So I used my old router to extend my wifi but at the cost of reduced bandwidth which is solved now. And my next aim is to provide seamless coverage between different spots in my home.Right now, I have to manually turn on and off wifi so that they switch to device providing high signal strength. So, right now working on it. Thank you for your time and help.