FIOS Router: Wireless Interference

[Alliance76177]

I am at a crossroads where I think I need to upgrade to a new wireless access point in my home. The last few days, my wifi devices have been super slow. With a FIOS 75/35 connection, I ran speedtests on my iOS devices and was getting 10/10 at best. On my laptop wireless, about 25/10. On gigabit Ethernet I am getting the full 80/35.

I downloaded and have been testing inSSIDer around my home. With several homes within close proximity to me, I have about 10-12 different WiFi's I can see. All of them are using the typical 1, 6 and 11 channels.

I ran testing on each channel and with overlapping, co-channel and just plain slow connectivity, I am almost certain I am running into quite a bit of interference. I do run 5 DLink DCS-932L wireless cameras throughout my home, but that couldn't be the issue. I believe my issue is the neighbors networks. Am I right?

Currently I am using FIOS's latest router (MI424WR-GEN3I) for all connectivity. Because I need this router for the STB guides on my receivers, I am stuck using this. However, I would like to turn WIFI off on that router and get a wireless access point and run it somewhere central to my home, probably my home office.

What recommendations do you guys have for wireless access points? Should I go dual band wireless N?

 

[Alliance76177]

Heck, I just ran speed test on my iPhone on just LTE. I'm getting faster on there than I am on my wifi. Something is certainly wrong.

 

[azazel1024]

What kind of throughput are those DLinks using??? Because, yeah, I'd suspect those as borking all of the other devices.

Even if they are only using 1-2Mbps each, 5 of them is going to create bandwidth sharing issues with a lot of routers/APs. Most client routers/Access Points start divying up available bandwidth pretty badly once you have more than about 3-4 concurrent wireless devices (not simply connected, actively transfering data over Wifi).

So if those 5 DLink wireless cameras are actively streaming video the entire time and not simply operating in motion activated mode, they probably are killing your network speeds.

All the surrounding networks deffinitely aren't helping though. Is this a crowded single family home neighborhood? Or a townhouse neighborhood and what kind of signal strength are you getting on those surrounding networks?

If any of them are on the same channel(s) as yours and their signal strength is above about -70 to -65dB, then yes, they are going to be interfering with your network in a pretty measurable way. Its only when a cochannel network drops below around -70dB that the interferance tappers off a lot. The other important metric is, how much higher is your RSSI? Its also going to need/want to be at least 10dB higher than the surrounding networks, otherwise, again, interferance. Probably better to be more like 15-20dB higher.

The times you are going to get significant interferance is if your RSSI is less than 10dB higher and/or their signal strength is greater than -60dB.

In all of these cases, I'd suggest getting a dual band router and running as many of your devices as you can on 5.8GHz and leaving only those that must be on 2.4GHz, on 2.4GHz. I'd deffinitely get those wireless cameras off your primary band.

 

[BadBrad]

I added a Netgear N600 router ($67 @ BB on sale with $5 coupon) as an access point to an older FIOS MI424WR-RevD and my speeds went from about 18-20ish to 52-58mbps down. be sure to connect them LAN - LAN and turn off DHCP in the new router. That's all it takes....

 

[Alliance76177]

I added a Netgear N600 router ($67 @ BB on sale with $5 coupon) as an access point to an older FIOS MI424WR-RevD and my speeds went from about 18-20ish to 52-58mbps down. be sure to connect them LAN - LAN and turn off DHCP in the new router. That's all it takes....

And I can still tie my receivers into the FIOS router for channel guide, vod, etc? It's my understanding I have to have this router in place for all the TV extras.

 

[azazel1024]

Well, you have two choices, you can use the Actiontec as a router and MoCA bridge, and just disable wireless, or you can use it as just a MoCA bridge, which is what I am doing.

It can be more complicated, but basically you just disable the wireless radio on it, disable routing on the coax port (I don't recall the setting screen for that, but it was a little digging) and then if you don't want to wait 12hrs, you release the IP address and unplug it straight away. Plug your new router in to the ethernet WAN port and it'll grab an IP from the ONT box. Otherwise you have to wait 12hrs for the IP lease to expire and the ONT box to issue a new one to your router. You'll also have to get Verizon to switch the ethernet port on the ONT box on (its disabled by default).

If your Actiontec is already feed through ethernet by the ONT box, its simpler. Just disable the wireless radio, release the IP address and plug in your new router.

Or you can leave the actiontec doing routing and MoCA bridge duties.

Yes, you MUST have that Actiontec running as a MoCA bridge (if in bridge mode, just have port 1 plugged in to your LAN and the coax plugged in, it'll work as a bridge then between your ethernet LAN and the coax LAN for the set-top boxes). Or, you can buy your own MoCA bridge if you want, but MoCA bridges aren't super common or super cheap.

 

[azazel1024]

What ticks me off about the whole thing the most is the set top boxes HAVE A DAMN ETHERNET PORT ON THEM...but Verizon refuses or can't activate it. I have heard of know one who has been able to enable the ethernet port on any of their motorola STBs, or who has convinced Verizon to do it.

If they could or would, I could just toss that POS Actiontec to the curb (and save $10 on my power bill a year)...but, noooooooo.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

What is the wireless mode of that supplied router?
What channel? keep it to 1 or 6 or 11.
Keep it as HT20 20 Mhz wide channel, NOT 40 Mhz.
This will give you a max wireless connection rate of 150 Mbps, which will give you about 75Mbps in real world performance IF (a big IF) you have zero wireless interference from other devices.

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Home-N...ess-quot-Performance-Mode-802-11n/td-p/479767

 

[VirtualLarry]

What ticks me off about the whole thing the most is the set top boxes HAVE A DAMN ETHERNET PORT ON THEM...but Verizon refuses or can't activate it. I have heard of know one who has been able to enable the ethernet port on any of their motorola STBs, or who has convinced Verizon to do it.

If they could or would, I could just toss that POS Actiontec to the curb (and save $10 on my power bill a year)...but, noooooooo.

Rumor has it, that they are going to start charging $5/mo for the ActionTecs.

 

[azazel1024]

Yeah, I saw that. It was supposed to be in February, but I don't have a charge on my Feb. bill.

The instant I see that I am buying a MoCA bridge and ditching the Actiontec POS.

Or maybe I'll really try to talk my wife in to cutting the cord and just living with internet only service once our contract is up in December.

 

[JackMDS]

You can leave the current Modem/Router as is.

Get a nice Dual band Wirless Router (like this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091 ).

Configure the New Wireless Router to work as a Switch with an Access point.

http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

Then set the old Wireless to channel 1 and the new to channel 11.

You can set the old Wireless to do b/g/n, and new Wireless to do only a/n (or whatever other combo suits you).

Security should be the same, or whatever is needed for your specific Wireless devices.