Kitz Forum

Computers & Hardware => Networking => Topic started by: tickmike on February 22, 2013, 02:10:33 PM

Title: Two Access Points For WiFi Boost.
Post by: tickmike on February 22, 2013, 02:10:33 PM

Anyone use two or more Access Points to boost there WiFi ?.

Title: Re: Two Access Points For WiFi Boost.
Post by: tickmike on February 27, 2013, 10:32:31 PM

I had this set up working for the last two weeks and it made the WiFi signal a lot better all over the house (not tested it in the garden yet).

I had two 'Air Station Pro Access Points', I had been using one for a long time but there where area's with poor signal.
I set the second one the same as the first, Same 'Essid', Same IP settings, NetMask,  DNS and Gateways, Nat is turned off as I use my 'Hardware Firewall ' (Smoothwall) to send out the DHCP.
It's best to set your channel to 1 and the other to 11.
Have the devices as far apart as you can then you I ran a RJ45 cable from my first AP to the other.

Title: Re: Two Access Points For WiFi Boost.
Post by: tickmike on May 10, 2013, 10:43:12 PM

Also I have some spare Netgear DG 834GT modem/Routers, I'm going to add these to cover the garden and workshop by using the WiFi as an access point and set up as above.

Title: Re: Two Access Points For WiFi Boost.
Post by: Berrick on September 05, 2013, 08:41:22 PM

Sounds good tickmike,

I hope you dont mind me making an observation?

Quote

It's best to set your channel to 1 and the other to 11

If you are planing on using more AP's you might want to re think the channel provisioning you are using for the following reason.

There are 14 channels available when using 2.4GHz though most equipment will only show 11 (dependent on where in the world you buy equipment). Out of the 11 channels there are only 3 clean channels, channels which don't interfere with each other 1,6 and 11. So for the best, trouble free operation of WiFi it's best to use these.

If you have to re use a channel you have already used try and keep the AP's using the same channel as far apart as possible (business class AP's have the ability to reduce the RF output for this reason).

Unfortunately in the real world a neighbor may un intentionally cock up all your hard work by using one of the channels you want .

If you haven't already got it a free util called inssider (there are other apps) will help take some of the guess work out of what is going on in the WiFi world around you. It shows stuff like signal strength, channel numbers and ssid's regardless of whether the AP has been configured not to broadcast it.

Hope this is useful, if you already know this I apologies