Multiple Wireless Access Points

[puffernutter]

We live in an 1890s terrace and the Virgin box is in the middle of the house, surrounded by thick walls. This has meant that to get reasonable coverage downstairs and upstairs I have two additional wireless access points (WAPs) both transmitting at 2.4Ghz and 5GHz. This in itself has caused issues because the Smart (dumb!!) home stuff requires to be connected to only one access point. This means the upstairs stuff is flaky!

So, last night my son and I just re-named (SSID) the access points upstairs and the one downstairs to the same name as the virgin box downstairs. It seems to have solved the problem with the Smart home stuff, but mobiles and kindles and anything you can move around seem to find it difficult to transit between the WAPs and end up getting stuck on the weakest.

Is there a setting I am missing somewhere?

Cheers

Peter

 

[MattH]

You can only have the same SSID across devices if there is a central controller I.e. Cisco WLC etc.

There is a brand of home AP that will mesh together but I can’t remember the name (they are like upright cylinders).

 

[Luke]

At some point, I'm going to go for Ubiquiti UniFi access points.

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/

Not the cheapest, but do appear to be very good.

With the setup you've got, you'd have to see if there's any settings for roaming, thresholds etc. for when they disassociate on low signal.

 

[Pete.]

I have a similar problem, our house is 1910 with 12" brick walls. I keep mine under the stairs because it gives the best coverage around the house. You could try putting the virgin hub into modem mode and buying one very good wireless AP that will reach the whole house, connect it to the modem with a cat6.

 

[puffernutter]

I found this one - https://www.linksys.com/gb/p/p-whw0...vzSC9Xm3kAX2dYSxRuhknVN74HMd70q0aAmW2EALw_wcB

Looks possible and thanks for the advice, again! Have a great Christmas all!

 

[R-D-R]

You need a managed access point system, I have one in my house 6 x Ubiquiti UniFi access points all wired back to a Ubiquiti controller and then a Ubiquiti POE switch for the wired LAN and cctv it all works seamlessly with mobile devices switching to the nearest access points as you move around the property. Excellent solution especially if you can hard wire it all.

 

[bigegg]

I had the same problem with the standard Plusnet WiFi router.
I forked out 120 quid(!) on a Netgear nighthawk ac1900 router and put it in the loft.
iIcan now get WiFi all over the house, and anywhere in the garden + sheds

 

[daedalusminos]

A friend of mine has Google WiFi and swears by it (as in he thinks it's good!)...

https://store.google.com/product/google_wifi

 

[mm289]

Suggest you have a look at Mesh WiFi. I live in a C18 farmhouse with 13" solid walls and wifi coverage was a 'mare, especially as the broadband comes in at one end of the house.

After years of playing with AP's, boosters, EoP I went to a mesh system last year. I wouldn't say it is perfect as I still get occasional drop outs but it is far better than before.

AFAIK the mesh system uses a separate send and return channel thus significantly reducing contention that you get when sending/recieving on the same channel. it also allows you to add multiple satellites that are much smarter/quicker than normal AP's and critically for the OP's specific requirement, they all SHARE THE SAME SSID. This means devices will seamlessly transition around the house.

I have all my lappys, phones, TV's etc all hooked in and I can walk round and not loose signal, it even extends out into the garden which the original wifi never did.

for info I have the Netgear Omni system, but others are avaialble.

cheers,

Paul

 

[reb78]

Have a read here. http://www.practicallynetworked.com/networking/convert_wifi_router_to_access_point.htm

I used this to setup an old router i had to extend the signal range. Not sure if its quite the same as the setup you’re trying to achieve but the dhcp settings, ip addresses and channel advice may be relevant and help.

 

[knighty]

I've always just set the access points to the same ssid and password, and then different channels

that's always worked perfectly to me.... devices change to the strongest signal no problem

I'd check you're on different channels... spread them out a bit so hey don't overlap

 

[carbon]

I've always just set the access points to the same ssid and password, and then different channels

That’s what I have as well. Works without issues

 

[ukracer]

I found this one - https://www.linksys.com/gb/p/p-whw0...vzSC9Xm3kAX2dYSxRuhknVN74HMd70q0aAmW2EALw_wcB

Looks possible and thanks for the advice, again! Have a great Christmas all!

Linksys think Maplin still exists....dont try buying from them

 

[armalites]

If you have an old router which is supported you can load DD-WRT and create a wireless repeater that will duplicate the settings so everything is seamless

https://dd-wrt.com/

 

[ukracer]

If you have an old router which is supported you can load DD-WRT and create a wireless repeater that will duplicate the settings so everything is seamless

https://dd-wrt.com/

I did that and i cant remember my password...lol

 

[puffernutter]

After having a word with my son, all our access points are hard wired back to switches. The "mesh" just achieves that without the hard wiring, so no real benefit there.

We have moved one access point to a different channel, so hopefully we'll see what happens. I'll try roaming with my phone again and see what happens. My wife's Kindle Fire has gone a bit flaky, I'll have to see which access point it is using.

Happy Christmas All

Peter

 

[knighty]

android or iphone?

if you have an android phone get wifianaliser from play store (it's free) it works like a meter to show wifi strength as you walk around the house.... and it shows which channels are used, gives you an idea of which ones you should use etc. :-)

 

[zx9]

android or iphone?

if you have an android phone get wifianaliser from play store (it's free) it works like a meter to show wifi strength as you walk around the house.... and it shows which channels are used, gives you an idea of which ones you should use etc. :-)

I have not tried that one, for PC or MacBook https://www.riverbed.com/gb/forms/xirrus-wifi-inspector.html is a useful tool to help avoid the channels your neighbours are using. Often on site I find most of the access points are set to 1 or 11 just the way they came from the factory, sometimes you wonder at the capability of the network management of some large companies we visit.

 

[Welderpaul]

Funny, just been having the same conversation this afternoon with the Mrs.
BT Master socket is at one end of the house so signal is rubbish at the far end of the house as it has to go through a number of (thick) walls. We have tried various Wifi extenders etc with some success.

I think i will extend the BT side of the master socket to put it a bit more central in the house which might give us a fighting chance.

 

[knighty]

you could try power over ethernet - I'm using it at home, works great

just plug one of the adapters in next to the router and plug the other in wherever you want wifi... plug an access point into it :-)


(you can get plug thingies with built in wifi... but I've nver tried one to know if they're any good or not... I'm assuming they should be good