Buffalo Access Point

[junitrules]

Hi All,

Been reading these forums for a few weeks and getting a lot of good information from them - thanks.

I have a Netgear DG934G (approx 4yrs old) which was starting to perform badly, wifi dropouts on devices such as laptops, phones and ipad so I used the very handy guide on here to connect a new Buffalo Nfiniti AP to the sky router and turned off wireless on the sky router. All wifi clients are now connecting through the AP which is connected to the sky router handling DHCP etc.

My router and access point are next to my sky+ box in a glass TV stand (downstairs), which also happens to be quite near to my DECT phone (bad I know) but before I added the AP I was able to get a decent signal upstairs (802.11g) and by decent I mean that I could watch iplayer, sky go etc (albeit with some bufferring). My wireless printer was also able to connect to the network with no problems (upstairs).

Since using the new AP the signal upstairs is almost non-existant. ipad wont even load video, printer doesnt connect to the network and generally bad connection.

I didnt expect this as the new router should be much better - does anyone have any ideas why I have a drop in wifi perfomance? Could the new 802.11b/g/n router be more sensitive to the interference from the phone or something like that? Or is the netgear known to have a strong signal?


- Netgear DG934. Wifi off. DHCP on.
- Buffalo AP. Wifi on. Wifi MAC filter. WPA2 (sky was using WPA before). Channel 11 (seems to be best of a bad bunch in a congested area)


I am going to move the AP upstairs at the weekend connected to the netgear via 200mps powerline (I assume they'll give me about 20-30Mbps) to see if that improves everything but I am considering purchasing a new 2504n router and using the buffalo as an AP upstairs.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[junitrules]

After reading the forums more (working a quiet nightshift tonight) I now know of the elusive SR101 hub that Sky are set to release so I've decided that I will move the AP upstairs and when the hub is available, I will upgrade the netgear to that. Hopefully that will cure my frustrations

[Scubbie]

Welcome to the forum.

Whilst the WiFi on the SR101 is stronger, if your Buffalo is connected via WiFi you would be limited to 144mb/s on a single channel. This may be suitable, but you should do some further research.

As for the DECT phone, some work on the 2.4GHz, others don't. Check which frequency your one works on.

[dragon2611]

Welcome to the forum.

Whilst the WiFi on the SR101 is stronger, if your Buffalo is connected via WiFi you would be limited to 144mb/s on a single channel. This may be suitable, but you should do some further research.

As for the DECT phone, some work on the 2.4GHz, others don't. Check which frequency your one works on.

Yes but unless you have very thick walls or live in the middle of no-where often using a 40mhz channel might give a higher link rate but actual throughput isn't actually much better.

Infact with some clients it's actually worse due to the interference.

[Scubbie]

Sadly the nature of the way in which WiFi works, this is all true.

One solution may work well in my home, but another may well be required in another. Ultimately it will be through experimentation that sometimes the right solution will be found. Then after a couple of months a neighbour gets a new router or AP and the whole thing has to start again.

[dragon2611]

Sadly the nature of the way in which WiFi works, this is all true.

One solution may work well in my home, but another may well be required in another. Ultimately it will be through experimentation that sometimes the right solution will be found. Then after a couple of months a neighbour gets a new router or AP and the whole thing has to start again.

Other routers are easy to detect though usually.

It's non-WiFi interference that's the pain.

[Scubbie]

Have you considered getting WiFi adaptors installed that support the 5GHz channels and getting a suitable router which also supports the 5GHz channels?

The transmission distance is a little shorter, but if you have issues with the 2.4GHz channels, then the 5GHz channels may be fine.

[junitrules]

I've moved the buffalo access point upstairs (where there are no immediate obstructions) and linked it up to the sky router using my 200mbps ebuyer powerline adapters.

This seems to work quite well and I am getting some good speeds all over the house.

Used InSSIDer to find out what channels neighbors are using and moved the channel to one that isnt quite so busy (even though some other routers seem to follow me to the channel I use (bt homehub!))

When the SR101 is released to existing users then my hope is to have that downstairs and the access point upstairs should be spot on!

I'm also using 20Mhz instead of 40Mhz due to the high number of other neighboring networks

As for the DECT phone - couldn't find the manual so unsure if it is interfering or not

Thanks all for your input

[Scubbie]

Nice result.

with regards to the DECT phone, check on-line. Often you will find the specs on the manufacturer's site but it can take a little hunting with some.