Best Practices Multiple 802.11ac APs?

[schalliol]

I have a nice ASUS RT-AC68U, but it doesn't have great strength across my house, and I was wondering what you folks would do with 2 or 3 802.11ac APs by channels on the same SSID. Are there any recommendations out there for making this work ideally? I haven't seen any for AC, and most reviews are along 2.4GHz networks. Thanks!

 

[indsup]

Here's one option you have and would most certainly work. It is the Asus RP-AC56 ap to work with your router. You can set it up easily and will work by extending your wireless range considerably just make sure you don't position it so far away from your router that it will negate your speed. This should give you very good coverage and speed. Also will make sure the router is issuing the ip's to the devices not the ap's.

 

[bill001g]

First you need ethernet cable to connect the remote AP. You can get dedicated AP if you want. Places like ubiquiti sell fairly inexpensive ones. You can also use pretty much any consumer router even if it does not have a actual AP function by cabling to the lan ports and disable dhcp.

The concept of channel selection on AP is pretty much dead. Worked ok when we used to use only 20mhz channels. 40mhz is commonly used on the 2.4g band and there is only 60mhz of bandwidth so you can not have 2 devices and not have overlap. On 5g it is a little better there is 170mhz but 802.1ac uses 80mhz so you can only have 2 non overlapping. Of course the newest tri-band routers have 2 5g radios so they use both the blocks. This also assume you have no neighbors that also want to use wifi. Pretty much you try you best but there is no good solution.

The same of different SSID is mostly a personal preference. I prefer different so I can force it to connect where I want. The same SSID in theory makes it possible to roam but the end devices are really stupid and stay connected to a weak signal far longer than they should. You many times have to manually drop it and force it to search to get it to use the closer one.

 

[indsup]

First you need ethernet cable to connect the remote AP. You can get dedicated AP if you want. Places like ubiquiti sell fairly inexpensive ones. You can also use pretty much any consumer router even if it does not have a actual AP function by cabling to the lan ports and disable dhcp.

The concept of channel selection on AP is pretty much dead. Worked ok when we used to use only 20mhz channels. 40mhz is commonly used on the 2.4g band and there is only 60mhz of bandwidth so you can not have 2 devices and not have overlap. On 5g it is a little better there is 170mhz but 802.1ac uses 80mhz so you can only have 2 non overlapping. Of course the newest tri-band routers have 2 5g radios so they use both the blocks. This also assume you have no neighbors that also want to use wifi. Pretty much you try you best but there is no good solution.

The same of different SSID is mostly a personal preference. I prefer different so I can force it to connect where I want. The same SSID in theory makes it possible to roam but the end devices are really stupid and stay connected to a weak signal far longer than they should. You many times have to manually drop it and force it to search to get it to use the closer one.

If you use different ssid's you will still have to manually force what ever device to acquire the other ssid. Either way it will be the same thing. I think he wants to simply extend his wireless network to work through the house. Most people don't roam around a lot in their house when they are doing things. No need to add difficulty to the whole thing. The good thing with a wireless extender is that it is simply a relay point for the router to reach farther. Same security key, same ssid, same channel, normally easy hand off from the extender to the router. Easiest solution without adding all that complexity.

 

[bill001g]

First you need ethernet cable to connect the remote AP. You can get dedicated AP if you want. Places like ubiquiti sell fairly inexpensive ones. You can also use pretty much any consumer router even if it does not have a actual AP function by cabling to the lan ports and disable dhcp.

The concept of channel selection on AP is pretty much dead. Worked ok when we used to use only 20mhz channels. 40mhz is commonly used on the 2.4g band and there is only 60mhz of bandwidth so you can not have 2 devices and not have overlap. On 5g it is a little better there is 170mhz but 802.1ac uses 80mhz so you can only have 2 non overlapping. Of course the newest tri-band routers have 2 5g radios so they use both the blocks. This also assume you have no neighbors that also want to use wifi. Pretty much you try you best but there is no good solution.

The same of different SSID is mostly a personal preference. I prefer different so I can force it to connect where I want. The same SSID in theory makes it possible to roam but the end devices are really stupid and stay connected to a weak signal far longer than they should. You many times have to manually drop it and force it to search to get it to use the closer one.

If you use different ssid's you will still have to manually force what ever device to acquire the other ssid. Either way it will be the same thing. I think he wants to simply extend his wireless network to work through the house. Most people don't roam around a lot in their house when they are doing things. No need to add difficulty to the whole thing. The good thing with a wireless extender is that it is simply a relay point for the router to reach farther. Same security key, same ssid, same channel, normally easy hand off from the extender to the router. Easiest solution without adding all that complexity.

Sure if you want to pay the 50% minimum performance penalty because it uses the same radio to transmit and receive. The hand off is not any easier from router to repeater it is all in control of the end device you have exactly the same issues.

Repeaters cause so much issues because you now have 2 wireless signals that your data must pass though either of which can take interference.

You only use a repeater when you have no other option. If you can use ethernet cables and AP it is much more stable solution. If repeaters where such a good idea then large corporation would be using them rather than AP.

 

[schalliol]

The concept of channel selection on AP is pretty much dead. Worked ok when we used to use only 20mhz channels. 40mhz is commonly used on the 2.4g band and there is only 60mhz of bandwidth so you can not have 2 devices and not have overlap. On 5g it is a little better there is 170mhz but 802.1ac uses 80mhz so you can only have 2 non overlapping. Of course the newest tri-band routers have 2 5g radios so they use both the blocks. This also assume you have no neighbors that also want to use wifi. Pretty much you try you best but there is no good solution.

The same of different SSID is mostly a personal preference. I prefer different so I can force it to connect where I want. The same SSID in theory makes it possible to roam but the end devices are really stupid and stay connected to a weak signal far longer than they should. You many times have to manually drop it and force it to search to get it to use the closer one.

If you use different ssid's you will still have to manually force what ever device to acquire the other ssid. Either way it will be the same thing. I think he wants to simply extend his wireless network to work through the house. Most people don't roam around a lot in their house when they are doing things.

If you can use ethernet cables and AP it is much more stable solution.

Thanks very much for the reply, and I'm not sure why there wasn't a notification of this post, but I think I've fixed that now. Yes, I'm trying to enhance WiFi range and through put in a large house and outside on the property using Ethernet to all APs. We do roam around quite a bit, and especially so with the kids and their iPads. Here's what I've done:

• 
  ■Existing Ubiquiti 5GHz-Only N Outdoor AP SSID: Schalliol 5, Channel: 157 (this AP can be seen from in side,
  but it's weak and generally just used outside).
  ■Existing Buffalo N WZR-600DHP AP SSID: Schalliol 5, Channel: 165, Width 40 MHz, Extension: lower
  ■Existing ASUS RT-68U AC AP SSID: Schalliol AC, Channel: 149, Width 40 MHz. Exten sion: upper
  ■New ASUS RT-AC3100 AP SSID: Schalliol AC, Channel: 48 Width 80 MHz. Extension: lower

It seems to work pretty well, but I wondered if you had other opinions that could be better. Here's the chart I used as a reference:

 

[bill001g]

That is a good channel assignmet. Setting channel 48 at 80mhz actually uses 36-48. As I suspect you found out all the channel between 52 and 144 you can not actually set....unless your router is set for russia. These can only be used if the router itself assigns it in auto mode. Many routers do not want to deal with hassle of the radar avoidance and do not even have the ability to use those channels.

 

[schalliol]

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of using 160, but the issue then is that I can't use multiple locations that have much in the way of overlap. I have 2.4 with three devices 1,6,11. I suppose what I really need is a router that supports the DFS channels if I want to improve anything further.