[SOLVED] Does this Wireless Access Point plan work?

[thebannerever]

Hi experts, please help me out!!!!

I live in this three-story building,
one household basically.
I have 500mbps with OPTIMUM (only choice in the neighborhood..sucks!)

basically we have main line of internet on the 2nd floor and 1st and 3rd floor is using the networks off of it.

So the setup I have now is
3rd floor: using wifi off of 2nd floor + LINKSYS RE6300 AC1200 wifi extender for dead zones
==>8-10mbps for using wifi extender in the dead zones and upto 90mbps for using wifi off of 2nd floor

2nd floor: MAIN MODEM and ROUTER (Linksys mr9000 AC3000 allowing upto 25 devices) ===>upto 420mbps

1st floor: using wifi off of 2nd floor + NETGEAR wn3000rpv3 wifi repeater for dead zones
==> 20mbps for dead zones with NETGEAR repeater, and 240 mbps for using 2nd floor wifi

but I have this extra D-LINK DIR866L from optimum cable which I don't use (because i replaced it with LINKSYS MR9000 AC3000)
(and can also exchange it to SAGEMCOM optimum router anytime for free, Sagemcom is supposed to faster than DLINK DIR866L)

so 1st and 3rd floor are using wifi extender (UNWIRED) and leeching off of 2nd floor signal, pretty much
and this has not been too stable, so,
I am trying to WIRE everything (with ethernet cable) and use the extenders AS WIRELESS ACCESS POINTS (WAP)

SAGEMCOM or D-LINK DIR866L router as the 1st floor WAP
and LINKSYS RE6300 AC 1200 as the 3rd floor WAP

and obviously these will be both WIRED with CAT 7 ethernet cable from 2nd floor main router
(or should I connect it straight from the modem?)

How does this sound?
at the end of the day, it will be like

3rd floor: using wifi off of 2nd floor + LINKSYS RE6300 AC1200 WIRED to main modem/router from 2nd floor
2nd floor: MAIN MODEM and ROUTER (Linksys mr9000 AC3000)
1st floor: using wifi off of 2nd floor + SAGEMCOM or D-LINK router WIRED to main modem/router from 2nd floor

does this sound plausible?
or would it deteriorate the whole signal power for the entire building?

Usually WAPs are better than Wifi Repeater/extenders, no?

Please help me out, thanks!!

 

[kanewolf]

There is no such thing as "cat 7" it was never a standard. Use cat5e or cat6a. Get 100% copper 22-24ga wire.
You want APs connected to your primary router.

 

[SamirD]

You've definitely got a workable plan. The key is going to be to make sure that the various wifi access points don't try to 'shout' over each other. Some overlap in signal will be good, but you don't need the signal from the 3rd or 1st floors to work on the 2nd for example.

Having a wired backbone is going to change everything. Even if you keep everything just the same as it is now and replace the wifi repeaters with the wires you'll see a massive difference. If you want another world of difference after you have everything wired, invest in a unifi setup--it's second to none.

 

[SamirD]

There is no such thing as "cat 7" it was never a standard. Use cat5e or cat6a. Get 100% copper 22-24ga wire.
You want APs connected to your primary router.

Yeah, don't buy the gimmicky cable on amazon or some other shady market--buy locally and make sure it is one of the big names--belden, belkin, commscope. You can also buy from places like lowes and home depot now and that stuff is legit.

 

[thebannerever]

There is no such thing as "cat 7" it was never a standard. Use cat5e or cat6a. Get 100% copper 22-24ga wire.
You want APs connected to your primary router.

Thanks so much for this...I will cancel the Cat7 ethernet cable order..
Gotta find a place that would deliver Cat6a or 5e by this Sunday, though

 

[thebannerever]

Yeah, don't buy the gimmicky cable on amazon or some other shady market--buy locally and make sure it is one of the big names--belden, belkin, commscope. You can also buy from places like lowes and home depot now and that stuff is legit.

thanks so much I will look into those brands..

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks so much for this...I will cancel the Cat7 ethernet cable order..
Gotta find a place that would deliver Cat6a or 5e by this Sunday, though

You can get it from your local home improvement store.

 

[thebannerever]

You've definitely got a workable plan. The key is going to be to make sure that the various wifi access points don't try to 'shout' over each other. Some overlap in signal will be good, but you don't need the signal from the 3rd or 1st floors to work on the 2nd for example.

Having a wired backbone is going to change everything. Even if you keep everything just the same as it is now and replace the wifi repeaters with the wires you'll see a massive difference. If you want another world of difference after you have everything wired, invest in a unifi setup--it's second to none.

Thanks for the comment
Yeah so the only thing I AM STILL YET TO UNDERSTAND PROPERLY is how to have different WIFI channel and yet have the same SSID over the three floors?
or should I have three separate SSIDs?

 

[SamirD]

Thanks for the comment
Yeah so the only thing I AM STILL YET TO UNDERSTAND PROPERLY is how to have different WIFI channel and yet have the same SSID over the three floors?
or should I have three separate SSIDs?

I found that having the same ssid and letting stupid devices try to be 'smart' and figure out what's the best signal is nothing but an exercise in frustration. When dealing with individual APs, I would just have 3 different ones and then I can manually pick which one I want if it's not automatically on the right one. With the same ssid, you're stuck!

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the comment
Yeah so the only thing I AM STILL YET TO UNDERSTAND PROPERLY is how to have different WIFI channel and yet have the same SSID over the three floors?
or should I have three separate SSIDs?

You will have to test with YOUR devices. I have three Ubiquiti APs in my 2000sqft house. They all have the same SSIDs (yes multiple). By turning DOWN the transmit power on the APs, my devices will roam between the APs. BUT I only have a single story house.
With multiple stories, you probably DON'T want the APs stacked in the center of the house. You want them horizontally offset, because they will be visible on the adjacent floors. Most ceiling mount APs have low emission upward through the ceiling, but the ones above will radiate down.

 

[SamirD]

You will have to test with YOUR devices. I have three Ubiquiti APs in my 2000sqft house. They all have the same SSIDs (yes multiple). By turning DOWN the transmit power on the APs, my devices will roam between the APs. BUT I only have a single story house.
With multiple stories, you probably DON'T want the APs stacked in the center of the house. You want them horizontally offset, because they will be visible on the adjacent floors. Most ceiling mount APs have low emission upward through the ceiling, but the ones above will radiate down.

Ubiquiti setups seamlessly roam a lot better than most systems due to having a controller and smarter, better APs.

 

[kanewolf]

Ubiquiti setups seamlessly roam a lot better than most systems due to having a controller and smarter, better APs.

The Ubiquiti controller has nothing to do with roaming. It does not interact with client devices.

 

[SamirD]

The Ubiquiti controller has nothing to do with roaming. It does not interact with client devices.

Things may have changed but earlier you could have seamless roaming that worked like it does in the enterprise if you had the cloudkey or controller running somewhere. And it makes sense as ubiquiti's system is very similar to the old Meraki one where the controller could monitor clients movement on the network and tell the APs what to do.

 

[kanewolf]

Things may have changed but earlier you could have seamless roaming that worked like it does in the enterprise if you had the cloudkey or controller running somewhere. And it makes sense as ubiquiti's system is very similar to the old Meraki one where the controller could monitor clients movement on the network and tell the APs what to do.

You can have seamless roaming. But the controller is not involved. Roaming is controlled by the device. You achieve good roaming by setting the power levels properly and having sufficient number of APs. You can run a Ubiquiti system without a controller with no change to the roaming behavior.

 

[SamirD]

You can have seamless roaming. But the controller is not involved. Roaming is controlled by the device. You achieve good roaming by setting the power levels properly and having sufficient number of APs. You can run a Ubiquiti system without a controller with no change to the roaming behavior.

But this can be done even without ubiquiti APs. The main think I read about them (earlier versions) was that it was very seamless handoff if the controller was running. That would be quite nice if that's not the case anymore, and if so, you shouldn't have to adjust the antenna power anymore either.

 

[kanewolf]

But this can be done even without ubiquiti APs. The main think I read about them (earlier versions) was that it was very seamless handoff if the controller was running. That would be quite nice if that's not the case anymore, and if so, you shouldn't have to adjust the antenna power anymore either.

You definitely have to adjust the power. The device is what chooses what AP to connect to. Without lowering the power to minimize overlaps, the device has no reason to switch. I will also say that WIFI was never designed for seamless roaming. Features like 802.11k and 802.11r have been added on. But support is not universal.

 

[SamirD]

You definitely have to adjust the power. The device is what chooses what AP to connect to. Without lowering the power to minimize overlaps, the device has no reason to switch. I will also say that WIFI was never designed for seamless roaming. Features like 802.11k and 802.11r have been added on. But support is not universal.

Wow, no reason to go with ubiquiti stuff then as you can do that with any AP. Meraki had seamless roaming on their OD2s as I deployed them at a hotel and walked the entire property watching it automatically move me from AP to AP losing just one ping at the most--brilliant system. It's why I took it with me when the new owners of the property were going to trash it. Maxes out at 11Mbps as that's what the wired backbone maxes out at, but it was such a smooth 11Mbps. Then Cisco bought them and trashed the entire lineup. Then ubiquiti came out with what was essentially the old meraki setup except the controller was local, and then it has evolved from there...