Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks And How It Can Be Helped, Part 2

[Guest]

In Part 1, we explained what can go wrong with Wi-Fi signals and how access points can work to improve your wireless performance. It's time for a reality check. We throw six contenders against 65 clients and some hellish interference. Who's left standing?

Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks And How It Can Be Helped, Part 2 : Read more

 

[winner4455]

Hey, I still haven't read this article but right away I notice the new format. Just thanking you for listening to your readers!

 

[cangelini]

Very welcome Winner. We thought the picture story format would work for that last part and didn't realize the text would come out to be so terrible. From now on, we'll only use picture stories when the captions fit without requiring another click!

 

[tacoslave]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Very welcome Winner. We thought the picture story format would work for that last part and didn't realize the text would come out to be so terrible. From now on, we'll only use picture stories when the captions fit without requiring another click![/citation]
"Now thats what i like to hear!"

 

[nekromobo]

What if you add few thin-foil balls to room (the size of fist or 2)

That should add few rf-reflections or paths, right?
Just your 2cent amplifier..

 

[dead_rabbit]

However, when push came to shove,

what does this clause mean???

 

[wifiguy99]

When will Part 1 get a makeover like this?

 

[Guest]

I wonder why you didn't include Juniper products (formerly trapeze)to this test. It's quit a big player here in europe. Trapeze also produced the 3com wireless manager and accesspoints which was sold widely here.

 

[Hupiscratch]

In the page "Benchmark Results: Close Range, No Interference", the HP AP is missing on the downlink graph.

 

[Onus]

This was an outstanding article. Going just by this, Ruckus and Cisco are the only two I'd consider out of the box, but it would be very interesting to do a follow on that features even a minimal amount of tweaking to see what changes. A consumer expects a product to work well out of the box, but an enterprise network engineer almost certainly does not.

 

[Guest]

Very thorough. Lots of hard work went into this and it shows. But how did you select client devices? Did you try any other chipsets? We tried something like this with more diverse clients and got results that were too variable to reach conclusions. (Some clients just did better with some APs than others.)

 

[ashserratt]

Why not include Aerohive?

 

[Brazilian Joe]

I would like to know about the exact model of the Airport Extreme tested: is it the previous generation model, or the recently refreshed model capable of 450Mbps?

 

[rebel1280]

[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]This was an outstanding article. Going just by this, Ruckus and Cisco are the only two I'd consider out of the box, but it would be very interesting to do a follow on that features even a minimal amount of tweaking to see what changes. A consumer expects a product to work well out of the box, but an enterprise network engineer almost certainly does not.[/citation]
As much as i want to see a follow up on tweaked APs did you read the cost of the setup, $15,000! I don't expect a follow up any time soon haha. By the way Toms, great articles. I didn't mind the initial layout but I like this one better truth be told. Good info, good read. Looks like I'm getting me a Cisco for the office

 

[awtull]

You have confirmed what 6 years of operating and managing a TROPOS wireless mesh network has shown. As a municipality that deployed the network initially for mobile workers and public safety we did sell access to the network for affordable internet to our citizens. When we looked for a wireless bridge device for the customer that would give good performance along with reliable connectivity the hands down winner was Ruckus. We have probably installed close a 1000 of their dual zone bridges and I can say that everything that your tests have shown is what we have seen in true world application. Your article did a great job of addressing all of the various RF issues of wireless network and I commend you on a job well done.

Anthony Tull CGCIO
IT Director
City of Granbury, TX

 

[wiinter]

Will - this has got to be one of the best online articles I've read in the last 15 years. Kudos to you and your team!

 

[Onus]

As much as i want to see a follow up on tweaked APs did you read the cost of the setup, $15,000!...

Oh yes, of course. If they could take just a worst case result, e.g. for that sorry Meraki unit, and see if a few simple tweaks made it viable, hopefully that wouldn't take the time or expense, but would clearly show the benefit from tweaking (i.e. from being a competent network engineer).

Edit: And, perhaps the cost could be picked up by Meraki, or Aruba, since it seems to clearly be in their best interests, IF it showed their units could hang with the big boys. Based on this article alone, I probably wouldn't touch their products with a ten foot dipole.

 

[Guest]

Great read, interesting article. Have about 7 wifi devices in my house and currently getting pretty random performance. Think i now know why. If Ruckus ever releases a 3X3:3 for close range performance that would be very interesting!

 

[spammit]

Isn't it Cisco Aironet, not Aeronet?

 

[thearm]

[citation][nom]spammit[/nom]Isn't it Cisco Aironet, not Aeronet?[/citation]

Lord... Does it really matter?

Anyway, it's so weird here at Toms now an add will pop up because you move you mouse over it and you have to click X to close it. But yet, the pull down at the end of each story (with the chapters in it) will go away of you move your mouse off of it. You have to be very careful with your mouse, when trying to select another chapter, or it will go away. It's been like that for years. Doesn't this annoy anyone else?

 

[Guest]

By the title of these 2 articles, I was anticipating some information regarding how I can diagnose and fix issues with my WiFi. Whereas now I have a greater understanding of what issues can arise and what router to use in an office setting, I still do not know how to diagnose my own crappy WiFi performance or how to fix it. While I applaud your efforts, I imagine most readers do not have 60 laptops and 5 ipads in their home...

 

[wiyosaya]

[citation][nom]thearm[/nom]Anyway, it's so weird here at Toms now an add will pop up because you move you mouse over it and you have to click X to close it. But yet, the pull down at the end of each story (with the chapters in it) will go away of you move your mouse off of it. You have to be very careful with your mouse, when trying to select another chapter, or it will go away. It's been like that for years. Doesn't this annoy anyone else?[/citation]
Install Adblock Plus, then figure out the link that controls those pop-ups and add a wild-card filter for them. Problem solved.

 

[Guest]

We have Meraki MR16 units and the one simple thing you can do is set a bandwidth limit. If you anticipate 60 users connecting to a single AP you can filter them by groups so each client has a specific amount of bandwidth they can use. Given the tests there needs to be improvement for the default settings, but it's a pretty simple fix. The other thing is that it is a dual band radio, so it will determine what clients are 5Ghz capable and move them onto that tier to help load balance. Obviously for testing they turned this off otherwise the amount of available bandwidth should be double what the graph shows.

A test that could have been run is pile on massive interference on one of the spectrums to see if the unit will simply move them from 2.4ghz to 5ghz or 5ghz to 2.4ghz. I'm not sure if it will make a difference, but it's possible it could improve the user experience.

 

[Guest]

You don't describe the interference sources you used very well. It did seem that they may have just been other WiFi transmitters on either different channels or on a different network. How did you generate interference and did you include a "random noise source" such as a microwave oven? Usually a good choice to test because most offices have them in their kitchens and they get used quite a bit throughout the day and almost solidly from 11-1.

 

[jamie_1318]

I Agree that the new format is world's better than the old format. I don't like picture-stories under any circumstances because using 20 something clicks to get through them is a huge time burner. Anyways thanks a million for changing it otherwise I would never have bothered to read a great article!