Airport Extreme bridged with older Airport Extreme

[elvtnedge]

So like the title says, I have a newer Airport Extreme AC (Tall version)and have an older Airport Extreme which is A/N (flat version).

The way in which these have been setup in my home for the last few years is the AC's in the basement at the front of the house, and then I have the N router, up two floors in the back of the house. The N router is in extender mode so that the wifi signal can be better on the top floor, as well as about 15 feet in the backyard.

As of late I've been having some dropouts etc and have called my service provider. There was an issue with packet loss which they did fix but it got me wondering about if this is the best setup based on where I'm able to place these two routers based on my needs. Also it got me wondering at what point in my house, does one of the routers lock on to my phone or ipad and provide either AC or A/N speeds. I can assume when I'm on the top floor, I'd be at A/N and when in the basement AC. What about the main floor of the house?

I've pretty much left all the settings as default and I know I'm running only the 5GHZ channel at 149 and have the 2.5 ghz turned off. I do find speeds on the top floor always to be slow and sometimes I turn off the wifi on the phone and then back on and it fixes it.

any ideas or suggestions to make things better?

 

[elvtnedge]

Update:

I called apple last night and we reset both devices and re-set them up. I also had a dropout this morning and called my ISP who came out the same day. The signal, lines and everything on their end is on spec. They suggest replacing the modem from the ISP as its probably the cause. I will do so tomorrow as they only had refurbished rental modems, not new with them.

It got me to thinking that maybe I shold replace my old airport extreme A/N router with an airport express running A/C as then I'd have the best wifi speed possible in my house. I know that if the ipad/iphone connects to the N router it will be slower than the A/C so is that slowing everything down since it downgrades speed?

 

[phrehdd]

Update:

I called apple last night and we reset both devices and re-set them up. I also had a dropout this morning and called my ISP who came out the same day. The signal, lines and everything on their end is on spec. They suggest replacing the modem from the ISP as its probably the cause. I will do so tomorrow as they only had refurbished rental modems, not new with them.

It got me to thinking that maybe I shold replace my old airport extreme A/N router with an airport express running A/C as then I'd have the best wifi speed possible in my house. I know that if the ipad/iphone connects to the N router it will be slower than the A/C so is that slowing everything down since it downgrades speed?

There are so many variations on a theme and so many permutations...however lets give this a go -

1) you might investigate reversing the order of your routers and see if there is any difference in performance in your home.
2) you might want to have iphone/ipod at 2.4 while comptuters may be at 5ghrz (if in decent range).
3) you should be (as I am doing now) made aware most often "ac" routers do a better "N" than "N routers."
4) subjective but based on experience - Airport Express is lackluster and unless audio is the target, don't bother buying.
5) you might consider relocating your routers and testing for signal strength. There are apps you can get for your iphone
that can give you info on signal strength.
6) consider some apps that can tell you not only what other networks are around, but what channels they are using so
that you can select channels that are less busy.
7) as I always do, I suggest you might want to take a look at smallnetbuilder web site that has good information related to various routers, testing of routers and some articles about WiFi coverage (including alternatives like powerline, mesh etc.).

If I appear less than kind about the Apple router offerings, mea culpa. - I prefer price/value of 3rd party routers that are superior to the Apple offerings.