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Extreme speeds over range

B

bp1000

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Jul 7, 2011
1,504
252
I'm struggling with wireless-n speeds.

My house is over 3 floors and the internet comes in on the ground floor. Luckily the stairwells are open so signal travels well up but sides ways the walls are block and the signal gets weak. Wifi traffic comes in from the outside too, airwaves are busy.

My airport express (plug in type) running 5ghz at 300Mbps drops to around 5-10Mbps from top to bottom floor. Actually within the same room it will only achieve 300Mbps in direct line of sight. Through a wall it may drop to 230Mbps. Through two walls it is already down to 115Mbps.

Because of the wifi congestion on 2.4Ghz i need very strong 5ghz performance throughout all 3 floors. I would like to achieve at least 130-145Mbps on the top floor when the airport extreme is on the ground floor. This will allow the max speed of 80Mbps from fibre broadband.

Keep in mind that the airport express is allowing around 5-10Mbps in 5ghz mode when the airport express is on the top floor and i test on the ground floor. Will the new Airport Extreme AC do much better?

What do you think?
 
bp1000 said:
I'm struggling with wireless-n speeds.

My house is over 3 floors and the internet comes in on the ground floor. Luckily the stairwells are open so signal travels well up but sides ways the walls are block and the signal gets weak. Wifi traffic comes in from the outside too, airwaves are busy.

My airport express (plug in type) running 5ghz at 300Mbps drops to around 5-10Mbps from top to bottom floor. Actually within the same room it will only achieve 300Mbps in direct line of sight. Through a wall it may drop to 230Mbps. Through two walls it is already down to 115Mbps.

Because of the wifi congestion on 2.4Ghz i need very strong 5ghz performance throughout all 3 floors. I would like to achieve at least 130-145Mbps on the top floor when the airport extreme is on the ground floor. This will allow the max speed of 80Mbps from fibre broadband.

Keep in mind that the airport express is allowing around 5-10Mbps in 5ghz mode when the airport express is on the top floor and i test on the ground floor. Will the new Airport Extreme AC do much better?

What do you think?
Click to expand...

What you need to do is hardwire the Expresses back to the Extreme if you want optimal performance in your environment. I am afraid wireless extension is not the option in your environment.
 
Altemose said:
What you need to do is hardwire the Expresses back to the Extreme if you want optimal performance in your environment. I am afraid wireless extension is not the option in your environment.
Click to expand...

I wish i could but wiring is quite tricky as we have hardwood on the ground floor so i can only hide the wire so far and the walls are hard to thread cables down.

I wish we had cat5e put in before we decorated everywhere!
 
bp1000 said:
I wish i could but wiring is quite tricky as we have hardwood on the ground floor so i can only hide the wire so far and the walls are hard to thread cables down.



I wish we had cat5e put in before we decorated everywhere!
Click to expand...


If possible either move the Extreme to the second most central place or run an AP hard wired to the Extreme on the second floor. You can then have it wirelessly extend from the second floor AP.
 
Last edited:
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eduardrw said:
You could also try a power line adaptor from the bottom floor to the top floor.
http://www.cnet.com/topics/networking/best-networking-devices/power-line-adapters/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...11189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00IBPLI48
Then have an Airport Extreme or TC downstairs as the router. Connect it via the power line adaptor to a Airport Express to another TC (better) upstairs.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to point out that this must all lead to the same electrical panel for that to work.
 
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bp1000 said:
I wish i could but wiring is quite tricky as we have hardwood on the ground floor so i can only hide the wire so far and the walls are hard to thread cables down.

I wish we had cat5e put in before we decorated everywhere!
Click to expand...

Have you considered using an Ethernet Over Power solution to connect the Airport Express directly to your Airport Extreme?
 
Altemose said:
Just wanted to point out that this must all lead to the same electrical panel for that to work.
Click to expand...

That statement is confusing at best.

Power line adapters work best if the outlets are on the same phase. But that is not necessary because the different phases couple when it comes to MHZ frequencies.

As long as there is no "noise" filter or creator in between the path from the sending outlet to the receiving outlet he is fine.
In residential houses there are no noise filters internally (except surge protector extension cables etc).

For the technically not so inclined: It just works in almost every case.
 
eduardrw said:
That statement is confusing at best.

Power line adapters work best if the outlets are on the same phase. But that is not necessary because the different phases couple when it comes to MHZ frequencies.

As long as there is no "noise" filter or creator in between the path from the sending outlet to the receiving outlet he is fine.
In residential houses there are no noise filters internally (except surge protector extension cables etc).

For the technically not so inclined: It just works in almost every case.
Click to expand...

I was just referencing it since this is a 3 story home as described by OP and may of been a town house or other style where each floor has it's own panel.
 
Altemose said:
I was just referencing it since this is a 3 story home as described by OP and may of been a town house or other style where each floor has it's own panel.
Click to expand...

Panel does not make a difference as long as there are no blocking devices like transformers or noise filters in between!
Those are the gating items.
 
Just to update the thread I tired an asus DSL-AC68U as it has a built in vdsl modem for fibre. The DSL speed was a lot slower than the dedicated modem but I got it for its apparent excellent range.

However due to complications and slow sync speeds i returned it and got the extreme.

I placed it more central in the house as it doesn't need to be near the modem, I ran a cable.

Upshot is I'm getting much better coverage and speeds 2x faster than the asus and many many times quicker than my old wifi n router. It's nearly 3x faster in one test i replicated but I think that is down to router placement.

It's a little unfair as the airport express is positioned differently from the asus. However at the farthest ends of the house I'm getting 25-35MB/sec. That's up from 15-20MB/sec from the asus and 9-11MB/sec using the home plugs and 2-4MB/sec using the old wireless n router.

But more importantly speed seems a lot higher at range than all other options I tried. Close by performance seems excellent at 40-50MB/sec but I can try true 1300Mbps because my iMac is on the floor above.

I'm sure router placement now on the middle floor in the middle of the house is helping but the simplicity and good speed across range has made this a winner.
 
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