Home Network Assistance

[darkhost]

Hello all, first post, long time visitor.

I need some advice on my home network layout, and what better place to get the best advice.

Anyhow, I currently live in Germany and as some may know, the house's are built with a lot of concrete. My current home is three stories, but I am only looking to get the wireless connection to the Second floor.

My Current setup:
-First Floor-
--> Kabel Deutschland (32mb Down/2mb Up) provided modem
--> D-Link Xtreme Gamerlounge Wireless Router (DHDGL4500)
--> Vonage Phone Router (Phone right next to modem and routers)
--> Ethernet Extender via house electrical to 2nd Floor (For AppleTV)
--> iMac (Connected via Ethernet)
--> Macbook Pro (Connected via Wireless)
--> Airport Express connected to Bose lifestyle (Joined Network)

-Second Floor-
--> Ethernet Extender via house electrical from 1st Floor
--> Apple TV
--> Airport Express (NO SIGNAL)

Additional iDevices:
-iPad x2
-iPhone x2


Hopefully I've broken down my setup clearly enough. So, basically, I would like to get the wireless extended upstairs. I can't use the Airport Express on the 2nd floor to extend the wireless network because the wireless router is a 3rd party router.

Here is what I haven't tried yet:
-Get a switch and just split the wired connection of the AppleTV and Airport Express to extend the wireless network upstairs (Would this work?)
-Just buy an Airport Extreme to extend the network properly

Question:
-Why, after spending $200 on the Gamerlounge Router, won't the signal reach upstairs without having to add extenders/repeaters?

Thanks in advanced.

 

[jenzjen]

Buy a extreme to replace your game router, problem solved. Then your express upstairs should be able to extend provided the signal gets there. Very few 3rd party products work well with Apple to extend and have found it is usually more trouble trying rather than just buying Apple device.

 

[darkhost]

Buy a extreme to replace your game router, problem solved. Then your express upstairs should be able to extend provided the signal gets there. Very few 3rd party products work well with Apple to extend and have found it is usually more trouble trying rather than just buying Apple device.

Thanks for your quick reply! Looks like I'll just do this then. In the end, I guess I would eventually buy one anyways to extend my network in another house. If it doesn't work, I'll just take it back.

Although, I'm still tempted to try and purchase a cheap switch and see if that works; worth bothering with?

 

[Transporteur]

Although, I'm still tempted to try and purchase a cheap switch and see if that works; worth bothering with?

That would work as well. However, I'd rather replace the D-Link router with an Extreme as well.

 

[darkhost]

Alright, took the leap and just bought the Airport Extreme. Ran home, hooked er' up and BAM! Setup was a breeze. It was surprising to see that it was performing way better than my D-Link that cost more. I setup both of the Airport Expresses, one for my stereo and one on the second floor extending the network.

As I said, the speed of my ISP is 32mb Down/2mb Up. With the AEP on the second floor extending the network, I was getting speeds of about 5mb down/1.8 up. Is there a way of improving this without making major changes to the current placement of my AE?

Thanks all.

 

[Transporteur]

Check whether the network is set to a/b/g or n. If you don't have any devices without n support, set the Express to n only.

Also check if the overall network performance is that bad as well. Try a simple data transfer from a wireless Mac to a wired one. If you get a proper speed (about 7MB/s tops for the Express), the network is unlikely to be the issue here.

 

[darkhost]

Check whether the network is set to a/b/g or n. If you don't have any devices without n support, set the Express to n only.

Also check if the overall network performance is that bad as well. Try a simple data transfer from a wireless Mac to a wired one. If you get a proper speed (about 7MB/s tops for the Express), the network is unlikely to be the issue here.

I'll have to wait to see what the network is set to when I get home.

I checked the network performance initially after setting up the Airport Extreme, was getting 32.5MB/s Down/2.10MB/s Up, so I don't think it's a network issue, I think the house was just built to well, lol.

So, are you saying I should only technically get 7MB/s max out of the Express?

 

[Transporteur]

I'll have to wait to see what the network is set to when I get home.

I checked the network performance initially after setting up the Airport Extreme, was getting 32.5MB/s Down/2.10MB/s Up, so I don't think it's a network issue, I think the house was just built to well, lol.

So, are you saying I should only technically get 7MB/s max out of the Express?

7MB/s is the maximum I ever got out the Express with the European WiFi limitation.

Don't mess up MB/s with Mb/s. Your internet connection is highly likely 32Mb/s, which is 4MB/s, so well within the limit of the Express.

 

[jenzjen]

Check whether the network is set to a/b/g or n. If you don't have any devices without n support, set the Express to n only.

This is usually right, but I'd have the OP check both n-only and all protocols. Since n-only is really a shorter, fatter pipe he might not get the speed boost given the greater degradation over the longer distance.

 

[darkhost]

7MB/s is the maximum I ever got out the Express with the European WiFi limitation.

Don't mess up MB/s with Mb/s. Your internet connection is highly likely 32Mb/s, which is 4MB/s, so well within the limit of the Express.

Ahh, ok, I did get the two confused. Looks like that's all I will be getting from it then. I was using it last night with no issues, everything is running well with decent speeds. I was able to run "Screens" with no hiccups.

Thanks for everyone's assistance.