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Multiple Airport Extremes in Home Network

OmegaRed1723 said:
Apple clearly states to use the WAN ports on all the AEBS units involved in a roaming network.
Click to expand...

Oh I didn't read his roaming requirement, I was concentrating on his thruput complaint.

OK assume u are correct about this roaming thing, then the extremes cannot be used as Gbit switches. The WAN port imposes bandwidth degradations.
 
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jav6454 said:
All in all, why do you need these connections to be wired? Any specific reason?
Click to expand...

For large file transfers. I do the video encoding on the iMac and the mini is the media center. So when I need to transfer files I want the speed of wired. Not that big a deal since I only encode a couple of movies a month.

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Mrbobb said:
Oh I didn't read his roaming requirement, I was concentrating on his thruput complaint.

OK assume u are correct about this roaming thing, then the extremes cannot be used as Gbit switches. The WAN port imposes bandwidth degradations.
Click to expand...

I get the same 11.5MB/s whether I connect LAN-LAN or LAN-WAN.
 
Dadioh said:
For large file transfers. I do the video encoding on the iMac and the mini is the media center. So when I need to transfer files I want the speed of wired. Not that big a deal since I only encode a couple of movies a month..
Click to expand...

Have you tried just using one Airport Extreme Station and hooking everything to that? Get rid of the Gigabit switch, personally, I find it as more of an obstacle.
 
jav6454 said:
Have you tried just using one Airport Extreme Station and hooking everything to that? Get rid of the Gigabit switch, personally, I find it as more of an obstacle.
Click to expand...

I would need to run another cable about 50 feet. Wasn't that easy the first time so I wasn't looking forward to running a second.
 
Dadioh said:
I would need to run another cable about 50 feet. Wasn't that easy the first time so I wasn't looking forward to running a second.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I would run it. Let one station run everything and simplify the network.

Unless you need the second one for wireless extension, then I wouldn't even bother.
 
Very Random Thought...

Make sure all the connected machines have time machine back-up turned off (if you're using a NAS.) I've found that messes up my extended network when working with video files off a server.

YMMV
 
jav6454 said:
Honestly, I would run it. Let one station run everything and simplify the network.

Unless you need the second one for wireless extension, then I wouldn't even bother.
Click to expand...

I need the second AEBS as an extension to reach the bedroom over the garage (far end of house) where my son has his Macbook Pro and Gaming PC. The MacBook Pro can reach the far router albeit with very low signal. The wireless adapter on the PC (TP Link Dual Band adapter) can not reliably see the far router on the 5GHz band.

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an-other said:
Make sure all the connected machines have time machine back-up turned off (if you're using a NAS.) I've found that messes up my extended network when working with video files off a server.

YMMV
Click to expand...

I do have a 2TB disk connected to the main router that serves as time machine for all the Macs in my house. But that is not the issue. If I run the transfer test with the 2 routers in series I get the 11.5MB/s. If I immediately take the second router out of the picture (using the same CAT5e cable direct to the Mini) I immediately get 108MB/s. If time machine transfers were getting in the way I would not expect such a consistent jump.

My guess is that the 11.5MB/s is the effective transfer rate for 100baseT (Fast Ethernet). 108MB/s is the transfer rate for 1000baseT (Gigabit Ethernet). When connecting my 2 routers in series I am getting knocked down to 100baseT somewhere in the path. Both the mini and the iMac are reporting that they are connected at 1000baseT in the hardware information. So I guess it must be in the link between the 2 routers.
 
OmegaRed1723 said:
I believe it may have been asked earlier, but what generation AEBS units are you using?
Click to expand...

4th generation.

I found someone locally selling a 5th gen for $50 so I might just pick it up in case my router itself is damaged. Worst case, if it makes no difference, I will give it to my daughter who just moved to a new place and is using a mediocre Dlink router.
 
Dadioh said:
My guess is that the 11.5MB/s is the effective transfer rate for 100baseT (Fast Ethernet). 108MB/s is the transfer rate for 1000baseT (Gigabit Ethernet). When connecting my 2 routers in series I am getting knocked down to 100baseT somewhere in the path. Both the mini and the iMac are reporting that they are connected at 1000baseT in the hardware information. So I guess it must be in the link between the 2 routers.
Click to expand...

I believe you can view the connection speed between your two APEs in airport utility when you click on the second (relayed) APE.
 
smellalot said:
I believe you can view the connection speed between your two APEs in airport utility when you click on the second (relayed) APE.
Click to expand...

That would be great. I haven't noticed that before. I use the older airport utility (5.6 i think... before they dumbed it down). I will poke around and see if I can find it. Unless you can point me to where I can find it. Thanks.
 
Dadioh said:
That would be great. I haven't noticed that before. I use the older airport utility (5.6 i think... before they dumbed it down). I will poke around and see if I can find it. Unless you can point me to where I can find it. Thanks.
Click to expand...

In the new Airport Utility simply click on the second APE. I believe it shows you the uplink speed (speed to primary APE). I'm in boot camp at the moment, so I can't check.
 
Resolved

So I guess that the AEBS that I was using as my Extender has an issue.

Step 1: I obtained a 5th generation AEBS and replaced my main router. Tested this and got 11.5MB/s.

Step 2: Took the AEBS that had been my main router and replaced the Extender. Results 108 MB/s.

So it seems that the AEBS has some sort of issue with the WAN or LAN port or something else internally that is limiting it to 100baseT rates. Weird. Everything else on it seems to work perfectly.

Oh well. Problem solved. I will relegate this "defective" AEBS to a backup if one of the others ever fails.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and help. It is greatly appreciated.
 
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