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What kind of signal quality should I get with AEBS for the floor underneath?

J

johnsmith153

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2011
28
0
Using Airport Utility if a device is sitting next to the AEBS it gets about -30 Signal and -90 Noise.

(1) Is this good (it's right next to the AEBS).

(2) What would you expect from the room underneath the room in which AEBS is positioned, assuming no other connections and no interference? (difficult question, but would you expect -40, -50, -60, -70, -80 or roughly what?)
 
johnsmith153 said:
Using Airport Utility if a device is sitting next to the AEBS it gets about -30 Signal and -90 Noise.

(2) What would you expect from the room underneath the room in which AEBS is positioned, assuming no other connections and no interference? (difficult question, but would you expect -40, -50, -60, -70, -80 or roughly what?)
Click to expand...

What kind of construction? Poured cement between floors ala any high-rise building? Wood center beam? Steel? In floor heating? HVAC ducts? Big AC power lines like you'd find going to a main/sub panel? Lots of stuff can be obstructions... I had a wall full of DVDs .... 800+ and that caused my wifi all sorts of fits.

No 2 buildings will give you the same results I'm afraid.
 
No, none of the things you mentioned, just a normal two storey house.

Again, just a rough idea, I'm sure this is possible.

An answer may be, "I have a standard two storey house with no additional unusual obstructions and I get about -30 to -40".
 
johnsmith153 said:
No, none of the things you mentioned, just a normal two storey house.

Again, just a rough idea, I'm sure this is possible.

An answer may be, "I have a standard two storey house with no additional unusual obstructions and I get about -30 to -40".
Click to expand...

Like I said above... Very little is standard about a two story house... 100 year old home all wood, plaster and lath with big strong center beams. 25 yo you got much the same cept drywall and a laminated prefab center beam. Modern structures modern as in current not style... You've might very well have a steel beam center support and metal studs.

All homes have some type of HVAC metal duct work and all homes have anywhere from 100amp to 200amp or more main power lines ... The more the amps the bigger the honkin cable is and the greater potential for signal blockage.

Lots of homes have radiant floor heat which could be another issue depending on the product used. Modern systems are all plastic based however old systems might not be.

Also, do you have 9' ceilings or the more pleasing 12' ones? Is the base station on the floor of the 2nd story or the ceiling?
 
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johnsmith153 said:
You have far too much time on your hands.
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the guy tries to help, and that's how you respond?

to put it in simpler terms, you asked "can i hear someone talking 50ft away"

and then you said "just a normal building"

that room could be in a house with nothing else making noise, and the answer would be sure.

in a mall with a bunch of people - the answer would be maybe, but it might be difficult to hear.

at a concert - probably not at all.

wireless is very dependent on the environment around it. both physical (construction and other obstacles) and sources of wireless that cause interference (like microwave ovens, cordless phones, and other wireless networks)

there is no real way to know how wireless is going to act in a location, what works in one house, might not work in another.
 
johnsmith153 said:
You have far too much time on your hands.
Click to expand...

He gave a brief description of the nuances of what will affect RF penetration you respond with THAT? Really? We should really be mocking you for asking a ridiculous question with little information. Even with good information, it is hard to predict. So much affects wireless performance.

EDIT: DaveGee gave a very good description of the obstacles that affect RF in a relatively short post.
 
Ok, let's pretend I am somebody else.

Hi, my name is Jim, I live in an x type of house, and my situation is y. I get a score of b. This of course will differ from every other situation in the world, but it gives you an idea.

My mate Dave lives in a y type of house and xyz 123. He gets a score of c.

My girlfriend Sheila... etc.

I would appreciate if people could share their Airport Utility scores along with as much information as possible about their setup / location. I'm guessing DaveGee would do a very good job at this if he really wanted to.
 
I'm not home so can't give numbers....I have a last gen AEBS on the first floor (about 5 ft off the floor) of a 2000 sq ft 2 story 1950's brick home. I can get signal in the basement and on the second floor throughout the house...and even sitting 50 ft away in the backyard using my iPhone (must be going out the window - I doubt brick would let the signal get that far).
 
Thanks fhall1 for the response.

If you get a chance could you post Signal and Noise scores later?

I would be really interested in your backyard scores.

If anybody else can just quickly open up AirPort Utility and post the scores, that would be great.

For anybody who doesn't know how to do this:
(1) Open up AirPort Utility.
(2) Select the device you are connecting to on the left.
(3) Select Manual Setup -> Advanced -> Logs and Statistics -> Wireless Clients

Thanks.
 
johnsmith153 said:
Ok, let's pretend I am somebody else.

Hi, my name is Jim, I live in an x type of house, and my situation is y. I get a score of b. This of course will differ from every other situation in the world, but it gives you an idea.

My mate Dave lives in a y type of house and xyz 123. He gets a score of c.

My girlfriend Sheila... etc.

I would appreciate if people could share their Airport Utility scores along with as much information as possible about their setup / location. I'm guessing DaveGee would do a very good job at this if he really wanted to.
Click to expand...

You're literally asking a question (predicting signal strength) that a professional RF engineer would find extremely difficult or impossible to accurately answer. The answer is... it depends. Different devices have different sensitivities as well. My Macbook Pro does great in some locations where my iPod is just barely hanging on from the same access point.
 
I'm not asking anyone to predict signal strength, just to look it up on AirPort Utility on their computer.

It's simple. Open AirPort Utility, follow the instructions I have given, and tell me the scores for Signal, Noise and Rate. No RF engineer needed.
 
johnsmith153 said:
I'm not asking anyone to predict signal strength, just to look it up on AirPort Utility on their computer.

It's simple. Open AirPort Utility, follow the instructions I have given, and tell me the scores for Signal, Noise and Rate. No RF engineer needed.
Click to expand...

You specifically asked for what signals you "should" be seeing.
 
...and for people to provide their figures to help me compare.

Not to worry as I have now purchased additional equipment and have the best wi-fi setup going.

I have two Extremes and an Express and two Macs regularly connecting at 450Mbps and an iPad doing similar in nearly all parts of the house.

The solution to all these interference and connection issues is pay the money to sort it out.

I'm the only person in my area connecting at 5GHz, with everyone else having 2.4GHz networks.

I have cordless phones, metal cabinets, doors, walls and a lot of interference, but my new setup deals with all that brilliantly.

My 2011 iMac, 3.4GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 2GB VRAM with SSD runs at lightning speed when connected to my 80MB fibre optic internet connection, both wired with cat6 cable and wirelessly through my new network.

All devices in the house can AirPlay to one of four speakers around the house, and without any problems.

I can FaceTime, AirPlay, surf the web, download movies and all without slowdown or hassle from other users on the network.

Apple TV takes seconds to load a movie.

Lion downloaded and installed in about 10 minutes.

It may cost a lot of money to buy two Extremes and an Express, but it was all worth it.

My advice is to just go and buy a few Extremes and put them around the house. Everything works brilliantly and you won't waste precious time finding out the answers or struggling to get things to work.
 
I have a related question. The new AEBS (gen 5) has an increased wireless signal. I'm using a Cisco E4200 on the 2nd floor about 1 foot off the floor in a vertical position. I was wondering if the new AEBS would provide better signal coverage sitting vertical instead of horizontal? Antenna propagation for signal penatration can make a difference.
 
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