Help me configure multi wifi routers

trackerman

Hi there,
I've found it necessary to run three wifi routers in my house, mainly because we have 4 netflix users who like to watch at the same time.

I've got Horizon 200Mb which shuold be plenty but the bottleneck is wifi.
Netflix seems to be a wifi hungry applicaton and hoggs the router.

So I now run three wifi sources on 2.4 Ghz.
WIFI 1 is the internal Horizon Wifi on channel 1
WIFI 2 is a Bufallo G300 on channel 6 , fed via ethernet from the Horizon box
WIFI 3 is an eircom D1000 wifi on channel 11, daisy chained from the Bufallo ethernet.

This virtually provides a dedicated wifi to each netflix viewing device, (3 x ipads, 1 xSamsung TV)

What is the best way to configure these wifi routers?

DHCP on or off?
Static IP addressing on wifi 2 and 3 and set Horizon as the DHCP server?
NAT on or off?
QOS on or off?

I have tried to make it work, but from time to time I get strange results.
Sometimes my samsung TV refuses to connect unless I reboot all three devices.
Sometimes Ipads refuse to connect to the Horizon wifi.
Sometimes Ipads connect but don't display images on ebay!!! very strange.
Sometimes when I access the web from my iphone it brings up the wifi router login page! other times it dosent???

These problems lead me to beleive I don't have the network configured correctly, I suspect IP addressing issues.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks
Ray

Mayo Yid

Yeah, horizon as main router, give others a static ip on the Lan in the subnet so you can still access the configuration and disable DHCP, Nat, etc so they are just access points connected by Ethernet to a Lan port

trackerman

Mayo Yid wrote: »

Yeah, horizon as main router, give others a static ip on the Lan in the subnet so you can still access the configuration and disable DHCP, Nat, etc so they are just access points connected by Ethernet to a Lan port

Should I use DHCP forwarding in the 2 external wifi routers?
Or will clients request IP addresses directly from the Horizon box?

Mayo Yid

trackerman wrote: »

Should I use DHCP forwarding in the 2 external wifi routers?
Or will clients request IP addresses directly from the Horizon box?

No, DHCP forwarding it's to forward DHCP requests to another subnet.

trackerman

OK.... progress made but not quite there....

From time to time my wifi client does not connect to the router corectly.
Instead of getting the WIFI signal indicator (under Win XP), there is a yellow tag and a message stating that the connetion may require further login.
Then when I access the internet, I get directed to the modem login page!!!

I think this is a default behaviour of the Wifi router (zyxel D1000) when there is no internet detected...???
But why does this happen when there is a valid and fixed ethernet connection to my UPC box?
Is the UPC box refusing to serve the WIFI router?


My setup is as follows:
UPC Horizon:
WIFI channel 1
IP address 192.168.192.1
DHCP enebled

First Router D1000 conetced to UPC box with ethernet cable:
WIFI channel 6
IP address 192.168.2.254
DHCP enabled

Second Router D1000 conetced to UPC box with ethernet cable:
WIFI channel 11
IP address 192.168.4.254
DHCP enabled

The goal is to have three independent WIFI servers to provide the best bandwidth to three heavy users, so each has their own wifi.


I found that a different subnet masks for the D1000's works better, allowing DHCP to operate without conflicts in the network.
If both D1000's used 192.168.1.245 (their default IP) then I had problems with duplicate IP's.

Thanks


Ray

rayfitzharris

You need to have the 2 routers on the same subnet as the horizon box.
Eg with addresses like 192.168.1.x and 192.168.1.y obviously chose x and y so they are not the same as any other device.

Edit: I see your horizon box is on 192.168.192.1, which is an odd choice, so use 192.168.192.x and 192.168.192.y in that case

Turn off dhcp on the 2 routers. Only leave it on on the horizon box.

Next you need to connect all routers together via their LAN ports (not wan)

Use different wifi channels and give them all (all 3) the same ssid. Then Moving between devices should be seamless.

trackerman

Thanks Ray,
What you have proposed is one network SSID on three wifi routers.

What factor determines which router the client uses?
Distance/signal level?
or
Bandwidth available?

If it's distance, then it may not work for me since all my clients will jump to the closest server and kill its speed.

I understood that using one SSID accross different routers was for extended coverage, e.g. upstairs and downstairs.
Whereas I need to force users to diferent routers to get best bandwidth, coverage is not an issue in my setup.

What do you think?

Ray

mass_debater

trackerman wrote: »

If it's distance, then it may not work for me since all my clients will jump to the closest server and kill its speed.

Why would you want to connect to an AP further away, the best speeds will be closer to the AP? I'm confused as to what you're trying to achieve. Would be a good idea to cable everything static or use homeplugs, take wireless out of the equation and leave wireless for mobility only.

trackerman

mass_debater wrote: »

Why would you want to connect to an AP further away, the best speeds will be closer to the AP? I'm confused as to what you're trying to achieve. Would be a good idea to cable everything static or use homeplugs, take wireless out of the equation and leave wireless for mobility only.

At the risk of repeating myself...
"
Whereas I need to force users to diferent routers to get best bandwidth, coverage is not an issue in my setup.
"

If every user piled onto the same AP then thruput would be crap.
I want to force users to their own dedicated AP.