In a harbour location I’ve installed 12 wAP WIFI antenna’s. To all of them I’ve ethernet cables to connect them to the internet. All wAP’s (except one) have only the 2,4Ghz frequency enabled. When connecting to the wAP’s I’m experience a slow performance and of course I was not expecting this. For test I’ve enabled on one wAP the 5Ghz frequency, when connected to this SSID I’m experience a normal and good internet speed. Therefore I’ve a suspicion that the slow performance is due to overlapping frequencies of the wAP’s and maybe also other WIFI networks are interfering.
See picture showing the WIFI signal strength details:
All the wAP’s are configure with the frequency set to “auto”.
Is this the best way to configure all my wAP’s? Is there a better configuration? Do I need to fix each wAP to a fixed frequency and to make sure they wAP’s close to each other are not overlapping the frequency? Is there a trick to let the wAP’s communicate with each other to determine the best frequency?
Looking forward to your comments, feedback and suggestions. Thanks.
Hello,
First, the SNR (Noise floor - RSSI) is 3!! That is baaaaad. Use a spectrum analyzer to see if you have interference sources nearby. You probably do.
Second, I never liked auto. In 2.4GHz, work with channels 1, 6 and 11, making sure each AP use that pattern. Be very careful about NOT having two APs with the same channel overlaping.
Also, the APs should be setup to transmit at the same power output as your weakest client. What’s the point of having good coverage if your clients can’t be heard!
Thanks for your feedback. Good hint about the SNR, indeed what I’ve read about it, 3 is really pour. Is this pure because of frequency overlap and maybe to many other AP’s around? Assuming the neighbourhood is constantly changing from a WIFI point of view, how do you keep track of that and how to pick a free channel each time?
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve change the wAP config to manual channels and tried to configure them in such a way that the wAP’s with the same channel are as far as possible apart from each other. Also 5Ghz has been enabled. This setup is in a harbour, outside on the boot I’ve good WIFI connection, but inside the boot it still stays a problem. I don’t know how to solve this. Suggestions?
Some screenshots from the Mac WIFI settings below. The SNR seems to be OK, but no internet connection.
The second screenshot shows a different channel, so a connection is trying to be made with a different wAP. So maybe indeed I should lower the power.
I will post a screenshot of my wAP WIFI config, maybe you can review this config as well. Thanks.
How does 5GHz performance compare to 2.4GHz? Your screenshots only show 2.4GHz.
In two of those screenshots you are associated but don’t have a proper IP address. Are you having DHCP issues? Try setting a manual IP when you’re troubleshooting the wireless - that way, you know you’re troubleshooting wireless, not DHCP and wireless.
I am sure there are better tools for wireless troubleshooting than “try to connect with a client”. Alas I’ve no experience with OSX so cannot advise further on that point.
That is what I’m testing right now. And it is not working yet so it doesn’t seem to be effective. What is outstanding is maybe to reduce the TX power of the wAP’s
5Ghz seems to work much better but only when I’m outside the boot. Inside I cannot get a 5Ghz connection.
Normally no problems with DHCP. But I will follow your suggestion in analysing this by setting a fixed IP. That removes one part of the puzzle and then indeed I can focus on WIFI only.
