OT: Router throttling available throughput on pc

[J Tiers]

Many routers on the retail market have serious issues with throughput. As a trained and experience network engineer I have the say the Linksys gear is a huge disappointment. ....

I had a dLink wireless router. It was a real pain, and it was ditched in favor of a Cisco (actually a different name, Linksys, but theirs), and it was 10x better. May have been faster, surely required a lot less "fixing", and was way easier to set up. Actually, the "way less" fixing was really NO fixing... it just worked. It worked so well, I still use it in place of the ATT wireless, it's plugged into the ATT router and ATT has wireless turned off.

Would not have a dLink as a gift now....

Fixed to correctly list dLink as the BAd one and Linksys as the GOOD one. Screwed up the names

[lakeside53]

2003 to 2013 (or so) Linksys was Cisco by a different name

We are a big'ish customer of Cisco.. and they are not the company they were. We did not buy their wireless products (which would have made life easier..) but instead went to Aruba. Nice stuff... not sure if they make consumer cost products though.

[Danl]

I can buy good used working Linksys (Cisco) routers at yard sales here for $1-$2 almost year around. I do enjoy loading them with different firmware to experiment with, but I've never been able to maximize throughput on the older 802.11n versions. I'm thinking about buying a newer ac version, not that that in itself would help with throughput.

[J Tiers]

2003 to 2013 (or so) Linksys was Cisco by a different name
....

Yes, and he Linksys was the one that WORKED, dLink was the one that was AFU and nearly worthless. I corrected the names above

[Ohio Mike]

Mike,

It looks like that EdgeRouter X is wired only, no wifi. So am I correct in assuming the802.11ac Pro units need to have one wired to the EdgeRouter, and then you use multiple Pro units to extend the wifi range?

Dan

Correct. EdgeRouters are wired only. When I converted I expected to have to buy two of the wireless pro access points but one worked so good I couldn't justify the second one. Obviously your mileage will vary based on the square footage you need to cover and most importantly the physical layout and materials in the structure. My house is a typical American ranch so the AP is located in the hallway a few feet from the entry. That is about a central as I can get.

[Danl]

Correct. EdgeRouters are wired only. When I converted I expected to have to buy two of the wireless pro access points but one worked so good I couldn't justify the second one. Obviously your mileage will vary based on the square footage you need to cover and most importantly the physical layout and materials in the structure. My house is a typical American ranch so the AP is located in the hallway a few feet from the entry. That is about a central as I can get.

Thanks for the clarification. I couldn't quite figure out if the link to the eBay 802.11ac Pro was for a single unit or 3 units.

My computer room is on the east end of my home, which like yours is ranch style. 200 feet west of the computer lies my shop. I ran Cat5 cabling out there twice, and critters chewed it up to get to the bytes both times, so I've been looking for a wifi solution.

Dan

[Ohio Mike]

Thanks for the clarification. I couldn't quite figure out if the link to the eBay 802.11ac Pro was for a single unit or 3 units.

My computer room is on the east end of my home, which like yours is ranch style. 200 feet west of the computer lies my shop. I ran Cat5 cabling out there twice, and critters chewed it up to get to the bytes both times, so I've been looking for a wifi solution.

Dan

That is just one, they do come in multi-packs but I don't think those ship with the power supply (PoE injector). If I had three or more at that point I'd consider a small switch that has PoE on the ports. That avoids a big cable mess and it can support things like security cameras. I'm pretty sure that AP is classified as "weather resistant" so it can go outside if its protected from direct weather. Putting one at the far edge of the house may do it for you. If not then there are ways to setup APs to bridge the network to the building (using a different SSID for the bridge) and then rebroadcast your SSID internally there but that's much more complicated.

So some things to keep in mind. You don't have to do all of it right now. If you want to test you can buy one AP set it up on your existing network then move the AP around the house to test the coverage. Just don't use the same SSID you already have setup. You can even move it outside and hang it and see what the coverage is in the shop. Of course to fix your bandwidth issue you would still need to ditch your router. If you really don't like it I've never seen Amazon not take somthing back.

[Danl]

That is just one, they do come in multi-packs but I don't think those ship with the power supply (PoE injector). If I had three or more at that point I'd consider a small switch that has PoE on the ports. That avoids a big cable mess and it can support things like security cameras. I'm pretty sure that AP is classified as "weather resistant" so it can go outside if its protected from direct weather. Putting one at the far edge of the house may do it for you. If not then there are ways to setup APs to bridge the network to the building (using a different SSID for the bridge) and then rebroadcast your SSID internally there but that's much more complicated.

So some things to keep in mind. You don't have to do all of it right now. If you want to test you can buy one AP set it up on your existing network then move the AP around the house to test the coverage. Just don't use the same SSID you already have setup. You can even move it outside and hang it and see what the coverage is in the shop. Of course to fix your bandwidth issue you would still need to ditch your router. If you really don't like it I've never seen Amazon not take somthing back.

OK, so that AP would definitely need Cat5 to it, right? I could place it at a more central location and then see if it would hit my shop from there. What makes this better system than a normal Linksys or similar router with wifi? Is there a higher TX power or something? Just curious.

Dan

[Ohio Mike]

Yes each AP would need a CAT5 cable to it. Advantages of the stand alone AP is it can be placed anywhere very simply where as the router also requires 120vac power to be present and may require a number of cables to physical computers and/or devices etc. The combined SOHO wireless routers are built to a price point. The AP I noted is much better radio in it. In my case even my old client hardware saw a significant performance improvement with the AP beside my old D-Link wireless router. I then tested in my house with a 50 foot cable and took a day or two and pulled the AP around to various locations testing. Just a note the length of any CAT5 run end to end should not exceed 328 feet (100 meters).