I currently own a basic modem router but its seems to be struggling so I am looking to buy a new one. the details are as follows.
It needs to be able to support over 10 wifi connections as well as desktop connections. most of the wifi connections are phones and only a few laptops. nearly everyone on the network either games or streams. its a home network not a business. and the budget doesnt really matter but I'd rather not buy something overboard filled with things I dont need.
if you could give me some tips or ideas that would be a great help thanks!
what internet speeds does your ISP provide to you as welll as what is said ISP. Also do you want one piece of hardware or a seperate modem and router (my recomendation)?
Our ISP gives us unlimited adsl2+ (Australia) I'd rather only have to buy one piece but if you could explain the benefits of buying two bits it'd help me
You can upgrade or change out one component without having to upgrade or change the other piece.
For instance, if your ISP upgrades your speed or you change ISP's you'll only need a new modem. You can keep your router/WAP and you don't have to reconfigure your wireless clients.
Why not just get one bit that is future proof, and how do I configure wireless clients? it seems like I may be able to solve a lot of issues if I knew how to configure them in the first place.
That many connections simultaneously, no wonder things are struggling. Your weakest link is the adsl connection itself. A new router may not make things any better. Move as many devices as you can to a wired connection so there is less traffic on the wifi. Even if you have to fork out for a few poe home plugs. Chances are you could fix most of your issues with a few tweaks. What router are you using? If you can tweak settings like bands, channels, etc. Also if there are some devices that have a shite connection via wifi they will also be a big shot in the foot for the other wifi traffic. So some clever placement of the router ( which is essentially the AP) can go a long way.
Thanks for the great information! I'm currently using the older version of the TD-W8960N. what tweaks to the bands and channels could i do to improve it?
Easiest way is to download WiFI analyzer for your phone - this will display what wifi channels are in your air space in both the 2.4 and 5ghz (of which your device does not support) spectrums. You want to have your network on a channel with the least overlap and congestion from other networks. If you go to your devices config portal (192.168.1.1 or whatever it is) config thing like:
QoS - quality of service settings can sometimes help when there are slow devices bogging down the network as well as it can be set to prioritize traffic from a given device (in your case perhaps one of the streaming machines)
Transmission power - set this to the highest value
Also be sure to update the firmware - its one of your first lines of defence.
If none of this helps, & you were to spend money on a new adsl router then look for a dual band (2.4 + 5ghz bands), that way you can split the traffic up a bit to make things a little more smooth. One like this:
Being dual band its good to set your general traffic to go through the 2.4ghz band and the time-sensitive traffic through the 5ghz band.
I couldn't find where to disable the 802.11b, also what do I set the Qos to? its given me a range of different options none of which I understand. I've also set the transmission power to 100%
I like to think of things being future resistant because something will always come out bigger and better than the last. Even gigabit will eventually be a slow thing of the past when 12k becomes a common streaming media (long way off but you see my point). but yeah Upgradability and if one breask the other is fine as well as the performance is always better having two products vesus the combo unit
Bugger, thats a very limited QoS option set..... There is next to zero point in changing DSCP as I very much doubt that your ISP takes any notice of DSCP tags on customers traffic. You could try playing around with settings then running a capture on the traffic (wireshark) and analyse the packets to see if there is a change in UDP traffic. But I would hazard a guess that you wont notice anything at all. Best thing imho you can do apart from grabbing that dual band router/ap (that I linked or equivilent) is to reposition the router to a more central position so all devices get strong connections, and move a couple more devices to a wired connection (will drop the number of management frames flying about significantly).
