Using routers as AP's difficult to connect to

Tuffie

Tuffie

Active Member
I have connected two additional routers to my existing router to expand the wireless network for added coverage:

I have cabled from router > switch > patch panel ports for each of 2 routers that have disabled DHCP and set static IP addresses for them

I have set static IP's set for any devices connecting to them..

Some devices trying to connect to the new WiFi networks sometimes will work fine and others will not.. For example the PS4 works consistently all the time on one of the new WiFi AP's how phones and laptops are 50/50 getting 'limited connection'.. It seems like it might be devices that are moving between the different networks that have issues. Not sure what to do, any ideas?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
I'm assuming you have each AP with the same SSID? I would probably change it so each one has a different SSID and see if that helps.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
All depends on if he wants the roaming ability. And changing the channel is really only for congestion.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Tuffie said:
I was happy not to have roaming.
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Tuffie said:
it might be devices that are moving between the different networks that have issues
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This is both contradictory and makes zero sense.

Is it a specific ssid that has the issue? Did you use the LAN ports on both sides as opposed to an internet or wan port on the ap? Also, isolated to a single ssid or all?

Also, static addressing for wireless clients sounds like a giant pita..
 
Tuffie

Tuffie

Active Member
beers said:
This is both contradictory and makes zero sense.
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Fairly simple, I don't mind the devices not being able to roam ie autonomously change between networks. But I believe that the issue appears to with the devices that are changing from network to network.

beers said:
Is it a specific ssid that has the issue? Did you use the LAN ports on both sides as opposed to an internet or wan port on the ap? Also, isolated to a single ssid or all?
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Any SSID that isn't the main router is having the issue. They are connected to the LAN ports.

beers said:
Also, static addressing for wireless clients sounds like a giant pita..
Click to expand...
I did it to try and help troubleshooting.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
If a client/device would ever have to 'change networks' in your same local location then you'd have a more fluid experience with a contiguous ESSID (the same) instead of multiple BSSIDs (different).

Did you use the LAN ports on all devices? Using WAN would introduce a layer of PAT on each router. How are the devices configured? It sounds like you have a single VLAN/flat network so everything should reside in the same subnet/broadcast-domain.

Can you still reach the AP management IPs from a wired or upstream client? Do you see any traffic at all when connected in 'limited' mode via Wireshark or similar? Could you verify the wired uplink to each AP device with a laptop or similar? What kind of switch are you connecting to?
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
If you disabled DHCP on the 2 additional routers, but you still can't get DHCP, it sounds like the routers are actually running as a router simply without DHCP, meaning no addressing. What you want are the two additional devices to be in access point mode, which doesn't do any routing. DHCP requests will pass through to your primary router.
 
Tuffie

Tuffie

Active Member
beers said:
If a client/device would ever have to 'change networks' in your same local location then you'd have a more fluid experience with a contiguous ESSID (the same) instead of multiple BSSIDs (different).

Did you use the LAN ports on all devices? Using WAN would introduce a layer of PAT on each router. How are the devices configured? It sounds like you have a single VLAN/flat network so everything should reside in the same subnet/broadcast-domain.

Can you still reach the AP management IPs from a wired or upstream client? Do you see any traffic at all when connected in 'limited' mode via Wireshark or similar? Could you verify the wired uplink to each AP device with a laptop or similar? What kind of switch are you connecting to?
Click to expand...

Should I change the SSIDS to all the same name then?

I definitely used the LAN ports on them. I can reach all the management consoles for all three routers when connected to the main router and when I occasionally I do get a full connection to the router I can get to all of them then as well.

I downloaded and installed Wireshark but not sure what I need to do?

Some screenshots here: http://imgur.com/a/Ks0ew

Geoff said:
If you disabled DHCP on the 2 additional routers, but you still can't get DHCP, it sounds like the routers are actually running as a router simply without DHCP, meaning no addressing. What you want are the two additional devices to be in access point mode, which doesn't do any routing. DHCP requests will pass through to your primary router.
Click to expand...

If I set them to AP mode and put them into the WAN ports wouldn't that create a logical division in the networks so they wouldnt be able to communicate amongst eachother?
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
Tuffie said:
Should I change the SSIDS to all the same name then?


If I set them to AP mode and put them into the WAN ports wouldn't that create a logical division in the networks so they wouldnt be able to communicate amongst eachother?
Click to expand...
Yes, use the same SSIDs to improve roaming and more seamless hand off.

If you use the AP mode, you want to connect the AP's via their LAN port to your router so they are all on the same network and will be visible.
 
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