Network Setup Help

Trashie wrote:

What's this type of network called?

Edit: Monday morning funny sounds a lot like snark... removed. Basically a simple network should already do this.
If your laptop still sees two different networks then you need to double and triple check that these three things are true in the settings:
Same SSID
Same Passphrase
!!Same encryption setting and type!! That last one is sometimes tricky because different brands use slightly different phrasings or menus when selecting the security settings.
If they do not match exactly, then they aren't the same network as far as your laptop connecting to it is concerned.

As for the moving between signals thing. As annoying as it is that's a client setting, and some clients are horrible about ever releasing an AP and reconnecting to a stronger signal.

Trashie wrote:

To be clear, I have internet access from both routers. If I go to the top of the house, it sees the Buffalo router and connects just fine. If I go to the bottom of the house, it sees the Comcast router and connects. It's when I go to the middle of the house, it sees both and I get a SSIDname and SSIDname 2 on my Windows laptop.

To be even more clear... only the box that connects to your service provider connection should be your router. The router is your gateway to the outside world. If you're only using it because it can generate a wireless signal then you're talking about an Access Point or AP.
If both boxes are still in Router mode then you're actually creating two separate networks which might explain why you're seeing the SSIDs listed individually.

Rezzy wrote:
Trashie wrote:

What's this type of network called?

We tech professionals like to call this type of network: a network.
If your laptop still sees two different networks then you need to double and triple check that these three things are true in the settings:
Same SSID
Same Passphrase
!!Same encryption setting and type!! That last one is sometimes tricky because different brands use slightly different phrasings or menus when selecting the security settings.
If they do not match exactly, then they aren't the same network as far as your laptop connecting to it is concerned.

As for the moving between signals thing. As annoying as it is that's a client setting, and some clients are horrible about ever releasing an AP and reconnecting to a stronger signal.

Trashie wrote:

To be clear, I have internet access from both routers. If I go to the top of the house, it sees the Buffalo router and connects just fine. If I go to the bottom of the house, it sees the Comcast router and connects. It's when I go to the middle of the house, it sees both and I get a SSIDname and SSIDname 2 on my Windows laptop.

To be even more clear... only the box that connects to your service provider connection should be your router. The router is your gateway to the outside world. If you're only using it because it can generate a wireless signal then you're talking about an Access Point or AP.
If both boxes are still in Router mode then you're actually creating two separate networks which might explain why you're seeing the SSIDs listed individually.

Thanks. Very helpful. Sounds like I need to do some more fiddling and double-checking of settings. First step will be to turn off the router functionality on the Buffalo router and set it up as an access point. Second step, double-check the security settings.

OK. I think I have it figured out but the answer appears to be that I need more wireless access points. Picked up some of these that appear to be highly rated and will just plug them into the Cat5 jacks across the house.

Damn townhome new construction. Too solid for its own good.

I have an interesting network problem I'd like some help with.

My house is wired for Cat6, but when they ran the lines, they terminated them outside with the phone box, cable hook-ups, etc.

I have fiber running up to the house and my ISP helpfully provided a weatherproof box for their modem that is large enough for my gigabit router. I have a separate wireless gigabit router inside the house, Archer C7, that will not fit in the outside box and I don't want to leave it in the heat.

All the cat6 runs to the gigabit router, one of those lines connects to the C7 for wireless.

How do I set up my network so that all the gigabit traffic and wireless traffic are on the same network? I have consistent DHCP issues. I'd like to have the C7 do all the DHCP, but short of relocating the Cat6 lines I don't know how to do it.

Any pointers?

Trashie wrote:

OK. I think I have it figured out but the answer appears to be that I need more wireless access points. Picked up some of these that appear to be highly rated and will just plug them into the Cat5 jacks across the house.

Damn townhome new construction. Too solid for its own good.

I've been with this setup (a Comcast wireless router/modem and two wireless AP connected via Cat5 cabling) for awhile now and one of the access points appears to be causing major problems. I have TP-Link in the den with two consoles hard-wired into it. The hard-wired connection is completely unstable (working one moment and then dead the next) and the wireless connection is also flaking. Last night it was working fine on the PS4 and my laptop was completely unable to see the Internet.

I'm going to flash the TP-Link router with DD-WRT to see if that improves performance but is there something I should check first? Both the APs have their DHCP server shut off but maybe there's another setting I should play with?

Trashie wrote:
Trashie wrote:

OK. I think I have it figured out but the answer appears to be that I need more wireless access points. Picked up some of these that appear to be highly rated and will just plug them into the Cat5 jacks across the house.

Damn townhome new construction. Too solid for its own good.

I've been with this setup (a Comcast wireless router/modem and two wireless AP connected via Cat5 cabling) for awhile now and one of the access points appears to be causing major problems. I have TP-Link in the den with two consoles hard-wired into it. The hard-wired connection is completely unstable (working one moment and then dead the next) and the wireless connection is also flaking. Last night it was working fine on the PS4 and my laptop was completely unable to see the Internet.

I'm going to flash the TP-Link router with DD-WRT to see if that improves performance but is there something I should check first? Both the APs have their DHCP server shut off but maybe there's another setting I should play with?

For those keeping up, turns out the TP-Link router has trouble acting as both a switch and a WAP. I added another switch in front of it, wired the WAP and the consoles to that and I appear to be golden.

More home network discussion!

I was getting sick of my patched together network of routers and switches and whatever else failing on me intermittently so I invested in a Google Wifi setup. Plugged it in last night and got it set up pretty quickly as a mesh network. Generally it works just fine. Rough diagram:

CenturyLink -> switch -> modem -> primary AP -> mesh node -> mesh node

That configuration is generally working fine. However, my understanding is that I can improve the overall performance but taking advantage of the ethernet in the house using ethernet backhaul. To do that, the configuration should look like:

CenturyLink -> modem -> primary AP -> switch -> mesh node (hardwired) -> mesh node (hardwired)

Do I have that right? Basically, put the switch behind the primary AP?

That looks right according to what I just googled about google wifi. They don't support what I would call a "normal" configuration (modem > switch > everything else). The only question I have is why your switch is currently between the centurylink and the modem? It's probably not needed there, but if it does serve some mysterious purpose then you don't want to remove it.

Redherring wrote:

That looks right according to what I just googled about google wifi. They don't support what I would call a "normal" configuration (modem > switch > everything else). The only question I have is why your switch is currently between the centurylink and the modem? It's probably not needed there, but if it does serve some mysterious purpose then you don't want to remove it.

It allowed me to place the modem elsewhere in the house using the ethernet jacks and not just where it came in through the wall. It's not the standard cable coax connection that I'm used to; the connection to the modem is made via an ethernet plug.

OK, sounds like it should just work.