Home Network help / questions

[marmasatt]

I just realized the amount of stuff that I don't know about networking can't even fit in my 2500 square foot home. Was going to put this in networking but it's more support based I suppose. Please explain answer these questions to me like I'm a 5 year old. Thanks.

We have 50/5 with Cox here in New England and I'm just not happy with performance. At any given time, I'm sure we've got 5-7 devices on (or more) but I'm sure some have to drop off because there's no way we have enough bandwith for everything. We've got 2 firesticks, Wii, 2 Laptops, 3 tablets, and we switch our phones to wifi calling. Speed test is generally all the same: 53.97/6.9 w/ 20ms ping.

So the symptoms are we get that grainy buffering on netflix, we get "unable to connect to network" errors with the firesticks/chromebooks, we get frequent drops where we have to reconnect, we get slow speeds in general. Cox swapped out our modem a few months ago and drops were admittedly better but it's pretty bad again now.

So in no particular order:

1) How good is my current router? (Cisco Dpc 3825)
2) I don't understand enough about this. Would I benefit from a router updgrade if my speed stays the same? Like for instance if I went from a $50 router to this thing here: http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Tri-Band-Gigabit-R8000/dp/B00KWHMR6G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446913037&sr=8-1&keywords=netgear+nighthawk+r8000
3) Should I look for a repeater or signal booster?
4) Would going up to 70mbps be worth it to me?
5) Lastly, as an aside, I'm renting my stupid router from Cox which is a mistake in itself. Is a D-Link Dir-615e3 which I have sitting here a box a comparable router or a significant backslide?
6) The netgear powerline adapters seem pretty cool, would I benefit from one of those?

Any other suggestions?!

Thanks again!

 

[Burpo]

Your bandwidth is plenty for all your devices..
Plain & simple?
Your router sux.. See reviews..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833420188

Your Dlink router is old, but better. It may need a firmware update.. See reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-615-Wireless-N-Router-4-Port/dp/B000QD7B6W

 

[marmasatt]

That may be the plain and simple but can I get my networking lesson as well? Bunch of questions there. Anyone else?

 

[boomerang]

You need to tell people how large your home is and how many floors it has as a start.

How saturated is the immediate area around you with wireless signals?

How many devices are hard-wired or could be hard-wired? How many must be wireless?

Could you benefit from AC or is N sufficient?

1) Answered
2) Need above questions answered
3) Need above questions answered
4) Answered
5) Answered
6) Results can be mixed. The only way to know is to try them. But questions above need to be answered.

 

[corkyg]

Hardwire fixed devices where possible. Cox is cable. Cable devices share bandwidth. Don't all be on at once. As was indicated about, get a better router.

This really is a networking issue. Thread moved accordingly.

 

[marmasatt]

You need to tell people how large your home is and how many floors it has as a start.

How saturated is the immediate area around you with wireless signals?

How many devices are hard-wired or could be hard-wired? How many must be wireless?

Could you benefit from AC or is N sufficient?

1) Answered
2) Need above questions answered
3) Need above questions answered
4) Answered
5) Answered
6) Results can be mixed. The only way to know is to try them. But questions above need to be answered.

2500 Square feet was in the original post - but 2 floors. I suppose a couple a DVD player and wii could be hard wired - everything else, nope. Still another 5 or 6 devices wifi (2 firesticks, 2 laptops, a few tablets, and our phones) and damned if I know if I could benefit from AC. How would I know that? Just found out today that this is the newer standard/speed (a step up from N?) My neighborhood is very saturated. I live in the burbs but still pick up about 5 local network signals from my neighbors.

Thanks.

 

[Burpo]

You already have a different router to try. Pulling that Cisco and hooking up the D-Link would have taken less time than posting on a forum, and you'd have most of your answers.

 

[marmasatt]

You already have a different router to try. Pulling that Cisco and hooking up the D-Link would have taken less time than posting on a forum, and you'd have most of your answers.

Pretty presumptuous of you to assume that you know anything about me or my schedule, and how much "time I have" on my hands. Not to mention I've already fallen on my sword and explained I know nothing about any of this stuff. Thanks for the useless post. Now, back on point, the router I advised I have is not also a modem. So since this is so quick (per you anyway) how would you propose I "pull the cisco" when I don't own another modem? I believe I have to somehow enter the software, and then put it in bridge mode, and get it to act as just a modem (and then plug in the new router?)

 

[Mushkins]

2500 Square feet was in the original post - but 2 floors. I suppose a couple a DVD player and wii could be hard wired - everything else, nope. Still another 5 or 6 devices wifi (2 firesticks, 2 laptops, a few tablets, and our phones) and damned if I know if I could benefit from AC. How would I know that? Just found out today that this is the newer standard/speed (a step up from N?) My neighborhood is very saturated. I live in the burbs but still pick up about 5 local network signals from my neighbors.

Thanks.

Where is your router physically located in that 2500 square feet? I ask because if it's off to the side in a bedroom or hooked up right where the cable line comes into the house it's not going to provide adequate coverage to the other side of the house. Which could explain if you're having wireless connectivity issues in, say, a kids bedroom all the way across the house. Making sure you have coverage specifically where you need it is more important than making sure *everything* is covered top to bottom. Signal boosters are by and large junk, if you're talking extending range you're talking adding a hard-wired additional access point to the network.

Also, upstream and downstream are not independent on Cable. You have a 50/5 connection, but if you're saturating the 5 Up you're going to get nowhere close to 50 down. Is anyone running bittorrent or other filesharing anything that could be sapping bandwidth? 50 Down is plenty for your usage, and a 70/5 plan would have exactly the same issues.

Wireless interference from neighbors isn't much of an issue in a free standing home unless they're going crazy with their wireless setup. It's more a concern in an apartment-style setup where you have 20 immediate neighbors with their own networks and their own wireless overlapping yours.

I'd also absolutely swap out your router for something that's not a combo device. Those router/modem combos ISPs give you are universally junk. Either ask your ISP for a device that's *just* a modem or put your current combo into "bridge" mode (you'll have to look up the instructions on how to do that for your specific device, it's all different) and then plug an additional router into it.

 

[marmasatt]

Thanks. The router is smack dab in the middle front of the house - pretty dang centrally located (picture by the front door). I also misspoke, I believe we're around 1900 square feet now that I think about it. Lastly while I do have 12 year olds, all the computers are centrally located and there is no bit torrent stuff going on.... : )

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My house is 2 floors and roughly 2800 sq ft. When I first moved in, a D-Link 655 covered most of it fine. As the years progressed, we noticed that we started having issues with connectivity at various points in the house. I figured that two things were happening:

1. There were many reports of the 655 losing range as it aged.
2. More importantly, I believe neighbors were adding wireless equipment and the equipment was strong enough to interfere.

I decided to try a repeater solution and went with the Amped SR10000. It did fix the issues but was a major headache - you had to create a new SSID for the "repeated" network and it would periodically drop connection. It also wouldn't cover my patio very well, so I used it to repeat and bridge my entertainment center to the 655 (upstairs) and used the old bridge (a DAP-1522) to provide signal to the patio. With all of that in place, it worked but the SR10000 was a nightmare.

To make a long story short, I got an ASUS AC68U and it replaced the DIR-655 AND the SR10000. It covers the entire house, the patio, and I have my entertainment center bridged to it via the DAP-1522 and I have no issues streaming Netflix, Amazon, etc. I am extremely happy with it and have a wireless AC bridge that will eventually replace the DAP-1522 in the entertainment center.