How best to configure multiple wireless AP's

I'm after a little guidance with regards to setting up multiple access points to improve wireless coverage.

At the moment I have 2x Buffalo Airstation WHR-G300NV2 boxes and 1 Linksys/Cisco WRT160Nv3.

One of the Airstations is used at the router for BT Infinity, the other Airstation and the Linksys are purely AP's with some devices also hard wired.

Now I've set them up to all have the same SSID, encryption and password, so they're seen as 1 big wireless network, but things aren't as smooth as they should be, which is where I need help and I've a feeling it's the channels etc.

I want to use mixed mode to cater for all devices and they also offer channel / band width of 20MHz or 40MHz, which then uses a second channel. My understanding is there should be a bit of overlap, so I set 1 device to channel 1, the other to channel 6 and the last to channel 11, but I can't amend the secondary channel.

Have I set this up right, or is there something wrong, as things sometimes seem to drop, or run really slow?

So open to suggestions on how to improve the situation!

Thanks in advance.

Have you tried Inssider to graph the wifi coverage?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Have you tried Inssider to graph the wifi coverage?

I've used Wi-Fi analyser on our tablet and we're by far the strongest signal and the channel split seems good with what I'm using.

I get max bars wherever I am in the house, but throughput is sometimes rubbish.

For example last night, I was only getting 2MB

If you can turn off 20/40 n set it to 20 n only then the other access points will not overlap on channels

Set the encryption to wap2 (aes) only or wpa1 (t) only

Is the bt hub 3 not been used at all (n on that router is not get good)

Edited by leexgx (Thu 12-Apr-12 11:46:24)

In reply to a post by leexgx:

If you can turn off 20/40 n set it to 20 n only then the other access points will not overlap on channels

I think that's how I had it before, but will do it again.

Will set channels 1, 6 and 11. Is that the best bet?

In reply to a post by leexgx:

Is the bt hub 3 not been used at all (n on that router is not get good)

Nope, not using HH3, as it didn't have a few features I need and wasn't as reliable as I hoped.

The hub 2 is not very reliable at all on the wireless side if N is on

Are the wireless access points in repeater mode or are the cables been used or homeplug's

If they are in repeater mode speed can be quite lower (when you say 2mb/s or is it 2MB/s)

I tend to use 1, 5, 9, 13 - spacing of 4 is normally adequate and I can use an adjacent pair of those at full speed without problems. It then allows you to see where the neighbours are and avoid them.

In reply to a post by MHC:

I tend to use 1, 5, 9, 13 - spacing of 4 is normally adequate and I can use an adjacent pair of those at full speed without problems. It then allows you to see where the neighbours are and avoid them.

I've disabled the dual frequency and gone with;

Airstation 1 = Channel 1
Airstation 2 = Channel 7
Linksys = Channel 13

I'll do another scan tonight and see how that goes in terms of reliability and throughput...

In reply to a post by leexgx:

Are the wireless access points in repeater mode or are the cables been used or homeplug's

They're set as access points, as each one is fed with a gigabit ethernet cable.