In reply to a post by oldskool:

What do you think of the wifi survey I posted? Is many homeplugs and 5ghz the right way to go?

There seems to be some messiness (someone on channel 12) up and around channel 11. "pacha" is on channel 1, which seems a good option, but channel 6 is also worth considering.

I also note that "pacha" is only "b/g", where as all the other access points on channels 1 and 6 are "b/g/n" - this could be your downfall as the "n" standard is probably dominating the bandwidth on those channels, effectively shouting over your slower "g" access point.

Homeplugs and 5GHz might be a better bet, yes. I was not all that keen on them a few years ago; I bought some 200Mbps units (forget the exact make now) and they were really slow. If I remember correctly, I got 1Mb/sec across them and found them highly unreliable (network would disappear for seconds, even minutes at a time sometimes). I suspect this was due to the length of the mains cable run that the signal was going over, which you do also need to consider.

However, in the property I am in now, I bought some more modern Devolo dLAN® 500 AVtriple+ units from Maplin, and these work surprisingly well across a short cable run (I guestimate no more than 15-20m of mains cable). My FTTC broadband on a direct wired (ethernet) connection maxes out at about 7Mb/sec download. Performing a download test across the Devolo units, I can get around 6.5Mb/sec (when things are good) dropping to 4Mb/sec when things are not so good (not entirely sure what causes things to slide between good and not so good, but it's probably down to general interference on the mains ring and other noise that varies depending on time of day). Regarding Batboy's post on the 600/650 units, new to me, Devolo now do 1200+ units (impressive!) - http://www.devolo.com/uk/Products/dLAN-1200+ - but I find the 500 range sufficient for my needs.

BE AWARE with homeplug technology though - if you have a dodgy appliance on the mains ring, such as, a cheap eBay replacement laptop power supply (probably made in some back-street China tech shop, shipped from China itself), and not endorsed or tested to comply with UK electrical regulations, these appliances can inject horrendous noise back onto the mains ring when they are in use, rendering any homeplug technology completely useless. I had this problem after ordering a cheap replacement laptop power supply, and when that was being used, homeplug links went dead and unusable. Do keep this in mind.

So, here is what I would suggest. Take into consideration that, if you were to homeplug all levels out, what would be the total length of mains circuit involved? Remember, you have 3 floors to cover here, so I would presume you would be wanting at least one homeplug per floor to break out to wireless at each level. That's 3 on the ring in total. The more units you have, and the longer the mains circuit is, the slower speed you will get. If each floor is actually on a different mains ring (which is possible), that may also seriously impact homeplug speed (you need to check this out as the phasing can be different per floor, which degrades the signal - I read this somewhere, I'm sure there's more info on Google if you look). Then simply breakout to an access point per floor, one on each channel (1/6/11). If you are having to penetrate walls on each floor, go with 2.4GHz access points - if that's not an issue, you could opt for 5Ghz instead (or APs which support both).

If you want to go a cheaper route initially, you could try a single access point running on 2.4Ghz and replace the antennas with high-gain ones to achieve better coverage across all 3 floors. 2.4Ghz has more chance of penetrating all 3 levels if you use high-gain antennas on the access point. I know this works as I had a Draytek router several years ago and using the standard antennas on that, the coverage was not good enough. I removed the Draytek ones, and attached some high-gain ones instead and that instantly improved things. Obviously this only works if you are using an access point which permits alternative antennas to be connected to it.

So in summary, if I were you, I would firstly switch to a dedicated 2.4Ghz access point. I use this unit at home - they are cheap, and do everything you need, including "n" MIMO standard. They are not 5Ghz though. See how things go with that. If the signal can't reach the top floor, purchase some high-gain antennas and repeat. If that still doesn't do the job, then the next best (more expensive) option is to go the homeplug route and homeplug each floor up, but be aware of the pitfalls of this technology as I have described above. If I was going this route, I would opt for the integrated wireless homeplug units, and go with 2.4GHz/5Ghz as you see fit.

Apologies for such a long answer but I hope it gives you a feel for the issues you need to consider and things you can try to get the results you want!

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Sep-14 23:10:20)

Thanks for posting such a great and informative response

You pointed out a significant issue i hadn't realised. My wifi was set to Auto-g! I think this was probably my own stupidity from the past. Switching to Auto and i now have wireless-n. Really not sure how that happened, i should know this.

I'm not sure how much of a difference this will make but potentially it could muscle out some of the bandwidth as you mentioned.

Sky sent me a wifi booster and i plugged that in today on the top floor and it seems to be connecting to the base station at the max of 130Mbps. We have an open stairwell all the way up so placing both devices in this open (ish) space might be helping as all the rooms are decided by blocks. So now upstairs computers are achieving half the 130Mbps connecting to the repeater but at least have a full signal.

Even with the halving and them running at 65Mbps on the repeater speeds this is a faster connection than a shoe string weak signal i had before.

I don't quite know wether this will be quicker than a 500Mbps home plug connecting up 5ghz apple wifi running at 138Mbps according to its utility. If the home plug says its connecting at 138Mbps i assume i have to halve this for the true 1 way throughput? If that is the case there should be no difference between the two methods.

Even though my signal is improved i still ping my routers IP and get occasional blips of packet loss and very high pings. I can only assume this is still down to wifi congestion? If so this is the advantage of running 5ghz as this never happens on that frequency.

Edited by oldskool (Mon 29-Sep-14 20:10:50)

Now disappointingly when i sit downstairs right next to the main router for some reason my laptop is connecting to the base station on the top floor with a connect speed of 5Mbps!

I assume i can't prevent this.

are they different ssids?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

are they different ssids?

The booster is repeating so using the same SSID

I have discovered that actually its not the booster, i turned it off and found that channel 1 (despite looking the best option on the site survey) seems to get huge swings in transmit speed (as recorded by the mac). It ranges from 5Mbps to 78Mbps

Channel 11 achieves up to 104Mbps but drops down to 39Mbps. Although i have seen it lower, but not as bad as channel 1.

And i wouldn't have picked 11 because someone fairly close is running 40Mhz on 12-1.

I don't know whether these fluctuations are the mbp in power saving or whether its wifi interference.

I know you have alluded but before we go any further have you tried a clean test between your primary wireless AP (router or whatever) and a laptop AND nothing else wireless in your house switched on, and also tried different channels with this?

I agree from your screenshot the air is very busy in your house but if you sit next to an AP you should usually get a very good performance even if the air is very busy.

The booster could potentially be slowing wireless down even more if its just repeating off the wireless signal already produced. I would go with your orignal idea of using a home plug with your airport express but i would just place 1 in first to see how it works then if needed add the 3rd one

Managed to spend some time today testing

Lan speed tests with 2Gb file. Laptop downstairs near router connected at 104-145Mbps according to mac, desktop on 3rd floor.

2.4Ghz with or without booster (39-65Mbps according to mac)
16Mbps

2.4Ghz laptop to desktop with homeplug or desktop to 5Ghz into home plug
72-88Mbps

5ghz laptop to desktop home plug
Mostly 88Mbps

I tried removing all wireless devices from the 2.4Ghz network and it was still terrible. It was also very sensitive to moving around. The file transfer would drop to 50-60Mbps on the middle floor or sides of the house.

Wired (even into home plug) as suggested clearly the winner. 5ghz into home plug a close second but this diminishes because of the signal strength.

When i get fibre next month i can only see 1 way for all wireless devices to get full speed and that is to have 5ghz on the ground and top floor. At least the home plugs are performing near that 100Mbit limit. I'm not convinced getting a much better 2.4Ghz router will solve the speed issues because there is so much wifi traffic around me, but very little 5ghz.

Or i look for a really powerful 5ghz router.

Edited by oldskool (Tue 30-Sep-14 15:13:35)

when you say sensitive to moving around do you mean roaming ? if so you might need to change the Beacon Interval slightly so that way th wireless on your devices can switch between the 2 aps depending on strength

Not sure if i've done the right thing here

Just bought an ASUS DSL-AC68U - i considered it along with the Nighthawk 7000 one, the 6900 linksys (i think) and the D-Link(or belkin) 88something L. I read all of these have decent AC/n 5GHZ range.

I quickly realised that booster/repeating was never going to yield good results 16-20Mbps!! Homeplugs did work out but i wanted 1 simple solution. I hope this Asus is it! I will try it when i get home later.

The roaming was ok, its just 1 side of the house is best on channel 1 and the other is best on channel 11!

//edit i've since read the DSL-AC68U from asus has stability issues with DSL connections, oh well.

Edited by oldskool (Wed 01-Oct-14 13:02:48)