Setup home network for 3 story cement building.

Question

Level 1

0 points

Setup home network for 3 story cement building.

I am setting up a home network in Ecuador in a three story cement building. I have high speed fiber optic Internet service and from the main floor to the 2nd floor I get a fairly decent signal but the third is really low. I currently have a Linksys E900 wireless router provided by the ISP. I purchased one Airport Express and two AirPort Extreme devices from the US and brought them over. I do not have Ethernet cabling in the building so need to go the wireless route. What is the best way to set this up with the equipment I have? I assume I replace the existing wireless router with either the Express or one of the Extremes. Also the third level is a terrace with only half of it covered. the only thing I've tried so far was replacing the E900 with one of the extremes but the signal was actually a bit less and nothing at the terrace level which I did have a low signal before.

Posted on Feb 9, 2015 1:36 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 9, 2015 2:18 PM in response to Troullier

The way you need to use the airport extreme is to use the second one as extender..

So plug the AE into the fibre.. and set it up in correct manner.. router with create a wireless network.. use all very short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. same for passwords but 8-20 characters.. whereas names try to be 2-10.

Now setup the second AE on the first floor or second floor to extend wireless..

Whichever works.. you might find it poor on second floor but wait a bit for the beam forming to work.. as sometimes your initial results are not same as a bit later on.. I find using different names for the two bands so I can try and force 5ghz helps but if there is no signal to start with you cannot get any improvement.

Then use the Express to wireless bridge the second AE.. (this will not extend wireless it will bridge wireless to ethernet).. then plug the Linksys into the Express by ethernet and setup Linksys as AP or in WAN bypass.. just look it up as there should be instructions around the web for it.. so the Linksys will again create the two wireless networks.. perhaps with different names so you can keep them separate.. and see how far that extends.. this is not going to be fast.. and there will be some lag as you are multi-hopping wireless links.. however it is better than apple system itself can produce.

IMHO running at least one ethernet link from all the floors to the main fibre point is the only right way to do it.. and then use one of your routers as a WAP on each floor.

Alternatively EOP adapters might work.. it is never easy to predict.. sometimes yes and sometimes not.

Buy a set and try. That allows you to use something other than wireless to connect the routers and they work consistently if they do work.. unlike wireless which is never consistent.

Reply

Answer 2

Troullier Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2015 12:10 PM in response to Troullier

The setup I used: replaced the Linksys E900 with the AirPort Express and setup one of the AirPort Extremes in the landing between levels 2 and 3. Works great, strong signal, even a good signal on the terrace. Have one AirPort Extreme left over. Printer is located on 2nd level and added it to the AirPort Extreme WPS printer setup. Tried the Express first but it was too far away. Also setup guest network on the Extreme. Easy setup. Love these and will definitely use and recommend again.

Reply