Reduced WiFi Speed with Roaming Network & Time Capsules

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Reduced WiFi Speed with Roaming Network & Time Capsules

Yesterday I had someone come and help me setup a roaming network to try and get faster WiFi speeds on the other end of our new house. For the last few weeks I had our two time capsules setup as an extended network, but speeds on the far end of the house in my mancave were very slow. This is the current setup:

New Cox Modem and a Time Capsule 802.11n (4th Gen) connected in office
iMac is in the same room, but on the opposite wall, so is running wireless
100' of cat5e ethernet cable is run through the attic to a Time Capsule 802.11n (1st Gen) in the laundry room

I factory reset both Time Capsules and set them up per Apple's documentation as a roaming network with the same SSID and password, but different device names. The 1st Gen is also in Bridge mode as directed. Hard-wired into the Time Capsule in the office, I get 126 Mbps download and 116 Mbps download from the iMac in there. As you go through the house, I am getting anywhere from 50-90 Mbps in the living room and bedrooms, which I am happy with. The problem is when I get to the 1st Gen Time Capsule in the laundry room, directly next to the device I am getting 67 Mbps on WiFi sitting directly next to the device, but as I move a mere 10' away from it, I am down to 28 Mbps in my mancave. I did a speedtest hardwired into the 1st Gen in the laundry room to make sure it was getting a full signal and pulled 116 Mbps.

So, my confusion is, why do I have such a loss with the WiFi from this device and why does it not seem consistent? I have experienced some issues with connecting on my macbook in the mancave as the computer seemed to be having issues connecting. I am concerned that this is an issue with the 1st Gen Time Capsule being older and there may be something that I am missing. I used a WiFi frequency analyzer on my phone and the signal seemed strong, as well as changed the IPv6 to Link-local only without any benefit. I have seen some people talking about changing the spectrum band to either 2.4 or 5 GHz only, but am unsure if that will help and why I would have such problems. The only thing that is in the laundry room that I was concerned about interfering is the zwave brain for our home security system, but see that it runs on 900 Mhz. Any thoughts or assistance is appreciated.

MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Oct 3, 2015 3:12 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2015 8:26 PM in response to keesimps

why do I have such a loss with the WiFi from this device

A Gen1 TC cannot do 2.4ghz and 5ghz.. it is one or the other.. and 2.4ghz is slow.. plus you might have interference or some blocking from metal somewhere.

It can also just be old.. the Gen1 are mostly dead.. they began dying at 18months from new and most are now gone unless you have repaired the power supply at the very least.

If you want to pursue it further give me the airport utility summary from each one..

And post your wireless survey info so I can see what strength you have from the wireless and how much interference.

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Answer 2

keesimps Author

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Oct 3, 2015 10:56 PM in response to LaPastenague

Well, that's evidently what I missed! I guess we should be happy that it's still working, albeit not that efficiently... Thanks for your input. Here is what I've got:

Here is the wifi connection info from my macbook in the mancave:

And here is the wireless info from beside the Time Capsule first and then the mancave second. Note that the blue KEEJAE is the 1st Gen Time Capsule and red is the 4th Gen.

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Answer 3

Oct 4, 2015 10:23 AM in response to keesimps

This is brilliant thanks..

In the mancave.. you are connected to the Gen4 TC.. not the Gen1.

Here is the wifi connection info from my macbook in the mancave:

How do I know that.. because it is linked to channel 1. And the Gen4 TC is on channel 1.

You can also pick it up from BSSID which should be the Gen4 not the gen1.

Actually the signal level in the mancave from the Gen4 is not too bad.. you should get better speed than that.. the issue is MCS is only 3.

It stands for Modulation and Coding Scheme.

http://www.digitalairwireless.com.au/wireless-blog/recent/understanding-mcs-valu es.html

A level of 3 is not going to give you speed faster then 29Mbps and in wireless that is not even stable.

So your Tx rate of 26Mbps exactly matches the MCS of 3.

How to do better.

Try renaming the wireless in the Gen1 TC.. it is better signal level than the Gen4 at the mancave location but for some reason you are not connecting to it.

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Answer 4

keesimps Author

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Oct 4, 2015 10:28 AM in response to LaPastenague

No, thank you for your time and help! That is very good to know and learn about the MCS... I wonder if I was actually connected to the Gen4 as well when I ran the speedtest directly next to the Gen1 in the laundry. I setup a new SSID and network on the Gen1, but am having connection issues on my macbook and android phone. At first I was concerned that it had something to do with the bridge mode setting, so I changed to DHCP and NAT and changed the IP range to not conflict, but got an error with that as well. Could the Gen1 just be old and going out as you originally mentioned or did I not set something right with this revised configuration? Screenshots from the new setup below:

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2015 1:32 PM in response to keesimps

I don't see anything wrong with your setup.

Using a different name allows you to connect to Gen1 TC explicitly..

If that is failing, I would say it is simply the wrong device. Too old or underpowered.

My suggestion would be to do a replacement of the TC with a Gen5 Airport Extreme.. you can pick these up on ebay for around $50.

The wireless on the Gen5 in particular is hugely better than a gen1 TC. With a bit of fiddling you can even power it over ethernet. (use power injectors).

Or buy a high power wireless router and use it in WAP mode or WAN Bypass.. depending on the model.. these are not expensive.. about the same price.. $50-80 say.

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Answer 6

keesimps Author

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Oct 4, 2015 1:32 PM in response to LaPastenague

Good to know I didn't screw anything up... I will check that out. Thanks again for all of your help.

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