Airport roaming network

[macachia]

hi

I have 3 airport extremes at my house on two floors Airport A (upstairs) is the main router Airport B (upstairs) is extending the network wirelessly from airport A (upstairs). Airport C (downstairs) is also extending the network but via a wire from airport A; hence the roaming network.

As airport B is wirelessly extending the network, I can’t change its channels.

Should airport A and C (which are connected via a wire) have the same channels? And should airport c be in “create a new network” or “extend a network”?

Thanks!

 

[techwarrior]

First, if you are not having issues, leave it as is.

Second, if you feel speeds could be better, find a way to eliminate the Wireless Extending. If running cat5e or better to that location is out of the question, consider a power line ethernet adapter kit. While power line adapters may not hit 1Gbps, they will likely be faster than WiFi. Why? Because when you wirelessly connect an Airport, it uses 50% of the radio bandwidth on the router and remote access point for uplink, leaving only 50% bandwidth for clients. You may even be better off with a weak signal for devices near the wireless remote AP.

Finally, as to channels, what is probably more of a concern is the channel conflicts with neighbors. When you wirelessly extend, the router's channels dictate the channels the extender uses. If you set the remote channels (if you could) to different than the router, you would not make a connection. Think of WiFi like AM\FM radio. If your favorite FM station broadcasts on the 97.3 MHz but your radio is tuned to 97.1, you won't hear the intended station. So the wireless remote access point "joins" the network by connecting to either the router or other access point (based on signal strength) using whatever channel the other end uses. Same as when your WiFi clients connect, they search for the AP broadcasting in the full range and when they make a connection, they tune in to the channel range the network devices are using.

 

[gpspad]

I'll 2nd what techwarrior mentioned. I had an airport extreme wirelessly repeating my time capsule in the basement and had a lot problems trying to stream to a few apple TV's running Plex. I also had my parents mac that would have intermittent connection issues.

I finally ended up running an ethernet cable from 2nd floor to the basement, and most of the internet issues went away. The wireless always worked, but there were issues, connecting that one airport express via wireless really caused issues with my network, even if they were minor.