Help with Wifi system
 

I'm regretting taking on this job... I'm the IT guy for a small complex, and I am having wifi trouble. I have a few transmitters, but I Believe I am overloading the router with too many subscribers. How can I figure that out for sure? I have a separate modem and router both, router is a Linksys EA6900, with about 20 total subscribers and perhaps 12 max at any given time.

Is that indeed too much for this machine?

Is it perhaps Century Link at fault, our ISP?


I probably need some schooling on this, any helpful links are appreciated.

Unless the wifi router has a built-in capability to monitor load capacities, your best bet would be to contact your ISP and see if they have a means of testing bandwidth usage over time.

If the router is more than 3-4 years old I suggest replacing it.

In any event, The Linkcyst is about at $100 router when new and more to the point, recurrent yet intermittent failures are the siren sound of failing routers.

The higher performance consumer product lines are the upper end Netgear, SonicWall and lower end industrial Cisco routers. Note that the good quality Cisco routers do not include the Linkcyst/Cisco branded editions. I use mostly the Sonicwall TZ series and a variety of Cisco routers at my customer's offices. The Cisco Aironet 3800 series is a new edition nice and fairly inexpensive enterprise class tool.

Hey, thanks for the reply...

The Linksys is an EA6900, brand new on closeout. I realized after I bought it that it is not certified for Windows 10, so I can't help but wonder how much of an affect that makes. I think the unit may be bad. I have approximately 20 different subscribers with about 12-13 on max at any one time. It typically goes off on the weekend when traffic is heavy. I can't reset it until Monday when that happens.

The Aironet looks like a nice unit, but unfortunately money is a huge consideration here. I May try to convince them them to upgrade to a 250 dollar Linksys unit since windows 10 wasn't mentioned in the other one... The unit I'm considering says it is good with multiple stories, which I don't think EA6900 is...

12 users for 1 WAP sounds like a lot, but I wouldn't dismiss that just yet...

There might be some low hanging fruit, maybe you already have looked at these things....(sorry if I am underestimating here)

Q1) What are your syptoms ? is just everyone going slow, or are users getting kicked off ? Does the router need reset/power cycled frequently ?

1) Is anyone doing any serious upload/downloading. grabbing large files (over 500meg) regularly ? streaming Netflix while in the office ?

2) Is your wireless in range of a public place or other nearby business where other people could be getting on ?
2a) Are you using WPA2 turned on and the password protected ? (ie: not shown in public) (Earlier versions of Wi-Fi security are more hackable...)

3) Are people connecting their personal devices ? (phones, tablets, personal laptops..)

4) are there other nearby wireless networks that could be interfering ? In the old days, there were like 6(?) Wi-Fi channels and if 2 networks were on the same channel, they could interfere with each other and produce abnormal results. I'm not sure if this is still possible with the latest routers though.

-John

Windows 10 would play no role in this.

I encourage you to look into SonicWall or Cisco for solutions. The diagnostic tools these platforms offer are more than worth the cost of the routers. Plus both of these brands provide outstanding technical support.

Put it in terms the purse holders will understand: What is the cost to the company of the recurrent failures the company is experiencing? Anyone with mental skills greater than a moron's will realize it doesn't take too much lost productivity for 10 to 20 people to cover the cost of quality equipment.

Linkcyst is low end crap.

Q1) What are your syptoms ? is just everyone going slow, or are users getting kicked off ? Does the router need reset/power cycled frequently ?

It just stops completely until I reset it, which Seems to only work if I disconnect the power. I will confirm that.

1) Is anyone doing any serious upload/downloading. grabbing large files (over 500meg) regularly ? streaming Netflix while in the office ?

Ive got no way to chase that down unfortunately.

2) Is your wireless in range of a public place or other nearby business where other people could be getting on?

No.


2a) Are you using WPA2 turned on and the password protected ? (ie: not shown in public) (Earlier versions of Wi-Fi security are more hackable...)

It should be, yes.

3) Are people connecting their personal devices ? (phones, tablets, personal laptops..)

This is actually a housing community, so yes.

4) are there other nearby wireless networks that could be interfering ? In the old days, there were like 6(?) Wi-Fi channels and if 2 networks were on the same channel, they could interfere with each other and produce abnormal results. I'm not sure if this is still possible with the latest routers though.

No, we are off in the sticks. The town where we live has a minute signal there but if it shows its never more than one bar.

Thank you for the pertinent questions.

David

I can appreciate that. However, we are actually a housing community, and as such there's never enough money. It Might change, but I'm not holding my breath.

I appreciate the thoughts though.

check for a router firmware update on the Linksys website. Frequently these things do not ship with the latest software installed. It's probably worth reinstalling even if there is not a new release available. I've had a home router go dead overnight and reinstalling the firmware resurrected it.

This, exactly!

From what you describe, it doesn't sound like a traffic problem but hardware since you have to reset the unit to fix it.

I was hoping this was it, but it is already up-to-date...

The One computer that is wired up to it is actually an XP machine; I was told that a slower machine connected direct can affect traffic elsewhere... Thing is, the XP computer is connected to the Century Link Modem/router and it is only acting as a modem, not a router. Would this arrangement affect how the Linksys operates? I am thinking not, but...

Another nugget of info... Sometimes when it goes down, it tells me it failed to establish an IP address, regardless what frequency I'm on. Only way to fix it is to turn it off, and back on again.

I dont think that the XP machine is hurting you...other than the fact that XP is getting more and more hackable by the day. I'd either disconnect that machine when not in use (shut it off or disconnect the network cable) or find something running win7.

When you say "cannot get an IP address" - is this what it says on your phone/tablet/wireless device or is this the wi-fi router saying that it can't get an address from your ISP ?

-John

Yes, exactly....

It went well over the weekend and didn't drop, which was a surprise. Normally it would die on Sunday. Instead, it died Monday night, late. Contacted Linksys again, and they are sending us another unit.

I did get the snipit from them that this unit would serve 22 different units simultaneously; thing is, I appear to have more than 40 different units that are capable to log on at any one time... I Believe the largest number of active units is around the threshold, so if this continues, that will be the next push I make, for a higher-dollar unit.