Hi All
I have done my own network setup at our family guesthouse property which was working perfectly fine for over a year and now started giving trouble.
The reason being the property is quite large and due to the age the walls are quite thick with a corrugated iron roof. Makes any wifi extender / antennas useless.
Here is my setup
- 200mb/s Fiber line from ISP
- Connected directly to the Fiber line is the TOTOLINK Router (AC1200) provided by the ISP. (MAIN ROUTER)
- From the Router I have a network cable that runs to the second router (TP Link Archer AX1500) (ROUTER 1) This router is setup as a router (not a Access point) With a dynamic IP. No other settings changed on the router.
- From Router 1 I have a network cable that runs to another TP Link Archer Ax20 (ROUTER 2)
- Router 2 is setup as a router (not access point) with dynamic IP. No other settings changed on the router.
Frim Router 2 I followed the same setup as above and in total I have 7 routers connected via network cable from one to the other. All routers are TP Link either Archer Ax20 or Archer AX1500)
All routers are setup as Routers (not Access points) All IPs dynamic. No other settings changed on the router.
I also have about 6 x TP Link Deco devices that are connected to one of the routers offering increased wifi signal in that section of the property. I did not change any of the advanced settings on the Deco devices.
I am getting a lot of dropped connections. The Speed tests fine at around 180 / 190 mb/s and then the connection drops.
Is there a way to alter the settings on the routers installed to try to prevent IP conflicts / wifi conflicts which i believe is resulting in the dropped connections.
I have done firmware upgrades on all routers and the ISP was at the property to test the fiber line but could not find any faults.
I would greatly appreciate any help / advice.
Thanks!
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I have a similar set up but with only 2 routers … I was hoping to use one for work computer and the other for all my private devices but that doesn’t seem to prevent work computer from snogging around in my private home network
You have NAT nightmare here… Like others have said you need to use those routers as access points. Your isp router will dish our DHCP for all of your devices and wireless clients. Also on top of that you will have to make sure your wireless channels aren’t the same as others.
How do i check the wireless channels? Because I think the TP Link Deco units could add to this issue.
man honestly if your asking this question, its going to be a lot to unpack for you. I would suggest you get one brand and use that one brand for this whole project. The tp link deco is a good product an allows you to manage all the ap’s for this on a central location. I would go this route as its more user friendly and easier for you. I would not use another routers or aps. Just please stick with one brand that works together.
Use a wifi spectrum analyser app from the Play store or app store … Make sure it has a decent amount of downloads and a good rating so you don’t download a useless app that just wants your data
This site has some interesting content that I saw quoted elsewhere here
https://support.metageek.com/hc/en-us/categories/200068854-General-Wi-Fi
Apart from the main router you need to set them all up as access points. Such a string of routers all doing NAT and firewalling is the cause of your issue. You should also all use the same WiFi ssid name and password. This will allow your devices to automatically roam between them and you will have one flat network. Also make sure there are no Ethernet cable issues anywhere in this crazy linkage. This could also cause drops in speed or complete internet drops so make sure each link is connecting at gigabit speeds (the routers’ setup pages should tell you their link speeds). Much better would be to use actual access points and switches and a vlan aware router so you can do guest networks that are segregated but that takes a bit more advanced networking knowledge.
Unless you’re doing something very unusual (multiple ISP’s or a home lab), a home only needs one router – this is where you went wrong. You add WiFi with AP’s – not routers. A normal router should be able to handle as many networks/VLANs/DHCP scopes as necessary and will have a single default route out to the Internet.
You’ve made your network needlessly complicated. In order to fix things, you should setup all but one router in AP bridge mode. This does not completely fix things because wireless routers aren’t going to act as a single controller for your wireless devices. If you can return all of these routers, I’d recommend it because AP’s would provide a better solution. Do you even have a need for more than one network? Do you even have a managed switch? Does everything go back to a central switch?