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Wireless Bridging - Good Pings - Dropping out though

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7 replies

by seoirse

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I've got a complicated problem. I've installed several Zyxel G3000s in Bridge and Access Point Mode. Bridging from one another is not a problem, and the signal strength is quiet good. However, do to the nature of the very old stone building, theres a lot of right angles, and the devices are within 30 - 40M of each other. I've tried to spread ot as much as I can. Anyway, my tests are giving very good ping rates to the begining of the network. TH eproblem is that all of a sudden, a lot of MACs are only now being added while the istallation was happening. We added G-405 devices. They work very well. However, they are dropping the connection with the main network and have to be rebooted to reconnect. Everything is operating on channel 13 - changed from channel 6 (default). The Access Points and Bridges are all on 13, and there's no way to distinguish them. I have an excel spread sheet of this set up / mappping the areas. Does anyone know what could be happening. The customer is also losing patience, although, I came into the project taking over a business from another engineer who climed it would work. I've pent ?4000 on hardware alone for the project on the basis of this.

7 replies

by roger99a

I usually setup access points to be on different channels so they don't talk to each other with no overlapping of same channels in any area. I use 1, 3 and 11 on a 2.4ghz band to avoid any bleed in the bandwidth.
Remember though, I'm not familiar with your equipment, your particular setup or even what ?4000 is worth. Looks like a lot.

by seoirse

That's the thing. THe Access points are also acting as the bridge and repeater. There's no way to distinguish the two, and if I change to different channels, the bidge will fall over.

by jdclyde

but not both a bridge AND an access point.

Are all the access points at places you can't run cable to? Multiple cables coming back to a switch will be faster than all the wirelesses channeling back through the one main bridge.

If not, Setup bridges to bridge and plug your access points into that.

Linksys sells a bridge for about $60 US. WET54G. It connects to the previous access point and then run a cable to the new access point. I have had this bridge in place for a year and had forgot is was their until reading this post. That is how reliable it has been. Running an out building.

by seoirse

The building cannot be cabled. However, I could put the G3000 in Bridge/Repeater mode only. There are now two ways... one is to patch in another device in access point mode only via the ethernet port, and mount the device beside it. Messy and a little more expensive, but at least I could put the channel to a different frequency. We'll I'm guessing it might work.

I've been talking with my supplier, he tells me Zyxel have confirmed that I can add a PCMCIA Wireless network card to the G3000 via the port. This will enable me to change the channel on the device. I have 6 G3000s in operation. I figure 4 PCMCIA Cards sould solve the problem.

I've learned a little more about wireless networks this week.

by cp7212

Cisco says a 2.4 GHz RF signal will penetrate three to four concrete walls. I'm sure on some molecular level, concrete is more porous. I wouldn't attempt to pass through more than two.

Right on with the three channels...I run 1, 6, and 11, none of them overlapping the same channel. It is possible to have a "bloom" of one WAP in the middle and six around it, with no interference.

And as always, if you are running microwave ovens, count on a 50' radius of interference.

JDClyde is on too about the AP and bridges, choose one. I know I have something lying around here about bridging. I will post again Monday, as it has been a looooooooooong week and it is Friday!!

by roger99a

Talking about interference, my wife laptop will disconnect everytime the phone rings. Both are 2.4ghz. If you're using cordless phones make sure they aren't using the same frequency as the network.

by dave.peckett

there is a tendency for network cards or windows XP to drop connections on local networks. It may not even be related to the wireless equipment. You may have to try a direct connection on some of the equipment and monitor the results.

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