Routers & Other Networking Stuff

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Mist

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You could probably find a halfway decent junior level Sysad who could cover both aspects of that role. There are numerous ways to solve this issue long term. You could even contract a company to migrate you to a cloud platform and manage the basic shit for you. From the sounds of it, your company is smaller and probably abusing you to do the work that should be being handled by a professional. Step one is what Mist said. Get someone with basic Sysad knowledge on the payroll and probably hire a cybersec vendor to do a threat assessment for your business. It won't be cheap, but neither will all your shit going tits up out of the blue with no one to help and no recovery plan.
Might not have to hire a whole person, just find a local small managed services provider. Though that might end up costing more than just hiring some smart kid that just got out of community college and is eager to start somewhere and prove his shit for crappy pay.
 
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Tmac

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So, I'm using an Alien router that's setup in the bedroom. My office is a bathroom and halway away from the router. When I'm in my office, my phone gets 376 Mbps, which is 25 slower than I'm supposed to get. However, my desktop, which has a WiFi6 mobo, is only getting 129 Mbps.

Sometimes the desktop will hit the 300's as well, but it's typically less reliable than my phone. My desktop and phone both show the same level of connectivity and I even recently upgraded the antenna on my desktop mobo, so that the cord is longer and hopefully get some more range.

Any advices?
 

ToeMissile

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So, I'm using an Alien router that's setup in the bedroom. My office is a bathroom and halway away from the router. When I'm in my office, my phone gets 376 Mbps, which is 25 slower than I'm supposed to get. However, my desktop, which has a WiFi6 mobo, is only getting 129 Mbps.

Sometimes the desktop will hit the 300's as well, but it's typically less reliable than my phone. My desktop and phone both show the same level of connectivity and I even recently upgraded the antenna on my desktop mobo, so that the cord is longer and hopefully get some more range.

Any advices?
Have you mapped out signal strength? Tile etc in the bathroom isn’t great for signal.
 

Daidraco

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So, I'm using an Alien router that's setup in the bedroom. My office is a bathroom and halway away from the router. When I'm in my office, my phone gets 376 Mbps, which is 25 slower than I'm supposed to get. However, my desktop, which has a WiFi6 mobo, is only getting 129 Mbps.

Sometimes the desktop will hit the 300's as well, but it's typically less reliable than my phone. My desktop and phone both show the same level of connectivity and I even recently upgraded the antenna on my desktop mobo, so that the cord is longer and hopefully get some more range.

Any advices?
Ill start with something more basic this time. Are you on the same channel (as the phone)? :p
 

Tmac

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Ill start with something more basic this time. Are you on the same channel (as the phone)? :p

Looks like Desktop is on 5 GHz and phone is on 2.4 Ghz...

But now the Desktop is doing 400 Mbps and the phone is getting 133 Mpbs... LOL!?

Is there a way to setup the Alien so that it always gives both 5 Ghz?
 

Daidraco

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Looks like Desktop is on 5 GHz and phone is on 2.4 Ghz...

But now the Desktop is doing 400 Mbps and the phone is getting 133 Mpbs... LOL!?

Is there a way to setup the Alien so that it always gives both 5 Ghz?
The Asus router I have (Looks like a drone from fkn Mass Effect) has an option when you log into it.

192.168.1.1
admin/admin (usually)

Then go to to the 2.4 channel(band) and see what options you have available.
 

Mist

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So uh, the Dream Router is a great deal if your internet only goes up to 800MBps and maybe not a great deal if you actually have full gig internet...

On the upside, having the 2 PoE ports integrated is neat, and the WiFi 6 is incredible, my laptop gets 400 up/down with it in the basement on a shelf above the ONT and me upstairs.
 
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Kirun

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Anybody have good router recommendations? I just need something that has really great range as I'm trying to reach a back bedroom that is upstairs. I've had horrible luck with signal boosters, so I'd ideally like something that has great signal output. Speed doesn't matter as much, so I probably wouldn't need anything beyond 500Mbps or so.

I was thinking of the Asus RT-AX86U, but I'm not really sure if I need a $250 router for what I need it to do.
 

Tmac

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Anybody have good router recommendations? I just need something that has really great range as I'm trying to reach a back bedroom that is upstairs. I've had horrible luck with signal boosters, so I'd ideally like something that has great signal output. Speed doesn't matter as much, so I probably wouldn't need anything beyond 500Mbps or so.

I was thinking of the Asus RT-AX86U, but I'm not really sure if I need a $250 router for what I need it to do.

Have you considered mesh?

Alien routers can mesh, but you'd need two of them.
 

Kiki

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I've had horrible luck with signal boosters

I was thinking of the Asus RT-AX86U, but I'm not really sure if I need a $250 router for what I need it to do.

If a booster doesn't work, I'm not sure what a new router is going to do. Spend that money having someone run a wire and put an access point on the other side. Every other alternative is pretty garbage, powerline, etc. You get badass wifi everywhere instead of a bunch of dropped packets .
 

Lanx

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Anybody have good router recommendations? I just need something that has really great range as I'm trying to reach a back bedroom that is upstairs. I've had horrible luck with signal boosters, so I'd ideally like something that has great signal output. Speed doesn't matter as much, so I probably wouldn't need anything beyond 500Mbps or so.

I was thinking of the Asus RT-AX86U, but I'm not really sure if I need a $250 router for what I need it to do.
i have an ax58u meshed w/ an ax55, two floors.

i have it properly meshed by wire
 

Kirun

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If a booster doesn't work, I'm not sure what a new router is going to do. Spend that money having someone run a wire and put an access point on the other side. Every other alternative is pretty garbage, powerline, etc. You get badass wifi everywhere instead of a bunch of dropped packets .
I'm pretty sure the booster isn't working because it's just "repeating" a poor signal, so it's suffering from even more dropped packets than the already shitty signal is. If the "main" signal is stronger, wouldn't that result in less packet loss?
 

Denamian

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I'm pretty sure the booster isn't working because it's just "repeating" a poor signal, so it's suffering from even more dropped packets than the already shitty signal is. If the "main" signal is stronger, wouldn't that result in less packet loss?

Yes, if the signal the repeater is getting is shit, then you've still got issues. The problem is figuring out why the signal is shit. Is it just distance? Congestion from other networks? Interference from other sources?

Running a wire to a new AP the surest way to extend your coverage. Yes, it can be a pain in the balls during the initial setup, but long term it will be much better.
 

Lanx

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How are mesh systems any different than wi-fi extenders/repeaters?
simplistically an extender/repeater only amplifies a signal in that area while in a mesh each ap manages traffic in the area, and if you actually wire it, then the coverage is amazing.
 

Kirun

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Yes, if the signal the repeater is getting is shit, then you've still got issues. The problem is figuring out why the signal is shit. Is it just distance? Congestion from other networks? Interference from other sources?

Running a wire to a new AP the surest way to extend your coverage. Yes, it can be a pain in the balls during the initial setup, but long term it will be much better.
It's definitely distance. If I go into another room that is about 20 feet closer, the wi-fi signal is mostly fine and the packet loss is negligible.

Current router is a Netgear R6300v2, so it's old as shit and likely putting out trash signal.
 
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Kirun

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complains about wireless performance from a 10yr old router
Which is why I asked for suggestions on a new router. Not my fault you dorks thought there was some sort of "mysterious" cause.
 
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