4 ms·

Another kindred spirit here, another programmer who can't tell if they're just getting old or if electronic devices are getting worse. I describe each of our Ap

by tclancy 10y ago

Another kindred spirit here, another programmer who can't tell if they're just getting old or if electronic devices are getting worse. I describe each of our AppleTVs as "something that works perfectly, except when you really need it"-- when we finally have time to watch a movie we want to see, when our daughter is losing her mind about wanting to see some video, that's the only time it craps itself. >2016 macbook that for some reason won't keep disconnecting from my WiFi router I have had two different Macs that did this. I did a ton of research (those 5-10(!) year-old bookmarks in Pinboard are unsurprisingly dead) and found certain wifi chipsets had problems (which is why other people with the same model as you will say they've never had a problem). That said, when we moved into our new house a year ago I had to buy a new router and add an access point because of the step up in square footage and I haven't had a problem since. Of course, that new router was one of the Netgear ones with the giant security hole that was revealed a couple of weeks ago . . .

ajford 10y ago
Have you considered upgrading your Wifi setup to something like Ubiquiti Unifi hardware? I'm trying to convince the spouse that I need ~1k$ upgrade our home network to Ubiquiti... There's a blog post that was on HN a few days back about it: https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-finally-fixed-my-dodgy-wifi/ https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-final...
- r1ch 10y ago
  Consider going with Mikrotik gear instead. It's the same hardware, but you aren't locked into Ubiquiti's proprietary Java cloud management software - everything can be managed with SSH if you prefer. It isn't as user-friendly or as pretty as Ubiquiti's web interface, but you can get deep down into all kinds of internal settings and it also ends up being significantly cheaper. For example, three dual band triple chain 802.11n/ac APs (https://routerboard.com/RBwAPG-5HacT2HnD https://routerboard.com/RBwAPG-5HacT2HnD) and a router (https://routerboard.com/RB750Gr3 https://routerboard.com/RB750Gr3) have an MRSP of $330, including POE for the APs.
  - ajford 10y ago
    Any good setup guides? One of the things I was hoping for was a good central management system, plus good roaming and handoff. I currently have two DD-WRT flashed ASUS routers, and having a hell of a time with handoff when going from one floor the the next.
    - r1ch 10y ago
      They have recently introduced centralized AP management called "Capsman" but it's still a little rough around the edges to set up. Their wiki has a lot of good info though, eg http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CAPsMAN http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CAPsMAN Roaming is very tough to get right unfortunately. Only the client devices can make a decision to roam, so without ugly hacks such as using a single channel / MAC / SSID to create a giant interfering WLAN, your options are limited. What you can do with Mikrotik is set up access rules to kick a client off an AP if the signal strength falls below a threshold, but as this is not client-initiated, there is a longer re-association time which could interrupt VoIP etc.
      - ajford 10y ago
        So how do you handle roaming in your situation? Do you use different SSIDs between APs? Currently I have the same SSID shared between the two Asus routers (one configured as AP only).
        r1ch 10y ago
        Right now my apartment is small enough that I only need a single AP, I have it wall mounted high up in a central location so it has good coverage of the whole building. There are options such as 3rd party roaming clients for (eg https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wifiroamingfix&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wi... for Android) which I'd consider. For laptops, most drivers have a "roaming aggressiveness" setting which can be tweaked. In general almost all devices should handle transient connectivity glitches fairly well, so kicking low signal clients off an AP shouldn't interrupt too much.
turar 10y ago
That's my Google Maps traffic experience pretty much daily. The section of the map that I actually need NOW is all of a sudden not rendering exactly when I need it, but hey here's traffic for the rest of the city.
dawnerd 10y ago
Had this same issue. Appears to be more with whatever chip Apple uses not playing well with certain access points. I switched to ubiquiti APs and the problem went away.

by tclancy 10y ago

ajford 10y ago

Have you considered upgrading your Wifi setup to something like Ubiquiti Unifi hardware? I'm trying to convince the spouse that I need ~1k$ upgrade our home network to Ubiquiti... There's a blog post that was on HN a few days back about it: https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-finally-fixed-my-dodgy-wifi/ https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-final...

r1ch 10y ago
Consider going with Mikrotik gear instead. It's the same hardware, but you aren't locked into Ubiquiti's proprietary Java cloud management software - everything can be managed with SSH if you prefer. It isn't as user-friendly or as pretty as Ubiquiti's web interface, but you can get deep down into all kinds of internal settings and it also ends up being significantly cheaper. For example, three dual band triple chain 802.11n/ac APs (https://routerboard.com/RBwAPG-5HacT2HnD https://routerboard.com/RBwAPG-5HacT2HnD) and a router (https://routerboard.com/RB750Gr3 https://routerboard.com/RB750Gr3) have an MRSP of $330, including POE for the APs.
- ajford 10y ago
  Any good setup guides? One of the things I was hoping for was a good central management system, plus good roaming and handoff. I currently have two DD-WRT flashed ASUS routers, and having a hell of a time with handoff when going from one floor the the next.
  - r1ch 10y ago
    They have recently introduced centralized AP management called "Capsman" but it's still a little rough around the edges to set up. Their wiki has a lot of good info though, eg http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CAPsMAN http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CAPsMAN Roaming is very tough to get right unfortunately. Only the client devices can make a decision to roam, so without ugly hacks such as using a single channel / MAC / SSID to create a giant interfering WLAN, your options are limited. What you can do with Mikrotik is set up access rules to kick a client off an AP if the signal strength falls below a threshold, but as this is not client-initiated, there is a longer re-association time which could interrupt VoIP etc.
    - ajford 10y ago
      So how do you handle roaming in your situation? Do you use different SSIDs between APs? Currently I have the same SSID shared between the two Asus routers (one configured as AP only).
      - r1ch 10y ago
        Right now my apartment is small enough that I only need a single AP, I have it wall mounted high up in a central location so it has good coverage of the whole building. There are options such as 3rd party roaming clients for (eg https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wifiroamingfix&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wi... for Android) which I'd consider. For laptops, most drivers have a "roaming aggressiveness" setting which can be tweaked. In general almost all devices should handle transient connectivity glitches fairly well, so kicking low signal clients off an AP shouldn't interrupt too much.

turar 10y ago

That's my Google Maps traffic experience pretty much daily. The section of the map that I actually need NOW is all of a sudden not rendering exactly when I need it, but hey here's traffic for the rest of the city.

dawnerd 10y ago

Had this same issue. Appears to be more with whatever chip Apple uses not playing well with certain access points. I switched to ubiquiti APs and the problem went away.