Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 15:17 Post subject: WHR-HP-G54 using WDS and V24-SP2 10/10/09 Standard Firmware
I have setup two WHR-HP-G54 using WDS and V24-SP2 10/10/09 Standard Firmware. I am trying to deliver wireless access to a hard to reach area with allot of obstructions and i'm sure interference in between. I have been able to get this to work but the connection is very slow and not 100% stable. What I really need is advanced help tweaking settings from someone who actually has setup something similar and has real world experience.
Point A: This is the main location, devices are located on the main floor. It is a very small store. It has a business DSL connection with a static IP. The connection is not very fast but decent enough. DSL modem is set in bridge mode (basically all the modem does is send and receive data). DSL modem is going to one Buffalo WHR-HP-G54. The Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 is connected to a 1 watt amplifier like this one:
Point B: This is located in a basement of a house. We have one WHR-HP-G54 also connected to a 1 watt amp and then connected to a high gain external antenna like this one:
The distance between point A and B is not very far (there is basically one house in between them. There are quite a few wireless devices in the neighborhood and we are using channel 11 which I believe is being used by just 1 visible device in the neighborhood, I have tried using some other channels but it appears ch 11 works best. Please note that when the store closes at night (Point A), steel doors come down all around the store which of course reduces the wireless signal quite a bit (yes it still worked in the past when the store closes). Both devices are setup using WDS and here are some of the settings being used on both devices:
Sensitivity Range (ACK Timing) 2000
RX Antenna: Auto
TX Antenna: Auto
Wireless Mode: AP
Network Configuration: Bridged
Basic Rate: Auto
Transmission Fixed Rate: Auto
Frame Burst: Disabled
Wireless Security: WEP 64 Bit
Authentication Type: Auto
TX Power: 251
I have played with both the RX and TX antenna but I get the best result using AUTO it seems. I have played with the TX power and it seems it works best setting it to the very max setting. I have played with the antenna locations and have tried different antennas. This was recently installed and it has worked somewhat reliably but rather slow. Right now it stopped working for some reason, it appears to be a signal issue (perhaps something new in the area causing interference). When the two WDS devices do connect I am getting allot of drops when I ping and the connection appears to come and go. Yesterday I upgraded both device to the latest firmware "V24-SP2 10/10/09 Standard", I was using al older version when I originally setup the devices. I have not done any kind of reset after installing the newer firmware via the web GUI (I have power cycled and rebooted both devices many times though). When I upgraded to the latest firmware I kept the settings and did not reconfigure the devices. Let me know what settings adjustments anybody can recommend. Thanks.
Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:22 Post subject: Re: buffalo TX Power Setting
I will try your suggestions. Please note this has been in place for at least a month with these settings, I was concerned about burning something at first but things don't appear to get too hot. By the way with the current settings that I'm using and the steel doors closed at night this is what the main router is saying about the other repeater (the one in point B):
Signal: -67
Noise: -84
SNR: 17
Signal Quality: 33%
I will try your suggestions tomorrow and post the results. Also I would like to be able to remotely manage both devices using the GUI, any way to accomplish that once I can get these two to reliably connect to each other? Right now I can access the main device at Point A but not the device at Point B remotely. I have assigned the device at Point B a different port for the web interface but still can't access it from the outside.
-Manny
schmuck wrote:
Saw your post, first off
Turn Your tx setting down to about 25 to start with
if you keep it at 251 you will toast your chip.
Turning up your Router Tx setting doesn't make it recieve any better, it only blasts your signal out.
don't use repeater bridge, set it to repeater.
leave the bridged check box checked.
don't use DNS masq
Sounds like you need to get physically set up better
try to get the attennas situated with the least amount of building between them.
Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 11564 Location: Wherever the wind blows- North America
Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:27 Post subject:
You are injecting huge amounts of noise on your signal by setting the power up that high...remember this model already has a power amplifier in it...and dd-wrt does NOT take that into account....so you need to keep your power lower...much lower (below 32-36mW)...the power you are setting is BEFORE the amp.
Also, try setting your Tx/Rx antenna selection to Right only for both...this is the external antenna on this model.
Disable WMM support on your Wireless>Advanced tab.
Try using Repeater Bridge mode instead of WDS mode. See if that helps.
The real problem here is you have steel doors and a subterranean unit. Unless you can get the antennas outside the steel and above the ground level, you might not be able to do much by way of improvements.
redhawk _________________ The only stupid question....is the unasked one.
Can you provide or point me to where I can find good instructions on setting up "repeater bridge" mode? And do I need to setup the first device in "AP" mode and then set the second device to "repeater bridge" mode? I tried to set it up using messy instructions I found for another dd-wrt router but could not get it to work at all. When I do the site survey I cannot see either device when I check from either end. Thanks.
-Manny
quote="redhawk0"]You are injecting huge amounts of noise on your signal by setting the power up that high...remember this model already has a power amplifier in it...and dd-wrt does NOT take that into account....so you need to keep your power lower...much lower (below 32-36mW)...the power you are setting is BEFORE the amp.
Also, try setting your Tx/Rx antenna selection to Right only for both...this is the external antenna on this model.
Disable WMM support on your Wireless>Advanced tab.
Try using Repeater Bridge mode instead of WDS mode. See if that helps.
The real problem here is you have steel doors and a subterranean unit. Unless you can get the antennas outside the steel and above the ground level, you might not be able to do much by way of improvements.
