Problem :
For a home setup, my network is kind of complex. Here’s a quick rundown of everything that’s on it:
- Three Phones
- Two Tablets
- Two TVs
- A handful of servers (not high traffic)
- A handful of computers
- A Crestron system that uses a POE switch that powers ~7 in wall panels
- 4 IP cameras that are constantly viewed by one of the aforementioned servers
- A Second Access Point running DD-WRT
It’s a lot, I know. The 4 IP cameras were really putting a load on the network. But even with them off, it runs faster but it’s not reliable. I’m trying to make it so that the router has to be rebooted less (I know it’ll have to be rebooted sometimes.) I’m just trying to make the network not suck. My router is a Netgear AC1450, so it should be handle all of this and more. At any given time, there aren’t more than 50 IP addresses on the network. Sometimes it doesn’t resolve web pages (using google’s public DNS) and the latency of internal connections is long.
Any help in debugging this shotty wifi/network situation would be swell. My expertise is not with networking but I am a software developer. I’d be happy to answer any questions to clarify the network’s details.
Solution :
That’s a lot of variables to control for! Definitely start simple and add things one at a time to eliminate variables.
Start with just the router and a single computer, plugged in via a cable. Test internet – does it work well? If not, your internet connection or router is the problem – try eliminating the router if you can.
If it works fine, start adding devices one at a time until the problem occurs. Honestly, that’s all it is. Process of elimination.
Once you do have a problem, try and see what’s going on – excess traffic? Routing/switching loops? Flapping between wireless APs? Router/AP CPU/memory/etc issues?
Sorry for the generic response, but there’s usually a million things that can cause this, but at least this will narrow it down to which of the 50 things we need to focus on more!