Large Apple Network Problems

Question

Hi,
I manage a large house hold which currently has 10 connected Airport Expresses/Extremes creating a roaming network throughout the household.
Each setup with the same network name and security settings.
One problem we come across is when performing particular activites such as streaming or even printing, something that requires a constant connection. The activity is interupted and sometimes stops (i.e. printing stops halfway through).
I'm assuming this is where devices are latching on to other routers.
This can happen when :
When moving from room to room (mobile devices - laptops)
When a device is in a fixed location (printers / mac pro's)
What can I do to prevent this situation/ What are the best practices?
Many Thanks

Answer 1

to clarify, streaming is interrupted just randomly? i assume you're not moving the streaming setup, right? because if you're streaming on a laptop and you start walking around the home, you will get blips as it loses one signal and catches another.
if you're streaming on an appletv to a tv (all items are fixed), then the streaming should be stable unless someone else starts a really network intensive task
computers are much better than iOS about refreshing onto the strongest signal; you'll have more issues with iOS devices that grab a signal at one part of the house and as you walk away, they will not keep refreshing for another signal until that prior signal is lost - to fix this, you should have users turn wifi on/off when they are in the new location to make sure the iOS clients is immediately connecting to the best signal
you could also be introducing too much wifi overhead depending upon how many airports are extending wirelessly, it actually makes the wifi worse, from apple
In the case of a wirelessly extended network, throughput may be reduced to less than 60 percent of that of a single device.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4145