What's the best way to wirelessly network a house of 13 people?

I'm living in a four story house with 13 people and we are using Comcast for internet. So far we've set up the network as two airport extremes, one that plugs into the modem and the other acts as a repeater to spread the signal. The main Extreme fails every few hours and needs to be restarted, and it often cites "No DNS Servers" or  "Double NAT" as the reasoning. I'm hoping someone can tell me in detail what the ideal setup for a house like ours would be.
What We Have:
2 Aiport Extremes
Comcast Internet (with 20 Mbs)
How Should We:
Setup the advanced settings of the Airports?
Or, Should We:
Ditch the Aiports for something else? If so, what?
Get more bandwidth from Comcast?
Any and all advice is extremely appreciated.

Actually, the ideal way to provide wireless (especially in a large building) is to first run an Ethernet backbone that connects back to the main Internet router, and then, place wireless access points anywhere you need wireless along this backbone. For example, I only have a two-story home, but I use a wired Cisco router which feeds my Internet connection via Ethernet to several rooms on both floors. I then have two AirPorts, one for each floor, that provides wireless. The whole network is configured for roaming so that you can literally roam with a wireless device and still be on the "same" network. Ref: Apple Support - Setting up and configuring a roaming network
Without an Ethernet backbone, extending by wireless connections with sufficient bandwidth would require properly placing each base station to be useful. This is part science, part magic, but doable if you have the patience to perform a throughout RF site map.

Similar Messages

  • What is the best way to setup network so its FASTEST?

    Hello,
    I have an old airport plugged into my cable provider box, and use one macbook pro core duo on it, and one new imac on it. But lately i transfer from the internet a lot of big files, and i wan't the fastest network connection for my imac.
    Should i connect my imac directly with an UTP connection directly into the airport and let the macbook pro connect on the airport ? Will that be a faster internet connection ?
    Or should i get a new airport extreme station ? the gigabit ethernet port that is on the airport extreme, should i connect that to the cable provider ? does that has gigabit ethernet ? or should i put my imac in it there ? how can that be fast if it's the only one connecting on the gigabit ethernet port ?
    Thanks a lot for helping me out...

    How fast is the connection to your ISP? It is probably 6 Mbps or less.
    Therefore (depending on RF issues) any 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless or Ethernet connection is going to be faster than your Internet connection. Therefore getting a faster base station will NOT speed your Internet downloads or Internet access.
    Or should i get a new airport extreme station ? the gigabit ethernet port that is on the airport extreme, should i connect that to the cable provider ? does that has gigabit ethernet ?
    Cable modems used to have only a 10 Mbps Ethernet port. I believe many of the newer ones have a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port. This is usually provided to achieve compatibility with user equipment. It is generally not needed because of the connection speed to the ISP.

  • What is the best way to extend a Wireless network?

    Hi,
    We have 3 devices,
    1) Our Primary Network Router (which creates our office Network and has DHCP enabled).
    2) We have and Airport Extreme, which is used to create our Wireless Network (THIS IS SET TO “Create Wireless Network”), it has DHCP Enabled, its DHCP IP Scheme is set to 192.168.2.x, where the IP Scheme of our Primary Network is set to 192.168.181.x.
    3) We have an Airport Express that we are trying to use to EXTEND our Wireless Network.
    The most important thing we are trying to accomplish is to isolate the Wireless Network from our Primary Network, so Wireless Clients can access the Internet, but CAN’T SEE or ACCESS the Shared Network Volumes AVAILABLE ON THE PRIMARY NETWORK.
    At the moment, the Wireless Clients can access the Internet and receive an IP in the range of 192.168.2.x from the DHCP Server in the Airport Extreme. That part of it is working, but the Wireless Clients can unfortunately still SEE and ACCESS the Network Volumes available on the Primary Network. WHICH IS NOT WHAT WE WANT!!
    Question 1: How can we have the Airport Create a separate Network, so the Wireless Clients CAN’T SEE or ACCESS the Network Volumes from the Primary Network, but can still get access to the Internet through the Primary Network?
    Question 2: What is the best way to use the Airport Express to “EXTEND” the Airport Extreme’s Wireless Network? I have tried WDS “Main” for Extreme and WDS “Remote” for Express, but all that doesn’t allow you to use the Extreme to Create a Separate Network, it uses the DHCP Server built into the Primary Network’s Router. Also tried to set the Express to “EXTEND WIRELESS NETWORK”, which seems to work, but I am not sure why. Because I don’t have a cable from the Extreme to the Express, which is sounds like you have to when it is setup that way!!
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
    Thanks
    Kalagan

    Question 1: How can we have the Airport Create a separate Network, so the Wireless Clients CAN’T SEE or ACCESS the Network Volumes from the Primary Network, but can still get access to the Internet through the Primary Network?
    There is no way to do this. Any of the wireless clients of the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) can see any device connected to the AEBS's WAN port. Clients of a subnet can see anything on the supernet.
    You could configure you network like this:
    Internet-> (WAN) AEBS (LAN) -> Primary router
    As long as the Primary router was providing DHCP/NAT the things on the LAN side of the Primary router would be hidden from the AEBS clients.
    A better solution may be to have 2 completely separate networks OR invest in some type of network security firewall device to actively isolate your Primary network.
    Question 2: What is the best way to use the Airport Express to “EXTEND” the Airport Extreme’s Wireless Network? I have tried WDS “Main” for Extreme and WDS “Remote” for Express, but all that doesn’t allow you to use the Extreme to Create a Separate Network, it uses the DHCP Server built into the Primary Network’s Router. Also tried to set the Express to “EXTEND WIRELESS NETWORK”, which seems to work, but I am not sure why. Because I don’t have a cable from the Extreme to the Express, which is sounds like you have to when it is setup that way!!
    WDS is 802.11g's method of wirelessly extending a network.
    "Extend wireless network" is 802.11n's method of wirelessly extending a network.
    Neither of them require the AirPort Express (AX) to be cabled to the AEBS.

  • I have a 1 TB Time Capsule on a wireless network with my iMac and my wife's MacBook Pro.  The TC is almost full. What is the best way/device to increase storage capacity?

    I have a 1 TB Time Capsule on a wireless network with my iMac and my wife's MacBook Pro.  The TC is almost full. What is the best way/device to increase storage capacity?

    Replace the Time Capsule with one that has a larger hard drive. Or erase the one you have and start a new set of backups or backup one of the computers to a different backup drive.

  • What is the best way to link 4 Airport units together wirelessly?

    Hi guys,
    I have a home with tick walls and creating  a decent wireless network was always a challenge. Recently I’ve decided to go for Apple products since I had a 4th gen airport express that worked well for airplay.
    I bought a new time capsule, airport extreme, and one airport express. So in total I have 4 apple devices that I can use for creating a good wireless network. But what I found out is that having a full signal doesn’t mean that you will have good speeds, and speeds are really slow like 3Mb/s max on some places on the house.
    The way that everything is configured at the moment is that I’ve configured the time capsule to be the main router and with the other three I’ve spreaded them over my house and selected the option to extend a wireless network using Airport Utility 6.2 on OSX.
    What is strange that I have a full signal on almost all corners but very bad speeds. I did some research and found a tool that would show what the less crowded channel that you can choose for you wireless network (http://tools.meraki.com/stumbler)
    In all my experience of extending a wireless network I’ve always used routers with DD-WRT so I could select the router to be a repeater bridge (and have two distinct networks, with different names) or link the routers with WDS linking them using the MAC address. In both cases all the documentation I’ve read recommended to set all routers of the same network with the same channel.
    When I used the stumbler tool to see what channel my network was, since it was set as automatic because it’s the recommendation of Apple documentation, I found out that all 4 routers were operating on different channel on both 2.4Ghz frequencies and 5Ghz frequencies.
    What is strange with the wireless network is that sometimes when it is really slow the speed of the internet, if I disconnect from the wireless network and connect again it gets a better connection, like I was connection to a closer router. But after sometime speeds get crappy again, like it changed to the far router again.
    My question is, what is the best way to link all this routers together wirelessly? Is there a way to make them to be all on the same channel? Is that important?
    On the Airport Utility 6.2 I don’t see any field that would make possible to link this routers using WDS. On the internet I found some documentation for configuring the routers with WDS with the Airport Utility 5.6.
    All my routers are updated to the latest version (7.6.3). Please let me know how to proceed to have a decent network on my house. I wouldn’t mind having the network set with different SSIDs but it would be better to use the same network name on all the house.
    Thanks in advance,
    Tiago

    At the moment it is configured like this.
    [IMG]http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6403/capturadetela20130210s2.png[/IMG]
    My problem is that the signal its strong but speed isn’t. On Wifi stumbler I saw that every router is set to be on a different channel, they had to be the same no?
    If its really slow if I disconnect and connect again from the network. It gets faster, like it connected to a closer router or something.
    All are set to extend a wireless network.
    Regards,
    T

  • What is the best way to set up iTunes on our home network so all family members have access to all of our itunes library, even music we don't have on the cloud?

    I have five different people using 10 different apple devices on one itunes account in our family.  We have had trouble sharing.  What is the best way to set up itunes on our home network?  We have purchased music that sits on icloud, but we also have music we have imported from our previous cd library.  Our itunes program keeps crashing and dumping everyone's playlists.  So far we have all been using just the one desktop computer to sync to because we can't figure out how to share the same librarly and playlists on multiple computers in our home so devices can be synced at any location as well as playlists and purchases be made. 

    What is the best way to set up itunes on our home network? 
    One iTunes library per person.  One iTunes account per person.
    If people wish to share songs, they can make copies.
    When the inevitable day comes when the kids get older, you will not have to come back here and post asking how all that stuff can get separated!

  • HT5304 what is the best way to connect my imac wireless with airport express or directly plugged into airport unit

    what is the best way to connect my imac to internet via airport express. wireless or ethernet plug to airport? thanks

    Hello quinstar,
    It sounds like you would like to use either your Personal HotSpot to AirPrint from your MacBook Pro or use an Airport to do so without internet access to the home. According to the following Featured Discussion you very well may be able to use AirPrint with Personal HotSpot:
    HT4356 Can I use personal hotspot as wifi to connect printer?
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4007254
    Also, the Airport products to not need an active internet connection to set up a home Wi-Fi connection so that is another option as well.
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    Take care,
    Sterling

  • What is the best way to get a time capsule to work with a new network name?

    What is the best way to get a time capsule to work with a new network name?

    Well it seems that you did not explain to us the full story.  Did you change ISP's or something? Why would it not show up anymore?
    What colour is the light on the time-capsule? If it's blinking amber, then you probably need to do a factory-reset. That should get it to show up again in AirPort Utility.

  • What is the best way to go about getting a wireless connection on the go?

    Im new to the aple product. I just recently bought a New Macbook Pro and wanted to know what is the best way to go about connecting to the internet while not at home and on the go. I was thinking of maybe a USB internet stick. But dont know who provides them and who would be the best choose to go with for a nice price every month. If that was the best choose in the first place. Im living in the U.S.A so if you could help ill really apprecaite it. THANKS

    Hi! I'm writing in beginning of October so I don't know if you've found a solution.
    Your MacBook Pro probably has a WiFi card built in. You don't need to have a USB connector.
    Turn on AirPort, go to Network and choose the network that is available to you. It might ask for a password, so get it from the cashier. My MBP connects wherever I go, as long as there is a network available.
    Good luck.
    RS

  • With supervised ipads, what is the best way to transfer photos and videos from the ipad to the PC? Wireless transfer is not an option in our circumstances

    With supervised ipads, what is the best way to transfer photos and videos to the PC? Wireless transfer is not an option in our circumstances.

    There are only two ways of transfering things on the iPad.
      - via WiFi
      - via usb cable
    From what I have read, you need to connect to iTunes on the supervising PC.
    Robert

  • What's the best way to segment my home network?

    I run a home-based business and would like to segment my home network so that I've got my home users on one "leg" and my business on another, so that remote users logging in to the business network cannot possibly access my home network.
    I have a remote business partner and contractors who need to access my Windows SBS 2003 (to include Exchange server and an Opentaps database).
    I have my AEBS and I also have a Linksys router. I'd like to keep my home access on my AEBS (numerous Apple components that are best served by the AEBS) and business behind the Linksys.
    What is the best way to accomplish this goal?
    Thank you,
    Melissa

    Do you have any suggestions for best practices in this case, or a starting point? A book or website to which I could refer to explanations of network arrangements and the benefits of various configurations?
    I would recommend starting with the Cisco RVS4000 Administrative Guide which goes into more detail on each of this router's feature, specifically the sections on VPN & L2 Switch which goes into configuring the router for remote access and VLANs respectively.
    If you need further assistance in setting up either, you can try the Cisco User support forums or consider hiring a network specialist to fine-tune the network based on your requirements.
    Would I then attach my RVS4000 router directly to modem and then AEBS attached to RVS400? Does RVS then act as DHCP server?
    Yes, you will want to configure the RVS4000 as your "main" Internet router so that you can take advantage of both the VPN & VLAN features. In addition, the Cisco is a business-grade router and offers far more control than consumer-grade routers like the AirPorts or similar routers.
    Local/home network users have no need of connecting to SBS and SBS is only serving up Exchange functionality and the Opentaps database (which is accessed via web browser).
    Using the RVS4000's VLAN feature, you could configure a separate VLAN segment just for non-business use. This has the added benefit of not only separating the users but also may provide better bandwidth as business & non-business traffic would be on different VLAN segments.

  • HT1688 What is the best way to unlock my phone 3gs so my wife can use it with her network.  I have purchased a new phone on the AT&T network

    What is the best way to unlock my phone 3gs so my wife can use it with her network.  I have purchased a new phone on the AT&T network.  I know there are alot of software companies that will sell to me but I have no idea which one I should use.  Can anyone help?

    To unlock an iPhone yoiu must go to the carrier and requesrt that they unlock it.
    Allan

  • What is the best way to secure and harden a Macbook Pro against unwanted surveillance?

    What is the best way to secure and harden a Macbook Pro against unwanted surveillance? Tor, VPN, Little Snitch, etc. This would be for that latest version of Mavericks.

    djbabybokchoy wrote:
    Nothing specific, just speaking in general. Ex-wives, governments, bad guys...anyone really. I'm just looking to make my Mac a bit more private and secure, especially when on public networks.
    Governments and ex's will/may have recourse to the legal process (or in the case of the Gov they can choose to ignore the legal system if they feel like it) when they want to see something of yours, good luck hardening your Mac against that. The best way to avoid the possibility of snooping over public networks is to avoid them but if you can't then Kappy's suggestion will help.
    Strong passwords (everywhere) and don't use the same password in multiple locations.
    If you really want to secure your home wireless use Mac address connection authentication, do not allow unknown Mac addresses to connect. It's much stronger than a WPA password alone.

  • I'm buying a new Macbook Pro this week and am wondering what is the best way to copy over the software I have from my existing Macbook Pro to the new one? eg. Photoshop and Office etc. I no longer have the CDs.

    I'm buying a new Macbook Pro this week and am wondering what is the best way to copy over the software I have from my existing Macbook Pro to the new one? eg. Photoshop and Office etc. I no longer have the CDs.

    Ya know what I'm on a brand new MBP just about 24 hours old and you know whats been working amazingly for me. I have a 27inch iMac as well and i've just connected it to my network and been dragging files and apps across the network onto my new MBP. Its really working fast and its flawless. You could always do that option, Just go into sharing options and turn them on for both Macs. Then just click and drag. Of course they have to both be on the same network for this to be possible.
    Look at my network.
    Shared is what your looking at.  I click on there see all my computers files and then drag the ones i want form its folder to my MBP folders.  Hope that helps if your looking for a very simple way on a wireless network.

  • What's the best way to transfer 11,000 photo's from my old mac to my new one?

    What's the best way to transfer 11,000 photo's on iphoto to iphoto on my new mac.  I've just spent 24 hours importing them onlu for it to say there is not enough space available  - BUT I'VE JUST BOUGHT AN NEW UPGRADED MAC?

    Don't import them.
    To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
    Link the two Macs together: there are several ways to do this: Wireless Network,Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the Library to an external HD and then on to the new machine...
    But however you do choose to link the two machines...
    Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
    Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
    This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Need Volume Control API's for windows phone 8.1

    Hi,    I'm developing a windows phone 8.1 app in which volume need to control. To do this I'm not getting API's to perform this operation, so can any one help to develop this app. if not please post some suggestions why this is not possible. Thanks i

  • After updating on IOS6 my SIM is no longer recognized. API problem??

    Having updated to IOS 6 my SIM Card cannot be unlocked. Message is "invalid code" or so. While other attempts the iPad freezes. Anyone an idea?

  • ITunes 7.1 Causes Computer to Crash During Games

    When running iTunes 7.1 along with games in order to play my own music in the background (specifically Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion but presumably any game with significant usage of EAX or 3D sound hardware capabilities), my sound card's output becomes

  • Printing .GIF images with PHP

    Hello, As part of a PHP IF statement, I would like to print an image instead of text. How do I do this? Thanks in advance, John

  • OS_X upgrade makes applications crash

    I obeyed an Apple alert and installed 5 software upgrades yesterday. All seemed harmless. Now, however, I can't launch Microsoft Excel; I also had trouble using Firefox, until I reinstalled it. I use Excel for my work. What can I do to make it work a