WiFi

[Don Roger]

My WiFi signal is not working very well. The signal through-out my house and yard is spotty at best. So, I have purchased a mesh router and satellite system (NetGear Orbis) and need some help in setting them up properly, as well as, correctly disabling the router part of the Tel-Mex Modem. I am aware YouTube has DIY videos of disabling the Tel-Mex router part of the combo Modem but am not totally comfortable doing it myself. I am hoping Kasugie, Don Coulter or perhaps Pianoheat (your IT guy) could recommend someone. Thanks guys.

[DonJuane]

Dang, I never make the short list but maybe it was because I told off the last wise guy who asked me about routers and then told me to go find a technician when I didn't give him the answer he wanted (for basically not agreeing with and praising the mesh router idea) LOL.

Sarcastically I say anyone can have all the mesh networks they want. The commercial mesh packages they are selling today are just plug and play and youtube can indeed get you started. To set your Telmex radios (SSID access points) off it depends on your model but basically they are often at 192.168.1.254 (use command line "ipconfig /all" on a Windows command prompt to see your gateway address and thus your router address to log into with your browser). Then log in with ID TELMEX and your SSID password, go to Wireless LAN options and uncheck the two radios for your 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios. Save changes of course. Now plug your mesh WAN port in any one of the unused LAN ports of the Telmex and configure your Mesh system like it was direct connected to the Internet. If you've opened ports into your system before (e.g. security camera access, FTP, web server, etc.), you will likely want to use the DMZ option of the Telmex router, setting up a static IP address for the mesh router and then forwarding the DMZ to the static IP of the mesh router.

Still mesh networks are basically "for the birds" as far as I'm concerned and especially in Mexico because you're normally dealing with extremely thick concrete walls and signals just can't penetrate them. The mesh network is nothing more than a daisy chain of bucket-brigade-ing the signal through your house and on the end router it will be only as good of throughput as the furthest router from the previous one is able to produce. That's why I always do my professional work using a multi-router wired system that means every signal is the best it can be (and not a copy of the best one before that and before that and before that was able to pick up). Still I guess they are better than nothing.

I am sorry but I don't help people any longer is because one can often work all day for someone and then they make some snide remark toward you because you were not able to dissolve the laws of physics just to accommodate them. They hire a local guru who sells them a "bill of goods" and some are happy with it even if it cost more and is not the best solution. So that's good and it makes me very happy I didn't get involved. I'd really hate to work retail or for the public any more, there's just no future in it. Thank's God for this retirement LOL.

Otherwise back to the subject of mesh, if you are talking about an African village and supplying them with Internet, then using high quality equipment from tower to tower with quality radios and hardware configured as a mesh network is a good idea. If you are talking about being Super Man and being able to alter physical radio wave properties and penetrate Mexican 2 foot thick walls with a mesh network, then I'd be all over that mesh if it were true. In the interim while awaiting Super Man I'm sticking to wired and multiple routers. I currently have a fully wired multi-router network with US VPN client dedicated router, a local VPN server and a separate Telmex PPoE node bridged into an OpenWRT OpenVPN server to log in remotely and securely to monitor cameras, VOIP units and other equipment including NAS server and I don't use any kind of mesh network and wouldn't have one. You can pick up routers for $20 these days and with enough RAM to host Linux based open source router software to make them as powerful as $600 units and yes that even includes configuring them for mesh. So with a little wiring and a $20 router in every major family gathering area, you've got a perfect signal everywhere. But that's not "magic" like mesh and the reason the last fellow I tried to help put me into my current "never again" frame of mind after his disparaging remarks.

In close it is without exception I always hard wire a multiple router network when dealing with the kind of walls we encounter here in Mexico or where we are talking about penetrating metal buildings, etc. Otherwise with mesh, the end router in the chain sporting an illusionary 5-bars is only fooling the naive while producing the same limited signal the weakest mesh to mesh router in the chain is able to accomplish and masking that bad signal with a large meter reading.

Anyway - Sorry to cop an attitude but the last guy who asked for help here left a sour taste in my mouth. Best of luck to you.

[DonJuane]

*** Before anyone steps in as says I should have suggested bridge mode, well that's a better idea than using DMZ but if you've got both a Telmex Internet line and phone from them too, then going bridge will disable your internal ATA (VOIP logic). The VOIP login credentials will not be given to you by Telmex and it's unlikely you could configure a stand-alone ATA like a Linksys SPA-2102 to work with their SIP system even if you had all the config data. I've read there are also serial number pass backs to their equipment and you can't really get another ATA talking to their VOIP network. So for that reason the DMZ option is basically your main way of still allowing open ports into your network while configuring those on your new router, and that's if you have phone service along with your Internet. Stand alone and with no Telmex land-line (fiber-line LOL) you can give bridge mode a try which disables all the Telmex router except for the modem part and your router then is open to handle external connect attempts as you have adjusted your firewall.

[kasugie]

I have to second Don Juane's remarks. We've given up on using WiFi at home, except for connecting cell phones and iPads at the breakfast/dinner table, which is 4 feet and line-of-sight away from the router/access point.

All computers/laptops and other devices (including big screen TV) are connected to routers via ethernet cables. You can buy Category 6 or 7 shielded cables of just about any length on Amazon Mexico, and have a maestro (or do-it-yourself) secure it to walls, over doorposts, and basically out-of-the-way and non-intrusive.

[Don Roger]

Hi,
DonJuane, please accept my apologies for not short listing you in the request. Clearly, you are one of the gentlemen I needed to speak with. Also, I want to thank-you for an incredibly informed response. Thanks Kasugie for your response and seconded opinion as well. DonJuane I can certainly understand your reasoning. However, I think my situation maybe a little different. I currently have my TV and 2 desktop computers hard wired. I have no real interest in having Wi-Fi throughout my house for anything. Yes, these rock/cement walls in Mexico are brutal on signals and I have never been impressed with Wi-Fi reliance here. My objective was to try getting my wife Wi-Fi yard access on her phone for music. I purchased a router (top rated Consumer Reports) with a satellite. I had tried repeaters and extenders for signal when I first moved to Mexico many years ago and they were “not good”. I then purchased a router (top rated Consumer Reports) with a satellite and will try to get a signal from the kitchen to outdoors. I will also attempt to disable the Tel-Mex modem. Thanks again!
Don

[DonJuane]

You are welcome. Don't forget to ensure your new mesh router is set up and working before shutting down your TELMEX radios. In fact if your channels are not congested where you live, you actually can have both radios on along with your new mesh equipment, assuming there is channel selection option on your new equipment which should minimize any cross interfearance. You should also have the option to do channel selection on the TELMEX radios and you can set them to a channel not utilized on one side of the band and the new mesh router and satellite on a channel not utilized on the other side of the band. With this, you could also extend the Ethernet cable you plan to run from your TELMEX router to the main mesh network router to where the main mesh router is in another part of the home from the TELMEX if it was possible to locate the other satellite in a line of sight of the first it would be good, plus locate the satellite router even further where there are no obstructions between the two (glass is OK) routers other than distance if at all possible.

There are phone apps to do wifi network scans and you can normally scan and make notes at your location and thus check out the channels the neighbors are using. Most will probably be using channel 11 or 1 perhaps but it varies. So let's say you find multiples of signals on all the channels perhaps with the exception that channel 2 is open and channel 10 is open. You could change the TELMEX 2.4GHz radio specifying channel 10 (the unused one) and the 5GHz likely won't matter because few people are using this band but you can also be safe and tune that to an unused channel in the neighborhood as well seen by scanning the 5GHz band. Now getting back to the more utilized 2.4GHz band you can go into the mesh routers configuration and configure them to use channel 2, the other channel as far channel-wise from the TELMEX as you can find.

In most areas you do not have the serious contention for channels that we have in this fish bowl parabola of GTO and you will never see the types of channel contention going on here, adjusting channels in this environment can provide you a better chance of not having interference in your home if you can get away from the channels your neighbors are using. This is something that needs to be checked periodically and re-tuned as people come and go near you, adding and removing services, routers and doing their own channel tuning.

Note: Many routers supposedly do an initial scan to find an empty or underutilized channel but I have never seen one to date that was actually using a good low utilized one that is seen with actual network scans. So what you can do is leave both networks on the AUTO selection for channel, then follow up with a smartphone network scan and see if they are playing by the rules. If they are automatically switched to low utilization channels (as proven with your smartphone scan), then all is well and you can forget this aspect of configuration. However if you find them on the exact same or right next to each other channel-wise or on top of your neighbors channels, then you will gain by customizing the channels they are assigned, setting them manually.

[DonJuane]

Another thing - realize that the FCC regulates the maximum transmit power of any router sold in the USA and no matter how much you pay for one you are still getting one that transmits at or about the maximum allowed (500mW). If it does broadcast at a lower power level, it gets a bad wrap online and won't sell. If it goes over it can get pulled during certification. So many times buying the $40 or the $400 router you are getting the same electronics and maybe all that you get with the $400 is it looks like a Star Trek movie prop while the cheap one looks like a cheap one. The only way to really extend the performance of a router is with a directional antenna which sort of conflicts with supplying signal "everywhere". As a rule of thumb if shopping for a router and the router is missing the external antenna, it should be automatically rejected. This hidden antenna design is another example of not being able to "buy-away" the rules of physics while trading the lack of an antenna for appearance and hoping for the results to be the same. Of course you are lucky that a 1/4 wave length antenna is around 33mm and thus "fits inside the box" but that size is from my foggy memory. So while internal antennas etched on circuit boards are not as good as an external antenna they still provide a basic level of performance. Still the typical "saucer shape" of the propagation pattern from a conventional omni directional "rubber ducky" antenna beats hands down those that are stamped on PC boards along with the router electronics.

Also don't bother with the expensive multi antenna units, as the single antenna will do fine and the maximum output is the same no matter the cost.