Wireless Networking Question

[wrems]

I have had some unusual experiences with my home network and wondering if anyone here has any insight.

I can transfer large files from the web at pretty fast speeds and never have any issues with my laptop losing connection. When I transfer say a movie from my server to my wireless laptop it plods along for a while and then my wireless adapter just disconnects and everything stops. I repair the connection and everything is good again.

What’s going on here? Are these the symptoms of a bad wireless signal?

[GKusnick]

Are you using a separate wireless access point, or is the WAP built into your router? If the latter, it may be that the router itself is optimized for Internet-to-LAN traffic and vice versa, but not for point-to-point traffic within your LAN, and is choking on the higher data rate from your file server.

I generally prefer to build my LAN out of separate router, switch, and WAP components, so I'm not depending on the router to handle high-speed local traffic. Plus I can upgrade my wireless component without disturbing the rest of the setup.

[wrems]

You raise a good point about my router configuration and the type of traffic it’s optimized for. I will have to look into that since I’m not at all sure how it’s set right now. It’s been a long time since I’ve tinkered with the settings. It's a linksys ddwrt.

I believe that I have my setup as what you’re recommending. I have a GigE switch with my router coming off of it. I don’t use the ports on my router for my lan. Is that what you’re suggesting?

[GKusnick]

Right, but if the WAP is integrated into the router, then your wireless LAN traffic is still going through the router's internal switch, which may not perform as well as a standalone switch. A separate WAP hanging off the gigabit switch would remove that variable from the equation, if you can lay your hands on one to experiment with.

[wrems]

Huh, so does one need a router or would a dedicated wireless access point and standalone switch be a better combination? It still seems like the router is necessary for the connection of the cable modem... Or, am I missing something altogether about how these connections are to be made? Doesn't the router give some firewall protection too, does the WAP?

Obviously, I need to read up more on this. Networking is one of those things that I've not really fully understood. When it works great, and when it doesn't; power cycle everything and cross my fingers

[GKusnick]

Yes, you still need a router to connect to the Internet; and yes, the router is where the firewall lives. But ideally the only traffic going through the router should be Internet traffic.

The WAP implements wireless security that encrypts the packets going out over the air in order to prevent eavesdropping and block unauthorized connections to the wireless LAN. But that's not the same as firewall protection against malicious traffic coming in from the Internet. You need both.

[wrems]

I got you now and that makes perfect sense!