Demystifying Wi-Fi Roaming: What You Need to Know to Avoid Costly Mistakes

I agree,

I've been a system administrator for the past 20 years and was involved with multimillion dollar wifi projects in the at UPS with the migration to massive wireless AP systems in all their hubs for scanners and Diad III devices (provide full coverage in massive warehouses full of lots of corners and metal including delivering wifi out to their airplanes and mobile scanning units out on the loading zones and such). Complexity was needed. But, unless you have some massive house packed full of brick, this is completely over kill. If people are serious about wifi with good coverage then all you need is one good Cisco Aironet business class AP with the latest wifi technology. People now-a-days can take a laptop around (or PDA) and gauge the wireless reception in different corners of their house to figure out the best place to out it (or if the house is large enough or has crazy things like brick walls, a second ap). I don't see the purpose of having elite hand off on a house unless you are siting on your laptop actively playing wow in a battle zone with 50 people and you are running across your house (as you get a minor blip in latency). I run this now with no problem and have no problem sitting on the far side of my house getting reception from my theater up 3 floors across the house. The next point is that if people are this serious about there internet connection for coverage like that, they should * always* use the wire first. Spend the money on cat6 in the walls running gigabit vs a crappy wireless radio signal bouncing all over your walls. Most of us guys running media servers are already streaming Blueray quality movies to our devices and wifi aint going to do it. If you have static devices like DVR's, PS3's, TV's, media servers and PC's that obviously do not move, get the Ethernet cable first.

In congested cities, or huge homes, every application will be different. I think this guide was designed for people who use home-grade equipment in the <$80 price range. A huge house as pictured should have repeaters in the main area's a listed.

I was hoping for something interesting but this article turned to be an ad for a specific product.


Brick or even concrete walls are not a "crazy thing" in many countries. If you live in a small wooden house then you can just put a good WiFi AP in the center of the house and you are done. I didn't need to read an article to tell me this. This is something you can do with many other good WiFi access points and you don't need the one advertised in this article.

This article is an advertisement for a specific hardware product. It doesn't even suggest basic strategies when using multiple access points. such as channel spread/isolation. Wait- I think this article is SPAM!

I agree with this statement. Cat6 can be purchased fairly cheaply from many sites (including Monoprice). I'm not an IT specialist in any way. DIY is very easy to do (there can be some challenges in running the wire in some homes). We did originally use extenders (still do for some wireless access - laptops, Android phones, and other visitor's toys), but wired everything else that does not move. It's easy to use multiple Gigabit Switches to get the job done. Here is what our network looks like - and it's not a large home, but we stream a lot of material in HD with no glitches.

I have a 4,600sqft house with 4 levels and 20mbit DSL. My office is on level 4 and my main computer is wired to the wireless modem (Motorola). I have no dead spots anywhere in my home, including the basement which has cinderblock interior walls. My integrated home theater in that basement has no issues with streaming HD content over Netflix.

Good for you. I live in a two bedroom apartment and there's so much wireless interference around that it doesn't even reach halfway across the apartment.

jhoff80 - aka the major city apt building dilemma while using home-grade equipment.