Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 17:01 Post subject: Thanks to all for dd-wrt!
I've "lurked" as a non-member on these forums for a long time, and now want to share a network setup that we have used in our home for over a year. This setup has been very stable; it works well enough to stream HD video from an internal DLNA media server (1080p), and from Netflix (720p). I've attached a jpeg of the network topology in case it is helpful to anyone, because similar diagrams posted in the past were helpful to me.
Our setup uses four refurbished, dual-radio, Netgear WNDR3300 routers, with a cable internet connection (15 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up). One WNDR3300 is configured as the internet gateway and is also an 802.11n access point (wl0- 5 Ghz). The other three routers are in 802.11n client bridge mode. The AP and two CB are connected to blue-ray DVD players that can stream video from the DLNA media server and Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/Vudu etc. The wl1 radio (802.11g) is disabled on the AP and one CB, but is active on both the other client bridges. Both these CB are configured with the same SSID/authentication, but widely separated channels (1 & 11). Dual radio use on the WNDR330 routers prevents wireless bandwidth being halved, and gives complete coverage of both levels of our house as well as the front and back yards.
NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT DD-WRT - SO A BIG THANK YOU TO ITS DEVELOPERS/TESTERS, AND THE MANY FORUM USERS WHOSE COMMENTS HAVE BEEN VERY USEFUL!
Nice setup! Just wondering how is your Gateway 3300 doing with the 100TX setting? Peacock seems to be pretty against this. Have you noticed any over temp issues?
No over-temp issues at all, although the router is a location with pretty decent air flow. The higher TX appears necessary for this router to connect stably with two of the others. At lower TX values, the signal quality drops very low (<20), and thru put (measured using iperf) drops as well. The only other setting that I know to make a big difference is the ACK timing (sensitivity). Dropping this to ~30m (from the default 2000) raises thru put by 10-15%.