@Byteguy Just an update. After the tweaks  you suggested, things seem to be going well according to the marina. The manager told me yesterday that she has been getting compliments on the wifi quality.

Still a couple of things I wonder about. I didn't disable the 5GHz band yet. Was waiting to see how network quality was. I am assuming that if I deny 5GHz to the clients by disabling it at each AP, this will have no effect on the APs talking to each other or the backhaul. I told the manager I might try that, and she was fine with it as long as it didn't mess with the network quality. I told her all would be OK if we went that way.

While looking at the clients, I noticed that there are several clients with more than one connection. Don't know if we can do anyting about that. I does increase the total connections, but so far, the total connections has not exceeded 30. One person seemed to be connnected to both 5GHZ and 2.4GHz with the same device. Didn't think that was possible. The number of connecitons, if it becomes a problem, may have to be dealt with by the marina manager. I really don't want to get into the middle of that.

I still think that using a separate router to deal exclusively with the docks would be a good idea. Perhaps we should go to a managed switch. I've never used one and am not sure of the advantage other than more dependability. Keep in mind that this business is not terribly complex. There is a router (Comcast) that provides internet connectivity to three things. One is the manager's computer, the second is a wireless router in her office for visitors needing phone or laptop connectivity in the office, and the third is the conneciton to the CPE serving the dock. Because the existing 8-port switch may have overheated or something and had to be reset last week and the fact that I'm getting messages on my phone that the Omada controller had gone offline several times makes me think a new switch or router would be a good idea.

Anyway, thanks for your help. Although I have worked with computers for many years, working with mesh networks is new to me.

Art

Hi @Byteguy,

Glad to heard things are going well.

A few points:

1) "I am assuming that if I deny 5GHz to the clients by disabling it at each AP, this will have no effect on the APs talking to each other or the backhaul."

You don't need to or want to disable or change anything on the individual AP's (other than channel, transmit power, or Load Balance settings).  Each AP inherits the SSID config from the controller when it is adopted/managed.  So if you want to limit an SSID to use only 2.4, all you need to do is uncheck a single box at the global level.  This will not impact the MESH at all.  Similarly, it is set per SSID.  You can have multiple SSID per AP -- some which support either 2.4 OR 5.8 OR Both.  No changes to Radio settings are needed / advised.

2) "While looking at the clients, I noticed that there are several clients with more than one connection." 

Yeah, unfortunately the client info and Insight on Omada are always updated in real time.  One can often find stale details.  I wouldn't worry about this too much.  If you see the same client having been connected to both radios.

3) "This particular guy decided he wanted to log onto a specific AP rather than take what the Mesh gives him."

This should not be possible.  Every AP should be configured to inherit the same global SSID config set from Omada.  It is not possible to force a client to associate to one and only one AP -- UNLESS, the SSID's are setup at the AP level (rather than global) -- not advised -- and there is a unique SSID name on each AP (definately not advised).  Unless he was trying to log into the CPE -- which he shouldn't be doing.

4) "I think the guy who was complaining was unhappy he couldn't  use 5GHz. His reasoning was that in the 2.4GHz band, you have limited channels while in the 5GHz you have a whole bunch of them."

Nope.  Well, it depends.  In theory, if all of your AP's were hardwired, or CPE connected, and you used 20MHz wide channels for 5.8GHz, then yes, he would be correct (more potential channels on 5.8GHz).  But in your case you want to use a 80MHz wide 5.8GHz channel for the MESH.  There are only two possible channels, and you can only use one because all AP's on Wireless MESH will share the same 5.8GHz backhaul channel.  Given this there are fewer 80MHz channels (only 2 in the USA for EAP225/245's) than there are 20MHz wide 2.4GHz channels (3 non-overlapping 1,6,11)

5) Replacing the switch is simple and easy.  You can just drop in a new one, often with no configuration at all.  Replacing the router (if there is one) cab be involved.  Generally, for most SOHO broadband, the routing capability is built into the DOCSIS modem and not a separate device. And generally the Modem is provided by the ISP.

But if things are going well, by all means leave the 5.8Ghz enabled in the SSID and test it for a while.

-Jonathan 

Oops, forgot the screen shot -- how to disable 5.8Ghz access for one SSID.

@JSchnee21 The SSID is set at the controller level. It is passed to the network through the CPEs. The guy should not be able to log onto an AP. He says he logged on to the MAC address of the AP, knowing that a logon to the system was a logon to the SSID and he would be passed to the nearest AP. APs don't have individual identities in the MESH. So I have no idea if he was actually successful. He is shown as a client of the AP he wants, but then that AP is only about 50' from him!

Art

@Byteguy Yep--me again with a quesiton about enabling the rate limit. I have done a global rate limit of 10Mbps (10000Kbps)

When I look at the client data, everyone shows a rate of above 10Mbps. How is this possible. The documentation does not seem to address this.

Hi @Byteguy,

What you did is correct.  The global throttle does not effect the negotiated air rate between the AP and STA's.  It only throttles the data passing through.  You won't see any effect until you try to run a speed test as a throttled STA on the network,

-Jonathan

@JSchnee21 Thanks!  This means I don't need to be concerned with the shown rate.

Art

@Byteguy Sure--me again. Tell me why we want to set the channel width on the 5GHz to 80MHz. This is apparently the maximum width (I would suppose the best for MESH admin purposes--but I'm not sure). From what I read, narrower widths open up more available channels. In your screenshot, you show that the width is 80MHz and the channel on the root AP is set to channel 36. I have my channel set as auto and it apparantly assigns all 5GHz users to channel 40.

One thing I have not been able to determine is just how the two antennae on the EAP-225 outdoor units should be positioned. They can be left vertial or tilted to the horizontal. How does positioning really affect their radiation pattern?  Or more accurately, since these are not directional antennae, why are there two of them? Does this create a synergistic effect? At this time, I have the antennae set in a narrow "Y" configuration. Whichever way we position them, they have to be tightened down as the wind will move them if we don't.

Thanks again,

Art (rapidly becoming a PITA, I'm sure!)

Hi @Byteguy,

How many root nodes do you have?  Just one right?  Is your CPE the 5.8GHz version or the 2.4GHz version?

The way that the TP-Link MESH works on the 225 series is that all of the wirelessly connected nodes use the same channel and BW setting as the root node.  Ideally you want the root node to be set to a free 5.8GHz channel, of which there are only two 80MHz wide ones in the USA.  Excluding the DFS channels which the EAP225's do not support.

So assuming you have one root node, you definately want to use a 80MHz wide channel.  This gives the maximum band width possible.  Since you are aggregating multiple wirelessly connected AP's they all share this BW, so you want as wide of a channel as possible.

If your CPE is 5.8GHz, you should set it to a different channel than your Master Node 225 AP.  So for example, set your master node to 36 and your CPE to 149 or visa-versa.  If you have two master nodes, than you would want one set to 36 and one to 149.

As far as the antennas go, there are two because the AP has 2x2 radios.  That is to say each radio (2.4 and 5.8) can transmit and receive two streams of data simultaneously.  Some higher end AP's have 3x3 or 4x4 radios -- and thus more antennas.

Changing the orientation of the antennas absolutely effects the radiation pattern of the RF signals coming from the antennas as well as the polarized sensitivity of the antennas listening for client signals.  In, general, there are two schools of thought on this:

1) Keep them vertical

2) Bend each at a 45 so they are 90 degrees from one another.

You can experiment with each, but in my experience I have  found that option 1 is best.  Option 1 will generally give the best range.  In terms of mounting hight, ideally the center of the antennas (lenght wise) would be roughly the same height (from the ground) as the majority of your users.

The RF radiation pattern from the antennas are torroidal -- e.g. donuts -- where the antenna mast is in the center of the donut whole.

-Jonathan

@JSchnee21 Yes--the I use 2 CPE510. 5.15~5.8 GHz version One root node.

I'll have to check the CPE onsite, I believe. I can log onto the controller, but I'm not sure if I can access the CPE from here.

I don't know what channel the CPE is using. I think the only way I can see that is if I go onsite.

As I said, the master node is set to auto for channel selection and it turns up as 40. If I try to change that, it says communication with all APs will be interrupted. Guess I can do that early in the am then.

What is significant about channel 149? Is this your preference or something that happens automatically?

As I said, my antennae are in the shape of a Y (your option #2). We can change that to verticle next week to see if it makes a difference. All APs on the dock are about 16' in the air. The two on the boats are higher. Moon Flight is almost the same, but Elizabeth Ruth is at least 20' up. Sort of a funciton of a place to mount it!