Desperately need help with apple products and my network!

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sactjt

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First of all, I hope I'm in the right forum section...
Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help.

Info on devices:
- Macbook pro (md311)(osx mountain lion)(up to date)(sophos anti-virus)
- Iphone 4s (ios6)
- Iphone 4 (ios6)
- Windows pc (windows 7)(up to date)(media server/backups)(avg anti-virus)
- d-link 2640u (C2 revision) router (newest firmware I could find: RU 2.05) http://www.dlink.co.in/products/?pid=353.
- tp-link TL-WR842ND (newest firmware: V1_120424)(2 in house) http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/d...del=tl-wr842nd.
- western digital live media player (custom wdlxtv firmware 1.05.04)(2 in house).
- Hp laptop with windows xp (up to date)(mcafee anti-virus)
- wired network throughout the house (cat 5 10/100).
- adsl (mweb 4meg uncapped)

Layout:
Double story house.

Room 1:
Office on side of house with d-link router (wired or wireless)(acts as the gateway for adsl). Macbook used mostly here.
D-link set up with dhcp for iPhones and occasional devices. Static ip's for media pc, tp-link routers and wd media players (easier to acces from web front end). Other than previously mentioned, all standard settings.

Room 2:
Room inside house with windows 7 pc (set up with alt.binz (rss nzb downloads)(acts as media pc where all my devices connect to for media content)(couple of hard drives connected)(no funny settings, standard shared drives and folders).
Connected straight (wired) to my d-link @ office side. Static ip.

Room 3:
Entertainment area in house with tp-link router (wired) connected straight to d-link @ office. Acts as extra wi-fi coverage (set up with same ssid and encryption as other routers)(static ip)(dhcp on this router turned off).
Wd live connected (wired, static ip) to tp-link. Can access internet and shared folders from here.

Room 4:
Upstairs Bedroom with tp-link router (wired) connected straight to d-link @ office. Acts as extra wi-fi coverage (set up with same ssid and encryption as other routers)(static ip)(dhcp on this router turned off).
Wd live connected (wired, static ip) to tp-link. Can access internet and shared folders from here.

Iphones, hp laptop and macbook moves around these areas picking up strongest wi-fi signal.

Ping, speedtests, accessing files etc. between these devices works perfectly.

Problem:
The only (BIG,STRANGE) problem I do have, is that when I upload a file (email, dropbox, google drive etc.), from any of the apple devices, it affects my entire network! Let me explain... Say I use my Macbook (wired or wireless) to upload a file to dropbox or email etc., my entire network would become extremely slow for the period of the upload. My internet connection is fine, only my actual in-house network is affected. If I play a movie on one of the media players and start uploading (macbook), the movie would freeze until upload is finished. This can be any file played or accessed over network, small or big (bitrate). During this time, I will not be able to access my shared drives or folders from a device. This problem only occurs when using my macbook, iphone 4s or iPhone 4.

When I use the media pc or hp laptop for email, uploading, etc. everything is stable and works perfectly without any hassles.

Things i've tried:
I am not in any way a computer or network expert so please forgive my ridiculous attempts.
Tried changing Ip's from static to dhcp and vice versa. Fresh windows install on my media pc (needed one in anyway). Uninstalled all anti-virus. Turned off all firewalls (routers and pc's). Tried different router settings (qos, wmm, reset factory settings, etc.). Uninstalled/re-installed all network cards and wi-fi adaptors. Disconnected devices one by one and reconnected one by one (trial and error attempt). Swopped routers around. Connected a switch (hp procurve 408)(advice I got from a friend who has a job as a system administrator). The list goes on and on.. I've basically tried every logical approach, googled for hours and have spoken to 2 different system administrators who both scratched their heads.

This forum is now my last resort as I've literally tried everything! Hopefully we have some geniuses (not the apple ones, hehe) around or someone who has experienced this as well?

Ps. sorry for the extremely long post but I can already see replies asking for more info, specs etc....

Thanks in advance!!
 
Forget the rest and sort out your WiFi.

Utilize a channel from 6-13 on your WiFi Router, whichever Router that is. Change Channels to see which is the fastest to use:
Here's a pretty good step by step: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2113...ter-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/

Once your WiFi is sorted, the rest will work without issues.

Use strong encryption on your WiFi, WPA2-PSK or WPA2-AES, if your devices support it.
Use the correct channel.
Use the correct Wireless Country configuration.
Use Wireless G only, or if all devices support it, Wireless N only, if possible.

Give me a kiss once it works :love:
 
teraside said:
Forget the rest and sort out your WiFi.

Utilize a channel from 6-13 on your WiFi Router, whichever Router that is. Change Channels to see which is the fastest to use:
Here's a pretty good step by step: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2113...ter-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/

Once your WiFi is sorted, the rest will work without issues.

Use strong encryption on your WiFi, WPA2-PSK or WPA2-AES, if your devices support it.
Use the correct channel.
Use the correct Wireless Country configuration.
Use Wireless G only, or if all devices support it, Wireless N only, if possible.

Give me a kiss once it works :love:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply teraside!
This is the frustrating thing... I did try all these things!

I used a wi-fi analyzer app to test for wi-fi channels and selected the best one/s (tried all 13 as well).
I use wpa2-aes encryption on the 3 routers with same ssid for easy switching..
Country is set to South Africa on all 3 routers...

On my "main" router: static ip's assigned to "permanent" devices.
This router also does the dhcp leasing.

My "other" 2 routers: connected to "main" router with dhcp turned off.

As mentioned in the op, I have the same problem with macbook wired and wi-fi turned off. Same test with 2 different windows machines and no problems!

Any other ideas?
 
you may be having a g/n issue. some devices connecting over wifi g and iDevices over wifi n. You cannot run g and n on the same router?
 
sactjt said:
Thanks for the reply teraside!
This is the frustrating thing... I did try all these things!

I used a wi-fi analyzer app to test for wi-fi channels and selected the best one/s (tried all 13 as well).
I use wpa2-aes encryption on the 3 routers with same ssid for easy switching..
Country is set to South Africa on all 3 routers...

On my "main" router: static ip's assigned to "permanent" devices.
This router also does the dhcp leasing.

My "other" 2 routers: connected to "main" router with dhcp turned off.

As mentioned in the op, I have the same problem with macbook wired and wi-fi turned off. Same test with 2 different windows machines and no problems!

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

That could be a problem. The devices and or router might get confused because the same SSID is repeated. Try an individual SSID setup and see if it improves.

As I said and as Stricken said, use either G or N, not both.
 
stricken said:
you may be having a g/n issue. some devices connecting over wifi g and iDevices over wifi n. You cannot run g and n on the same router?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply stricken!

current settings on d-link router:
xpress technology: disabled
54g mode: 54 auto (options are: 54g auto, 54g performance, 54g LRS, 802.11b only).

current tp-link settings:
Mode: 11bgn mixed (options are: 11b only, 11g only, 11n only, 11bg mixed, 11bgn mixed).
channel width: automatic (options are: automatic, 20mhz, 40mhz).

You pick up anything wrong? Not sure here....
 
Enable 54G performance on D-Link.
Enable 11G only on TP-Link. (11 doesn't sound right, but try it).

Use different SSID's to test, not the same repeated for "easy switching".
 
teraside said:
Enable 54G performance on D-Link.
Enable 11G only on TP-Link. (11 doesn't sound right, but try it).

Use different SSID's to test, not the same repeated for "easy switching".
Click to expand...

Thanks again!

Stupid question probably but how would my "portable" devices stay on the same wi-fi network when moving around from room to room with different routers and different ssid's? I would then have to either A) set up 3 "automatic connect" wi-fi settings on all my "portable devices or B) select a new network when one is lost? Sorry for questioning your method, just trying to understand..
 
It's only for testing purposes. If you find the network stabilizes without the same SSID you will have to use 3 different ones, if not you can use the same across.

I haven't seen a network that works properly with more than one of the same SSID, but it might work correctly. It would be best to test though.

Larger networks it is easier to use different ones to pinpoint issues to a specific point, thus different SSID's are used.
 
teraside said:
It's only for testing purposes. If you find the network stabilizes without the same SSID you will have to use 3 different ones, if not you can use the same across.

I haven't seen a network that works properly with more than one of the same SSID, but it might work correctly. It would be best to test though.

Larger networks it is easier to use different ones to pinpoint issues to a specific point, thus different SSID's are used.
Click to expand...

Perfect!
Will test now and give feedback!
Thank you again for the help!!
 
Using the same SSID on different network points will almost always cause problems. We had the same problem at the office, which are 3 different floors with 2-4 APs per floor.

After a year of struggling, we said, stuff it, and gave each AP its own unique SSID, although on the floors with more than 2 APs, we changed some to hidden mode. We now leave it up to the mobile devices to detect which AP has the strongest signal and reconnect to that. It does mean you lose connection while moving around, but we now have a lot less issues with the wifi network.

Besides, most mobile devices detect AP with strongest signal as you move around and reconnect for you. Its not a "cool" as having a singal SSID with roaming, but it sure is helluvalot more stable.
 
Thank you Tinuva!
@teraside also gave me this advise. I spent hours last night setting up different ssid's, changing wi-fi channels (new osx has built in wifi scanner and analyzer), changing encryptions etc... Basically every possible combination/setting. No avail!!
The thing that still bugs me is that when I turn off wifi completely, plug my macbook (wired) into one of the routers, the results are exactly the same. This tells me (my stupid logic) that wifi is not the actual/only problem here...
When I do exactly the same test with my hp laptop (windows installed, wifi or wired), all is perfect! No problems at all... This (after numerous different tests) tells me (again my stupid logic) that the problem/fault must be mac/apple related...
Here is another scenario: I did the same test (same/different ssid's) with my iphone 4s.... and it also affected the network.
I have an old HTC DESIRE tucked away in a drawer... Took it out last night and did exactly the same tests I did with my macbook, iphone and hp. Again, just like the hp laptop, no issues at all! My wife has the iphone 4. Did the same tests with her phone and the problem was there again.
Basically exactly the same test/s shows different results with ALL apple devices vs windows devices etc..
Every apple device causes a problem, every non-apple device not.

I phoned digicape and project 3, spoke to their "network experts" and the advice I got was to a) reset the routers b) buy new routers c) beyond a or b not their problem.

I think the best thing to do here is to just give up and rather let a network "expert" come have a look.
 
Stupid me also upgraded to iOS6 - and had numerous issues before the recent weekend, causing me to think that the router need replacement.

However, I had only a Wintel laptop on during the weekend, no issues. Same with my Android phone.

Only the iPad gives issues. :mad:
 
All jokes aside... I contacted a networking company close my premises.. The guy there said that he suspects the d-link router of being the culprit. Apparently the "older" d-link might be causing a bottle neck on the network. According to him my "other" devices are better at handling the older switches/routers where as the apple devices are not and works better with newer switches/routers.
At first I thought that he was wearing his salesman pants today and was trying to sell me a new router but he suggested that I try and borrow a "newer" router from a friend (or someone) and see if it makes any difference.
Now... Anyone have a "spare" lying around.. hehe.
 
A BIG AND SINCERE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK TIME OUT OF THEIR BUSY DAY TO TRY HELP AND RESOLVE MY ISSUE!! I finally solved the problem. As per my post above, the culprit was indeed the d-link router. I borrowed a netgear n300 http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/work-and-play/DGN2200.aspx#two from one of my friends, set it up with exactly my old (d-link) settings and voila!! I did exactly the same tests as before and absolutely no problems at all. Seems like I will have to go router shopping over the weekend...
 
Last edited:
sactjt said:
Seems like I will have to go router shopping over the weekend...
Click to expand...

I resolved my issue.

Changed the encryption from TPIK to AES. Check whether your d-stink router can support AES or not, then use that & see if it make a difference before you rush out to buy a new router.
 
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