Fast, Low Latency, Secure Wi-Fi

[pneyrinck]

Wi-Fi is a fantastic wireless technology that can work incredibly well when it is set up right. But it can perform poorly in some configurations. Here is my setup that works very, very well (used at large trade shows with hundreds of Wi-Fi networks and thousands of smartphones moving around)

1. Wireless-N dual band router such as the Netgear N600

2. Enable 5 GHz WiFi on the router

3. Connect the Wi-Fi router to the DAW by ethernet

4. Set the iPad to connect to the 5 GHz network.

The ethernet cable can be very long so you can move the router to a good place such as the center of your studio.

If you want to add extra security to the system, you can use the router configuration to set it to only connect to certain devices using the MAC address of the device.

[Russell]

So On a Mac do you recommend the Netgear N600 over the apple airport extreme.

If so where do you see the advantages

Thanks

[pneyrinck]

I dont have enough experience with routers to claim one is better than any other. Apple make great routers as far as I know. But I can say that dual-band N WiFi has worked very well in my experience. It would be great if others could chime in and say what routers are performing well for them.

[marchvet]

So far my apple extreme runs flawless. After testing this app over a week with no issues, it's time to upgrade to pro!

Note - At any given time there are 3 devices & apple tv connected to the router. My setup is upstairs and the router is downstairs. The signal has to travel through at least 2 walls.

Haven't tried adhoc yet, so that may be on tonight's agenda.

[Brontoy]

Would the wifi setup described in the earlier post be as responsive and stable as an ad hoc network?
Brontoy

[pneyrinck]

In my experience, and ad-hoc network is not as reliable as a dedicated wifi router connected by ethernet to the DAW computer. I think one reason is that the antenna on a wifi router is designed to transmit strong signal to devices and to receive a weak signal from devices. The dedicated routers are best designed to provide a robust network, unlike the small wifi system in a computer.

[Phil999]

just to share my experience: since half a year I use an Asus RT-N66U router in my home studio, and it has been reliable and without noticeable latency. There were some problems with drop-outs, which could be solved with resetting the network setting on the iPad, but since iOS 6.1 it wasn't necessary anymore. Could have been a coincidence, I don't know.

In the music room I use an ad-hoc network with an old Acer Aspire One netbook, and it is also reliable. Never had drop-out problems.