At work, we have two wireless networks (e.g., Work1 Work2); the Work2 is used downstairs and Work1 is used upstairs. However, both are notoriously slow. The connection is better when we are wired in, but unfortunately due to our building being very old and our company growing very fast, most employees are not seated near the walls where the ethernet cables are.
I had Cox, our ISP, run a bandwidth utilization test and it doesn't seem like we are capping out on upstream/downstream, which leads me to believe that it's strictly an issue with the wireless networks (which were implemented before I got there).
The wireless networks are both Apple Airport Extremes. Is there anything I can do to improve the situation for everyone?
Speeds are extremely slow, and sometimes drops out.
Best Answer
I'm going to put this as gently as I can: Wireless networks (802.11) suck.
The 2.4GHz band (802.11b, g, and some n devices) is a festering pit of radio noise.
Everything from baby monitors to microwave ovens pollute this section of the spectrum, and the wanton proliferation of wireless networks has it so congested that you're frankly lucky to get 1Mbit speeds out of it in some urban areas (in the building my company is in the 2.4GHz band is unusable - average throughput is less than 100Kb/sec).
The 5GHz band (802.11a, some n, and the new ac draft standard) is better in terms of interference, but you wind up taking a penalty in overall range (because 5GHz signals get eaten up more readily by the little things people like to have in their buildings, like walls).
In both cases you're using a shared medium (wireless frequency) -- this means everyone else's signal is effectively your noise: the more people using the wireless link the worse this gets as devices are fighting a limited slice of frequency spectrum and time.
Wireless "range extenders" just make the problem WORSE -- the extender is now chewing up radio spectrum to relay traffic back to the base station (adding more traffic and congestion to the airwaves).
So what can/should you do?
Ideally you should run cables to the high traffic locations, and leave wireless for things that are truly mobile (laptops going to the conference room, cordless VoIP phones, a "guest network", and stuff like that).
Like Sirex suggested there are other ways to go about running cable that don't require a major remodel (but please check your local building codes before you start throwing wires through your ceiling).
The ideal solution may not be practical, so the next best thing is to build a wireless network with multiple access points that use a wired backhaul to get to your main network.
Apple documents how to do this with the Airport Extreme on their site, and you can find similar guidance from other manufacturers.
Some other things to bear in mind:
If you load WAPs/coverage areas above this number your performance will suffer.
Remember the signal from one set of devices (WAP+Clients) is just "noise" to the other sets.
Cisco has some basic guidelines on setting up a wireless network which make for good reading.
They also have more advanced documentation, but my Google-Fu is failing me at the moment.