Wifi mesh systems

Damien360

Debs91 wrote: »

Hi all,

I’m enquiring what would be the best means of extending the Fibre to the bedroom & outside workshop area? I’ve tried the TP Link N450 Wireless N Access Point but it’s losing connection so would like to stabilize this if possible.

Vodafone FTTH 500mb bundle

Thanks,

Deborah

Are you using the TP-link as a router after the Vodafone modem ? Or is it an AP ?

I have virgin BB and put it in modem mode with Google mesh router and 2 x AP's. Not cheap but gives good coverage. Overkill possibly.

If you have a router and want to use the TP-link as a AP, you could try connect it to the router via powerline connections and then let it be a AP to other wireless devices or a couple of wired in that one location also. I had a similar setup previously but you loose a lot of speed over powerline (drops to 15% of house input in my case). But you get stability.

Depends what you wish to spend and your needs in each location. Google mesh is very good but doesn't give the coverage they advertise (in my case anyway). Just like any wifi 5Ghz signal, it cannot penetrate solid walls very well. It does have 2.4GHz auto switching built in to get around that. So I had to add another AP point to my purchase of one router and one AP. The setup and control in the app though is excellent.

funkey_monkey

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Going to install the AP permanently now into position.
This is the place where is going to install it just above these two faceplates.
I've checked the routing of the conduit down into the backboxes and there is sufficient space to install.

It might be better to have it installed on an inside wall as opposed to the exterior wall, but that would have an ugly cable going up to the top of the wardrobe and over.

Is there anything wrong with this or can I just go ahead?

I take it this is okay-would like to get this finished.

Cyrus

funkey_monkey wrote: »

I take it this is okay-would like to get this finished.

optimal placement is on a ceiling facing down but itll work where you want to put just not optimally.

DrPhilG

Had 2 Unifi APs in place while I waited for 2 more to come in the post.

Both were delivering a comfortable 350-400mbps.

Added the extra 1 in the house last night plus 1 in the garage, now all 4 working but maxing out at 98mbps.

Suggestions?

Cyrus

DrPhilG wrote: »

Had 2 Unifi APs in place while I waited for 2 more to come in the post.

Both were delivering a comfortable 350-400mbps.

Added the extra 1 in the house last night plus 1 in the garage, now all 4 working but maxing out at 98mbps.

Suggestions?

are they all hard wired?

DrPhilG

Cyrus wrote: »

are they all hard wired?

Yes all 4. One in the garage is at the far end of a 100m cat-6 but the poe injector is at the far end rather than the house side.

That said the one in the garage is saying "connected (100fdx)" which I believe indicates that the speed is limited.



The 3 in the house shouldn't be affected by that though should they?

Cyrus

DrPhilG wrote: »

Yes all 4. One in the garage is at the far end of a 100m cat-6 but the poe injector is at the far end rather than the house side.

That said the one in the garage is saying "connected (100fdx)" which I believe indicates that the speed is limited.



The 3 in the house shouldn't be affected by that though should they?

no they shouldnt but you are correct that one is connected at 100fdx not 1000fdx so the speed on that AP is limited.

mind me asking why you went for that model for the garage?

maybe some useful info here?

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1251817-unifi-ap-s-slow-speeds

DrPhilG

Cyrus wrote: »

mind me asking why you went for that model for the garage?

I was originally going to install one outside but later decided not to bother. Already had it bought though so decided it would be fine for the garage.

I'm wondering if channel selection is an issue. Some of the APs are set to auto selection, some have a channel set.

Could it be causing issues now that I have 3 in a row rather than 2 at opposite ends of the bungalow?

I'll have a read of that link now.

Cyrus

DrPhilG wrote: »

I was originally going to install one outside but later decided not to bother. Already had it bought though so decided it would be fine for the garage.

I'm wondering if channel selection is an issue. Some of the APs are set to auto selection, some have a channel set.

Could it be causing issues now that I have 3 in a row rather than 2 at opposite ends of the bungalow?

I'll have a read of that link now.

yeah id set the 2.4g channels 1/6/11

presume you are connected to a 5ghz ssid with that many APs? if not split 2.4 and 5 and connect to the 5 only.

DrPhilG

Cyrus wrote: »

yeah id set the 2.4g channels 1/6/11

presume you are connected to a 5ghz ssid with that many APs? if not split 2.4 and 5 and connect to the 5 only.

Sorry getting a bit lost now...

I chose the option during setup to only display one wifi network and whatever connects to it chooses 2g/5g. Realistically only smartphones connect to the 5g network, everything else (smart plugs, bulbs, tumble dryer etc) connects to the 2g.

Cyrus

DrPhilG wrote: »

Sorry getting a bit lost now...

I chose the option during setup to only display one wifi network and whatever connects to it chooses 2g/5g. Realistically only smartphones connect to the 5g network, everything else (smart plugs, bulbs, tumble dryer etc) connects to the 2g.

what ive done is split them, so the devices that can use 5ghz only connect to 5ghz, i find it works better.

DrPhilG

Cyrus wrote: »

what ive done is split them, so the devices that can use 5ghz only connect to 5ghz, i find it works better.

I haven't set it that way, but it is working that way anyway. Phones only ever connect to the 5g.

I'm wondering if I need to do some futering with the channel selections. Maybe now that there are 3 in the house instead of 4, I'm getting some interference.

Cyrus

DrPhilG wrote: »

I haven't set it that way, but it is working that way anyway. Phones only ever connect to the 5g.

I'm wondering if I need to do some futering with the channel selections. Maybe now that there are 3 in the house instead of 4, I'm getting some interference.

it would be no harm,

are you 100% sure when you are doing the speed test that the phone is connecting via 5g?

also maybe worth disconnecting the garage ap see if thats causing an issue.

DrPhilG

Cyrus wrote: »

it would be no harm,

are you 100% sure when you are doing the speed test that the phone is connecting via 5g?

also maybe worth disconnecting the garage ap see if thats causing an issue.

Phone has only ever connected on 5g AFAIK. But was definitely on 5g last night when testing.

I'll test with disconnecting the garage AP. I think I'll need to get hold of a crimping tool and fix the ends. They were added in a hurry by a spark and look very messy. The garage AP was working find for a while last night before changing to 100fdx so I think it's just a connection issue.

Soarer

Anyone any experience in setting up a Deco system?

No matter what I do, I can't get the speeds close to the modem speed.

Gooey Looey

DrPhilG wrote: »

Yes all 4. One in the garage is at the far end of a 100m cat-6 but the poe injector is at the far end rather than the house side.

That said the one in the garage is saying "connected (100fdx)" which I believe indicates that the speed is limited.



The 3 in the house shouldn't be affected by that though should they?

Disconnect it, bring it to the router and plug in using Ethernet cable to see if it connects at full speed. You may have a bad c connector or a damaged core on the cable to the shed

degsie

Soarer wrote: »

Anyone any experience in setting up a Deco system?

No matter what I do, I can't get the speeds close to the modem speed.

I have mine set up in AP mode and use a third party router and get near full speeds on VM.

Gregor Samsa

Soarer wrote: »

Anyone any experience in setting up a Deco system?

No matter what I do, I can't get the speeds close to the modem speed.

What speeds are you getting, and what speed is your broadband?

If you have very fast broadband (500mbps, 1gbps), realistically you're not going to get those kinds of speeds over wifi no matter what.

Soarer

degsie wrote: »

I have mine set up in AP mode and use a third party router and get near full speeds on VM.

Great help that!

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

What speeds are you getting, and what speed is your broadband?

If you have very fast broadband (500mbps, 1gbps), realistically you're not going to get those kinds of speeds over wifi no matter what.

I have 1gbps and I'm getting around 90mbps through the Deco.
I have a guest Deco network set up too, to test things just using the 5GHz signal. Same speed.
When I stand next to my modem, which the first Deco node is attached), I can get ~500mbps on the modem's 5GHz network.

funkey_monkey

Cyrus wrote: »

optimal placement is on a ceiling facing down but it'll work where you want to put just not optimally.

52Mbps beside the router at the comms cupboard. 40Mbps using the AP in bedroom.

Uriel.

Have any one tried or used the orbi WiFi 6 system - the main one (think it's the 6,000 series)

Is it worth the premium price?
And what is wired speed like on the satellite?

Gooey Looey

funkey_monkey wrote: »

52Mbps beside the router at the comms cupboard. 40Mbps using the AP in bedroom.

Are you sure you're connected to the 5ghz radio

DrPhilG

Ahhh, this is a thing of beauty!

funkey_monkey

Gooey Looey wrote: »

Are you sure you're connected to the 5ghz radio

5G in that room with the AP which returns 51Mbps.
In my bedroom the 5G drops out and switches to 2G which is how I end up with 42Mbps.

I have noticed that the switching into the AP is not smooth. I have to disable and then enable the wireless on my phone to connect to it. Must have set up wrong.

Cyrus

DrPhilG wrote: »

Ahhh, this is a thing of beauty!

Great did you get to the root of the issue?

Gooey Looey

funkey_monkey wrote: »

5G in that room with the AP which returns 51Mbps.
In my bedroom the 5G drops out and switches to 2G which is how I end up with 42Mbps.

I have noticed that the switching into the AP is not smooth. I have to disable and then enable the wireless on my phone to connect to it. Must have set up wrong.

With access points the handover to a new ap is a decision made by the client devices, there are settings you can change on the ap to help with this, like at what signal your client device is told to bugger off and look for a new ap. You may even need to lower your signal if the ap overlap signals are too high

DrPhilG

Cyrus wrote: »

Great did you get to the root of the issue?

Blind luck I suspect.

Got a list of things to try, killing the Sky 1 wifi broadcast, reduced the power on the 2g network then rebooted the lot and its working.

I ain't touching another thing in case I break it again.

Although I do have to recrimp the cables on the garage line to try and fix the 100mb limit.

Soarer

Soarer wrote: »

I have 1gbps and I'm getting around 90mbps through the Deco.
I have a guest Deco network set up too, to test things just using the 5GHz signal. Same speed.
When I stand next to my modem, which the first Deco node is attached, I can get ~500mbps on the modem's 5GHz network with my phone.

Anyone?

tobdom

Soarer wrote: »

Anyone?

You should have the wireless network disabled on your router and let the Deco only do the WiFi, try that to see if it makes a difference.

neddynasty

Soarer wrote: »

I have 1gbps and I'm getting around 90mbps through the Deco.
I have a guest Deco network set up too, to test things just using the 5GHz signal. Same speed.
When I stand next to my modem, which the first Deco node is attached), I can get ~500mbps on the modem's 5GHz network.

I had something similar with my Linksys system. Turned out the cat6 cable I was using, which connected the router to the primary Linksys node, was defective and it was acting like a cat5 cable and limiting speed to a max of 100mbs. I went a bought a new one and bingo, wifi speeds of 400mb+.