Vodafone Gigabox SHG3000 & Ring Doorbell 2

runswithascript

Before fiber was installed at a friend's house they were relying on some kind of portable mobile data broadband 4G/WiMax, which only provided a handful of Mbps but at least with Ethernet connected from it to a TP-Link AV600 Powerline adapter (WLAN disabled on this one), and another positioned behind the hall door, there were no connection issues with the Ring.

Since getting the 500 Mbps Vodafone, and with the TP-Links disconnected, speeds very close to this are achieved using WiFi around most of the house. The doorbell is ~1.5 meters away from the router, and between it is the halldoor and a sliding glass door. When the Ring app is not showing there is no connection, is measures the RS signal varying between -60 and -70.

What is strange is that after connecting up the powerline adapters, reconfigured with the same SSID & WPA as the Gigabox, and with the Ring MAC visible on the powerline WebUI, the absolute best signal I saw was -57, and there was 5% packet loss to the Ring over 10 minutes. I have tried different TP-Link options for b/g/n, and I understand the Ring 2 is limited to the 2.5Ghz band.

The first modem was replaced due to a sudden non-WiFi fibre fault, and after the TP-Links were put away, when the second did not resolve the issue with the Ring a third was sent, which apparently 'has a booster inside', which I think may just mean it was set to the 2.5Ghz band as the signal goes further, though I know this is something broadband support can normally do remotely unless there was some router config issue. This was in addition to technical support and the installer offering to place a booster device - on the same power socket as the modem - for an increased charge of €5 per month. I have not been able to work out why the signal at the location of the modem itself would need to be boosted.

My friend wants to see if Vodafone and then Ring can do any more for him before I call them, and I would also like to test disabling the WLAN on the Gigabox and reconnecting the TP-Links to see if it was interfering, even though this is a rural area, and using Android Wifi Analyzer I set the TP-Link WLANs to not overlap the channels of the existing Gigabox WLAN or any others.

I appreciate the Ring could have become faulty at the same time the fibre went it, it would just be a strange coincidence.

Have any of you had a similar experience with this device?

KildareP

First, anything above -70dBm (lower negative number) is considered good. Depending on how the Ring doorbell is oriented relative to the modem or access point can cause a good bit of difference but once the connection is stable and above -70dBm you're good.

I'd be leaning towards band steering on the Vodafone modem causing issues, where it tries to push everything onto the 5GHz band but the underlying technical mechanism that most vendors use to do so is very crude (without getting technical think of it as a beat-you-into-submission approach as opposed to gentle persuasion and encouragement, which some clients such as 2.4GHz-only ones get very upset about).

I'm not familiar with the gigabox so I'm not sure if you can switch off band steering, but if you can I'd be trying that first.

• Devices from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, etc. will all prefer 5GHz over 2.4GHz themselves anyway so turning band steering off will not impact these in any way
• Also to be careful that as well as preferring 5GHz, they will prefer wider 5Ghz channels over narrower ones so be very careful if using mixed channel bandwidths across access points, you will end up with clients clinging mercilessly for dear life to a distant access point because it has a wider channel than a much closer one.

If not, then I'd recommend putting a separate WiFi SSID on the TP-Links and using these for the Ring only. Let the Vodafone gigabox serve everything else if it's delivering the 500Mbps for you.

Kimbot

Vodafone doesnt allow you split the bands in their app unless you pay for "Super Wifi", I took out the VF router and put an TP Link Ax55 in its place and everything is working alot better around the house.