Wifi mesh systems

bk

grogi wrote: »

Bridge mode has nothing to do with WLAN...

No, but it avoids other issues related to double NAT. Also putting a router into bridge mode often has the effect of switching off the wifi on the ISP router too.

grogi

bk wrote: »

No, but it avoids other issues related to double NAT. Also putting a router into bridge mode often has the effect of switching off the wifi on the ISP router too.

it has potential of introducing heaps of other issues, especially if ISP provides VoIP service.

Unless the user is fluent in networking, I would not advice to switch brigde mode on.

bk

grogi wrote: »

it has potential of introducing heaps of other issues, especially if ISP provides VoIP service.

Unless the user is fluent in networking, I would not advice to switch brigde mode on.

I couldn't disagree more. ISP supplied routers are junk and in this day and age who cares about crappy ISP supplied land line VoIP.

BTW Virgin Medias VoIP phone system continues to work fine in Bridge Mode.

The only one I'd perhaps worry about is ISP supplied crappy IPTV services. You can always easily turn it back on if it impacts that. It really isn't rocket science.

Clareman

I'd be with bk on this 1, anything you get for free is worth the price you pay for it. Trust the mesh system to look after your wifi and your ISP router to look after your ISP connection, happy days then.

Kintarō Hattori

Got the system today and have the 3 units setup. Is there any way to to put a FritzBox into bridge only mode? I have a FritzBox 7530 and I can't see anything straightforward there.

JamBur

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Got the system today and have the 3 units setup. Is there any way to to put a FritzBox into bridge only mode? I have a FritzBox 7530 and I can't see anything straightforward there.

You can ask them to send out an older type box, which is pre configured in bridge mode, costs 40.

Or you can do a bit of a workaround where you set the fritzbox to PPPoE, and set up your router with the digiweb login and password. I cant remember the specifics.

Kintarō Hattori

JamBur wrote: »

You can ask them to send out an older type box, which is pre configured in bridge mode, costs 40.

Or you can do a bit of a workaround where you set the fritzbox to PPPoE, and set up your router with the digiweb login and password. I cant remember the specifics.

Setting up the Fritzbox to PPoE seems straightforward enough. Setting the new router to the Fritzbox login and password might be a different kettle of fish altogether. The router has a SSID that devices connect to and then there's the password for that. I assume though that I somehow need to assign the Fritzbox admin password to the router?

Edit: Got onto Tech support who I suspect didn't have a clue and told me I could just plug the SIRO Lan connection straight into the new router, telling me to use a longer cable, to just turn off the Wi-Fi button on the Fritzbox. Fiddling about with it and the toddler got rather upset that her cartoons were interrupted. I'll just pay for a new router!

Grumpypants

Got my Tenda Nova MW6 today, wil set up and report on how it is later.

Shefwedfan

Grumpypants wrote: »

Got my Tenda Nova MW6 today, wil set up and report on how it is later.

Would love feedback on these.....

faceman

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Would love feedback on these.....

I have a post up earlier in the thread. I’ve had the MW6 for a few weeks and find them great

Grumpypants

faceman wrote: »

I have a post up earlier in the thread. I’ve had the MW6 for a few weeks and find them great

any tips on set up. I'm on a 150mb line and the first main cube is only giving me 20-45mbps download right beside it. The second one is in the sitting room but it looks like my phone doesn't change from 1 to 2 and the speed drops to less than 1mbps.

Grumpypants

Hmm might be my phone. I checked on my work iPhone and I get over 120mb. Android is getting 1mb.

Very odd.

Also I plugged the lan cable into the second port on the satellite cube (not the one with the blue world). And that got me the 120.

GinSoaked

Grumpypants wrote: »

Hmm might be my phone. I checked on my work iPhone and I get over 120mb. Android is getting 1mb.

Very odd.

Also I plugged the lan cable into the second port on the satellite cube (not the one with the blue world). And that got me the 120.

Are they both connecting using the 5Ghz connection? Perhaps the Android only has 2.4Ghz?

Grumpypants

GinSoaked wrote: »

Are they both connecting using the 5Ghz connection? Perhaps the Android only has 2.4Ghz?

I can see in the Tenda app it is connected to the 5g on the phone. I'd still expect the 2.4 to give 20+.

My missus Samsung S7 connected and is getting 90mb+ upstairs. Iphone 129mb. Fire stick no issue, the chrome cast couldn't see the network but I could put in the details and then it connected okay.

It seems to be my phone rather than the mesh.

I've a Redmi note 8 so it is new enough.

Grumpypants

Oddly enough I now have 120 on my phone. Not sure what changed?

One thing I noticed the Google Chrome cast was connected to 2.4 and the missus phone to 5g and it kept saying they are on different connections so that was annoying.

Will do more setting up and testing tomorrow.

Ray Donovan

Grumpypants wrote: »

Oddly enough I now have 120 on my phone. Not sure what changed?

One thing I noticed the Google Chrome cast was connected to 2.4 and the missus phone to 5g and it kept saying they are on different connections so that was annoying.

Will do more setting up and testing tomorrow.

Stop, I got my Fibre in yesterday and the hardship I’ve had with new connections and 2.4 and 5 and Alexa and smart plugs and smart bulbs would nearly drive a lad insane. Fcuk me. If the Alexa things go t*ts up again there’ll getting the bin. I swear to God!

Marlow

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Got the system today and have the 3 units setup. Is there any way to to put a FritzBox into bridge only mode? I have a FritzBox 7530 and I can't see anything straightforward there.

Hahaha. Now .. here is the thing: a Fritz!Box is kind of special.

It will allow you to let a secondary device establish it's own (PPPoE) passthrough session. But that requires that your ISP either is using IPoE to begin with or allows you 2 PPPoE sessions.

On the other hand: if your ISP provided you with a Fritz!Box then it is more than likely one of those providers, who are willing enough to give you the credentials. Why on earth do you want to bridge it ? Just take it out of the equation.

/M

Grumpypants

After lots of different configurations. This is my set up now. I have 150 MB fiber to the home (can do up to 1gb).

Eir router then with the alarm and Philip hue bridge plugged in directly.

Then one cable to the gb switch in the attic to feed the rooms. 1 cable to the gb switch in the office. This feeds pc, ps4, Xbox, Nintendo switch, tv, chrome cast for stadia so none of them are on Wi-Fi.

Nova is plugged into the office switch. Sitting room and bedroom cubes are plugged in via the switch in the attic.

Signal strength around the house is good but the drop off in speed is big.

These are the speeds I see in a room with the cube.

Bedroom
Fire stick 145mb
IPhone 129mb
S7 90mb
My phone 3mb

Sitting room
Fire stick 96mb
Apple TV 89mb

Any room without a cube.

Back sitting room I get
129 on the firestick
107mb on iPhone
12mb on my phone.

Upstairs front room (opposite side from the cube but above the sitting room one) I get 20mb

Back room furthest point from the network the iPhone is around 1-2mb, Android won't connect.

Still trying to get to the bottom of my slow Android speed. Im getting 15 down but 30-40 upload???.


Few issues seem to be relayed to getting stuck on a far away cube. The signal from the cube is really strong so you can connect but the speed is terrible.

I did a speed test in the back room. I should connect to the one next to the office but I was connected to the one upstairs. I got 20mb, I just walked into the office and back to the sitting room and got over 100mb.

Overall. I guess the one network is better. Certainly the speeds are much better than Powerlines. But the range they promised is off. The MW6 says it should cover 6000 sq feet. My house is 2600 and I still have a dead zone in the back bedroom upstairs. I could maybe centralize them a bit more but I have them in the rooms that use the most internet. Maybe I need one more cube.

faceman

Grumpypants wrote: »

Hmm might be my phone. I checked on my work iPhone and I get over 120mb. Android is getting 1mb.

Very odd.

Also I plugged the lan cable into the second port on the satellite cube (not the one with the blue world). And that got me the 120.

Strange. I’ve not had any issues. Make sure “fast roaming” is on in settings. Presumably you’ve switched off WiFi on your original router?

Grumpypants

Yeah I just turned the WiFi off via the button on the router. But didn't change any settings, bridge mode or the likes I've seen mentioned. It picked that I had dynamic IP so I hit okay.

My house has so much concrete, every wall is solid block and the first floor is a concrete slab too.

I think setting it up last night Co-incided with the storm and a general problem the the internet. Today is much more stable.

Definitely better than the powerlines as I don't have to keep changing the connection. The only persistent issue is my phone but that seem to be specific to this brand.

Kintarō Hattori

Marlow wrote: »

Hahaha. Now .. here is the thing: a Fritz!Box is kind of special.

It will allow you to let a secondary device establish it's own (PPPoE) passthrough session. But that requires that your ISP either is using IPoE to begin with or allows you 2 PPPoE sessions.

On the other hand: if your ISP provided you with a Fritz!Box then it is more than likely one of those providers, who are willing enough to give you the credentials. Why on earth do you want to bridge it ? Just take it out of the equation.

/M

I'm with Digiweb and they gave me the PPoE details. I thoughgt I needed to bridge it to stop it acting as the router and possibly causing issues with the Mesh system. When you say take it out of the equation, how?

That said for the moment I've switched off Wi-Fi via the button on the front and am connected to the Mesh system. The one item which spent half the day losing its connection to the net was the rear Nest camera and that's lost connection just the once since I placed a unit in the rear bedroom. So I'm delighted with that.

Grumpypants

Getting to the bottom of my poor WiFi on my phone. Seems to be an issue with Bluetooth and WiFi being on. If I turn off Bluetooth it jumps from under 2 to 30-40mbps. Still a far cry from the 129mb my iPhone does in the same location but more than enough.


Woke up this morning to no internet any where, it was the Eir modem again.


I luckily haven't given Vodafone back there modem yet , I just swapped in March as everything got shut down) so I swapped out the awful Eir one. In fairness to Vodafone the gigabox you get is solid. Eir one needs a restart every 1-2 weeks. Vodafone was 3-4 times a year.

irishgeo

so a mesh is just fancy powerline adopters?

looking at a Q2 but i live in a small semi d, i doubt it need the 3 , but its seems almost as cheap as a 1 base and 1 unit.

GerardKeating

irishgeo wrote: »

so a mesh is just fancy powerline adopters

No, a mesh is an array of 3 or more interlinked/interconnected WiFi access points.

Some will use an wired ethernet backhaul to connect, other will link wirelessly. These ones uses Powerline adaptors for the backhaul.

tobdom

I got the TP-Link Deco P9 mesh system last week, 3 units. Has very much improved signal & speed throughout the house (1960's bungalow). Very straightforward setup and in general everything 'just works', so mostly all good! And THANKS for all the input on this thread which led me to getting this.

The app is good, simple, but maybe too simple.... I expected to be able to do some more advanced things and have a bit more control. I've been trying to access a web interface, which I haven't been able to do yet. TP-Link info says that some models don't support it yet and you only have the app, but they don't specific (that I have been able to find) whether or not the P9 should have an admin web interface. Currently, only some models support web-based management, but don’t worry, other models will support this feature via firmware updates in the future.

The one major issue I am having is with an older Samsung tablet which the kids occassionally watch stuff on, it doesn't seem to be maintaining a stable/speedy connection at all, compared to other devices. I want to try to 'hardcode' it on the network to only try to use 2.4Ghz and also possibly tie it to one of the P9 units (instead of attempting any kind of roaming).

TLDR: Does anyone know for sure if I should be able to access a web interface/admin for the Deco P9?

beauf

I have different SSID for 2.4 and 5. I keep the kids on the 2.4 that way. I don't know if thats possible with a mesh.

What are the parental controls like on these. Usually pretty poor on OEM routers.

whowantstwoknow

Chad Repulsive Wildebeest wrote: »

I've used this: https://testmy.net/ for testing our home network including an outdoor point to point link we have. Its free and has apps for ipad/iphone etc. Client needs to be on a pc/mac but the receive end can be a mobile device. Can run long tests too, I was doing 24h tests etc and you get graphs of your results etc.

I know this is a silly question, but where is the testmy.net mobile app to act as the server/receiver? and how do you get the pc client to use the mobile server?

Thanks
W.

padjocollins

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/nest-wifi-vs-google-wifi-all-the-ways-the-two-mesh-routers-are-different/

tobdom

tobdom wrote: »

I got the TP-Link Deco P9 mesh system last week, 3 units. Has very much improved signal & speed throughout the house (1960's bungalow). Very straightforward setup and in general everything 'just works', so mostly all good! And THANKS for all the input on this thread which led me to getting this.
The app is good, simple, but maybe too simple.... I expected to be able to do some more advanced things and have a bit more control. I've been trying to access a web interface, which I haven't been able to do yet. TP-Link info says that some models don't support it yet and you only have the app, but they don't specific (that I have been able to find) whether or not the P9 should have an admin web interface. Currently, only some models support web-based management, but don’t worry, other models will support this feature via firmware updates in the future.
The one major issue I am having is with an older Samsung tablet which the kids occassionally watch stuff on, it doesn't seem to be maintaining a stable/speedy connection at all, compared to other devices. I want to try to 'hardcode' it on the network to only try to use 2.4Ghz and also possibly tie it to one of the P9 units (instead of attempting any kind of roaming).
TLDR: Does anyone know for sure if I should be able to access a web interface/admin for the Deco P9?

Got an answer from TP-Link Support on this.....

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]2.Trying to access web interface.
Answer: Deco P9 don't support web interface yet but we will raise your concern with our Senior Engineer so that they can also include it on the next firmware update, but there's no guarantee yet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Disappointing that this system doesn't (yet) allow access to more advanced settings/configuration, similar to other devices from the same provider. It is what it is for now I guess....
[/FONT]

dingdong1234567

Possible option if you fancy taking on the code/config elements:

https://github.com/martin-ger/esp_wifi_repeater