Wifi mesh systems

RangeR

Shedite27 wrote: »

How do people find the wifi speed on Virgin 3.0 Hub V Google Mesh. I did a before and after test....
with Virgin Setup - 244 MBPS download
with Google Mesh - 210 MBPS download

Is it right that I should be sacrificing a bit of speed for the benefits of the extra footprint that the Mesh gives me? Or should I be able to get same speed from the Mesh?

(both speeds taken 5m from router, same traffic load etc)

I have the VM hub [500Mb] with Google Mesh. I get much better wifi speed that that.


Do a mesh test.
Maybe replace the network cable to the google router and don't have the cable too long.
Is the network cable running along powerlines?
Try keep your network and power lines at least a few inches apart.

DeadSkin

degsie wrote: »

You could try both I suppose and see which one you get best performance with.

Note that if you bridge the eir modem you would have to move your TV ethernet connection to the M4 side.

Personally I have my M4 set as an AP, happy enough with it.

Edit: If changing the M4 to AP, turn off WiFi on the eir router to avoid interference.

Just on the last point there, would you expect much performance/interference issues on the new AP network?

Gooey Looey

DeadSkin wrote: »

Just on the last point there, would you expect much performance/interference issues on the new AP network?

You can always have interference, less chance of interference from your neighbors with 5ghz as it doesn't penetrate through obstacles very well and there are lots more channels available compared to 2.4ghz. You always need to turn off WiFi on your existing modem/router as this is inside your home and will interfere!

Shedite27

RangeR wrote: »

I have the VM hub [500Mb] with Google Mesh. I get much better wifi speed that that.


Do a mesh test.
Maybe replace the network cable to the google router and don't have the cable too long.
Is the network cable running along powerlines?
Try keep your network and power lines at least a few inches apart.

Thanks, I'll give them a go

DeadSkin

Gooey Looey wrote: »

You can always have interference, less chance of interference from your neighbors with 5ghz as it doesn't penetrate through obstacles very well and there are lots more channels available compared to 2.4ghz. You always need to turn off WiFi on your existing modem/router as this is inside your home and will interfere!

What kind of interference would you expect, dropped connections, speed etc.?

My ISP controls my router settings, I haven't yet asked them to turn of WiFi or set the router to bridge mode and use the Deco then in router mode. All seems to be working fine at the moment - just curious as to what interference you would expect to see.

Thanks.

Cyrus

DeadSkin wrote: »

What kind of interference would you expect, dropped connections, speed etc.?

My ISP controls my router settings, I haven't yet asked them to turn of WiFi or set the router to bridge mode and use the Deco then in router mode. All seems to be working fine at the moment - just curious as to what interference you would expect to see.

Thanks.

you will have two competing wifi signals, its sub optimal

you should be able to logon to the router yourself.

DeadSkin

Cyrus wrote: »

you will have two competing wifi signals, its sub optimal

you should be able to logon to the router yourself.

My ISP is Imagine, they don't provide username/password for the router.

Cyrus

DeadSkin wrote: »

My ISP is Imagine, they don't provide username/password for the router.

:eek:

Gooey Looey

DeadSkin wrote: »

My ISP is Imagine, they don't provide username/password for the router.

Ask them to disable wireless and set your mesh to AP mode.

Username here

DeadSkin wrote: »

My ISP is Imagine, they don't provide username/password for the router.

Cyrus wrote: »

:eek:

IMAGINE that!! :eek: :pac: :pac: :pac:

Cyrus

Username here wrote: »

IMAGINE that!! :eek: :pac: :pac: :pac:

i dont even use my ISPs router, so that wouldnt be for me :P

Hector Savage

kala85 wrote: »

Is it really that good? How do you know?

Would rather not have the microphones from Google around the home.

Exactly, every single point is a "smart speaker" I can't understand how people are comfortable with that ..

RangeR

Hector Savage wrote: »

Exactly, every single point is a "smart speaker" I can't understand how people are comfortable with that ..

My google Wifi is the old setup. No speakers involved. No chance would I have them with speakers. Crazy.

JohnK

You can turn the microphones off

Clareman

I've Google Wifi with the mics all turned off and rarely use the speaker functions

DrPhilG

Quick question...

I'm looking to tidy up and streamline a little. Aside from possibly moving my router, switches etc down from the attic into the study/office space, I want to do some combining.

I currently have the router and 2 x 8 port switches. So that's 17 available ports once you account for the ones used linking up. 11 of them are currently in use.

I also have 2 extension blocks, an 8 gang and a 5 gang. 8 are currently in use (the 8 gang I have is badly designed and can't fit them all due to the occasional weird shaped plug.



That's the tidied up version by the way, don't judge me...

So aside from as I say moving it downstairs, I have a few plans. I've ordered an extra long 8 gang extension lead that can accommodate all the plugs.

I also want to get a 16 or 24 port POE switch. Only need 3 of the ports to be POE so an 8/8 or similar would be fine.

That would let me get rid of the 2 separate switches, and also I could dispatch the 3 POE injectors which frees up 3 plugs and clears out some space which should then let it all fit in the alcove to the left here:



Any suggestions on a suitable switch?

Cyrus

er like you i started with a few APs, this is where i have got to.....

so my advice would be to lean in , get a ubiquiti POE switch, which may lead to you getting a unifi router, cctv etc etc

54and56

So I got and installed the 2 unit TaoTronics AC300 Tri-Band Mesh WiFi system yesterday.

As I was replacing an old dual band Asus router which had been set up on a static IP WAN connection type I set the base unit up identically i.e. connected to the Virgin modem via Ethernet with the same IP address, Subnet mask, DNS, etc as the old Asus.

It upgraded its firmware straight away which was good but I had a few teething problems setting up the 2nd unit but a couple of resets later it was up and running.

I now have 3 WiFi networks:-
- a 2.4Ghz network for IoT devices like WiFi plugs, Camera's etc
- a Guest Network for visitors to use.
- the main WiFi mesh network.

Whilst everything is working and speed has noticeably increased throughout the house there are a few odd issues which I'd appreciate some thoughts on:-

1. There seems to be an initial lag before things get going. On the old router things like switching channels on an IPTV app running on an NVIDA Shield would be lightening quick, now there is a 1-2 second delay with a little buffering before the selected channel plays and when it plays it's 100% fine. Another example is previously I'd get an alert from my Google Nest Hello doorbell as soon as anyone approached, now it's taking up to 10 seconds to get the alert. Might be co-incidence but it just feels like there is a some sort of handshake type lag going on.

2. Download and upload speeds seems to vary by device and app used for measuring. I can be beside a laptop and both on the main mesh wi-fi network and the laptop is getting 35mb down whereas the phone is getting 180mb down at the exact same time. Even stranger is the same PC getting 180mb down if measured on the Chrome Google Speed Test whilst the Ookla Speedtest app gives only 2mb down at the same time.

I feel there are some teething issues I need to tweak but I don't know what they are exactly!!

I have all the AI labelled optimisations on i.e.

- Automatic channel selection
- Automatic bandwidth selection
- Automatic power selection
- Quick roaming
- AP steering
- Band steering

I don't have QoS enabled.

I have SPI firewall enabled.

I have UPnP enabled but DMZ is not enabled. (These were the default settings)

5G Bandwidth is set to "Auto(40M/80M)" instead of either 40M or 80M.

DDNS is not enabled.

There's a total of 27 devices now connected (re-connecting all the WiFi plugs and IoT devices was fun) split:-

Base node - 16
2nd node - 11

2.4Ghz - 13
5.1Ghz - 14

Main SSID - 16
IoT SSID - 11
Guest SSID - 0

Any thoughts / suggestions?

Is it possible I've somehow ended up with a double NAT scenario or something similar which is creating a delay in traffic?

Cyrus

54and56 wrote: »

So I got and installed the 2 unit TaoTronics AC300 Tri-Band Mesh WiFi system yesterday.

As I was replacing an old dual band Asus router which had been set up on a static IP WAN connection type I set the base unit up identically i.e. connected to the Virgin modem via Ethernet with the same IP address, Subnet mask, DNS, etc as the old Asus.

It upgraded its firmware straight away which was good but I had a few teething problems setting up the 2nd unit but a couple of resets later it was up and running.

I now have 3 WiFi networks:-
- a 2.4Ghz network for IoT devices like WiFi plugs, Camera's etc
- a Guest Network for visitors to use.
- the main WiFi mesh network.

Whilst everything is working and speed has noticeably increased throughout the house there are a few odd issues which I'd appreciate some thoughts on:-

1. There seems to be an initial lag before things get going. On the old router things like switching channels on an IPTV app running on an NVIDA Shield would be lightening quick, now there is a 1-2 second delay with a little buffering before the selected channel plays and when it plays it's 100% fine. Another example is previously I'd get an alert from my Google Nest Hello doorbell as soon as anyone approached, now it's taking up to 10 seconds to get the alert. Might be co-incidence but it just feels like there is a some sort of handshake type lag going on.

2. Download and upload speeds seems to vary by device and app used for measuring. I can be beside a laptop and both on the main mesh wi-fi network and the laptop is getting 35mb down whereas the phone is getting 180mb down at the exact same time. Even stranger is the same PC getting 180mb down if measured on the Chrome Google Speed Test whilst the Ookla Speedtest app gives only 2mb down at the same time.

I feel there are some teething issues I need to tweak but I don't know what they are exactly!!

I have all the AI labelled optimisations on i.e.

- Automatic channel selection
- Automatic bandwidth selection
- Automatic power selection
- Quick roaming
- AP steering
- Band steering

I don't have QoS enabled.

I have SPI firewall enabled.

I have UPnP enabled but DMZ is not enabled. (These were the default settings)

5G Bandwidth is set to "Auto(40M/80M)" instead of either 40M or 80M.

DDNS is not enabled.

There's a total of 27 devices now connected (re-connecting all the WiFi plugs and IoT devices was fun) split:-

Base node - 16
2nd node - 11

2.4Ghz - 13
5.1Ghz - 14

Main SSID - 16
IoT SSID - 11
Guest SSID - 0

Any thoughts / suggestions?

Is it possible I've somehow ended up with a double NAT scenario or something similar which is creating a delay in traffic?

is the main wifi mesh network 2.4 + 5ghz? if so would you change that to 5ghz only see if that makes a difference?

RangeR

Also, don't do multiple speed tests at the same time. Do one speed test on one device only. Then move to the next device.

Two speed tests running on the same device [or on different devices] at the same time are competing for bandwidth.

Try speed.cloudflare.com. You will like it but it takes about 30 seconds to run as it runs a few tests at different configs.

Clareman

Disable UPnP and see if that makes a difference, I've noticed a few times, mainly on Eir connections, that UPnP can cause an awful lot of weird intermittent issues. Also, on the shield make sure IPv6 is disabled

54and56

Thanks guys, some good tips there.

This is my weekend project now!

degsie

Make sure that when you are using a mesh system that it is not a good idea to have it operating in router mode and hanging off another router. Only have one router operating to dish out DHCP, DNS etc.

54and56

degsie wrote: »

Make sure that when you are using a mesh system that it is not a good idea to have it operating in router mode and hanging off another router. Only have one router operating to dish out DHCP, DNS etc.

Thanks.

I believe my Virgin box is set to Modem mode bit it's at least 6-7 years since that was set up and the old router was given a static IP etc.

Is there anyway to access the Virgin box to check what the current settings are or would that require a call to their helpdesk?

FYI I'm on a business broadband package with them. Not sure if that makes any difference or not.

Gooey Looey

54and56 wrote: »

Thanks.

I believe my Virgin box is set to Modem mode bit it's at least 6-7 years since that was set up and the old router was given a static IP etc.

Is there anyway to access the Virgin box to check what the current settings are or would that require a call to their helpdesk?

FYI I'm on a business broadband package with them. Not sure if that makes any difference or not.

Just do a trace route, you should only see the mesh router not 2 private up addresses.
On Windows tracert type www.google.com in CMD

54and56

Cyrus wrote: »

is the main wifi mesh network 2.4 + 5ghz? if so would you change that to 5ghz only see if that makes a difference?

I don't see any options to specify or tailor the main mesh network so whilst I guess it's 2.4Ghz + 5Ghz I'm not sure.

GrumPy

For those that have Google Nest/ Wifi Mesh. I picked this up while it was reduced over Christmas. I'm moving into a new house in a couple of weeks, and have yet to decide on an internet provider.
What provider offers the best compatibility? I ask because I play ALOT of online games (PC, xbox & ps) and I've read online that some service providers, when leveraged using Google nest configuration; have issues like double NAT and can mess up with port settings etc.
Can anyone suggest what might be best? Sky seems to be the least Nest Wifi friendly.

54and56

Clareman wrote: »

Disable UPnP and see if that makes a difference

Done, will check later to see if there's a noticeable difference.

Bluefoam

GrumPy wrote: »

For those that have Google Nest/ Wifi Mesh. I picked this up while it was reduced over Christmas. I'm moving into a new house in a couple of weeks, and have yet to decide on an internet provider.
What provider offers the best compatibility? I ask because I play ALOT of online games (PC, xbox & ps) and I've read online that some service providers, when leveraged using Google nest configuration; have issues like double NAT and can mess up with port settings etc.
Can anyone suggest what might be best? Sky seems to be the least Nest Wifi friendly.

I have 250mb from virgin an a two part Nest WiFi... Virgin WiFi is turned off. I've had no problems with connection or speed, but don't play games.

Gooey Looey

54and56 wrote: »

Done, will check later to see if there's a noticeable difference.

Don't disable upnp if you play console games online or use a VPN for work