Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions
Discussion
Looking for some advice. I have swish fibre broadband. So getting around 400mbps up and down.
This is a recent change. Before we had Sky cable broadband. It was about 50-60mbps. It was very consistent. Never dropped and the mesh network that sky q provided ensured good coverage.
With Swish we originally started with 2 plume pods. The system started going down as it didn’t work well with my power line adapter. A known issue supposedly. So they installed a router and turned the Wi-Fi off and connected that to a plume pod which does the Wi-Fi. The power line now connects to the router.
The second plume was to test. This was subsequently taken away. To be honest it worked well but It comes with a charge of £90 and you lose the hardware at the end of your contract if you cancel.
So my issue is I’m getting nagged to death by the wife, this internet is crap bla bla bla. Mainly because it doesn’t even reach the bedroom now.
So I think I need a mesh system.
Budget is £200. Do I need tri band? Wi-Fi 6? Any recommendations. Want the full 400mbps all over the house if possible.
This is a recent change. Before we had Sky cable broadband. It was about 50-60mbps. It was very consistent. Never dropped and the mesh network that sky q provided ensured good coverage.
With Swish we originally started with 2 plume pods. The system started going down as it didn’t work well with my power line adapter. A known issue supposedly. So they installed a router and turned the Wi-Fi off and connected that to a plume pod which does the Wi-Fi. The power line now connects to the router.
The second plume was to test. This was subsequently taken away. To be honest it worked well but It comes with a charge of £90 and you lose the hardware at the end of your contract if you cancel.
So my issue is I’m getting nagged to death by the wife, this internet is crap bla bla bla. Mainly because it doesn’t even reach the bedroom now.
So I think I need a mesh system.
Budget is £200. Do I need tri band? Wi-Fi 6? Any recommendations. Want the full 400mbps all over the house if possible.
I’ve just upgraded to Devolo Magic 2 WiFi 6. Cost £270 which gives excellent coverage over 3 stories. It’s supposed to give 2400 mbps but you can get nothing like that, I’m averaging 700 mbps which is fine and the main thing is it’s reliable. You can ask it to balance speed vs reliability and of course speed depends on the quality of your wiring.
Bigger problem for me is my 300 mbps fibre is only delivering 90 after the upgrade so I need to work out what’s going on.
Bigger problem for me is my 300 mbps fibre is only delivering 90 after the upgrade so I need to work out what’s going on.
Diplomatico said:
Want the full 400mbps all over the house if possible.
that will tend to up the cost - what are you doing that realistically benefits from that much bandwidth, and can you simply run a cable to the most demanding location(s) ?would be helpful if you could roughly describe the house -, dimensions, internal wall material, no of floors?
xeny said:
that will tend to up the cost - what are you doing that realistically benefits from that much bandwidth, and can you simply run a cable to the most demanding location(s) ?
would be helpful if you could roughly describe the house -, dimensions, internal wall material, no of floors?
I guess I want that because that’s what swish provide. I’m probably being over the top though. 4 bed house. Fairly solid walls. Main issue is getting to my ring camera and pod point out the front. That’s why I had the power line in the garage. would be helpful if you could roughly describe the house -, dimensions, internal wall material, no of floors?
On the shortlist is:
Eero 6 dual band Wi-Fi 6
NETGEAR Orbi Mesh WiFi System (RBK353)
Linksys WHW0303 Velop Tri-Band Whole Home Mesh WiFi System
TP-Link Deco X50 AX3000 Whole Home AI-Driven Mesh Wi-Fi 6
wormus said:
I’ve just upgraded to Devolo Magic 2 WiFi 6. Cost £270 which gives excellent coverage over 3 stories. It’s supposed to give 2400 mbps but you can get nothing like that, I’m averaging 700 mbps which is fine and the main thing is it’s reliable. You can ask it to balance speed vs reliability and of course speed depends on the quality of your wiring.
Bigger problem for me is my 300 mbps fibre is only delivering 90 after the upgrade so I need to work out what’s going on.
had one of those for a few weeks now. There are nodes which have far lower performance and i am not sure there is much that can really be done sadly. Incidentally i haven't see the feature to balance speed and stability, where is it?Bigger problem for me is my 300 mbps fibre is only delivering 90 after the upgrade so I need to work out what’s going on.
Blown2CV said:
Incidentally i haven't see the feature to balance speed and stability, where is it?
From the manual:Compatibility Mode
In rare cases, VDSL connection problems can be caused by crosstalk with the powerline signal. If automatic compatibility mode is enabled, the device will try to detect this situation and adjust its output signal accordingly, which should provide the best balance between performance and mitigation of crosstalk.
Automatic compatibility mode (recommended) *
If automatic mode is disabled or cannot reliably detect crosstalk, a static mitigation profile will be used instead. Select the profile which matches the type of your VDSL connection or select "Full Power" for no mitigation at all.
MIMO || SISO Full power , VDSL 17a (Default) , VDSL 35b
The VDSL options will work for FTTC, for full fibre I’ve set mine to “full power”
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 9th April 09:12
Absolutely fuming.
Woke up this morning to no internet. Did the usual reboot router / cable modem with no joy. Left it till after work, got on my computer and tried to login to my router only to be greeted with the Welcome setup screen. Turns out my Asus RT-AX88U has decided to factory reset itself for reasons only known to itself. No big deal, there's an 'Advanced Settings' option which allows you to restore a backup config file for settings, etc and like all sensible people I have multiple saved over a period of time.
Except, no matter which file I use, they do nothing. It reads the file, it uploads it but every single time it just takes me back to the setup screen. What's the f
king point in having the facility to backup your router's settings if it doesn't actually restore them when needed?
Currently having to manually reconnect a load of Google Nest products and set up IP reservation again on the router. Part of me thinks why bother.
Woke up this morning to no internet. Did the usual reboot router / cable modem with no joy. Left it till after work, got on my computer and tried to login to my router only to be greeted with the Welcome setup screen. Turns out my Asus RT-AX88U has decided to factory reset itself for reasons only known to itself. No big deal, there's an 'Advanced Settings' option which allows you to restore a backup config file for settings, etc and like all sensible people I have multiple saved over a period of time.
Except, no matter which file I use, they do nothing. It reads the file, it uploads it but every single time it just takes me back to the setup screen. What's the f
king point in having the facility to backup your router's settings if it doesn't actually restore them when needed?Currently having to manually reconnect a load of Google Nest products and set up IP reservation again on the router. Part of me thinks why bother.
Oakey said:
Absolutely fuming.
Woke up this morning to no internet. Did the usual reboot router / cable modem with no joy. Left it till after work, got on my computer and tried to login to my router only to be greeted with the Welcome setup screen. Turns out my Asus RT-AX88U has decided to factory reset itself for reasons only known to itself. No big deal, there's an 'Advanced Settings' option which allows you to restore a backup config file for settings, etc and like all sensible people I have multiple saved over a period of time.
Except, no matter which file I use, they do nothing. It reads the file, it uploads it but every single time it just takes me back to the setup screen. What's the fking point in having the facility to backup your router's settings if it doesn't actually restore them when needed?
Currently having to manually reconnect a load of Google Nest products and set up IP reservation again on the router. Part of me thinks why bother.
A quick google suggests corrupted nvram may be the cause.Woke up this morning to no internet. Did the usual reboot router / cable modem with no joy. Left it till after work, got on my computer and tried to login to my router only to be greeted with the Welcome setup screen. Turns out my Asus RT-AX88U has decided to factory reset itself for reasons only known to itself. No big deal, there's an 'Advanced Settings' option which allows you to restore a backup config file for settings, etc and like all sensible people I have multiple saved over a period of time.
Except, no matter which file I use, they do nothing. It reads the file, it uploads it but every single time it just takes me back to the setup screen. What's the f
king point in having the facility to backup your router's settings if it doesn't actually restore them when needed?Currently having to manually reconnect a load of Google Nest products and set up IP reservation again on the router. Part of me thinks why bother.
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/asus-rt-n5...
Have you tried letting it set up as a fresh router and then try and restore from back, rather from the start up advanced settings?
BTW sorry to hear of the mess this causes. I've been rebuilding a pi for 2 days based on some random b
ks that broke it - I share your painFunkyGibbon said:
BTW sorry to hear of the mess this causes. I've been rebuilding a pi for 2 days based on some random bks that broke it - I share your pain
I was tempted to build the kids a pi based laptop, then remembered this delight.ks that broke it - I share your painSo thought about rebuilding a T42 with an SSD and Linux.
Then had a drink and thought better of the whole idea; Chromebook it is.
FunkyGibbon said:
A quick google suggests corrupted nvram may be the cause.
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/asus-rt-n5...
Have you tried letting it set up as a fresh router and then try and restore from back, rather from the start up advanced settings?
BTW sorry to hear of the mess this causes. I've been rebuilding a pi for 2 days based on some random bks that broke it - I share your pain
Tried setting it up and then restoring from within the settings afterwards but nothing happens. I saw the NVRAM post, think I might see about RMA'ing it. https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/asus-rt-n5...
Have you tried letting it set up as a fresh router and then try and restore from back, rather from the start up advanced settings?
BTW sorry to hear of the mess this causes. I've been rebuilding a pi for 2 days based on some random b
ks that broke it - I share your painPiggy backing on this thread…
I’ve got a standard TalkTalk router but find the connection a little poor since moving house. Ran a line test today and they said service was impacted by interference. I’ve also had a device claim to have issues with the 2.4ghz band. A line test (over wifi but in the next room to the router) was coming in 10-20mb/a when not should be 60+
Are there any quick wins to improve this? A quick Google suggested I can log in to the router and change bands as well as possibly separate a 5ghz channel ID out from the 2.4ghz to improve speed.
I use the standard TalkTalk router if that matters - not against a mesh or booster system if it is weapons grade. House is relatively long rather than square if that matters so signal patchier at each end than in prior house
I’ve got a standard TalkTalk router but find the connection a little poor since moving house. Ran a line test today and they said service was impacted by interference. I’ve also had a device claim to have issues with the 2.4ghz band. A line test (over wifi but in the next room to the router) was coming in 10-20mb/a when not should be 60+
Are there any quick wins to improve this? A quick Google suggested I can log in to the router and change bands as well as possibly separate a 5ghz channel ID out from the 2.4ghz to improve speed.
I use the standard TalkTalk router if that matters - not against a mesh or booster system if it is weapons grade. House is relatively long rather than square if that matters so signal patchier at each end than in prior house
CarDoodle said:
Piggy backing on this thread…
I’ve got a standard TalkTalk router but find the connection a little poor since moving house. Ran a line test today and they said service was impacted by interference. I’ve also had a device claim to have issues with the 2.4ghz band. A line test (over wifi but in the next room to the router) was coming in 10-20mb/a when not should be 60+
Are there any quick wins to improve this? A quick Google suggested I can log in to the router and change bands as well as possibly separate a 5ghz channel ID out from the 2.4ghz to improve speed.
I use the standard TalkTalk router if that matters - not against a mesh or booster system if it is weapons grade. House is relatively long rather than square if that matters so signal patchier at each end than in prior house
Assuming you have a fttc/vdsl2 product from tt?I’ve got a standard TalkTalk router but find the connection a little poor since moving house. Ran a line test today and they said service was impacted by interference. I’ve also had a device claim to have issues with the 2.4ghz band. A line test (over wifi but in the next room to the router) was coming in 10-20mb/a when not should be 60+
Are there any quick wins to improve this? A quick Google suggested I can log in to the router and change bands as well as possibly separate a 5ghz channel ID out from the 2.4ghz to improve speed.
I use the standard TalkTalk router if that matters - not against a mesh or booster system if it is weapons grade. House is relatively long rather than square if that matters so signal patchier at each end than in prior house
Unfortunately you really need to determine where the issue(s) lay.
The first step is to hard wire a computer temporarily to the isp provided ‘router box’ & run some speed tests
Then log into the ‘router box’ admin portal and look in the wan setting and see what it has for the incoming line speed
Then run a check on the BT wholesale line check.(you are interested in the “Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)” & “Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps)”)
You need compare the results to see how close to expected line speeds you get so you know if the issue is the line, ‘router box’, wifi or a combination.
Once you know that you can consider if changes to the hardware will improve things.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADS...
Captain_Morgan said:
Assuming you have a fttc/vdsl2 product from tt?
Unfortunately you really need to determine where the issue(s) lay.
The first step is to hard wire a computer temporarily to the isp provided ‘router box’ & run some speed tests
Then log into the ‘router box’ admin portal and look in the wan setting and see what it has for the incoming line speed
Then run a check on the BT wholesale line check.(you are interested in the “Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)” & “Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps)”)
You need compare the results to see how close to expected line speeds you get so you know if the issue is the line, ‘router box’, wifi or a combination.
Once you know that you can consider if changes to the hardware will improve things.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADS...
Thank you for the help - I have followed your guidance:Unfortunately you really need to determine where the issue(s) lay.
The first step is to hard wire a computer temporarily to the isp provided ‘router box’ & run some speed tests
Then log into the ‘router box’ admin portal and look in the wan setting and see what it has for the incoming line speed
Then run a check on the BT wholesale line check.(you are interested in the “Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)” & “Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps)”)
You need compare the results to see how close to expected line speeds you get so you know if the issue is the line, ‘router box’, wifi or a combination.
Once you know that you can consider if changes to the hardware will improve things.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADS...
1) It is FTTC
2) Speed tests - I ran these last night and was getting VERY low results (10mb). I logged in to TT portal and they said there was an issue with interference on my line. I moved my house phone away from the router and now I get 24 down / 5 up with an ethernet cable and around 17 up / 5 down wireless
3) Router admin - it said 32 down / 7 up
4) BT website -
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) => 41.8 / 27.4 clean; 41.3 / 25 impacted
Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps) => 23.9 clean / 21.4 impacted
I am not sure why the speeds are so low - addresses a few streets away using the same cabinet on that BT website test higher!
Anything stand out as strange or needing more investigating? Is there man maths available to justify a weapons grade mesh system, or is the issue the line itself?
The WiFi channels at my house seem quite congested with surrounding neighbours WiFi. We have a BT home hub and FTTP on a 150mb/sec package. It speedtests at that so we get what we pay for.
Next door have a mesh network and it seems to hog all the channels. I can see sky, virgin, Plusnet and then a Deco mesh and one renamed to "?".
Now we have a baby monitor, that also seems to take a lot of capacity on our own network. E.g. it seems that when it is on, my work computer starts dropping teams calls, lower quality etc. I guess it's streaming 1080p constantly over the 2.4Ghz channel.
I get the comments here that WIFI 6 is overkill and that WiFi 5 will be effectively just as fast if your bottle neck is a 150mb/s broadband connection... However, using a WiFi analyser app I can see that none of my neighbours are using WiFi 6 channels.
So if I got WiFi 6 maybe my work laptop and PC would be effectively on their own, uncongested frequencies... Might be better??
Next door have a mesh network and it seems to hog all the channels. I can see sky, virgin, Plusnet and then a Deco mesh and one renamed to "?".
Now we have a baby monitor, that also seems to take a lot of capacity on our own network. E.g. it seems that when it is on, my work computer starts dropping teams calls, lower quality etc. I guess it's streaming 1080p constantly over the 2.4Ghz channel.
I get the comments here that WIFI 6 is overkill and that WiFi 5 will be effectively just as fast if your bottle neck is a 150mb/s broadband connection... However, using a WiFi analyser app I can see that none of my neighbours are using WiFi 6 channels.
So if I got WiFi 6 maybe my work laptop and PC would be effectively on their own, uncongested frequencies... Might be better??
Ahhh my work laptop seems to be stuck on 2.4ghz... I think an IT ticket to get it on 5ghz would be a good start.
The spec of the WiFi adaptor is AC so I think it probably needs the preferred band changing in the adaptor properties. I don't seem to be able to force it from the BT home hub.
The spec of the WiFi adaptor is AC so I think it probably needs the preferred band changing in the adaptor properties. I don't seem to be able to force it from the BT home hub.
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