Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

[SteveKTMer]

If you go into the Unifi controller and click on the one AP you have running, it will open a window on the right showing the connected devices below some other stuff. Look for your laptop, click on it and see what the connected speeds are up and down. Should be minimum of 500+ up and down, probably a lot higher if you're right next to it.

[megaphone]

Are you connecting with 5GHz Wifi or 2.4Ghz? Try turning off the 2.4ghz band and test again.

[anonymous-user]

Seventyseven7 said:

I've turned off all other APs. Plugged that same cable into the AP, with this being the only AP in the house. Stood next to it, connected to the Wifi and run a speed test

Looking at this, the problem seems to be with your download speed, upload is fine. How congested is your network, e.g. have you tried using different channels ?

[anonymous-user]

megaphone said:

Are you connecting with 5GHz Wifi or 2.4Ghz? Try turning off the 2.4ghz band and test again.

...and do this.

[Bikerjon]

Check the channel width in the AP settings. Change it to 80Mhz for the 5Ghz channel and set the channel to Auto just for the purpose of this test. Then go into your Wi-Fi network settings and make it 5Ghz only (uncheck 2.4Ghz)

Reboot AP and test speed with at least 2 different devices that support modern Wi-Fi standards e.g. a newish iPhone/iPad etc.

[Seventyseven7]

Captain_Morgan said:

Seventyseven7 said:

Captain_Morgan said:

As pointed out at the time performance being held to ~100Mbs sounds suspiciously like a cat5 cable or fast ethernet switch rather than gig capable switch/cable.

Though the poster didn’t confirm if he investigated that.

Look back to the posts I linked 2 posts ago, where I shared my setup. I have a UniFi switch.

If I unplug the AP and plug a laptop directly into the same cable I get over 900Mbs

Here’s the link again to make it easier - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by Seventyseven7 on Monday 2nd January 10:22

If you look back again you’ll note I was trying help you troubleshoot the issue, this was the last suggestion I made. I don’t recall you responding.

Captain_Morgan said:

This is only a guess but a repeatable constant 94Mb/s sounds like either a damaged / cat5 (not cat 5e) or possibly a faulty switch port.

It’s also worth looking at you switch / switches manual to see if it has port lights that indicate what speed link it’s negotiated, it might show 100Mb/s rather than 1G

Though you are completely correct I missed in your original post that you had already proven the cable from switch to ap.

What switch are you running?

If you wanted to try and find the cause I would

Disconnect all unif kit & power it off bar a single access point which I’d do a factory reset on

Take the vm hub out of modem mode (it is in modem mode right?)

Turn off wifi on the vm hub

Connect the reset access point to the vm hub & use the unifi app to set it up as a access point.
Test, if it’s giving 5-600 Mbs then it was config or one of the other components at fault, if it’s still ~100Mbs then you might simply have a faulty ap

You could test each ap to confirm they are all working around the 5-600Mbs mark, if they are then again it points to config or a fault either with the usg or whatever switch your using.

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Monday 2nd January 11:53

Apologies, yes you did try and help previously, thank you.

It’s an unmanaged netgear switch - https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanage...

The virgin hub is in VM mode. I’ve removed everything but a single AP and tried it, and got the speed test result above your post.
I’ve replaced the AP with another one, speed test again and got 60 Mb/s still. So potentially I just have faulty APs!

I don’t think it’s the USG or switch or PoE etc, as I’ve tested every cable from each device to confirm I still get near 1Gbs pass through and all have come back fine.

I may have to reset everything, however the new system arrives on Thursday so may just see what happens when I plug that in.

[Seventyseven7]

megaphone said:

Are you connecting with 5GHz Wifi or 2.4Ghz? Try turning off the 2.4ghz band and test again.

I have both setup, have tried using just one or the other and still get the same results.

[Seventyseven7]

wormus said:

Seventyseven7 said:

I've turned off all other APs. Plugged that same cable into the AP, with this being the only AP in the house. Stood next to it, connected to the Wifi and run a speed test

Looking at this, the problem seems to be with your download speed, upload is fine. How congested is your network, e.g. have you tried using different channels ?

This is a good shout. Is there a Wi-Fi app to find the best channels for my house? The APs are set to specific channels for each frequency

[theboss]

Is the AP registered with any unifi controller which will expose the full configuration GUI, or is it effectively out-of-the-box and unmanaged?

[anonymous-user]

Seventyseven7 said:

wormus said:

Seventyseven7 said:

I've turned off all other APs. Plugged that same cable into the AP, with this being the only AP in the house. Stood next to it, connected to the Wifi and run a speed test

Looking at this, the problem seems to be with your download speed, upload is fine. How congested is your network, e.g. have you tried using different channels ?

This is a good shout. Is there a Wi-Fi app to find the best channels for my house? The APs are set to specific channels for each frequency

I'm unfamiliar with the Unifi equipment you're using, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't come with its own channel analyser. I would add, don't set the channels manually as it can give poor performance. Set both frequencies to automatic.

[JohnnyUK]

Bikerjon said:

Check the channel width in the AP settings. Change it to 80Mhz for the 5Ghz channel and set the channel to Auto just for the purpose of this test. Then go into your Wi-Fi network settings and make it 5Ghz only (uncheck 2.4Ghz)

Reboot AP and test speed with at least 2 different devices that support modern Wi-Fi standards e.g. a newish iPhone/iPad etc.

This.

I suspect you have set the 5Ghz Channel Width to 40Mhz or lower in Global AP Settings? Also, if the APs are hardwired back to the router, then make sure Wireless Meshing is switched off on the same settings page.

[Captain_Morgan]

Seventyseven7 said:

Apologies, yes you did try and help previously, thank you.

It’s an unmanaged netgear switch - https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanage...

The virgin hub is in VM mode. I’ve removed everything but a single AP and tried it, and got the speed test result above your post.
I’ve replaced the AP with another one, speed test again and got 60 Mb/s still. So potentially I just have faulty APs!

I don’t think it’s the USG or switch or PoE etc, as I’ve tested every cable from each device to confirm I still get near 1Gbs pass through and all have come back fine.

I may have to reset everything, however the new system arrives on Thursday so may just see what happens when I plug that in.

No worries.

I suggested removing the other devices & resetting ap just to remove as many possible causes & start with the easiest setup most basic setup.

You’d be really unlucky to have multiple ap’s with the same fault but the same config setting causing limited performance sounds much more feasible.

Sorry I’m not sure what vm mode is, did you mean modem mode or is the vm box currently working as a fw/router/switch I.e it’s default out of the box config?

Btw I believe there is a wifi analyser built into the unifi controller (I think it’s called wifiman but google will tell you)

Personally I’d say that channel congestion/width are unlikely causes but wifi can be strange.

[Blown2CV]

you wouldn't expect to see consistent congestion issues across all APs surely

[Seventyseven7]

theboss said:

Is the AP registered with any unifi controller which will expose the full configuration GUI, or is it effectively out-of-the-box and unmanaged?

Everything is fully managed by a controller

[Seventyseven7]

JohnnyUK said:

Bikerjon said:

Check the channel width in the AP settings. Change it to 80Mhz for the 5Ghz channel and set the channel to Auto just for the purpose of this test. Then go into your Wi-Fi network settings and make it 5Ghz only (uncheck 2.4Ghz)

Reboot AP and test speed with at least 2 different devices that support modern Wi-Fi standards e.g. a newish iPhone/iPad etc.

This.

I suspect you have set the 5Ghz Channel Width to 40Mhz or lower in Global AP Settings? Also, if the APs are hardwired back to the router, then make sure Wireless Meshing is switched off on the same settings page.

These are the current settings, same across all the APs

[nebpor]

I’d try reducing the power on your 5Ghz band as a quick test as well, although if it’s the only AP currently powered on I wouldn’t expect it to make a difference - it’s when everything is transmitting on high that it causes grief

[xeny]

list view of the clients tab (so two icons down on the left) and then select wireless would probably be most helpful.

[Seventyseven7]

Captain_Morgan said:

Seventyseven7 said:

Apologies, yes you did try and help previously, thank you.

It’s an unmanaged netgear switch - https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanage...

The virgin hub is in VM mode. I’ve removed everything but a single AP and tried it, and got the speed test result above your post.
I’ve replaced the AP with another one, speed test again and got 60 Mb/s still. So potentially I just have faulty APs!

I don’t think it’s the USG or switch or PoE etc, as I’ve tested every cable from each device to confirm I still get near 1Gbs pass through and all have come back fine.

I may have to reset everything, however the new system arrives on Thursday so may just see what happens when I plug that in.

No worries.

I suggested removing the other devices & resetting ap just to remove as many possible causes & start with the easiest setup most basic setup.

You’d be really unlucky to have multiple ap’s with the same fault but the same config setting causing limited performance sounds much more feasible.

Sorry I’m not sure what vm mode is, did you mean modem mode or is the vm box currently working as a fw/router/switch I.e it’s default out of the box config?

Btw I believe there is a wifi analyser built into the unifi controller (I think it’s called wifiman but google will tell you)

Personally I’d say that channel congestion/width are unlikely causes but wifi can be strange.

Sorry, I was supposed to say VM hub is in modem mode.

Yes, I think resetting one AP and starting from there would be sensible, but it would be so time consuming to have to reset the whole system (Which would be the case if I reset the master AP). I'll see if the new system that comes on Thursday has any issues, if it doesn't instantly give me a good speed, then I will spend the time to reset the Unifi system.

Will look for the wifi anaylser on the controller now, thanks

[xeny]

What is the master AP in a Unifi system?

[Seventyseven7]

xeny said:

What is the master AP in a Unifi system?

It's not exactly a master device, I'm just referring to the only one connected to the USG that works as the downlink