Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

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Discussion

Deep Thought

35,821 posts

197 months

Friday 8th February 2019
quotequote all
essayer said:
essayer said:
Noticed there was an update to the Tenda app and then it allowed a firmware release
From 1.0.0.27 to 1.0.0.31(6705),
I found the MW3 really unstable after upgrading to 1.0.0.31 - wifi would cycle every few minutes - but enabling a new setting "Capacity-oriented mode" seems to have sorted it.
I just enabled that mode and I'm getting maybe am extra 10mb/s download speed on our furthest node (two nodes away from the router node but the one we use most). No idea why the big improvement but well pleased.



ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Friday 8th February 2019
quotequote all
Whoozit said:
I have the 3 unit kit. IIRC each one can act as a main router, the others are then added . So you could use just the 1-2 in another house.
Sounds good. Cheers.

essayer

9,065 posts

194 months

Friday 8th February 2019
quotequote all
I'm going to return my Tenda MW3 kit I think.
Devices just keep losing wifi and my laptop and iPhone currently show 3Mbps down / 0.35Mbps up.
Shame as I really liked the concept. Should have spent a bit more



Edited by essayer on Friday 8th February 13:43

Sargeant Orange

2,713 posts

147 months

Friday 1st March 2019
quotequote all
Same here, my MW3 is going back.

Absolutely fine through the day but it disconnects 75% of the time overnight, so you wake up in the morning with no WiFi & it needs to be unplugged at the main box for ten seconds. Frustrating.

Too good to be true & plenty of fake reviews that I didn't spot until after buying

thebraketester

14,226 posts

138 months

Friday 1st March 2019
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  • cough* Unifi *cough*

ecs0set

2,471 posts

284 months

Friday 1st March 2019
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Watching this thread with interest as my Meraki subscription is due to expire soon and I need to work out whether to add to my existing AC Pro or move to a mesh.

Unifi is... OK. I can't forgive them for the firmware update error where they accidentally made my Guest network open to all! https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Wireless/WARNI...

The controller software is a bit rubbish in that it doesn't natively run as a Windows service - updates are a faff. Also it stores itself (program and data) in C:\Users\You\App Data which is also a bit amateur-hour. 802.11r is... broken, insecure, incompatible (delete as applicable this week). I've had to telnet into the AP to rejoin it to the network when it got confused. The latest firmware reports 0% WiFi experience, you must fix it now, DHCP timeouts... except you can ignore it because it's lying - https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Wireless/Unifi...

If only the Meraki licensing wasn't so expensive, it really is fit and forget.

PS. Some confusion based on my understanding - turning off WiFi on your ISP router is not the same as modem mode. Modem mode is when it is just a modem, not DHCP/DNS/Router/WiFi? Also, mesh network with wired backhaul is actually managed WLAN as previously mentioned? Correct me if I'm wrong.

budgie smuggler

5,384 posts

159 months

Friday 1st March 2019
quotequote all
Just installed my MW6, and so far not impressed by the performance.

Only getting 21-23 mbit/s (not mbyte) between my NAS and my laptop or phone. Doesn't matter which freq. i'm on or where in the house I am. That's testing over the LAN with iperf3 (i.e nothing to do with my internet connection).

Doesn't seem to be any firmware updates available so not sure if there's anything I can do.
For reference the HH5 could achieve 180-200mbit/s on these devices.

Edited by budgie smuggler on Friday 1st March 19:56

dmsims

6,519 posts

267 months

Friday 1st March 2019
quotequote all
With MW6

I get 210 Mb from my PC

58 Mb on phone through 2 solid walls and a set of oak stairs

budgie smuggler

5,384 posts

159 months

Friday 1st March 2019
quotequote all
Is that the actual speed you've observed in a file trasnfer or benchmark, or what it's reporting as the connection speed?

Mine is reporting 433mbit/s, but only actually achieving 20-25. My HomeHub5 achieved 200+ on the same test.

eta:

reported


actual


Edited by budgie smuggler on Friday 1st March 21:02

dmsims

6,519 posts

267 months

Friday 1st March 2019
quotequote all
I just use Speed Test

it connects (normally) to a Virgin media server in Bristol:



ETA is the MW6 in AP mode?

Edited by dmsims on Friday 1st March 22:48

Big Pants

505 posts

141 months

Friday 1st March 2019
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No need for weapons grade for me, but even in my 2 bedroom 670 sq ft London flat my Virgin "Super"hub 3 couldn't reach my bedroom from the sitting room even after setting up separate 2.4 & 5.0 networks.

D-Link Covr - £118 from Amazon - was a piece of piss to set up and now means I can stream porn surf the internet reliably from under my duvet.

vladcjelli

2,968 posts

158 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
So now that MW3 are regarded as unsuitable (just as I've got the spare cash lying around to order it) what's the next best budget option?

Or am I overreacting to a couple of negative experiences?

budgie smuggler

5,384 posts

159 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
dmsims said:
I just use Speed Test

it connects (normally) to a Virgin media server in Bristol:



ETA is the MW6 in AP mode?

Edited by dmsims on Friday 1st March 22:48
Hmmm, that's accurate then, wonder what's wrong with my setup. Mine is in bridged mode, as i'm using the HH5 as DHCP & DNS server.

Edit: ffs i haven't changed anything and it's fast this morning on every device:


Think I'll give it a couple of weeks, if there are any problems at all I'll send it back



Edited by budgie smuggler on Saturday 2nd March 07:30


Edited by budgie smuggler on Saturday 2nd March 07:30

essayer

9,065 posts

194 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
Re. MW3 i’d buy it from amazon and test it for a month. Can always return it

Deep Thought

35,821 posts

197 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
vladcjelli said:
So now that MW3 are regarded as unsuitable (just as I've got the spare cash lying around to order it) what's the next best budget option?

Or am I overreacting to a couple of negative experiences?
I think you're over reacting to a couple of negative reviews.

Still loving ours. Total game changer for us compared to homeplugs.

Buy from Amazon then you've an option to return them.

Rick101

6,969 posts

150 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
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Finally moving next week and incredibly to another area that's wired for Talk Talk's UFO service.

Slightly bigger house. Just trying to work out what I'd need for solid Wi-Fi.

I will have the talk talk router at one end of the house, various Sonos throughout and to the other far end.
I've also got a Sonos Bridge. I'm not sure they're required any more but would it provide a stronger Sonos network?

With the Google Wifi Hub, do I just need one or do I have one by the router and then a 2nd further away?
Ground floor is 61 Sq M but would also want cover in garden so prob closer to 100 sq m.


Thanks


Edited by Rick101 on Saturday 2nd March 09:12

AJB88

12,407 posts

171 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
Rick101 said:
Finally moving next week and incredibly to another area that's wired for Talk Talk's UFO service.

Slightly bigger house. Just trying to work out what I'd need for solid Wi-Fi.

I will have the talk talk router at one end of the house, various Sonos throughout and to the other far end.
I've also got a Sonos Bridge. I'm not sure they're required any more but would it provide a stronger Sonos network?

With the Google Wifi Hub, do I just need one or do I have one by the router and then a 2nd further away?
Ground floor is 61 Sq M but would also want cover in garden so prob closer to 100 sq m.


Thanks


Edited by Rick101 on Saturday 2nd March 09:12
I've got 2 Google Wifi hubs in my place mate and its only a 3 bedroom, I'd say 2 minimum.

Rick101

6,969 posts

150 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
Nice one, cheers.
Hopefully pick a 2 set up next week. Can always add a third later if necessary.

Deep Thought

35,821 posts

197 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
Rick101 said:
Nice one, cheers.
Hopefully pick a 2 set up next week. Can always add a third later if necessary.
I'm genuinely amazed by ours. We'd severe dropouts and low speed with network plugs. All totally resolved with the MW3.


ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Saturday 2nd March 2019
quotequote all
Just an update from me. I purchased the Tenda MW6 3 pack. I kept one for myself in my flat and 2 to my sisters 3 storey house.

Both were plugged in to virgin media hubs which were switched to modem mode. The downside to this is you can’t use the extra rj45 ports on the virgin hub.

So I picked up a cheap TP-link gigabit switch that is plugged into the virgin hub, the Tenda and all my other devices are then plugged into the switch which works perfectly.

Since we’ve both moved to the Tenda, WiFi has been bulletproof and for my flat default speed is now 220mbps and at the furthest point 159mbps. On the virgin I wouldn’t even get WiFi at that point.

My sisters house with the 3 floors now gets 220mbps on 2 floors and 130mbps on the top floor. The garage has now also come into range of the Tenda and getting 25mbps.

I would recommend it to anyone and I believe my sister will pick up another MW6 box having been impressed to improve the garden and garage speeds.