Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

[xeny]

Super_G said:

Any recommendations for something to replace a bt home hub 2? Cheers

can you give us something more to go on - size of property, does it just need to do purely wifi or ADSL modem/router as well, how fast is your broadband, and is your current problem video chats dropping out, or streaming TV not coping...?

[anxious_ant]

xeny said:

Super_G said:

Any recommendations for something to replace a bt home hub 2? Cheers

can you give us something more to go on - size of property, does it just need to do purely wifi or ADSL modem/router as well, how fast is your broadband, and is your current problem video chats dropping out, or streaming TV not coping...?

This.

I have BT Smart Hub 2 along with the black Mesh discs and it’s pretty good. To consider a proper upgrade I’d looking to spend at least £500.

[anonymous-user]

xeny said:

Super_G said:

Any recommendations for something to replace a bt home hub 2? Cheers

can you give us something more to go on - size of property, does it just need to do purely wifi or ADSL modem/router as well, how fast is your broadband, and is your current problem video chats dropping out, or streaming TV not coping...?

Sure. It’s a 3 bed cottage. The internal walls are not too thick. The router is on a WAN point under the stairs. It is fibre to the premises. Downstairs apple tv 4k and sony af9 can reach 650mb of the 900mb speed. Upstairs never sees more than 450mb. I try leave the store cupboard open and it helps a bit. I tried whole home bt wifi discs but they didn’t make a jot of a difference. My understanding is it’s basically a node and can actually slow things down. Bt guaranteed a boost in speed but it never happened so refunded. I don’t want to drill through the floor but an ethernet connection would be faster. My home office/study is upstairs. WFH. No drop outs. Just trying to get the most from the speed.

[anonymous-user]

Hello * echoes *

[Northernboy]

Super_G said:

Sure. It’s a 3 bed cottage. The internal walls are not too thick. The router is on a WAN point under the stairs. It is fibre to the premises. Downstairs apple tv 4k and sony af9 can reach 650mb of the 900mb speed. Upstairs never sees more than 450mb. I try leave the store cupboard open and it helps a bit. I tried whole home bt wifi discs but they didn’t make a jot of a difference. My understanding is it’s basically a node and can actually slow things down. Bt guaranteed a boost in speed but it never happened so refunded. I don’t want to drill through the floor but an ethernet connection would be faster. My home office/study is upstairs. WFH. No drop outs. Just trying to get the most from the speed.

Until anyone more expert replies, a mesh system such as Velop may well be what you need.

It didn’t work for me, as apparently someone’s pit superconducting helium and faraday cages in my floors, but a three-box Linksys kit attached to your router could well sort it.

Another reasonably priced option is a couple of powerline adapters, sending the signal through your ring-main.

What’s your aim? 450Mb is far more than most people need, so if you are feeling limited by that it suggests some quite specialist requirements.

[troc]

My dad just solved a similar issue with a tp link mesh that also uses powerline if necessary so it CCD an use wired or wireless backhaul depending whether the individual nodes can communicate wirelessly with each other or not.

[RizzoTheRat]

Super_G said:

xeny said:

Super_G said:

Any recommendations for something to replace a bt home hub 2? Cheers

can you give us something more to go on - size of property, does it just need to do purely wifi or ADSL modem/router as well, how fast is your broadband, and is your current problem video chats dropping out, or streaming TV not coping...?

Sure. It’s a 3 bed cottage. The internal walls are not too thick. The router is on a WAN point under the stairs. It is fibre to the premises. Downstairs apple tv 4k and sony af9 can reach 650mb of the 900mb speed. Upstairs never sees more than 450mb. I try leave the store cupboard open and it helps a bit. I tried whole home bt wifi discs but they didn’t make a jot of a difference. My understanding is it’s basically a node and can actually slow things down. Bt guaranteed a boost in speed but it never happened so refunded. I don’t want to drill through the floor but an ethernet connection would be faster. My home office/study is upstairs. WFH. No drop outs. Just trying to get the most from the speed.

I'm not an expert but I think tou get faster than you have will be fairly expensive. 2.4 GHz wiifi is rarely going give you more than 150Mbps, you need 5GHz for the speeds you're looking for, which doesn't have the range or penetration of walls that 2.5Ghz has. Your best bet would probably be to try and get an ethernet cable upstairs with a second access point, but using a powerline to get the signal upstairs is a simpler option, but not quite as reliable or quick.

I assume the system Troc mentions above is the Deco P-9, which I have and works great, with built in powerline to talk between the units, but I have 120MB internet, not sure what it's top speed is.

For the speeds you're after I suspect you need Wifi 6 devices, which is pretty new so not that many about yet.

On the other hand 4k streaming needs about 40Mbps so unless you're running a data warehouse form home, speeds much over 100Mbps are more about bragging rights than need, but yeah, if I had 1GB to the house I'd want to get it everywhere!

[AClownsPocket]

After reading 10 pages of ideas and assistance, I stuck with my original thought and bought Asus ZenWifi AX kit. Now I get Wifi in next door's garden as well as my own

[anonymous-user]

AClownsPocket said:

After reading 10 pages of ideas and assistance, I stuck with my original thought and bought Asus ZenWifi AX kit. Now I get Wifi in next door's garden as well as my own

How many did you get? 1 or 2?

[AClownsPocket]

Super_G said:

How many did you get? 1 or 2?

I have a pair.

[ecsrobin]

Ok slightly odd one, just had 900mbps up/down fibre installed at home to replace the 350mbps virgin currently using 2 tends MW6 and I’ve basically replicated the setup but moved one of the Tenda boxes but still hardwired to the modem (which has WiFi off) if I plug the TV direct into the tenda I’m getting 600mbps up / down but if i use a switch put the internet direct into the switch, TV from the switch and then Tenda connected to the switch i get 900mbps up/down. Whilst I know this is trivial I thought the MW6 was able to handle gigabyte connections or have I hit the pass through limitations?

Once there’s a more affordable wifi6 option I think I will move on from them anyway as all our WiFi devices are wifi6 capable (except home tech).

[Magnum 475]

ecsrobin said:

Ok slightly odd one, just had 900mbps up/down fibre installed at home to replace the 350mbps virgin currently using 2 tends MW6 and I’ve basically replicated the setup but moved one of the Tenda boxes but still hardwired to the modem (which has WiFi off) if I plug the TV direct into the tenda I’m getting 600mbps up / down but if i use a switch put the internet direct into the switch, TV from the switch and then Tenda connected to the switch i get 900mbps up/down. Whilst I know this is trivial I thought the MW6 was able to handle gigabyte connections or have I hit the pass through limitations?

Once there’s a more affordable wifi6 option I think I will move on from them anyway as all our WiFi devices are wifi6 capable (except home tech).

If you like Unifi kit, their Wifi 6 APs are now available. Bizarrely Amazon / Scan / etc don't have them, but Ubiquiti's EU store will ship them to the UK. I've just installed the first of four into the house (0.7m thick stone walls, so lots of APs needed), and the performance is great. I'll be putting the others up over the weekend.

[Bikerjon]

ecsrobin said:

Ok slightly odd one, just had 900mbps up/down fibre installed at home to replace the 350mbps virgin currently using 2 tends MW6 and I’ve basically replicated the setup but moved one of the Tenda boxes but still hardwired to the modem (which has WiFi off) if I plug the TV direct into the tenda I’m getting 600mbps up / down but if i use a switch put the internet direct into the switch, TV from the switch and then Tenda connected to the switch i get 900mbps up/down. Whilst I know this is trivial I thought the MW6 was able to handle gigabyte connections or have I hit the pass through limitations?

Once there’s a more affordable wifi6 option I think I will move on from them anyway as all our WiFi devices are wifi6 capable (except home tech).

They do have gigabit ports, so I suspect this must be some form of internal limitation. They're budget units and they're OK for what they do, but a 900Mbps connection deserves much better spec equipment IMO.

[Big Rig]

Guys some help please.

Detached house, VM 200Mb service, super hub 3 router at the front of the house in the lounge.

Since I've moved my desktop PC to the far back bedroom I'm struggling to use Spotify. A speed test shows 9Mb speed on the desktop yet my laptop sat next to it will achieve 180Mb. I suspected my wireless card in the desktop was failing, so I got an external USB antenna, and it's made hardly any difference (the one below).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WN722N-Mbps-Wi...

The Only way I can listen to Spotify now is having it set to very low quality.

Any idea what I can do now?

Edited by Big Rig on Thursday 1st April 17:45

[xeny]

Any chance the Pc only has 2.4GHz wifi and the laptop has 5GHz? May be as simple as spending a bit more on a 5GHz adapter for the PC.

[Big Rig]

xeny said:

Any chance the Pc only has 2.4GHz wifi and the laptop has 5GHz? May be as simple as spending a bit more on a 5GHz adapter for the PC.

I can check in a bit thanks. I always thought that 5ghz suffered less from interference but didn’t travel as well over distance?

[xeny]

That’s a good summary of the basic difference, yes, but it’s a quick thing to check, and if that is the difference gives an easy cheap solution.

[AClownsPocket]

Magnum 475 said:

If you like Unifi kit, their Wifi 6 APs are now available. Bizarrely Amazon / Scan / etc don't have them, but Ubiquiti's EU store will ship them to the UK. I've just installed the first of four into the house (0.7m thick stone walls, so lots of APs needed), and the performance is great. I'll be putting the others up over the weekend.

Are you aware of this

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/whistleblower-...

[Magnum 475]

AClownsPocket said:

Magnum 475 said:

If you like Unifi kit, their Wifi 6 APs are now available. Bizarrely Amazon / Scan / etc don't have them, but Ubiquiti's EU store will ship them to the UK. I've just installed the first of four into the house (0.7m thick stone walls, so lots of APs needed), and the performance is great. I'll be putting the others up over the weekend.

Are you aware of this

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/whistleblower-...

I hadn’t read that article before, but had changed credentials following this incident, and I don’t allow remote access from outside my network. *If* these allegations are true, it doesn’t leave Ubiquiti looking good in terms of how they handled this incident - but at the moment there’s no definitive evidence supporting (or contrary to) the allegations made....

It’s not going to have me ripping out all of my kit, my creds are changed and remote access is always off.

[ecsrobin]

Purchased and received a pair of Netgear Orbi wifi6 mesh on amazon prime day, only went for the more basic dual bands but compared to the Tenda MW6 they replace its a transformation. 9etting 900mbps across the whole house and garden off 2 boxes whereas we saw some massive reductions in speeds and black spots off 2 MW6’s and they were both wired. The 2nd Orbi is wireless.

Well worth a purchase.