BT Wifi Discs, Anyone used them?

[Blue Oval84]

Anyone used these with multiple Google Homes/Chromecast audios?

I currently use some TP-Link powerline wi-fi repeaters and it's ok most of the time, but the Chromecast Audio sometimes drops out which can be quite frustrating.

[jamoor]

Just get some high quality networking gear.

I use https://www.ui.com/products/#unifi

It works flawlessly and is cheap too.

[wilwak]

BT discs very good

I’ve just bought a pack of three because our BT smart router simply didn’t cover our house well at all.

All good now.

Did some people get them free from BT as part of contract renewal?

[Paul 2000]

wilwak said:

Did some people get them free from BT as part of contract renewal?

BT do two types of discs: BT Whole Home WiFi (white discs), which people can buy outright, or they have a new product called BT Complete WiFi (black discs), which require a new SmartHub 2 to work. BT are currently offering them to their BT Plus customers - you pay £5 a month to effectively rent the discs. The Complete WiFi package guarantees total coverage (although I’m sure there are some caveats attached). They’ll let you have up to three discs, if you need them, but start you off with the new router and one disc.

[eatontrifles]

Blue Oval84 said:

Anyone used these with multiple Google Homes/Chromecast audios?

I currently use some TP-Link powerline wi-fi repeaters and it's ok most of the time, but the Chromecast Audio sometimes drops out which can be quite frustrating.

Yeah, I have a couple of Chromecast Audios and they work fine either linked up or on their own.

[dmsims]

Paul 2000 said:

you pay £5 a month to effectively rent the discs.

BT up to the usual then - complete rip off

[Carrot]

I have Unifi at home due to existing cables, but have installed BT whole home in a few homes now.

Very good once set up, app is a bit crappy for setting up but all went OK.

[anonymous-user]

Can anyone comment on network speeds using the BT discs? I get c 5-10MB/s on my current setup (100MB/s on cat 5), so interested if there is enough of increase to got with this rather than rewiring to cat 6

[wjwren]

I wouldn't think cat 6 would make any difference. What internet are you on? If its a virgin ot bt fibre then cat 6 wont make any difference.

[Podie]

Paul 2000 said:

BT do two types of discs: BT Whole Home WiFi (white discs), which people can buy outright, or they have a new product called BT Complete WiFi (black discs), which require a new SmartHub 2 to work. BT are currently offering them to their BT Plus customers - you pay £5 a month to effectively rent the discs. The Complete WiFi package guarantees total coverage (although I’m sure there are some caveats attached). They’ll let you have up to three discs, if you need them, but start you off with the new router and one disc.

So are they the same inside, or is one better?

I currently have the white whole home wifi discs, but being offered the black ones for no additional charge.

[anonymous-user]

wjwren said:

I wouldn't think cat 6 would make any difference. What internet are you on? If its a virgin ot bt fibre then cat 6 wont make any difference.

My point is I will either 1) extend the hard wiring in my house, or 2) look at a mesh wifi solution .

The internet speed is irrelevant, the internal network speed is what I'm looking for.

I get c100MB/s on my wired connections, I get c 5-10MB/s on current wifi in the non-wired locations.

I'm trying to get a real world number for internal network speed for the BT mesh wifi system to see if it is worthwhile as an easy option as opposed to the dirty/difficult option of extending internal network over cat 6 cabling.

[dmsims]

Just buy Tenda MW6 or Orbi dependent on your Budget, all of these capable three figures Mbit/s (note the small b)

[anonymous-user]

dmsims said:

Just buy Tenda MW6 or Orbi dependent on your Budget, all of these capable three figures Mbit/s (note the small b)

Orbi in a couple of tests shows c130Mbs close and c150Mbs at c 20-25m and would c£3-400

tenda I've not seen an independent test yet, but some user reviews have not been great.


Thanks for the info - Orbi looks like the main runner (especially as it uses a dedicated wifi backhaul), I'll price up the cat6 work I'd need to do and see how they match in a cost/performance/ballache matrix .

[dmsims]

I just plugged in AC USB to my PC (normally hard wired)

Got 145Mb/s copying a file

Orbi tests:

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-...

[anonymous-user]

dmsims said:

I just plugged in AC USB to my PC (normally hard wired)

Got 145Mb/s copying a file

Orbi tests:

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-...

Thanks

[Paul 2000]

Podie said:

So are they the same inside, or is one better?

I currently have the white whole home wifi discs, but being offered the black ones for no additional charge.

I don't think one's necessarily better than the other, but with the white WholeHome discs one of them needs to be permanently tethered via ethernet cable to the router and the rest scattered around the house as indicated by the WholeHome app. The advice is then to turn off the wifi on the SmartHub and just use the new network broadcast by the WholeHome mesh.
With the the Complete WiFi system no discs need to be permanently tethered to the router and the SmartHub's wifi remains turned on becoming part of the mesh.
I've had both and think the SmartHub 2 and 2 black discs gives me the same coverage as the SmartHub 1 (wifi off) and 3 white WholeHome discs did.
I do think the black discs are more discrete and don't stand out like a bulldog's danglies, like the white discs do (IMO).
With the SmartHub 2 you can't split the wifi channels like you can on BT's other routers, but that hasn't been a problem for me so far.