Home WiFi deconfliction
Discussion
Try a wifi analyser. Used one today on my android phone, was excellent. It was free but I ended up paying £2.19 to remove the ads as I was so impressed. Shows exactly what is going on in terms of signal strength and so on. I ended up moving my access points to new channels, reducing the width of the 2.4Ghz channel and moving one access point.
Now have full signal in the edge of the garden where it was hit and miss previously. Very easy to use too.
Now have full signal in the edge of the garden where it was hit and miss previously. Very easy to use too.
Same setup more or less, this is what I did.
Don't put your superhub into modem mode.
Turn OFF the superhub wi-fi
Connect EVERYTHING through the mesh
In my case I went Superhub > M5 , connected a 4 port hub for anything that needed hard wiring in the living room, put another 2 M5's around the house, connected devices in those rooms either through wi-fi or the m5 ethernet ports.
Zero problems.
Doing it any other way meant there were effectively 2 wi-fi networks running, superhub & mesh and this caused issues where devices would pick one at random, also caused issues where something hard wired wouldn't talk to a chromecast on wi-fi because on a different network.
I'm only using 1 of the ports on the superhub (to the m5) and nothing to any of the others (although I could if I needed anything on a separate network)
Hope this makes sense.
Don't put your superhub into modem mode.
Turn OFF the superhub wi-fi
Connect EVERYTHING through the mesh
In my case I went Superhub > M5 , connected a 4 port hub for anything that needed hard wiring in the living room, put another 2 M5's around the house, connected devices in those rooms either through wi-fi or the m5 ethernet ports.
Zero problems.
Doing it any other way meant there were effectively 2 wi-fi networks running, superhub & mesh and this caused issues where devices would pick one at random, also caused issues where something hard wired wouldn't talk to a chromecast on wi-fi because on a different network.
I'm only using 1 of the ports on the superhub (to the m5) and nothing to any of the others (although I could if I needed anything on a separate network)
Hope this makes sense.
michael_JCWS said:
Can anyone point me to some reading or guides to try and get to the bottom of this.
Have a read of https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/the-ars-te...A "Semi-scientific guide to Wi-Fi Access Point placement"
techguyone said:
Same setup more or less, this is what I did.
Don't put your superhub into modem mode.
Turn OFF the superhub wi-fi
Connect EVERYTHING through the mesh
In my case I went Superhub > M5 , connected a 4 port hub for anything that needed hard wiring in the living room, put another 2 M5's around the house, connected devices in those rooms either through wi-fi or the m5 ethernet ports.
Zero problems.
Doing it any other way meant there were effectively 2 wi-fi networks running, superhub & mesh and this caused issues where devices would pick one at random, also caused issues where something hard wired wouldn't talk to a chromecast on wi-fi because on a different network.
I'm only using 1 of the ports on the superhub (to the m5) and nothing to any of the others (although I could if I needed anything on a separate network)
Hope this makes sense.
First review on Amazon for Deco tells me “ I set up Deco as router and put Virgin Hub3 as modem only, which is the default recommended setup.”. You suggesting that is wrong?Don't put your superhub into modem mode.
Turn OFF the superhub wi-fi
Connect EVERYTHING through the mesh
In my case I went Superhub > M5 , connected a 4 port hub for anything that needed hard wiring in the living room, put another 2 M5's around the house, connected devices in those rooms either through wi-fi or the m5 ethernet ports.
Zero problems.
Doing it any other way meant there were effectively 2 wi-fi networks running, superhub & mesh and this caused issues where devices would pick one at random, also caused issues where something hard wired wouldn't talk to a chromecast on wi-fi because on a different network.
I'm only using 1 of the ports on the superhub (to the m5) and nothing to any of the others (although I could if I needed anything on a separate network)
Hope this makes sense.
Interested....we have used “regular” plug in TPlink extenders to some good use, but still have occasional irritating issues.....considering splurging £150 on 3 deco’s to see if that can sort things out more permanently around Mikeiow Towers
I have the Virgin hub in modem mode and it works flawlessly with my Google mesh setup. Modem mode also switches off any wifi from the hub. I want the mesh device to handle all the routing functions.
If you just switch off wifi on the Virgin hub then you have 2 routers on your network (assuming your mesh setup is also used as a router). I'm no expert but this doesn't sound like a good idea.
Either way it shouldn't be interfering with the wifi signals. How big is your house? I've heard that too many points can be an issue. Biggest 4 bed old house with thick walls here and I have one router upstairs and 1 point downstairs. Plenty for full 200meg speed in every room and in the gardens.
If you just switch off wifi on the Virgin hub then you have 2 routers on your network (assuming your mesh setup is also used as a router). I'm no expert but this doesn't sound like a good idea.
Either way it shouldn't be interfering with the wifi signals. How big is your house? I've heard that too many points can be an issue. Biggest 4 bed old house with thick walls here and I have one router upstairs and 1 point downstairs. Plenty for full 200meg speed in every room and in the gardens.
Gren said:
I have the Virgin hub in modem mode and it works flawlessly with my Google mesh setup. Modem mode also switches off any wifi from the hub. I want the mesh device to handle all the routing functions.
If you just switch off wifi on the Virgin hub then you have 2 routers on your network (assuming your mesh setup is also used as a router). I'm no expert but this doesn't sound like a good idea.
Either way it shouldn't be interfering with the wifi signals. How big is your house? I've heard that too many points can be an issue. Biggest 4 bed old house with thick walls here and I have one router upstairs and 1 point downstairs. Plenty for full 200meg speed in every room and in the gardens.
Ok.If you just switch off wifi on the Virgin hub then you have 2 routers on your network (assuming your mesh setup is also used as a router). I'm no expert but this doesn't sound like a good idea.
Either way it shouldn't be interfering with the wifi signals. How big is your house? I've heard that too many points can be an issue. Biggest 4 bed old house with thick walls here and I have one router upstairs and 1 point downstairs. Plenty for full 200meg speed in every room and in the gardens.
I suggested to not go to modem mode as when I did, it caused other issues that simply by just turning wi-fi off didn't.
Secondly your 'If you just switch off WiFi on the Virgin hub then you have 2 routers on your network (assuming your mesh setup is also used as a router). I'm no expert but this doesn't sound like a good idea.'
Doesn't make sense.
I plug in my main mesh unit into one port on the VM hub, then EVERYTHING else (including Wi-Fi) is taken care of by mesh, One network. (remember I turned Wi-Fi OFF on the vm hub to avoid conflicts.)
Obviously if I then plugged another Ethernet in one of the remaining 3 ports then I would have TWO networks, which might be desirable under some circumstances, but if you don't, then you're only running one network.
Oh and the M5 setup supports 'up to 10' meshes, people say 3-5 is ok, more than that and you get issues. OP has 4, but if a big property may need 5. Obviously some thought needs to go into where each unit is placed.
Edited by techguyone on Monday 21st September 10:18
Edited by techguyone on Monday 21st September 10:20
Alternatively you can set the Deco's to Access Point mode and just use them for wifi, with the wifi on the Virgin router turned off but it still operating as the router.
The Deco's automatically set up the channel to what they think is best, but I've seen comments that some people have devices with a limited range of channels and the Deco can set it to one that device can't access, so might be worth looking in to.
The Deco's automatically set up the channel to what they think is best, but I've seen comments that some people have devices with a limited range of channels and the Deco can set it to one that device can't access, so might be worth looking in to.
techguyone said:
Hrmmmm
Strange, my setup has worked flawlessly for over a year, however I have now turned my hub back to Modem mode and I'll see if the issue I had shows again.
I can't actually remember what it was, but something stopped working and I had to go back to router mode to get it working.
You may need to reboot the deco so it gets an IP. Strange, my setup has worked flawlessly for over a year, however I have now turned my hub back to Modem mode and I'll see if the issue I had shows again.
I can't actually remember what it was, but something stopped working and I had to go back to router mode to get it working.
megaphone said:
techguyone said:
Hrmmmm
Strange, my setup has worked flawlessly for over a year, however I have now turned my hub back to Modem mode and I'll see if the issue I had shows again.
I can't actually remember what it was, but something stopped working and I had to go back to router mode to get it working.
You may need to reboot the deco so it gets an IP. Strange, my setup has worked flawlessly for over a year, however I have now turned my hub back to Modem mode and I'll see if the issue I had shows again.
I can't actually remember what it was, but something stopped working and I had to go back to router mode to get it working.
Thanks for all the responses.
My Deco is set up as a router rather than AP mode, this allows me to keep control of the children's devices and QoS my Nest camera's.
I've logged into my virgin hub which is also set up as a router.
I've now unplugged my Sonos directly from the VM hub and moved it to the Deco. so going forward everything will use the Deco mesh. Sonos currently set to channel 12
Couple of questions:
1) if switch my VM hub to modem, presumably all the routing will be performed by the Deco ?
2) If I switch the WIFI off on the VM hub, how do I, at a later date access the VM hub to change anything ? will 192.168... still route through to the hub ?
3) my VM hub SSID is different to my mesh and fixed to channel 1. the Deco seems to decide on its own channels, I assume through some sort of optimisation ?
4) I've been using some WIFI scanning tools (inSSIDer) and notice a few networks coming up as ' [HIDDEN] on my_mesh'
but with a similar dB to my mesh, what are they ? I'm assuming its the deco mesh network itself ?
5) using inSSIDer to look at WIFI when it identifies channels some have the channel number then another number in [ ], where as other just have the 2.4Ghz number and the 5Ghz e.g 1,46 and 5 [3], 42 [40]
Sorry loads of questions
Thanks
Michael
My Deco is set up as a router rather than AP mode, this allows me to keep control of the children's devices and QoS my Nest camera's.
I've logged into my virgin hub which is also set up as a router.
I've now unplugged my Sonos directly from the VM hub and moved it to the Deco. so going forward everything will use the Deco mesh. Sonos currently set to channel 12
Couple of questions:
1) if switch my VM hub to modem, presumably all the routing will be performed by the Deco ?
2) If I switch the WIFI off on the VM hub, how do I, at a later date access the VM hub to change anything ? will 192.168... still route through to the hub ?
3) my VM hub SSID is different to my mesh and fixed to channel 1. the Deco seems to decide on its own channels, I assume through some sort of optimisation ?
4) I've been using some WIFI scanning tools (inSSIDer) and notice a few networks coming up as ' [HIDDEN] on my_mesh'
but with a similar dB to my mesh, what are they ? I'm assuming its the deco mesh network itself ?
5) using inSSIDer to look at WIFI when it identifies channels some have the channel number then another number in [ ], where as other just have the 2.4Ghz number and the 5Ghz e.g 1,46 and 5 [3], 42 [40]
Sorry loads of questions
Thanks
Michael
Virgin have a handy page to tell you how to get out of Modem mode: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-...
michael_JCWS said:
Thanks for all the responses.
My Deco is set up as a router rather than AP mode, this allows me to keep control of the children's devices and QoS my Nest camera's.
I've logged into my virgin hub which is also set up as a router.
I've now unplugged my Sonos directly from the VM hub and moved it to the Deco. so going forward everything will use the Deco mesh. Sonos currently set to channel 12
Couple of questions:
1) if switch my VM hub to modem, presumably all the routing will be performed by the Deco ?
2) If I switch the WIFI off on the VM hub, how do I, at a later date access the VM hub to change anything ? will 192.168... still route through to the hub ?
3) my VM hub SSID is different to my mesh and fixed to channel 1. the Deco seems to decide on its own channels, I assume through some sort of optimisation ?
4) I've been using some WIFI scanning tools (inSSIDer) and notice a few networks coming up as ' [HIDDEN] on my_mesh'
but with a similar dB to my mesh, what are they ? I'm assuming its the deco mesh network itself ?
5) using inSSIDer to look at WIFI when it identifies channels some have the channel number then another number in [ ], where as other just have the 2.4Ghz number and the 5Ghz e.g 1,46 and 5 [3], 42 [40]
Sorry loads of questions
Thanks
Michael
For question 2 when you switch to modem mode the hub itself tells you how to reconnect, it will say to use an Ethernet lead and to use 192.168.100.1 rather than 192.168.0.1My Deco is set up as a router rather than AP mode, this allows me to keep control of the children's devices and QoS my Nest camera's.
I've logged into my virgin hub which is also set up as a router.
I've now unplugged my Sonos directly from the VM hub and moved it to the Deco. so going forward everything will use the Deco mesh. Sonos currently set to channel 12
Couple of questions:
1) if switch my VM hub to modem, presumably all the routing will be performed by the Deco ?
2) If I switch the WIFI off on the VM hub, how do I, at a later date access the VM hub to change anything ? will 192.168... still route through to the hub ?
3) my VM hub SSID is different to my mesh and fixed to channel 1. the Deco seems to decide on its own channels, I assume through some sort of optimisation ?
4) I've been using some WIFI scanning tools (inSSIDer) and notice a few networks coming up as ' [HIDDEN] on my_mesh'
but with a similar dB to my mesh, what are they ? I'm assuming its the deco mesh network itself ?
5) using inSSIDer to look at WIFI when it identifies channels some have the channel number then another number in [ ], where as other just have the 2.4Ghz number and the 5Ghz e.g 1,46 and 5 [3], 42 [40]
Sorry loads of questions
Thanks
Michael
michael_JCWS said:
1) if switch my VM hub to modem, presumably all the routing will be performed by the Deco ?
2) If I switch the WIFI off on the VM hub, how do I, at a later date access the VM hub to change anything ? will 192.168... still route through to the hub ?
3) my VM hub SSID is different to my mesh and fixed to channel 1. the Deco seems to decide on its own channels, I assume through some sort of optimisation ?
4) I've been using some WIFI scanning tools (inSSIDer) and notice a few networks coming up as ' [HIDDEN] on my_mesh'
but with a similar dB to my mesh, what are they ? I'm assuming its the deco mesh network itself ?
5) using inSSIDer to look at WIFI when it identifies channels some have the channel number then another number in [ ], where as other just have the 2.4Ghz number and the 5Ghz e.g 1,46 and 5 [3], 42 [40]
1) Yes - I suspect either doing the routing would be OK, but pick one or the other.2) If I switch the WIFI off on the VM hub, how do I, at a later date access the VM hub to change anything ? will 192.168... still route through to the hub ?
3) my VM hub SSID is different to my mesh and fixed to channel 1. the Deco seems to decide on its own channels, I assume through some sort of optimisation ?
4) I've been using some WIFI scanning tools (inSSIDer) and notice a few networks coming up as ' [HIDDEN] on my_mesh'
but with a similar dB to my mesh, what are they ? I'm assuming its the deco mesh network itself ?
5) using inSSIDer to look at WIFI when it identifies channels some have the channel number then another number in [ ], where as other just have the 2.4Ghz number and the 5Ghz e.g 1,46 and 5 [3], 42 [40]
3)It claims to self optimise I think. You definitely should turn wifi off on the VM hub though, regardless of if it or the Deco is the router.
5)Is it possible you're seeing "wide" SSIDs either 40 or 80MHz wide, so the claim several channels? They'll appear as "fat" signals in the channels in use graph screen of inssider.
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