Mesh WiFi Setup
Discussion
I have Sky ‘Superfast’ Broadband, according to the Sky app I’m getting 66 mb/s at the router.
We live in a big 500 year old house so getting a WiFi signal all around through walls and inglenook fireplaces is challenging. I bough 6 BT Whole Home nodes and have a strong signal around 50 - 60 mbps in the rooms closest to the router which is great.
The problem is one room where I like to stream football onto my tv is only getting 17 mbps which isn’t great. The issue is finding a way to get the signal around or through the inglenook. The network map is shown below though the drawing room which has the weakest signal is below, just out of the picture.
So is more nodes the answer?
We live in a big 500 year old house so getting a WiFi signal all around through walls and inglenook fireplaces is challenging. I bough 6 BT Whole Home nodes and have a strong signal around 50 - 60 mbps in the rooms closest to the router which is great.
The problem is one room where I like to stream football onto my tv is only getting 17 mbps which isn’t great. The issue is finding a way to get the signal around or through the inglenook. The network map is shown below though the drawing room which has the weakest signal is below, just out of the picture.
So is more nodes the answer?
It's not clear from your description and map where the router is and where the desired service terminates, but it does suggest that you have some relaying going on bouncing traffic from one WAP to another. Although a neat solution to getting a network to awkward places, relaying will reduce the available bandwith by about half for every hop. Best solution is to try and run some ethernet cable from the router closer to the desired spot and then hang your access point off that.
drmotorsport said:
It's not clear from your description and map where the router is and where the desired service terminates, but it does suggest that you have some relaying going on bouncing traffic from one WAP to another. Although a neat solution to getting a network to awkward places, relaying will reduce the available bandwith by about half for every hop. Best solution is to try and run some ethernet cable from the router closer to the desired spot and then hang your access point off that.
Sorry I should have said that the node called ‘Study’ is connected by Ethernet to the router, the others don’t have Ethernet connections. The app shows an Ethernet connection at the spare bedroom.I know ethernet cable would be best but that would be a very messy job.
A pair of powerline adapters may help here.
Works for us in our 3 story farmhouse.
Plug one in near router and connect to router with ethernet.
Plug the other in the room with TV and then connect that to one of your access points.
It may be that your ring mains don't allow this, but worth a try, if it doesn't work send them back.
Basic tp-link starter kit (without WiFi) would work.
Works for us in our 3 story farmhouse.
Plug one in near router and connect to router with ethernet.
Plug the other in the room with TV and then connect that to one of your access points.
It may be that your ring mains don't allow this, but worth a try, if it doesn't work send them back.
Basic tp-link starter kit (without WiFi) would work.
FunkyGibbon said:
A pair of powerline adapters may help here.
Works for us in our 3 story farmhouse.
Plug one in near router and connect to router with ethernet.
Plug the other in the room with TV and then connect that to one of your access points.
It may be that your ring mains don't allow this, but worth a try, if it doesn't work send them back.
Basic tp-link starter kit (without WiFi) would work.
You mean run Powerline to the room with the tv where I want to stream the footie and leave the Mesh for other areas?Works for us in our 3 story farmhouse.
Plug one in near router and connect to router with ethernet.
Plug the other in the room with TV and then connect that to one of your access points.
It may be that your ring mains don't allow this, but worth a try, if it doesn't work send them back.
Basic tp-link starter kit (without WiFi) would work.
bad company said:
You mean run Powerline to the room with the tv where I want to stream the footie and leave the Mesh for other areas?
If your TV or steaming device has ethernet then yes, powerline to the room and then ethernet to TV (or if you need more devices ethernet to small switch, and the ethernet to devices).powerline kit
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-PA4010KIT-Powerline-Co...
switch
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS205-100UKS-Giga...
Or powerline in the TV room with ethernet to one of your mesh APs. Then connect everything in that room to you wifi.
I'd do the former if I could.
Can the mesh units you have use ethernet to talk to each other? If so your cheapest option is connect one or more of the mesh nodes back to the master one (or switch, depending how the they operate) via powerline, so you're using the powerline to speed the communication between nodes of the mesh.
RizzoTheRat said:
Can the mesh units you have use ethernet to talk to each other? .
This is exactly what I do with my Asus AiMesh system - ethernet backhaul via the powerline adapters. It works very well.The bonus as well the the mesh APs have 4 x Gb ethernet ports, so most fixed devices are on ethernet as well.
bad company said:
Sorry I should have said that the node called ‘Study’ is connected by Ethernet to the router, the others don’t have Ethernet connections. The app shows an Ethernet connection at the spare bedroom.
I know ethernet cable would be best but that would be a very messy job.
If Study is connected to your router there is something off there - I have the same kit and ethernet connected nodes arrive at the "Root" of the tree and other units then connect to them, that looks like at somepoint study is routing via the other AP. The BT kit can be a bit of a pain if nodes are not configured in order, it thinks it knows best.I know ethernet cable would be best but that would be a very messy job.
It may be a total killer but you might want to do a reconfigure on the devices - I am at work so cant check the exact option but it lets it learn the best route again.
Best way with BT kit is start with JUST the Root AP connected then move out to the next one by distance and configure that one, then move to the next, remembering the next furthest may actually be the other side. For want of a better way of explaining it move in circles. If you just switch off and on then it wont reset it chosen connection.
Some of the BT ones had a dedicated wifi backhaul so should hit 100Mb easy - I consistantly get 300Mb+ on a 3 node setup over approx 2000 sqft as a benchmark.
As another thought - is your streaming stick / tv in the same room as a node ? You can link a ethernet cable from the TV to the AP and it uses it a massive ariel, just rules out any issues with crap wifi in the TV/Stick linking to AP.
Edited by recalluk on Tuesday 2nd February 13:05
Edited by recalluk on Tuesday 2nd February 13:06
FunkyGibbon said:
bad company said:
You mean run Powerline to the room with the tv where I want to stream the footie and leave the Mesh for other areas?
If your TV or steaming device has ethernet then yes, powerline to the room and then ethernet to TV (or if you need more devices ethernet to small switch, and the ethernet to devices).powerline kit
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-PA4010KIT-Powerline-Co...
switch
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS205-100UKS-Giga...
Or powerline in the TV room with ethernet to one of your mesh APs. Then connect everything in that room to you wifi.
I'd do the former if I could.
I have just done the mesh wifi "thing" as we were 75 megs at the router (upstairs) then below 1 meg downstairs! So slow that I could see the PH pages loading up!
Now we have about 70 megs downstairs too so all sorted. I decided to not go "cheap" on it and spent £160 on a Netgear unit.
TX.
Now we have about 70 megs downstairs too so all sorted. I decided to not go "cheap" on it and spent £160 on a Netgear unit.
TX.
bad company said:
Bump. If I try powerline is there a way of testing the speed? I just notice when watching streamed football it’s a but ‘shuddery’, if that’s a word.
You could connect a laptop to the powerline adapter by ethernet and run speedtest. https://www.speedtest.net/Or connect the powerline to an wifi access point and connect to that with laptop/phone/tablet and again run speedtest.
Also, on your laptop or device you connect if you look at the network properties it may tell you the speed of the connection.
If you want to really see what is going on you could try https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/. That will tell you the speed of all the Access Points it can find. It can tell you if you have configuration mismatch.
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