I got 99 problems but my WiFi ain't one

That's great to hear!

I'd like to use some of this new found indoors time to finally get my head around some basic (home) networking theory. Can anyone point me in the direction of some reading, I'm not totally technically illiterate, but this stuff has always confused me and I need to get my house in order.

Internet to my Roku keeps dropping out periodically. I assumed this was because of pressures on bandwidth as it's started in the last few weeks. I have now set up IP reservations for all devices on my home network, is there a way of me prioritising bandwidth for the Roku over everything else? Router is a Draytek 2860, it has QoS but I'm not sure if that's the thing to be using.

Cross-post from Broadband thread...

Anyone else have a Google Wifi mesh setup?

I'm finding that it has some issues with handoff across the house. I have 4 nodes across three floors. Coverage in is excellent - no dead spots - but I have a host of other issues:

Strength seems weak even on the same floor. I'm 12 meters and one room (and a hallway) away from the main access point and I'm getting 70Mbps. The main router is testing at 360Mbps
Handoff sucks. There's a particular spot in the kitchen where it seems to get confused between two nodes and keeps switching causing minor drops or slowdowns
Sonos has an issue connecting and paired systems in the house often have the right hand of stereo pair drop or never play at all
iOS devices seem to have some compatibility issues which are widely reported on support forums. Sometimes they just drop for no reason. Wifi disappears and it jumps to 4G then back to wifi in 3 or 4 seconds. This is particularly prevalent when using facetime

Management of the system, general stability (it's never dropped as a network in two years) and cost of setting it up were all great but I'm wondering if there's a better solution.

Anyone got any wifi 6 mesh system set up yet?

Pictures now fixed below.

Ok so I came here to verify the plan of attack I had reached to solve my wifi issue to only find that I may not have started down the right road. So looking for some advise please.

My issue is that in the house my virgin wifi is spot on. Does everything I need with wired connections, NAS and wifi. Most of my hardware is used in the same room and on the same floor. However - I have a bar/garden room that cant pick up the signal from the wifi and I want to use my internet radio that also picks up music from my NAS plus usual video streaming with laptop.

When I was using the BT line the access point is at the front of the house but the middle of the property (and worked fine) now we are with Virgin the access point is at the rear of the house and as far away from the bar as possible. I dont want to move the fibre points as the virgin one is next to my entertainment stuff and works a treat. Using the BT line was always a compromise in every other way other than wifi.

So to solve it:

Firstly powerlines do not work in my house.

All internet hardware is in an inbuilt cupboard so is invisible and child friendly but means I can't run any cables out of the room that it is in. I know the router being in the cupboard is hurting my signal but taking it out would mean 6 cables having to go back into the cupboard to my PC, NAS, TV box, and fibre point. This would ruin my sweet cable setup.

So what I thought would be the best plan would be to buy a wifi mesh AP like this netgear (or lower spec but same sort of thing) -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HM6WHYZ/?coliid=I1D7GSDZ71W5PC&colid=2MOJSAZD64ZR4&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

And then place that where my AP would be like when I was with BT to punch the signal out of the house and to the corner of the property. This seemed like the most logical approach to me as a lay person and I bought the marketing hype around this triband stuff. I can set it up with WPS and if my router ever changes all my other gear is unaffected and seemed great...

Untill I came here and found out that wifi extenders are shit :-D

Before this conclusion I thought about changing the router to a third party one with more punch to see if I can get a better signal that would reach further inspite of the restrictions I have placed on it with my cupboard. This option seemed like potentially an expensive risk. My research also showed this to contain the most headaches around compatibility with ISP gear.

Since reading this thread I have thought that an alternative could be to get one of these Ubiquiti AP lites, hope that it has a further range than my virgin hub 3.0? and put that on the outside of the cupboard but in effectively the same place like a router antenna in the hope that the more efficient signal path would be enough to get the signal in the bar.(I would then use this for all wifi in the house)

To show what i'm working with in regards to signal strength I have a load of screenshots taken from my old macbook that would be used for streaming in the bar.

Sitting on sofa in same room benchmark :

Sat in front of cupboard with door closed, where the wired AP would be:

Inside cupboard next to router:

Where the wifi extender would sit if went that route:

Outside the house near the wifi extender location:

In the bar. You can see the low signal as it then drops connection:

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Was hoping to have this all fixed for £100. I dont want to go to crazy as I had originally expected to use an old router with power line adapter that I already have but as mentioned above they dont work with my wiring and really really dont like the bar being behind a second fusebox.

Sorry in advance if this doesn't make much sense

If you went the Ubiquiti route you may want to look at one of the long range (LR) ones. It is a bit of a gamble whether it will solve the problem though. Is there no way to run a single wire out from where your router is to nearer the bar so you can get the AP nearer?

I wouldn't change the router if this is your only issue with it, you get more bang for your buck by just changing the AP to a dedicated one.

Id like to avoid it. The house is fully decorated so don't want to go too crazy. I can get a wired AP anywhere on the same wall as the router which is currently 1ft off the floor in a cupboard and could get it say 6 ft off the floor on a shelf which would a more optimum position for the whole wifi setup but it would still be twice as far from the bar as a wifi AP.

For what its worth, I might just order one of these LR models from Amazon and try it. Worst case is it doesnt work and ill send it back.

Drill a big hole through the back of the cupboard and take an ethernet cable out of it.

Seriously it's a lot easier than it sounds.

What is on the other side of the wall of the cupboard? If it is the outside then figure out where you can run cable (in conduit) to that gets close to the bar / garden room. Then install an AP ( possibly an outdoors one) there.

I know what my options are with regards to holes and getting in and out of my unit isnt a problem. Its a built in chimney breast alcove with cable routing through the chimney breast so I have access in that room already planned in. It's more running cable from this room to another that I dont want to do.

One side of the unit does lead outside and i'm reserving running an ethernet round the outside as a last resort. Im hoping that because im not a million miles from having a connection that this long range AP will cover me without having to get the big drill out. Also part of my thinking is that If I can solve the issue from inside the house that there is potentially a network benefit whilst in the house too rather than having hardware outside that only does that one job.

I have set up a couple of Google wifi mesh networks.

I've noticed an issue with stickiness once or twice, but generally I've found handover to be ok.

I've had other issues though, where for a long time iPhones would have trouble staying on the network. And another time when it would completely collapse when there were more than 15 or so devices online. The support forums were filled with complaints, but Google were pretty tight-lipped about even admitting there was a problem.

I'm pretty sure they'll just suddenly drop support for my generation of wifi pucks too, like they do with everything else.

Yes, I'm a bit bitter.

I've had other issues though, where for a long time iPhones would have trouble staying on the network.

This is a very hazy memory, but wasn't there a period of a few years where most macbooks, iPads and iPhones would have trouble staying connected to wireless APs using a certain version of the protocol? Not defending Google at all, but I have a recollection of a big apple vs rest of the world dispute on wifi protocols. I.e Apple spent a few years refusing to provide backwards compatibility for older kit and Apple argued that the entire world should upgrade their APs instead.

i'm reserving running an ethernet round the outside as a last resort

If you go down this route, I have many metres of ethernet cable left over from when I did the same. Also, probably some conduit.

Here's a pic of what mine looks like. It's the black conduit that goes vertically up at the end.

1 Attachment

Got it done by my brother (ex electrician, general builder type) about a month ago.

Amazing timing as now ms_mashton has ethernet internet into her home working room. 232mbps hassle free.

It does appear to be an Apple specific issue but given Apple products make up a significant portion of the world's devices, it's surprising that someone like Google have not solved for this.

Totally agree. It was/is a pointless stand off over a matter of principle. And Apple were probably in the right.

You still can't stream IPTV using multicasting on Google wifi. You can argue that its virtually impossible to do over wifi, but there is no excuse for it not to work over a cable plugged in to Google wifi. Google are not very good at updates that customers actually want.

Now you mention it, it rings a bell.

I just assumed it was a Google issue because that was the only network that they had issues with. All other wifi networks seemed to be fine.

Anyway, that was a while ago and seems to be resolved now. But it was immensely irritating at the time.

Yeah looks smart and thanks for the offer.

Most of my reason for avoiding is that I live in an ex council house and every bit of work before my ownership was done to the minimal standard required and as a result the outside looked a right bugger with wiring and plumbing. Improved thing no end but still alot more to do.

Also better wifi in the garden than the house as a bit hard to get my head around.

Now you mention it, it rings a bell.

I just assumed it was a Google issue

Well, it definitely was at least partially a google issue although I first became aware of it when my Mum & Dad got new Mac gear and it wouldn't stay connected to their BT Homehub.

I think it was eventually solved by everybody sorting their shit out, including Apple including some backwards compatibility.

Just a little update on my wifi solution incase it helps anyone in the future.

Tried the unifi long range access point and still didnt get the power to punch through to outside the house. In the end I just went for one of the (discontinued I believe) outdoor unifi - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-UniFi-AC-Outdoor-Mesh/dp/B01NAAWOGO/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=unifi+outdoor&qid=1588415824&sr=8-2

Mounted on the side of the house and now have wifi flooding the whole property. Ironically now most of my devices are holding on to the garden wifi instead of the house and the performance is so good I cant tell. Thanks for the help

Oh and the unifi windows controller sucks.

Good to know. I was thinking about mounting one of them at the end of my garden or an interior one. Seems like your solution would cover both.

Right. Wifi, again.

https://imgur.com/a/xNCIx4j

This is my floorplan.

• red is where the only phone line in is (inside a mirror fronted cupboard)
  
• yellow is where the router was
  
• purple is where i moved the router too
  
• green is desk
  
  

moving the router to purple spot is great, i can work in the bedroom, on the terrace and at my desk with decent connection.

Im now likely to be WFH multiple days a week for.. possibly forever, and GF wont put up the current solution as it involves trailing ethernet across the wall, over the front door and the router is taped to a ceiling height window into its purple position.

Now I know its possible, what shall i buy that isnt invasive visibly? powerline adapters? multiple power socket wifi extenders? theres a at ground level where purple is, another one in the corner between purple and green, we currently have a wifi to ethernet adapter in the inner living room corner opposite green that connects the hifi to ethernet which mostly works

Mounted on the side of the house and now have wifi flooding the whole property

Did you run ethernet to it or use a wireless uplink?