I got 99 problems but my WiFi ain't one

Popped across the road to my neighbours house this morning (about 100m)

Golf club >>>>>>>

(and because the word my seems to be a trigger)

my neighbour

Golf club >>>>>>>

Ha. Fair enough - guilty.

Not my first transgression.

Our broadband is 100/100 and I'm getting about 150-300 so doubt the wifi is the bottle neck :)

That makes sense - thanks.

Next up - how do I stop being so crap at terminating cables.

Are you using solid core cable or stranded?

Ensure your cable type matches the termination and be nice and positive with the punchdown tool. I can't terminate without pushing the tool down for 3 clicks. Likely done at the first one but the extra 2 are for certainty

Get a tester too, if you’re doing a few. Or borrow one.

Popped across the road to my neighbours house this morning (about 100m) and get 360Mbps in his living room 😅

Sounds like you need to turn down your radios! You are probably swamping someone else and if we all shout louder we all suffer.

The cables are all solid core, but the keystones don't appear to differentiate in any way (one is a screwfix spesh, the other is Rhinocable).

It may not help that my tool are super cheap & plasticcy. Punch down vinegar strokes it is.

I have a continuity tester, but can't really justify the expense of a proper tester with the amount of work I'm doing (just a few cable runs).

I had thought that Virgin Media were shit (they still are, but not for the reason I thought they were)... but it turns out that Ubiquiti are shit.

The cooling design of the Unifi Security Gateway (USG-3P) is so bad that when my office gets too warm there is packet loss.

Office getting "too warm" seems to be "ambient temperature above 26'c", which is a lot of the time.

Then... if it really gets too warm, I lose the internet or the gateway believes I've gone from gigabit to ethernet speeds.

This is the edge of my network, so I've been measuring everything within the network and thought it was outside of my network... but nope, it's the perimeter itself.

And is this known? Yup.
https://community.ui.com/questions/Unifi-USG-too-hot-causes-packet-loss-to-internet/fea73cff-bb57-470d-9135-33ff2011381b
https://old.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/cr88fw/cooling_the_new_usg_3p_with_a_diy_solution_the/
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2926061
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbJb9gHB_b4

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4887167

Basically it's passive cooled, no air flow, and no heatsinks... so it overheats and fails!

I'm now running it with the case removed.

My solution though: I've ordered a 120mm Noctua 5v fan (I can power it from USB), and a couple of 140mm radiator mounts... the USG-3p is 130mm wide, so I'm going to use the mounts to build a cage around it and mount the fan on top to pull air out of the case, thus forcing airflow over the motherboard and chipset. The fan is so large (almost the same size as the USG-3P) that I can run this at very low speed and still cool it very effectively.

I touched my cloud key gen 2 the other day (admittedly in the loft) and it was so hot I couldnt keep my hand on it!

I had a real quick look in the controller software and I couldn't see anywhere that reports the inner temps of the chips, have you seen it anywhere?

I also work for Virgin so if you are having an issue with something feel free to DM me and if I can help I will.

Should be ok with solid. I think the issue comes from trying to use stranded cables as the copper teeth that bite the cable are likely to split the strands and make lose connections.

I had a real quick look in the controller software and I couldn't see anywhere that reports the inner temps of the chips, have you seen it anywhere?

Not possible on the USG-3p security gateway, but the Cloud Key should show it.

You need to login via ssh and then run mca-ctrl -t dump. Within that you'll see something like:

        "system-stats": {
                "cpu": "0",
                "mem": "5",
                "temps": {
                        "Board (CPU)": "51",
                        "Board (PHY)": "51",
                        "CPU": "77",
                        "PHY": "80"
                },
                "uptime": "459056"
        },

But not all devices have the temp hardware installed... they will just fail silently if overheating.

I did find this patch for the USG-PRO https://github.com/teedog/usg-pro-snmp-temp but that only makes sense for that. The Security Gateway Pro has fans and active cooling, so of course it has a temperature sensor for the fans to be controlled. I haven't (and won't) used those patches on my USG-3P as I don't believe the hardware exists (I checked the chips on the circuit board and have identified them all and none contain a temperature sensor AFAICT.

out of interest went to check my USG, unifi poe switch and cloud key, i cant even touch the switch, USG and cloud key uncomfortable to touch

never noticed any dropouts as of yet, but bet thats racking up on the ole'energy bill

Switches are typically fine, they're running a standard chip that can handle up to 250'c perfectly well... parts of the plastic around the ports will melt and deform well before the performance of the switch is impaired.

The issue is more in the things that have compute capabilities, these run small CPUs that run hot (both in utilisation and temperature) and tend to be inadequately cooled. The USG and Cloud Key both stand out for this. However with the Cloud Key... unless you're running their camera software you're unlikely to see any impact as it's not handling traffic at all. It gets hot, it slows down, but zero impact to you as you've already provisioned everything and the Cloud Key is essentially just running stats and who cares if that's a little slow.

So really it all comes down to the USG. The USG Pro has less of an issue as it is actively cooled, so as long as the ambient temp isn't too severe it will be fine. But the USG 3 port is passively cooled... and of course it's the WAN point through which all traffic flows. If the CPU on the USG-3P is too hot then it's going to impact traffic as it's handling traffic. So this one is the issue.

All solutions to the USG-3P essentially involve adding airflow. The solutions are:

1. Mount/Stand it vertically so that the heat creates airflow over the CPU.
   
2. Create airflow by installing a fan outside to direct air through the case.
   
3. Create airflow by installing a fan within the case.
   
   

I'm kinda doing a 4th... create airflow by removing the case top and jimmying a big fan over the chipset and circuitry.

You are most likely to see overheating with the USG-3P if it's laid flat, on a warm surface, in a warm environment, lacking airflow. In that scenario it's almost guaranteed that you'll have issues.

all 3 (switch, usg, key) are on a small metal shelf in an enclosed storage locker with most of the free space taken up by the rats nest of ethernet cables.. might be a project for this weekend

Not at all silly.

The fan is as big as the USG-3P :)

This is the lid removed, and a big fan on top that is blowing air up at a slow but constant rate. It's totally silent, but my electronic kitchen thermometer shows about 20'c reduction in temp of the chips on the board... so giving airflow just works.

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Interesting, I have noticed that my USG is very hot but no performance issues (although I haven't been looking). I recently tidied my boiling hot, nest of wires cupboard after my Tivo box kept shutting down due to overheating. Still not amazingly tidy in there though and zero airflow. I have a load of decent, spare PC fans but no way to power them. USB one looks a good idea but I'm loathe to shell out for another one, does it have some form of speed control that you can access?

Would love to sweep a compass in there to see how it reacts

I know we did mesh wifi but I need one, however we only get 40mbps so don't need something amazing. Any recommendation on a functional and resonably priced mesh?

I have a load of decent, spare PC fans but no way to power them

All you need is a 12v supply - then you can attach it with screw in 12v barrel connectors, assuming you're not fussed about speed control.

Most things in that cupboard are a mix of 5v, 12v and 240v.

I'm enjoying that this is the tidy version

Good point, I'm sure I have a few 12v power supplies knocking around. Realistically though it would just be blowing hot air from one part of the cupboard to another. The real issue is there's no ventilation.

I've got deco M5 which isn't expensive and works fine for what I need (I use it in bridge mode, got other hardware for network management). I've also had a play with creating a guest network with eero from Amazon at work which was reasonably priced and again, does what we need it to do.