WiFi Help!

[HeatherC]

It only goes in all directions efficiently if the antenna is an omni directional antenna and antenna placement will most definitely affect signal strength.

Good manufacturers will make available antenna radiation patterns for their products.

https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005212927-UniFi-UAP-Antenna-Radiation-Patterns

Here is an example of a directional antenna. You are going to get a much, much, much better signal if that antenna is pointed in the correct direction of what ever will be communicating with the antenna.

View attachment 551240

Compared to an omni directional antenna where the signal radiates outward nearly as efficiently in each direction.
View attachment 551239

I wish you could come to my house and set up a new system for us!

 

[kdonnel]

I wish you could come to my house and set up a new system for us!

There are lots of companies that will do just that.

The problem for the home user is they are going to charge the same prices they charge a small business.

It will be thousands of dollars but your home network will be rock solid.

 

[sam_gordon]

@HeatherC... moving your router may help, I doubt upgrading (you said it's only a year old, right?) will. A mesh system will help if you are in areas where you don't get strong signal, but didn't you say everything is showing a strong signal?

I have a "Wifi Analyzer" app on my phone. It shows graphically how strong the wifi signal is and if there are multiple signals on the same channel (another thing you can change if you get into the setup). It's possible you're getting interference from a neighbor. Simply changing the wifi channel might make a difference.

ETA: Do you work for a company? Do you have a good relationship with the IT department? Or there may actually be someone else in the company that would be willing to help you out. They probably wouldn't charge an arm and a leg.

 

[HeatherC]

There are lots of companies that will do just that.

The problem for the home user is they are going to charge the same prices they charge a small business.

It will be thousands of dollars but your home network will be rock solid.

Maybe I will just send everyone to Starbucks to use their WiFi.. Might be easier at this point.

 

[HeatherC]

@HeatherC... moving your router may help, I doubt upgrading (you said it's only a year old, right?) will. A mesh system will help if you are in areas where you don't get strong signal, but didn't you say everything is showing a strong signal?

I have a "Wifi Analyzer" app on my phone. It shows graphically how strong the wifi signal is and if there are multiple signals on the same channel (another thing you can change if you get into the setup). It's possible you're getting interference from a neighbor. Simply changing the wifi channel might make a difference.

ETA: Do you work for a company? Do you have a good relationship with the IT department? Or there may actually be someone else in the company that would be willing to help you out. They probably wouldn't charge an arm and a leg.

I am going to move it upstairs as soon as everyone finishes work today. Hoping it will help!

 

[bcla]

If you have the ability, using a wired connection can take care of a lot of problems. When I was renting a room working a short-term job, one of the occupants had an ethernet cable snaking through the door of the room with the Wi-Fi box to his room. I asked why he didn't just use a Wi-Fi extended, he said he was using it for gaming where wired was clearly superior.

I have a setup where I have one computer and my smart TV connected directly to the router using ethernet cables. Even if it's just a 100Base-T connection it's likely to be less troublesome than a theoretically faster Wi-Fi connection. Streaming services might max out at about 25 mbit/sec. But a combination of many people using them plus using Wi-Fi might result in connection issues.

 

[kdonnel]

Simply changing the wifi channel might make a difference.

On the 2.4 Ghz side make sure if given the option to set to 20 Mhz and to only select channels 1, 6, or 11 if in the US or 1, 5, 9, or 13 if out of the US.

The 5 Ghz side is a little more complicated as it depends on if using 20 Mhz(25 channels to choose from) , 40 Mhz(12 channels to choose from), 80 Mhz(6 channels to choose from), or 160 Mhz(only 2 channels). You only get the blazing advertised speeds if using the wider channels but you have a much higher chance of interference. So based on the channel width you again want to pick non overlapping channels based on the site survey results. And if you live near an airport there are certain channels you want to avoid.

And that is why the average persons wifi sucks.

 

[Skippy918]

We did do speed tests on our devices. But they are all Macs and IPads. Seemed to be fine speed wise, it’s just the stupid buffering. Right now my daughter is teaching live and the students faces are all going in and out and not coming in clear.

If she’s logging in via a VPN that could be the culprit. Vpn traffic can be slow especially if the zoom connection is going thru the vpn. She needs to contact her IT department and have them route the zoom outside the vpn.
Our school district had zoom connectivity issues as well and they had to do a massive upgrade of the WiFi and all the servers.

 

[sam_gordon]

If she’s logging in via a VPN that could be the culprit. Vpn traffic can be slow especially if the zoom connection is going thru the vpn. She needs to contact her IT department and have them route the zoom outside the vpn.
Our school district had zoom connectivity issues as well and they had to do a massive upgrade of the WiFi and all the servers.

Doesn't zoom use their own servers? I agree the VPN could be slowing things down (I have 100mb/s at the house, but when I connect to VPN, it drops to 15mb/s), but the IT department probably can't isolate the zoom traffic (can they?).

 

[sam_gordon]

On the 2.4 Ghz side make sure if given the option to set to 20 Mhz and to only select channels 1, 6, or 11 if in the US or 1, 5, 9, or 13 if out of the US.

The 5 Ghz side is a little more complicated as it depends on if using 20 Mhz(25 channels to choose from) , 40 Mhz(12 channels to choose from), 80 Mhz(6 channels to choose from), or 160 Mhz(only 2 channels). You only get the blazing advertised speeds if using the wider channels but you have a much higher chance of interference. So based on the channel width you again want to pick non overlapping channels based on the site survey results. And if you live near an airport there are certain channels you want to avoid.

And that is why the average persons wifi sucks.

I haven't seen a way to set the bandwidth on any of the routers I have worked with. And just because things aren't set up the way you would do them doesn't mean it "sucks". If you're getting the speed you need, then it doesn't "suck". If most people weren't getting what they needed, there would be more posts like the OP asking for help.

 

[RamblingMad]

If she’s logging in via a VPN that could be the culprit. Vpn traffic can be slow especially if the zoom connection is going thru the vpn. She needs to contact her IT department and have them route the zoom outside the vpn.
Our school district had zoom connectivity issues as well and they had to do a massive upgrade of the WiFi and all the servers.

With programs like Zoom, the problem is often the upstream, not the downstream.

 

[sam_gordon]

With programs like Zoom, the problem is often the upstream, not the downstream.

If it's happening to all the students (as the teacher sees it), the problem would probably be on the teacher's (downstream) end. If it's happening to individual students (some look good and some look terrible), then it's probably on the student's (upstream) end.

 

[kdonnel]

I haven't seen a way to set the bandwidth on any of the routers I have worked with. And just because things aren't set up the way you would do them doesn't mean it "sucks". If you're getting the speed you need, then it doesn't "suck". If most people weren't getting what they needed, there would be more posts like the OP asking for help.

If the home wifi routers you have worked with do not allow setting the channel bandwidth then that is part of the problem and why people often complain about their wifi performance. But more likely you just have not noticed the setting.

Asus:


TP-Link


Unifi:


You must know the channel width in use to know what channels are non overlapping. Picking overlapping channels is bad for wifi user experience. There will be no manufacturer that allows changing channels but not also changing the channel width.

What I am trying to say when I say wifi sucks for most people is that configuring a network correctly requires skills the average user does not have and the end result is a crapshoot as to whether the wifi network works as the user wants. You need to know how to generate a site survey, how to use that survey to place access points(I would say 90+% of users don't even know the difference between a router with wifi and an access point), how to pick channels for the various access points, how to tune the outputs across the 2.4 and 5 Ghz radios, why implementing the widest channels is generally a bad idea, etc, etc, etc,....

I know all my neighbors are always complaining about their wifi. They have the same ISP as me so I know the issue is how their network is setup and not bandwidth. In every case their wifi network consists of the at&t gateway configured just as it came during install.

They are trying to cover a 3500 sq ft house with a single wifi access point built into the at&t gateway.

One neighbor in particular comes over to watch a few TV shows each week with my wife. She has commented many times that it never buffers at our house but does often at hers. But it works well enough she leaves it as it is because she knows she does not have the skills to make it better.

 

[RamblingMad]

Keep it simple. I use channel 5 and 153.

But I'm also running custom firmware. DD-WRT and openwrt are good choices if you want to do the homework. The reason why I pointed out that blog was because most people don't want to dig into this stuff.

 

[sam_gordon]

What I am trying to say when I say wifi sucks for most people is that configuring a network correctly requires skills the average user does not have and the end result is a crapshoot as to whether the wifi network works as the user wants. You need to know how to generate a site survey, how to use that survey to place access points(I would say 90+% of users don't even know the difference between a router with wifi and an access point), how to pick channels for the various access points, how to tune the outputs across the 2.4 and 5 Ghz radios, why implementing the widest channels is generally a bad idea, etc, etc, etc,....

I agree it's a crap shoot, and I agree to install a network properly, you need to do all of those things. But for many people, they can get away with just using the default settings and radios that come from their ISP.

I looked again, my Netgear doesn't have a bandwidth setting, and I don't remember my Linksys having one. But that goes to MY point... I didn't need the advanced settings or have to do a survey in order to accomplish what I needed. I did end up adding a second access point to cover an end room, but probably could have moved my primary AP to the attic and accomplished the same thing.

 

[bcla]

With programs like Zoom, the problem is often the upstream, not the downstream.

Sure. A neighbor of mine has business internet at home for his home business. When I worked with Comcast business internet I checked the speeds which were roughly the same up or down. It might have been only 50 mbit/sec, but that was both ways.

Home internet can be really wacky with asymmetric speeds. They don't want anyone to use them for heavy duty servers. For the OP I wouldn't be surprised if it were 400 mbit/sec down and 6 mbit/sec up.

Back when I was first using DSL my service's maximum speeds were 1.5 mbit/sec down and 128 kbit/sec up. I did consistently get close to those speeds though at almost all times.

 

[RamblingMad]

Sure. A neighbor of mine has business internet at home for his home business. When I worked with Comcast business internet I checked the speeds which were roughly the same up or down. It might have been only 50 mbit/sec, but that was both ways.

Home internet can be really wacky with asymmetric speeds. They don't want anyone to use them for heavy duty servers. For the OP I wouldn't be surprised if it were 400 mbit/sec down and 6 mbit/sec up.

Back when I was first using DSL my service's maximum speeds were 1.5 mbit/sec down and 128 kbit/sec up. I did consistently get close to those speeds though at almost all times.

I have 150/10. What I really need is 85/85. I tested the actual speed that I'm getting, and I have to tweak my bufferbloat settings. I don't really have problems with my downstream. I get jitter on my upstream. It's just not fast enough, and the latency is worse than my downstream. To mostly reduce the jitter, I dial it back to 8.

My setup is more of a commercial one: gateway -> switch -> dumb AP. I have my NAS wired and one laptop wired on my network. But the rest goes over the dumb AP. Putting my 2.4 on channel 5 pushes most of my devices to the 5 radio instead. It tricks them, but it still works good enough.

When my Internet went out on me this week, I had to talk my significant other out of setting up a multi-home setup. I don't want to run two ISPs into a residential home for the rare times when the Internet goes down.

 

[bcla]

I have 150/10. What I really need is 85/85. I tested the actual speed that I'm getting, and I have to tweak my bufferbloat settings. I don't really have problems with my downstream. I get jitter on my upstream. It's just not fast enough, and the latency is worse than my downstream. To mostly reduce the jitter, I dial it back to 8.

My setup is more of a commercial one: gateway -> switch -> dumb AP. I have my NAS wired and one laptop wired on my network. But the rest goes over the dumb AP. Putting my 2.4 on channel 5 pushes most of my devices to the 5 radio instead. It tricks them, but it still works good enough.

When my Internet went out on me this week, I had to talk my significant other out of setting up a multi-home setup. I don't want to run two ISPs into a residential home for the rare times when the Internet goes down.

I've got a setup with an old Motorola cable modem. It's old but still capable of my maximum speed. I got a newer access point with 1000Base-T ethernet although my internet speeds max out at maybe 90 Mbit/sec down. I also daisy chained my old access point because my wife didn't want to change. Go fig. But I also placed it closer to our bedroom where it gives a slightly better signal most of the time.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Mesh set up question.

Our cable guy suggested I invest in a mesh system. It's not that our house is huge, but it's a two storey L-shape around a built in garage, so a lot of cement on the main floor to feed our signal around.

Our house is like this: About 2300 sq ft total (so half that on each floor) Bdrms 3 and 4 have the worst wifi such that my kids are using data for school sometimes (thank goodness for loyalty pricing on data!)


If I went with a Mesh system, say the Google brand (but not Nest, the other one - like this: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google...i-system-3-pack-white/6427176.p?skuId=6427176 ), would I use one puck on my router, as a "sender" or primary, then another in the corner of the main floor and the third on the second floor?

Also, do the pucks have to be in "sight" of each other for the best signal or could I get away with a system with only 2 pucks - one primary behind the router and another on the second floor?

Also do each of the pucks have to be plugged in to an electrical outlet? Stupid question, I know, but it will determine placement of the pucks, obviously.

Thanks for any help.

Oh yeah, is that Google system any good? There's also a TP-Link system Deco M9, which I saw advertised for a good price, but it's only 2 pucks.

 

[GreatLakes]

Doesn't zoom use their own servers? I agree the VPN could be slowing things down (I have 100mb/s at the house, but when I connect to VPN, it drops to 15mb/s), but the IT department probably can't isolate the zoom traffic (can they?).

It depends on your VPN but in general you have a lot of control over what you route over the VPN and what you route to the local internet connection. A lot of it will depend on industry regulations, what you have locally installed on the remote device to manage and monitor the device and traffic, and the ability/budget of the IT department.

We migrated a lot of perimeter monitoring from the firewall level to the device level so we can allow more to route directly to hosted providers like Zoom, Microsoft, and some select vendors outside of the VPN. Businesses that didn't have a lot in place prior to the pandemic for allowing remote work might not have that much flexibility.