revtothelimit - motorbike forum

I have a Virgin media router - the use a TP Link Deco 5 for a home mesh system WiFi.
But it drops a lot - Virgin say it nothing to do with them - and the box always has the red router light on during the drops in signal.
There is no way of testing the Deco. Also you cannot change the channel it uses.
The drop out is most noticeable in the kitchen, on a Sonos - which has become almost unusable.

However yesterday I changed the Deco to 5GHz only - and everything seems stable. Is that just a coincidence?
Thoughts?

It could have been that running the system with 2 networks (2.4ghz and 5ghz) with the same credentials for both, meant that anything connecting was arbitrarily swapping between the two.

You could try setting the 2 wifi frequencies as different networks with different names and credentials, then set the sonos (or anything else) to only use one network

IIRC there are various channels for each wavelength, some channels may be better than others. I used to have really good app that gave all the necessary info but last time I downloaded it it seemed to have fallen into disrepair and was useless. Might be worth a dig around the app store to see if there's something that gives an accurate picture of the set up inc signal strengths.

@Count Steer that is probably beyond by IT skills
If I were to choose either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz , which would be the one to go for?

Go for one frequency, not both, with both, clients will flip flop between them, 2.4 goes further, 5.4 or 5.8 give higher through put.

Look for free channels on either, but remember whichever channel you pick you're actually using 3 channels frequency, so try to pick one that is in the middle of 3 that are free of interference, but if you live anywhere with other houses there will be no free channels.

Just remembered, a lot of how well it works comes down to how well the radio in the client and the radio in the AP work with each other.

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:57 am @Count Steer that is probably beyond by IT skills
If I were to choose either 2.5 GHz or 5 GHz , which would be the one to go for?

Whichever is strongest/most stable/suffers less interference*/works best etc. There's unlikely to be a performance/bandwidth issue.The app was pretty simple I'll have a dig and see if I can find another option.

*Any new neighbours recently - with new router?

I just downloaded the free version of WiFi analyser from olgor.com

I ignored the 'switch off WiFi throttling' in settings and just ran it. I can see which channel is best at 2.5 and 5 and also my neighbours WiFi and see there's no interference on either. + signal strength etc.

Worth a dabble and delete after use maybe? (Oh it's the android version but they may do an apple os one).

Others may know a better one.

Count Steer wrote: Sun Nov 06, 2022 12:20 pm

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:57 am @Count Steer that is probably beyond by IT skills
If I were to choose either 2.5 GHz or 5 GHz , which would be the one to go for?

Whichever is strongest/most stable/suffers less interference*/works best etc. There's unlikely to be a performance/bandwidth issue.The app was pretty simple I'll have a dig and see if I can find another option.

*Any new neighbours recently - with new router?

No new neighbours, no new routers
I do have a new virgin router - but the issue has been going on forever. I have been trying to track it down turning off / on various things, relighting the Deco Pods etc.
But nothing works
It is odd - because iPhones etc will suddenly flash up "not connected to wifi", Sonos will crash - but the router tells me I am connected.

Downloaded an analyser - buy have no idea what it means!

But today, now it is just on 5Ghz everything is good.

Bit difficult to describe but one of the screens should give you a plot of available WiFis (probably with a toggle for 2.5, 5 and possibly 6) with signal strength by channel. Another should give a plot of the current signal and show if it's stable.

Might also be worth keeping a log of when the problems arise and see if there's a pattern.

I'm wondering if the upload/download speed is dropping to the point where ie the phone shrugs and gives up ie an external issue but I'm absolutely NOT an expert.

If it was here I'd think about getting the local tech whizz in for an hour (I've used my local chap before when I couldn't get a phone recording device to connect to a new hardware set up and eventually I had to admit defeat).

I also had a problem with a streamer that kept buffering but I hard wired one of them and did a software update on the other and, touch wood, haven't had a problem since.

the downside is that the printers don't work on 5Ghz ! So back to 2.4 Ghz

When i joined EE for my BB about 14 month back i was not getting the 60 meg as stated. Guy on the phone got me to switch on the 5Ghz what i did and told me i never has to switch off the normal one. It was fine for a while and i could switch over between the two without having the need to go into the router. The past few weeks i have been having bother streaming the firestick as it buffered a lot. VPN on or off made no difference, WiFi channel change was no difference. Switched off in the router the 5Ghz Wifi and buffering has stopped. Ill try it the other way round when i get more time but for now i am blaming the router being confused having the two on.

It's the client that gets confused, with 802.11 a/b/g WiFi the client picks which network to associate with, they usually pick the one they think is best based on the quality of the beacons it receives, the AP provides the wireless network and authentication, it doesn't control roaming (though some systems have a centralized controller that creates one virtual AP form many APs and controls roaming between physical APs)

Mr Moofo wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:24 am the downside is that the printers don't work on 5Ghz ! So back to 2.4 Ghz

Might be better. Found this

https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/i ... 02.4%20GHz.

BTW My HP printer was fine on 5Ghz

Felix wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:10 pm

Mr Moofo wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:24 am the downside is that the printers don't work on 5Ghz ! So back to 2.4 Ghz

Might be better. Found this

https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/i ... 02.4%20GHz.

BTW My HP printer was fine on 5Ghz

we have a Canon Pixima and a Brother - neither worked automatically on 5 Ghz
Off to research

Mr Moofo wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:17 pm

we have a Canon Pixima and a Brother - neither worked automatically on 5 Ghz
Off to research

If like mine the two WiFi's have different names. One has 5Ghz at the start funnily enough Might need to re set printers network

The Brother one doesn't support 5 GHz