This topic

Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

Bermudabye — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:38:56 GMT

Looking at upgrading existing BT environment to improve consistency and speed.

Existing environment:

Original Smarthub with powerline base unit plus 2 powerline hotspots. BT service is copper at 70Mb to the router. SSID’s are configured identically. 2 smart TV’s are hardwired to the hotspots.

Considering either :

a Smarthub2 with 2 whole home discs, retaining the powerline extenders to provide direct Ethernet connection back to the router solely for the smart TV’s on an isolated network.

as above but retain the original Smarthub and use mini discs. Use hotspots for the TV’s.

Questions are -

is there any point in going to the Smarthub 2 solution if supply side is only 70Mb.

does the original Smarthub connect happily to the mini whole home hubs plus powerline adaptors.

can you configure the mimi hotspots to be wired only, no wireless.

thanks

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

licquorice — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:43:28 GMT

Not sure what improvement you think will result from any changes to your existing set up.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

Bermudabye — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:49:05 GMT

Great question, as I’m not 100% sure. The existing setup has a tendency to experience periodic ‘hangs’ of 10 -20 seconds when loading pages. Video on TV’s is good, even with two TVs streaming simultaneously. Any issues seem to clear after rebooting the router. I’ve wondered about an issue around identical SSID’s causing confusion.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

licquorice — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:49:16 GMT

I certainly wouldn't use the same SSID for all the WiFi devices, if you give the hub and the hotspots different SSIDs, you will know which source you are connected to and force a change if necessary.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

licquorice — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:51:22 GMT

Also make sure all the WiFi sources are using different channels.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

Bermudabye — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:51:58 GMT

Fair comment, but my home users won’t want to have different connections to have to identify and connect to...

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

licquorice — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:10:46 GMT

Currently they might be connecting to a very weak signal that their device is hanging on to rather than switching to a stronger signal with the same SSID. If the SSIDs were different, they could force a change to the stronger signal. Not sure its a big deal. If the signal gets too weak, they will just switch to the stronger signal as now, having a different SSID won't make any change to that.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

Bermudabye — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:15:17 GMT

That was my thought, and it’s a largely Apple household so they don’t want to be having to select zones and looking at signal strength, hence the mesh Wi-fi idea.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

licquorice — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:19:41 GMT

If you intend to go the whole home (white discs) route, there is no need to change router. You only need a SH2 for the black complete wifi discs which won't work with anything else.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

Bermudabye — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:27:46 GMT

My inclination is to keep the SH, and go with white discs, unless there is a benefit in switching to SH2, but I think it would be neat to keep the powerline adaptors for direct connect, hence the questions I was asking.

Re: Mesh, powerline extender, and smart hubs configuration advice

licquorice — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:33:32 GMT

Log in to the hotspot and see if there is an option to turn off wifi. There certainly is on the TP Link adapters I am currently using. I can't remember if there was the option on the BT hotspot 500s I used previously or not.

If you intend using the white discs there is no advantage in the SH2. The only reason to ever change to an SH2 is to be able to use the black discs.