This topic

BT Complete Disc Wifi

uk111 — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:12:40 GMT

I’m interested in how several BT Complete Discs work together.

If I’m planning to use say three discs is a large property, does each further disc connect to it’s nearest stronger signal disc or do they all connect to the Smart Hub 2 directly? I’m trying to understand whether several expand the coverage area by cooperating.

Thanks.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

BAFlyer — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:20:21 GMT

They connect to the strongest signal, either the Hub or another disc. I have three, one in the Kitchen one in the Living room and one in the Garage. The Garage connects to the Kitchen disc at the moment. If I turn off the Kitchen, one the Garage will connect directly to the hub, but once the Kitchen disc is turned on again, after a while the Garage connects to the kitchen again.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

uk111 — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:34:44 GMT

Thanks. Is there any general knowledge on roughly what is the practical distance coverage of the Smart Hub 2 ie through 1 brick/block wall or two brick/block walls? We seem to be struggling with rooms only 20 to 30 feet away through two walls.

Thanks.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

DavidM — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:08:08 GMT

Hi @uk111 and thanks for postiong.

Take a look at https://www.bt.com/help/bt-halo/what-is-complete-wi-fi- for advice on complete wi-fi.

Cheers

David

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

BAFlyer — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:36:42 GMT

It’s very difficult to generalise ‘path loss’ of a radio signal, i.e. how much a signal degrades to the point where connections fail, in any situation. So many things can affect the signal loss within the domestic property, wall thickness and brick structure, how the bricks are made, wall shelving, etc. You can download various WiFi signal measuring apps for both Apple and Android phones which you can then use to estimate how strong the signal is at any point. In my house the 5Ghz signal becomes unusable in a room 25 feet through two substantial brick walls and one stud partition wall, level is lower than -80dB. The 2.4 Ghz signal is fine, about -67dB. Even then the usability of the signal will depend on the ‘sensitivity’ of the WiFi receivers used by the products to want to connect to the WiFi signal. In general, the more expensive an item the more chance it will stay connected to a weak signal, but even that statement may not hold true for all WiFi devices. My Living room disc connects reliably with a signal level of -73dB and that is 20 feet through two internal walls, (one breeze block), and the upstairs floor. If I were to guess then I would say a signal level of lower than -80dB would be unusable. For either 5Ghz or 2.4 Ghz but the lower frequencies do go farther.

The above may be a bit to technical for some and I’m sorry if it is, but hopefully it shows that every house will be different but the very best place to have the hub is upstairs and in the centre of the house, if at all possible.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

licquorice — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:50:42 GMT

Or to summarise, WiFi is a dark art not a precise science 😃😃

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

uk111 — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 17:28:34 GMT

Thanks all.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

zzz1234567abc — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 07:51:57 GMT

This is a complete load of bs unfortunately. I have three wifi discs dotted around the house and for some reason some discs just drip connection and the entire wifi has to be restarted, furthermore when one of the discs loses its connection the disc that is furthest away connects to the other disc that is on and so has weaker signal strength. When the disc that went offline comes back then the disc remains connected to the other disc with weaker signal

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

zzz1234567abc — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:11:08 GMT

Btw I’m wasting money on the maxed out complete wifi 900Mb but devices connected to the disc are getting 10Mbps rarely ever even reaching 60Mbps, considering this isn’t even a tenth of what I should be getting and support is not helping this is definitely a scam OFCom have guarantees in place which should help me get out of this rip off contract.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:28:40 GMT

@zzz1234567abc

900Mbs is only guaranteed on an fast PC connected directly to the BT Smart Hub 2, using an Ethernet connection. No ISP will guarantee wireless connections.

Wireless connections will always be slower as you are sharing that wireless channel with any other neighbouring router.

Adding discs to the network only makes the situation worse.

The BT Complete Wi-Fi guarantee only means that you should get a strong signal in each room, but there is no guarantee on connection speed.

Mobile devices rarely need more than 20Mbs, even if you are streaming an HD video.

As for line speed, most end users will find that a 40-80Mbs broadband connection adequate, unless they have a lot of users in the house, downloading large game files.

For a single user, 900Mbs is normally a waste of money.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

zzz1234567abc — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:31:26 GMT

But this doesn’t seem right? Why is 900Mbps being advertised then? I’m struggling to see why it’s a thing when their proprietary discs should be able to handle it being that it is BTs own engineering (discs for which I have to pay extra £5 per month on top). The thing is, these discs seem pretty useless then as the signal is usually always poor why not just get routers and set them up as repeater mode using DDWRT? A mesh system as I understand it should’ve been faster than repeater modes within DDWRT

- all this to say 900MBps being advertised and I’m not even getting 1/10th of that seriously feels scammy especially since I’m at the maxed out package paying full premium. Sure wireless connections reduces throughout but I should be getting atleast 10% at 90Mbps at the VERY LEAST. Again paying monthly extra for these useless discs when DDWRT does the same job.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:53:28 GMT

900Mbs is advertised because its what people seem to want it, thinking it will make their devices work faster. The reality is that the devices they are using, is what is slowing their connection down.

Personally I do not think the Complete Wi-Fi System is a full mesh system, its more like a number of wireless repeaters, and is not in the same class as something like this https://www.tp-link.com/uk/mesh/

I just have a 10Mbs ADSL connection, with just the two of us in the house, and use this mesh https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/deco/deco-m4/

This is the one with just a 100Mbs interface, which is plenty fast enough here.

This works very well with multiple devices, CCTV etc, and gives seamless roaming all over the house. You can view it all on an app, and it shows each device, and its connection strength.

You may be better removing the complete Wi-Fi option, and returning the discs, to avoid being charged for them.

Then investing in a third party wireless mesh solution, if that is what you want. Otherwise you may be better off just adding extra wireless access points, each on a different wireless channel, much like commercial installations do.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

zzz1234567abc — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:50:05 GMT

Honestly I think I need to start contacting OFCom, I joined BT a few months and nothing but problems, paying full premium and can’t even get basic discs working because the BT disc does not know how to connect other discs with stronger signals and instead only connects to the main hub or loses connection.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

zzz1234567abc — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:32:06 GMT

BT is an actual scam, support is not helping either

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:44:51 GMT

I think you will find that most ISP forums have the same complaints.

There is not much money to be made in just providing a basic broadband connection, its Value Added Services where the main profit is made. Things like TV services and extra network enhancements.

Remember, BT Retail and many other ISPs, are paying Openreach for the provision and maintenance of the external network, so a proportion of what you are paying, goes to them.

It used to be called Line Rental, but is now included in the cost of the broadband.

As for support, you are probably more likely to get more detailed support on this user forum.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

chrisjp — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:18:35 GMT

zzz1234567abc: "This is a complete load of bs unfortunately"
This seems to me an unnecessarily rude reply to what was a helpful answer by BAFlyer, which did indeed emphasise that it isn't possible to generalise WiFi performance because house construction varies so widely.

Re: BT Complete Disc Wifi

chrisjp — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:28:50 GMT

I would add that I use the BT Wholehome WiFi system with the white discs (4 of them around my house) rather than the black CompleteWiFi discs.
Items connected by ethernet cable to the SH2 give me about 55Mbps, while the discs give me around 45-50 Mbps, and I get seamless transitioning from one disc to another as I move things like mobile phones around my house.
I'm quite happy with this performance and I think it illustrates how one person's experience can differ widely from another's, depending on a multitude of factors which are outside BT's control. BT's customer service is not all that good, as has been illustrated by many of the discussions on this forum, but calling them a "scam" is really over the top IMHO