BT Whole Home Wifi disk slower upstairs

[ShaunyC]

Hi

The BT Home Whole Wifi app doesn't allow you to have different SSID's per disc, all it allows me to do is rename or delete the disc really.  What I've been doing is exactly as you suggest, taking in an iphone, turning wifi off and standing next to the disc and turning it on again, and then checking on the app which disc I'm connected to.

I don't know why it would be slower the other side of a switch?

Shaun

[naylor2006]

It is possible to do but on reflection pointless.....

I guess one way of providing an ultimate test is to disconnect the switch and plug that ethernet directly into the disk, thats a POE switch so I assume you have it powered like that in the loft so you may need to run a power extension, be interesting to see if it is literally just by having a switch in place is that causing the issue.

Do you get better or worse results if you remove one disk from the upstairs switch so that are not both connected to the switch at the same time?....or just have no other disk apart from one connected to the switch and check, the master doesnt need to be on if another one is there on ethernet.

I do wonder, as these things were designed to piggy back off each other via WIFI whether actually they perform worse when using Ethernet, which goes against everything you think but they are specifically sold to extend WIFI via themselves (WIFI) and not via ethernet. It would be really interesting if you set them up so they connect via WIFI to each other but in close proximity to each other, connect to the 2nd and 3rd ones and see, you should get above 500Mbps like that.

In my household because I have multiple disks connected to ethernet if I power off one of the ethernet connected ones..... another one then seems to think it is the master disk because it is there from ethernet, its kind of odd, its almost like its not expected to be like that. I wonder if there is some sort of broadcast traffic returning through the network from the disks for discovery which the aux disks are performing.

[naylor2006]

Did you ever get to the bottom of this?

I was going to ask which disks you have?

Pretty sure the original Wholehome Disks AC2600s will only do about 500Mbps WIFI when they are wired directly to the router, disks that are in Mesh around half that and the further the daisy chain the worse it gets. I have tested this with mine, I have 900/110 with BT FTTP and my disks that are hard wired all give 500Mbps to my iPhone 13 Mini. Those that in Mesh by one hope are 200-300 based on how good their connection to their wired neighbour is.

Here is the review testing the same:

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Review - Tech Advisor

If you have these disks and getting 900Mbps I am wondering how on earth?

Have you got the premium ones or WIFI 6 or something?

[ShaunyC]

Hi

I managed to get ye olde worlde ethernet adapter for one of my laptops (none of which have ethernet!), and connected to the cable into each disk.

Over ethernet I get 600+ MBps, but the same cable into the disc, then connecting on wifi gives 200MBps.

So, it's clearly the discs - maybe they're old or merely extenders and halving the connection multiple times, but I cannot get anything like ethernet speeds, whereas on the BT disc next to the router, my primary disc, I can get 600MBps, and they were bought as a pack, so I can't believe there's a maximum speed limit somewhere on them.

They're "BT Whole Home Wi-Fi" which says AC2600 running v1.02.13 build 07, but they seem to be operating as extenders, i.e. dropping the rate to half, or less.

Am I missing something?  Is there a different technology I should use?

[naylor2006]

Same discs as me.
I’m confused now, if the disks all have a route back to the main router via Ethernet then you should be getting 500Mbps ish.

My understanding from your original post was that an Ethernet cable runs upstairs from the router into a switch which the other two mesh disks connect to?

Kinda sounds like they aren’t connected to Ethernet, or at least aren’t connected back to the router as what you are seeing is the typical halving of the speed as it repeats.

In the app, select disk details on the upstairs discs and see if it states ‘ethernet’, it will only say Ethernet if it has its own route back to the Internet and not via another disk.

[ShaunyC]

Hi

All the discs show "ethernet" in "Disc Details", and unplugging the cable from the disc into my laptop gives 600Mbps.  Plugging the cable back in, connecting over wifi (disconnecting all the other discs ti make sure I'm connecting to the right one, and the BT App shows my laptop connected), goes down to 200Mbps.

So the network cable is passing the full 600Mbps out (it runs from the router, up to the attic, through a network switch, and down to the disc).

But the disc just seems to max out.

S

[naylor2006]

Sorry say then I’ve not a clue.

Seems to me that even though they are connected to Ethernet they are still passing traffic through WiFi repeating.

Couple things, what ghz is the laptop connected on, 5ghz? The app will show, be interesting if for some weird reason the upstairs disks are only running the 2.5ghz….?

Also, take the master disk, plug it in upstairs off that switch and have it as the only one one and check the speed from it. 

[ShaunyC]

Hi

I plugged the Master upstairs and get 600Mbps.

I think you’re right, when I just use 2 disks the one upstairs (plugged into Ethernet) shows it’s connected on 2.4GHz WiFi.

Is there a way to force it to use the Ethernet connection?

[naylor2006]

Hmm, think I may have finally unpicked what’s going on here.

Right so if all the discs are connected to Ethernet and that Ethernet is connected back to the router then that’s as good as it gets. So long as the discs say Ethernet they are in Ethernet connected via 1Gbit.

If you laptop is connecting using 2.4Ghz then it doesn’t matter what the internet speed is hard wired to the disc, you’ll only get 100-200 Mbps ish. So if your laptop is connecting using 2.4Ghz that would explain the slow speed at the laptop. If you connect your laptop via Ethernet to the switch then of course you’ll see up to 950Mbps, because the laptops Ethernet adapter will be 1Gbit.

Connect to the downstairs disc via WiFi with the laptop, check its connection, if it’s 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz in devices and run a test, if you are seeing 2.4Ghz your speed test will also reflect those speeds, 200Mbps probably.

If the discs upstairs are connection to the router via Ethernet then you can expect 500Mbps over the 5Ghz connection, if you have a device that can connect to 5Ghz that is. 

The discs are dual band to support 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, devices will connect to them on whatever they support, crappy smart bulbs will use 2.4ghz etc and a smart phone will use 5ghz unless it’s super old.

Sounds to me that the speed issue here is just the WiFi on the laptop?