WholeHome WiFi

[dpepperell]

I have used WholeHome Wifi (not 6, not Premium, not Mini) since 2020, without any issues - until 3 months ago. Since then, 2 of my disks, the two furthest from the router, have started losing connection intermittently. A few points:

- no change to locations or WiFi environment i.e. no new wireless devices to change the wireless environment

- no neighbours nearby who may have done the same

- Always resolved by a power cycle on both. Network reset doesnt work (not surprising if they arent  connected). I have reset the network after all are connected, but that hasnt changed anything.

- I have swapped the disks out with a spare, but the same issues

- I have tried the factory reset (pin in hole on the back) on one of the 2 disks, but that seems to have bricked the device. 

- I have notice the the two disks used to be in a daisychain to the master disk, but now they both connect directly. But I assume that is because they are reset daily and so don't have the time to optimise topology (which as I recall could take a day or two)

I am now having to do powercycle daily, and getting to the point that I have stopped recommending WholeHome Wifi as a mesh wifi system,  and seriously considering swapping out and starting again.

Before I take that drastic step, has anyone

a) any advice for getting a disk working after a factory reset

b) seen this behaviour before i.e.  5 disk mesh suddenly become unreliable after years of error-free operation; and if so how did you solve it?

c) seen if there have been any new firmware updates since 2022, v1.02.13build07

Many thanks in advance for any help and guidance.

[naylor2006]

I am with you, I used Wholehome since 2019 up until a little earlier this year when I finally got fed up of the same issues:

1. Non optimal daisy chaining when a given disc reboots, either the master or one in the middle somewhere
2. All discs using the same WIFI channel causing giant interference
3. No separate backhaul WIFI reducing the load
4. Crashing when high levels of traffic are loaded across
5. Inability to lock client devices to certain discs
6. Inability to tune the radio strength so devices roam properly

If you factory reset a disc and its not part of the original pack you bought you will need to connect it to the router during factory reset to get it to join again.

Another tip is if you navigate to the master disc via its IP address in a web browser, there are some additional setting in there and one of which is 'Prefer Daisy Chain'.....this can help a small amount.

By far and away the most annoying thing is when the Master disc reboots, this can happen if your router reboots and the LAN connection goes down for a moment, the master disc will then go through its boot cycle, then all the other disc will but they will all boot up in a non optimum chain. I used to have to power everything off, then power on one disc at a time ensuring it connected to the right disc to remain optimum whilst also powering up devices when their nearest disc was online.

Wholehome is everything....but also nothing, I mean that you have amazing coverage and pretty good speed but its a pain to maintain and lacks the things you realise you want, I ran with 9 discs for a while which was slightly mad but all were hooked back to the router via ethernet. To improve your issue I would try and run another 1 or 2 on ethernet, the ones in the middle of the chain or end, this will avoid the discs crashing and going red as often. You can do nothing to effect these discs in settings or software, its all just positioning and using WIFI or ethernet.

Wholehome will only go so far and given its price, you can get a pretty good Unifi setup for around the same money, a Unifi AP is around the same price as a Wholehome addon disc, all points 1-6 I listed are resolved and configurable, there is indeed much more initial setup but its worth it, nowa days I can have a complete powercut and everything just comes back....no phone call from anyone in my house 🙂

[dpepperell]

Thanks @naylor2006 for the confirmation it wasn't just me, and the advice. And yes, it is the 3 additional ones, not the initial 3-pack devices that seem to be causing issues - hadn't thought that would be a factor 4 years after buying the things! I shall connect the factory resettled brick to the router as you suggest - I shall also look at the Unifi devices. Thanks again