BT Complete Disc Wifi

[uk111]

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. 

[BAFlyer · Accepted solution]

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.

[uk111]

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. 

[DavidM]

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

[BAFlyer]

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. 

[licquorice]

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

[uk111]

Thanks all.

[zzz1234567abc]

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

[zzz1234567abc]

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.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@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.