Can Whole home WiFi discs be connected via Ethernet?

[chromachris]

I have just upgraded to whole home WiFi in our property which is a large 6 bedrooms house on 3 floors. I have an existing set of hard wired Ethernet connections via 3 netgear unmanaged Ethernet switches. I have ordered 3 WiFi discs. Is it possible to use the existing Ethernet setup to connect the discs directly to the smart hub? This would mean 2 of the discs being connected via a single switch back to a single cable into the back of the smart hub. Hope this makes sense? Many thanks. 

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[caravanj]

@chromachris

 From what I understand you can only have one disc connected to the router via Ethernet but you can connect the other discs to each other via Ethernet.

[chromachris]

Many thanks for swift response. What would be the benefit of connecting 2 discs together? As they would still need to communicate with hub via WiFi?

[caravanj]

@chromachris 

Again it's just my understanding, the backhaul (discs to router) connection between the discs would be over Ethernet, not Wi-Fi, so it frees up Wi-Fi bandwidth for the fronthaul (router to discs).

We use a Tenda mesh system & that's how they describe it.

[Paul608085]

@chromachris 

Like yourself, I also have a 3 disc Whole Home WiFi System, and an network of ethernet cables and switches across my house.

Initially, I had all 3 discs connected by ethernet, and it all worked very well. That was until I moved from Plusnet Mobile, who don't support WiFi Calling, to EE who do. I get a poor EE signal inside my home, so wanted to set up WiFi Calling.

What I found was that any WiFi Calling call, either incoming or outgoing, was fine - provided my phone stayed connected to one disc. If I moved to another part of the house, (and hence a different disc), whilst on a call, the call would always drop out. Neither BT Product Support, nor EE, had ever heard of this issue and were unable to help.

I eventually found that removing the ethernet connection to the two remote discs, and using WiFi to link to them, enabled me to roam between discs whilst on a call, without it dropping out.

I suspect that the issue was caused by slight timing differences between the three discs: the master disc is wired directly to the router, but the two remotes went via different ethernet switches.

[licquorice]

If connected by Ethernet they wouldn't have formed a mesh, they would be discrete AP's hence not seamlessly handing over from one disc to another.

[Paul608085]

@licquorice 

Thanks for the reply.

That is not  something that I, (nor BT Product Support or EE), had considered.

Are you able to point me in the direction of more info on the difference please?

BT don't mention any potential issues in their FAQs:

https://www.bt.com/help/user-guides/bt-whole-home-wi-fi/bt-whole-home-wi-fi-faqs---set-up-and-instal...

[licquorice]

Sorry, can't point you to any definitive information it's just my assumption of the cause.

Mesh systems rely on the individual nodes communicating and handing over seamlessly from one node to another whereas individual access points simply drop the connection and to be picked up by the next AP. I have assumed if the nodes are individually connected by Ethernet, they no longer communicate with each other to facilitate seamless handover.

It's a popular misconception (and the source of many disagreements) that APs having the same SSID transfer seamlessly, they don't, mesh software is required.

[Paul608085]

@licquorice 

"I have assumed if the nodes are individually connected by Ethernet, they no longer communicate with each other to facilitate seamless handover."

My understanding was that this handover communication was controlled  by the master disc, and carried out over the wired ethernet, (if applicable).

My setup has/had the WiFi on the router switched off, (completely), and solely using the WHW discs. The master disc is wired directly to the router, the remote two were connected back via one or two different ethernet switches:

Master Disc: direct to router

Slave Disc 1: to router via one 24 port ethernet switch (TP-Link)

Slave Disc 2: to router via two 8 port ethernet switches in series (both Netgear)

Hence my thought that even the minutest of delays in the ethernet switches would introduce timing errors handing over between the discs that the Whole Home WiFi firmware was unable to cope with smoothly? (WiFi handed over OK, but not seamlessly enough?).

[licquorice]

You could be right, as I said, it was just an assumption on my part with no definitive information regarding the communication between the devices.