Issues After Upgrading to Full Fibre 900

[rbz5416]

Not unexpected based on what's gone before. For Openreach the demarcation is what is going into the Hub. Regardless of the odd 500Mb from a laptop speed test, the 900Mb showing on the SH2 LAN ports confirms that it's as it should be. So he's right, it is now a BT issue.

We're only really left with two possibilities & both are highly unlikely.

• Both SH2s have the same faulty 5GHz radios.
• Something in the home is interfering with the 5GHz signal.

With all ethernet & discs disconnected from the Hub bar the ONT, run a speed test on 5GHz close to the Hub & also run inSSider. Make notes of the speed test results, & the signal strength & max rate reported by inSSIDer.

Keep the Hub running until you see WiFi speeds drop & then compare with inSSIDer again. That will tell you if the signal level is actually dropping.

Do you by any chance have an old Hub or other router kicking around from previous contracts?

[Lizzy-Loo]

@rbz5416 

Thanks for that.
Good to know that I wasn't too far off with what I had previously been looking at on inSSIDer.
Throughout all the tests the 5GHz signal has remained fairly stable (between 40-45dBm).
The max rate has remained a constant 1733.3 on all tests.
Speeds have hit highs of 205mbps and lows of 4.5mbps with no change to the max rate or any significant increase in the dBm.

I don't have any old routers unfortunately. I had a big old clear out earlier in the year and ditched them all as they hadn't been used in years. Typical, huh?!
I do still have the original SH2, if that's any good? Not yet sent it back, just in case...

[rbz5416]

Just to double check, you're seeing this speed variation across multiple devices, not just your laptop?

So the 5gHz signal doesn't appear to be dropping as such, but there could still be an issue with the actual network comms. Again unlikely to have the same issue on two SH2s but we are where we are.

Next step is to try another WiFi transmitter, which is why I asked about another router. I'm not sure if this is actually possible, but try connecting one of the discs to the SH2 by ethernet, wait until it's online & then turn off WiFi on the SH2. See if you still have WiFI provided by just the disc. If you do, see if that signal remains any stronger.

[Lizzy-Loo]

@rbz5416 

Yes, that's correct, the speed variation runs across all the devices we've tried - my laptop, my daughters' and my mobiles, the tablet, the Alexa show. Basically anything that we can run a speed test on has shown this (and continues to show this).

I like your thinking on the disc! Just about to try the experiment now... 😕

[Lizzy-Loo]

@rbz5416 

Well, it worked!

Plugging a disc into the SH2 and disabling the WiFi from the Hub Manager has effectively turned the disc into the router, I guess. It's connected to the other 2 discs around the house, so we've got wifi coverage everywhere still.

On inSSIDer, speeds on the disc connected to the SH2 are showing a steady 39-44dBm.
Max rate a steady 1733.3

But more importantly maybe, the WiFi speeds and stability! 
They're definitely faster. Maintaining between 300-400mbps on almost all devices - mobiles, tablets, daughter's laptop. 450-550mbps on my mobile (unheard of!)
My laptop is still struggling (sub 100mbps) despite a restart. But given everything else is running at faster, more consistent speeds, there's probably a setting somewhere that I need to tweak. Or else it doesn't like the disc for whatever reason.
Fire TV box is currently running at 250mbps at the opposite end of the lounge to the disc, something it's never done (75mbps at best).

Interestingly, on the BT app, all the devices that are connected to the disc plugged into the SH2 are showing up as "wired" devices now, which gives them a link rate of 1000mbps (higher than the usual wireless link rate) so I'm wondering if this has something to do with the overall higher speeds we're seeing? Or if it's just that whatever the issue with the SH2(s) is has been overridden?

[rbz5416]

Probably too early to proclaim it's worked yet, tempting fate & all that, but sounds encouraging. Make sure your laptop is connected to 5GHz.  Settings > Network & Internet > WiFi > SSID. If you scroll down you should see which band it's connected to. There's also a Manage Networks tab where you can forget previous connections. Might not be a bad idea to clear those out & start again.

We'll worry about the next move after at least a few more days of no issues.

[Lizzy-Loo]

Probably too early to proclaim it's worked yet, tempting fate & all that

Yes exactly! It wasn't that long ago that I got all excited about more stable speeds/no disconnects after powering the Hub and the ONT off/on... only for it all to go wonky again after 12hrs or so.
But so far, so good. The speeds are remaining higher, and are definitely more stable. There are only a couple of things running on the 2.4GHz now - those that don't have the 5GHz capability, I think.
Interestingly, the WiFi signal strength checker on the BT app is now showing good/excellent signal everywhere around the house, whereas before it was poor everywhere, even standing right next to the SH2.
I'll see what else I notice over the next couple of days and report back.

Thanks for the info re the WiFi settings. They are ones that I've become familiar with over the last couple of weeks, so good to know I've been doing all the right things. My laptop is still lagging, compared to all the rest of the devices, but it's not slowing right down to the low speeds (sub 10mbps) that I was experiencing previously, nor disconnecting, so that's still an improvement!

[Lizzy-Loo]

Hi @rbz5416 

Happy New Year to you!

It's been a little while now, so I thought I'd report back in to let you know that this test (running the Wi-Fi through the disc) has proven - for the most part - successful.
The speeds have stayed at the same levels I initially reported and have remained stable. There have been none of the frequent dropouts/disconnections that I'd been experiencing previously, so all in all a success.

I would possibly be quite happy to carry on with this set up, except for one thing: every 2 weeks it stops working.
The only work around I've found to get it back up and running is to go back into the Hub Manager and turn the WiFi to the SH back on, to re-pair the disc connected to it back to the SH, turn the Wi-Fi to the SH back off again and wait for the disc to take over.
It's a faff to reset (none of the simple turning everything off and back on again, unfortunately!) and a pain when you have your home security cameras running off the WiFi (as I discovered when we were away at Christmas) as there doesn't seem to be a way to reset/reconnect everything remotely, that I've found.

So this is where we are currently.
If you have any other ideas or tricks up your sleeves, I'd be happy to give them a try!
Many thanks, as always 🙂

[Lizzy-Loo]

@rbz5416 

And right on cue, it's disconnected again this morning! 🙄😆

[rbz5416]

Apologies, I somehow missed your last post.

I believe that BT routinely send reboot requests to the Hub every 14 days, which would tie it. The Hub logs should verify if this coincides with your disconnection of the disc. AFAIK, there's no way to prevent this scheduled reboot.

I'm afraid I know very little of the Complete WiFi discs so can't offer anything meaningful beyond ensuring that the disc firmware is up to date. Of course although we found a workaround of sorts, we still have no idea what the original issue is/was. I don't know if there's anyone here with extensive knowledge who can chime in?

It might be time to ditch the BT discs & look to a third party solution.