Some help on WiFi with full fibre

[Bartell]

Hi 

I've been with BT for years. Got full fibre last year. While everything is fine downstairs in the house upstairs feels patchy and feels like connections can be sluggish 

I've tried different channels using a WiFi analyser and also on smart channeling 

I got a black WiFi disc. This doesn't make a difference as I've checked via app and nobody connects to it 

Ive also tried a third party router and no real difference 

Any advice? I'm using the bt smart hub (the correct one) ive seen the different discs - think while home versus complete WiFi and I wonder if these white ones would be better? 

[DaveJFT]

@Bartell, I'm not at all familiar with BT discs and how they work but if no one is connecting to your disc upstairs it reads to me like there is a problem with the disc or its setup.

My understanding is that devices will always connect to the WiFi node (same SSID and password) with the strongest signal, but handover's can be a little flakey - perhaps only occuring when the connection to the original node drops. What happens if you go upstairs and turn off the WiFi on your device, then turn it back on again. Logic tells me that the disc would have the stonger signal and would be connected to by your device as a preference ...but then, repeating myself, I've got no experience of using BT discs so I welcome being corrected to further my own knowledge.

If your device still connects to the your Smart Hub in preference then I would have to question why it's soing that, and not connecting to the, closer, disc?

[Bartell]

So I've tried 3 positions for the disc. Downstairs in mdidle of house, upstairs middle of house and upstairs in back bedroom (pretty much above router)

I've seen maybe 1 or 2 connections onto the disc. I assumed more will be attached to the disc if the disc was offering stronger signal. The app shows no connected devices or that 1 device at best. I've tried cycling WiFi off and on with some devices and power cycle but they don't attach to the disc

During the placement of the disc the app confirms good position for disc so I assume that is OK and not an issue. It's just weird. 

All I want is a more stable and throughout the house 

Starting to think the hardware of the SH2 hampers this - maybe time to look again at a third party router and probably WiFi 6 

[Bartell]

@DaveJFT not sure if I'm supposed to tag haha just new here 

[ptrduffy]

Have  you been using the My BT App to help with the disc positioning?  I have two of the black discs providing coverage through my flat (a 1900 built place with very thick walls), and my recollection is that you need to use the app to give you feedback on the bext placement.

Right now I'm showing 14 devices connected to the discs, roughly evenly splt, versus 3 connected directly to the hub.

I have noticed that, on occasion, it is worth rebooting a device that seems to be connected to the wrong disc/hub - especially if a disc has been re-started or moved.

[Bartell]

@ptrduffy yeah so did the app for positioning. Each time irs says good position and I've tried 3 different locations. It's really weird. It's an older house (probably 1960s/70s but regardless of position it's like the app saying good position (some where saying not good so avoided then locations) but devices won't attach. I followed set up procedure of linking with ethernet first before re-positioning 

[garybs29]

If you've got the black disc as part of a complete wifi package request the others, can get up to 3, maybe just needs more to work consistently

[ptrduffy]

I think the App saying "good position" simply means that the disc has a good wireless connection back to the Hub - it doesn't mean that devices in, for example, an adjacent room, will have a good connection to the disc.  In your case, it seems quite probable that the wireless signal through the floor to your hub is stronger than through a wall to your disc .

If you have a wireless device in the same room as the disc does it connect to the disc?  You will probably need to turn WiFi off and on again on the device to force it to connect to the nearest signal.  If it regularly connects when in the same room, but doesn't in an adjacent room, then it migth be worth trying additional discs.

[Bartell]

@garybs29 @ptrduffy thanks both. I didn't even know you could request extra discs. I'll look into this

If I have 2 discs do they essentially daisy chain connection - so router to disc 1 and disc 1 to disc 2 to grow the strsgnth/coverage?

The black disc is fine I assume and not worth buying the white ones (think these are whole home instead of complete WiFi) 

[caravanj]

@Bartell 

We're not with BT till the end of the month when we get 500Mb FTTP, we're with Plusnet & have their Hub 2 router which is the virtually the same as the BT Hub 2.

We have a 6 node WiFi mesh system & each node has devices connected to them, some nodes more that others. i.e. 16, 15, 9, 9, 6, 15 at the moment, but they all take a share of the load. 

There's never a time when a node shows no connected devices.

You're correct in that each node can pass data between the other nodes until it reaches the router or data from the router until it reaches the devices.

The house & garden have no dead spots & we have WiFi alarm detectors in our garden shed linked to the alarm panel in the house, along with 7 of the WiFi cloud-based storage CCTV cameras being external.