Tenda Nova LAN port not passing through gigabit connection - what mesh upgrade or reconfiguration required?

Daaaveee · 5 Dec 2023 at 09:49

Hi all,

Recently upgraded my Virgin to Gig1, and noticed right away I was 'only' getting 700Mbps on my wired devices. I've managed to pin point the problem to the Tenda Nova master node, as plugging my unmanaged switch which is directly behind the Nova directly in to the Virgin hub then gives the full gigabit.

I've been happy with the coverage and general performance of the 3 node Tenda Nova system I have, but its a good few years old now and while the Wifi speeds are perfectly servicable, its probably slow compared to whats available these days, and with this apparent limitation of the supposed gigabit lan port on the Nova limiting my speeds, I have been thinking about an upgrade.

As a side note, you're probably wondering why I don't just plug the Nova in to unmanaged switch instead, I did try this, however then some of my devices were not able to get an internet connection, possibly due to issues with DHCP IP assignment? I'm not 100% sure, but I wasn't able to solve the problem, and went back to plugging the Nova in to the Virgin hub first, which then allowed all devices to connect again, but limited to 700Mbps.

Any suggestions on a mesh upgrade, or network reconfiguration appreciated!

WJA96 · 5 Dec 2023 at 10:09

The master node on the Tenda is the router so if you remove that, you remove a lot of functionality. It obviously can’t route 1Gbps from your new connection.

I know that the Eero 6 will definitely do what you need. Unfortunately I don’t have a Huawei AX3 on hand to test, but I suspect it would be OK.

Do Virgin not offer extenders if your WiFi won’t reach?

Daaaveee · 5 Dec 2023 at 10:44

To be honest I haven't even tried the WiFi performance of the VM hub, I just put it straight in to modem mode! I do have some quite remote external light bulbs which didn't pick up WiFi from the previous VM hub, but I guess I should give the new one a shot.

It looks like VM do offer WiFi extenders if you can't get a min of 30Mbps connection when using their app to check. I'll have to give that a try too. Obviously my light bulb connection issue is a bit different, I guess I could try that route to get them to send me an extender, no harm in asking.

WJA96 · 5 Dec 2023 at 11:21

Daaaveee said:
To be honest I haven't even tried the WiFi performance of the VM hub, I just put it straight in to modem mode! I do have some quite remote external light bulbs which didn't pick up WiFi from the previous VM hub, but I guess I should give the new one a shot.

It looks like VM do offer WiFi extenders if you can't get a min of 30Mbps connection when using their app to check. I'll have to give that a try too. Obviously my light bulb connection issue is a bit different, I guess I could try that route to get them to send me an extender, no harm in asking.

I seem to remember that Virgin would give you one or more range extender boxes if you asked for them. I think they were free.

Orcvader · 5 Dec 2023 at 11:38

Is there an option for the Tendas to operate in access point mode? That way you can have the VM hub in router mode and still have the mesh coverage, while allowing ethernet devices the full speed.

These instructions is for the MW6 model, not sure what ones you have but the steps should be similar: https://www.tendacn.com/uk/faq/3123.html

Daaaveee · 5 Dec 2023 at 11:47

Thanks Orcvader, I'm not sure so will definitely take a look, thank you

Daaaveee · 5 Dec 2023 at 20:27

Orcvader said:
Is there an option for the Tendas to operate in access point mode? That way you can have the VM hub in router mode and still have the mesh coverage, while allowing ethernet devices the full speed.

These instructions is for the MW6 model, not sure what ones you have but the steps should be similar: https://www.tendacn.com/uk/faq/3123.html

This sorted it, thanks very much

VM Hub back in router mode, Nova mesh set to bridge, all working well!