Virgin Media Hub 3 & Asus Lyra Mini Mesh

[JShallis]

Hi everyone - I am looking for some advice from you very clever people. Please note: I only have basic networking knowledge.

As per the title, I have a virgin media superhub 3, which previously met my requirements perfectly. We have fibre 350 and generally get 200+ which is great. We have turned part of our garage (brick-built, standalone about 5 meters away from the house) into an office as my wife and I both work from home regularly now.

I was gifted an Asus Lyra Mini x3 mesh wifi set and have tried to set this up to get a couple of times. The first time I plugged the main (router) Lyra mini into the back of the hub and then managed to get the other two paired with it, but this created a second Wifi Network with a much lower speed (50-70mbps)

Second attempt I put the hub into modem mode, but this knocked out my internet from Virgin (or coincided with a virgin drop in service) and I reset everything and went back to just using the hub.

I just paid someone from a local computer shop to come and install the Lyra Mini mesh, and I am amazed at how poorly it performs. The guy just plugged the main (router) lyra mini into the WAN port at the back of the VM hub and has again created a second network - that signal is picked up by a node in the garage and when I connect to this second wifi network - I only have speeds of 30-50mbps. Which is much less than I expected. I have just unplugged the Lyra Mini and plugged in a TP-Link powerline and get 55mbps (wired) in the garage which is far simpler.

My questions are really :

1. Should the Asus Lyra Mini be performing better?
2. Does this sound like it was set up correctly by the guy i paid?
3. How can I get the best internet in my garage? happy to run ethernet to the garage, but would want a wireless connection for my laptop/wifes laptop ideally once inside?
4. Any tips or ajustments can i make for better signal in the garage?

thanks all!

 

[Sparx]

1. Maybe, maybe not - need some more info! What distance and walls are we talking for these speed tests? What website are you using to test? And what device are you doing this on? Is 50-70Mb stood practically in front of it, or a brick wall or 2-3 walls into the garage? Could be worth checking if the Lyra's firmware is up-to-date? Maybe worth a factory reset of the units?

2. He's only done what you've done yourself originally, plug it in and it works. Can't exactly knock him it's probably a very basic service lol. I doubt he knows or cares (and thinks you won't mind) to test or play with any more advanced wifi/settings on the hub to check it's running optimally in terms of speed etc.

3. 100% would've done this in the first place if it's an option. Always run ethernet, then hardwire a WiFi access point with the ethernet for the best performance.

4. Have you tried separating the 2G and 5G bands? On your Virgin hub all you want to do is completely disable WiFi, don't put it in modem mode or turn off anything else. So the only WiFi SSID you have broadcasting is the Lyra's one.

 

[JShallis]

1. Maybe, maybe not - need some more info! What distance and walls are we talking for these speed tests? What website are you using to test? And what device are you doing this on? Is 50-70Mb stood practically in front of it, or a brick wall or 2-3 walls into the garage? Could be worth checking if the Lyra's firmware is up-to-date? Maybe worth a factory reset of the units?

2. He's only done what you've done yourself originally, plug it in and it works. Can't exactly knock him it's probably a very basic service lol. I doubt he knows or cares (and thinks you won't mind) to test or play with any more advanced wifi/settings on the hub to check it's running optimally in terms of speed etc.

3. 100% would've done this in the first place if it's an option. Always run ethernet, then hardwire a WiFi access point with the ethernet for the best performance.

4. Have you tried separating the 2G and 5G bands? On your Virgin hub all you want to do is completely disable WiFi, don't put it in modem mode or turn off anything else. So the only WiFi SSID you have broadcasting is the Lyra's one.

Thank you Sparx,

1. The main Lyra Mini is wired directly into the VM hub using 2m of ethernet (not sure which cat). The node in the garage is then approx. 9m away with a uPVC and double glazed doors and windows making up the exterior walls of the house then single course brick wall for the garage wall. I experimented with a second node between the two but then read that speeds are best if the nodes are connected directly to the main Lyra.

2. Agreed - he did exactly what I asked, I don't blame him - I think I should have done this research before I engaged him.

3. This seems to be a reasonable way forward. @sparks - My approach would be to connect some external rated cat 6 cable to the VM hub, out via the nearest external wall (which is directly behind the VM hub by chance), down the side of the house and into the garage. Once inside - I could plug the ethernet into a computer and it would work fine - but I don't know how/what to do to create a new wifi network in this room? Can you advise? is it as simple as buying an additional router and just plugging it into an ethernet port on this?


- huge thanks for your help so far!

 

[Orcvader]

3. This seems to be a reasonable way forward. @sparks - My approach would be to connect some external rated cat 6 cable to the VM hub, out via the nearest external wall (which is directly behind the VM hub by chance), down the side of the house and into the garage. Once inside - I could plug the ethernet into a computer and it would work fine - but I don't know how/what to do to create a new wifi network in this room? Can you advise? is it as simple as buying an additional router and just plugging it into an ethernet port on this?

If you want to have ethernet ports too a second router would be the easiest option. Make sure it offers an access point mode so it won't conflict with the SH3. You can set the Wi-Fi details on it with the same SSID and password as the SH3 Wi-Fi, but since it's not mesh, I would make sure you manually set the channels so they don't overlap (eg 2.4GHz, SH3 uses CH1 while second router uses CH6).

Meanwhile it's a bit strange you're getting slow speeds with the Lyra, have you checked to make sure it's connected at gigabit speeds instead of 100mb/s to the SH3? Is this testing with the main node that's directly connected to the router?

 

[Sparx]

Thank you Sparx,

1. The main Lyra Mini is wired directly into the VM hub using 2m of ethernet (not sure which cat). The node in the garage is then approx. 9m away with a uPVC and double glazed doors and windows making up the exterior walls of the house then single course brick wall for the garage wall. I experimented with a second node between the two but then read that speeds are best if the nodes are connected directly to the main Lyra.

2. Agreed - he did exactly what I asked, I don't blame him - I think I should have done this research before I engaged him.

3. This seems to be a reasonable way forward. @sparks - My approach would be to connect some external rated cat 6 cable to the VM hub, out via the nearest external wall (which is directly behind the VM hub by chance), down the side of the house and into the garage. Once inside - I could plug the ethernet into a computer and it would work fine - but I don't know how/what to do to create a new wifi network in this room? Can you advise? is it as simple as buying an additional router and just plugging it into an ethernet port on this?


- huge thanks for your help so far!

You tagged the wrong person, they've not been around here for 18 years nearly it seems Haha

In terms of #3 definitely run your external Cat6 to the garage, but I would first just connect it straight into your Lyra AP wifi unit. The fact it's wirelessly meshing to the unit in your house it's losing so much speed/performance through those walls. I'd like to think the moment you hardwire and connect that Cat6 into the Lyra AP in your garage, the wifi performance should dramatically increase.

I'd give that a shot first before chucking anymore money at it, the external Cat6 cable is cheap enough. Something like this 50m Cat6 external reel from Kenable should be spot on for only £23. I presume you know or can YouTube how to add the RJ45 connectors onto each end? (it's really simple!) That might just be all you need to solve the problem

Also... Are your WFH devices laptops or desktop PCs? Either way you could even get a 5 port gigabit switch for the garage (something like the TP-Link TL-SG105S for £15) and plug the cat6 run into that first. Then you have 3 ports free (obviously 2 are used for the Cat6 run to garage and your Lyra Wifi AP) if you want to hardwire any other devices i.e. laptop, desktop PCs, smart hubs etc in future - in which case you wouldn't even need to be as concerned about your wifi performance then.