VM SH3 Wireless Advice

sybaris

sybaris

sybaris

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Joined
21 Jun 2010
Posts
787
Location
infornt of my PC
Hello.

A few months back my Virgin Media SH2ac died and good old VM replaced it with a SH3.
Firstly what on earth have they done to the admin console? Its slow, awful and a poor replacement for my
SH2ac.

I have the SH3 connected by a cat 6a to my switch and out of that another cat6a to my PC.
I do get good upload and download speeds on the PC. Can not fault that.

However I get very poor wireless speeds. Even standing in the room with the router, I get speeds of 70mbs on my phones and tablets.
I ran a diagnostic from the router's own tool and I get some concerning reports.
Plugged in to the router is the switch, my blu ray player and my wife's laptop.
I would expect the ports with the router and laptop to be running at 1gb.
I know they did when I had the SH2
Wifi signal reports are terrible, I would expect -50dBm or better.

Any advice?

Diagnostic Results...
WiFi signal strength of Google-Home is -82dBm.
WiFi signal strength of Big IPAD is -89dBm.
WiFi signal strength of Mobile Phone is -86dBm.
WiFi signal strength of Mini iPad is -65dBm.
Wireless primary network is Enabled on 2.4GHz.
Wireless primary network is Enabled on 5GHz.
Wireless guest network is Enabled on 2.4GHz.
Wireless guest network is Enabled on 5GHz.
Internet connection is good.
Telephone line 2 is disabled
Telephone line 1 is disabled
Wired client on port 3 is running at 100 Mbps.
Device connected on port 3 is running at a lower speed of 100 Mbps and is not utilizing the full available speed.
Wired client on port 1 is running at 100 Mbps.
Device connected on port 1 is running at a lower speed of 100 Mbps and is not utilizing the full available speed.
Wired client on port 2 is running at 10 Mbps.
Device connected on port 2 is running at a lower speed of 10 Mbps and is not utilizing the full available speed.
 
No one has replied to you but I am assuming you may still wait advice. Basically, although I am cancelling my VM due to their bumbling ways I had the same situation as yourself. You are best buying a router with external antennas (budget for another £80) and put the SH3 in modem mode. The money is well worth it as a decent router should last 4-5 years easy (until next wireless standard comes out?).
 
Thanks Ultraman1966, I am grateful for your reply. Can I ask who you are switching to? On the plus I am getting 210mbs download and 12mbs upload which if flipping great compared to some others.
Would a new router be better than one of those Google Mesh things? Would I get better wireless signal?
Basically VM said they only care about what goes in to the router not what I get out of it and they washed their hands of it.
 
sybaris said:
Thanks Ultraman1966, I am grateful for your reply. Can I ask who you are switching to? On the plus I am getting 210mbs download and 12mbs upload which if flipping great compared to some others.
Would a new router be better than one of those Google Mesh things? Would I get better wireless signal?
Basically VM said they only care about what goes in to the router not what I get out of it and they washed their hands of it.
Click to expand...
I am switching to vodafone because they are the cheapest; not the best idea but it is technically still just BT Openreach equipment and lines to some extent. I did get upgraded to 100Mbs by VM to stay but frankly I will happy with the 65mbs/19mbs D/U that I have been quoted for as minimum speed. The SH3 has that persisting Puma6 issue which doesn't affect everyone but it is something to keep in mind if you do online gaming (more on that if you want later).

I've got an Asus AC router but amazon have a netgear on sale

I would just install that and put the SH3 in modem mode and forget about it. The Asus has so much more control in the web admin and will help you get the best out of sharing that 200 meg line.
Google Mesh, if you buy a set is basically an automated wifi network system that would allow you to get a theoretically large seamless network by spacing out each mesh unit in a corner or part of your house.
How big is your property? I have this router.

It does a much better job than the SH3 but that's no surprise; few ISPs offer a decent modem and router solution.

** Do Not link to competitors **
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I live in a flat and the SH3 is in the furthers room. Even in there im only getting 40% signal.
I've seen some AC3200 tri band routers and was thinking about one of them.
But I like the idea of tinkering and tweaking my connection. Also VM removed the ability to save configs such as the MAC filtering table. So when you reset you have to enter all the device addresses in it again.
Once had unauthorised person connect and so I now MAC filter allowed devices.
I do like the look of https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rt-ac3200-tri-band-wireless-ac3200-gigabit-router-nw-094-as.html but is it overkill?
 
How fast does the wireless for a phone/tablet need to be?

Ignoring speed test results is there anything the current wireless is preventing you from doing?
 
sybaris said:
I live in a flat and the SH3 is in the furthers room. Even in there im only getting 40% signal.
I've seen some AC3200 tri band routers and was thinking about one of them.
But I like the idea of tinkering and tweaking my connection. Also VM removed the ability to save configs such as the MAC filtering table. So when you reset you have to enter all the device addresses in it again.
Once had unauthorised person connect and so I now MAC filter allowed devices.
I do like the look of https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rt-ac3200-tri-band-wireless-ac3200-gigabit-router-nw-094-as.html but is it overkill?
Click to expand...
It is a bit overkill to my eyes, I would say that unless you are transferring several terabytes at a time internally (NAS etc) there is little reason to get that.

Also, if you are getting bottlenecking and drops, use pingtools and see if you are getting packet loss.
 
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