Wi-Fi/Mesh woes. Want a solution for my ASUS Wi-Fi 6 router and BT whole home that’s slow.

johnw100 · 17 Jun 2022 at 11:40

Hope this is the right forum for this.

So story is, had bt and wholehome mesh x 3 about 5 years ago. Then Moved to virgin
And 600Mbs plan a few years back. router is crap kept using BT mesh but its bit slow these days. Got an ASUs rt-ac68u
Router which is quick if you have one wall and then the signal falls off fast. Just tried buying a second one but again it’s rubbish outside of one or two walls. So sending that back.
BT whole home can you get to the end of our 150 foot garden. As I have one In the office next to the router another in the living room and another in an upstairs bedroom.
But max download I get is 180Mbps, the Asus about 600Mbps in the same room. You really notice the difference.

We have just had a loft room converted and speed is ok but miss the fast ASUS speeds that it’s impossible to get up there.

Also SSID, I have two. One for the ASUs and one for the BT whole home. Should I just merge to one SSID, I notice my phone hanging onto the ASUS ssid when it’s a terrible signal.

Have about 60 devices connect various phones, computers and smart devices.
So plenty of traffic.

Thanks a lot

ChrisD. · 17 Jun 2022 at 11:48

It’s because the BT system doesn’t have a dedicated backhaul. You may be best with an AP mounted upstairs on the ceiling centrally.

BUDFORCE · 17 Jun 2022 at 11:53

60 devices????????????

Armageus · 17 Jun 2022 at 11:57

johnw100 said:
Should I just merge to one SSID, I notice my phone hanging onto the ASUS ssid when it’s a terrible signal.

A single SSID will help, but it will still be down to the individual device to decide when it wants to switch. If all of your access points were from the same provider then often they talk between themselves and will "nudge" clients across onto an AP with stronger signal. (e.g. Unifi APs or most enterprise systems)

A floor plan/diagram of the house/garden with where the router is located etc, would help with suggesting where to place APs and how many are needed.

Personally I would turn Wifi off on the router and play about with repositioning the BT Mesh, but as @ChrisD. said, ideally you want APs that are wired back to the router, rather than using wifi<-->wifi links between access points (as you end up wasting a lot of the theoretical bandwidth)

BUDFORCE said:
60 devices????????????

Not difficult these days, especially if you have kids (with phones, consoles, laptops, smart home devices etc)

ChrisD. · 17 Jun 2022 at 11:59

60 is quite high to be fair. I run a lot of lab stuff at home:

Current active device count
32
Highest active device count since reboot
48

Most are wired, I wire up as much as I can.

BUDFORCE · 17 Jun 2022 at 12:02

We have 12 in total I think, family of 4.

That's including the CCTV and up coming solar system.

5 phones, 3 pcs, 2 work laptops, CCTV, solar system.

I can't think of anything else.

the-evaluator · 17 Jun 2022 at 12:32

BUDFORCE said:
60 devices????????????

Easily done once you start adding IoT devices. My client count is generally higher than this as my other half isn't at home.

Caged · 17 Jun 2022 at 13:11

More than zero IoT devices is too many IoT devices

Dg834man · 17 Jun 2022 at 13:23

Need to run some ethernet no other way to put it.

Avalon · 17 Jun 2022 at 13:56

So your complaint is you want 5 year old mesh that provides 180mbit via shared radio to do more? That's actually enough to stream a 4K REMUX, even the out of spec ones, but OK. You will need to run cable and use wired backhaul to achieve anything close to gigabit speeds and as such need a mesh system that supports wired backhaul. Personally, anything I need to pull a few hundred bit through regularly would be hard wired anyway, if it's important enough to care about, it's important enough to wire properly.

johnw100 · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:30

ChrisD. said:
It’s because the BT system doesn’t have a dedicated backhaul. You may be best with an AP mounted upstairs on the ceiling centrally.

Ok I did purchase a second asus router that was using the 2.5g from the same model of Asus plugged into next to the virgin router.
That was near the ceiling of the first floor but it was rubbish past one solid wall. Was slower than the BT whole home. Maybe just the wrong type and I should have gone for an asus mesh?

johnw100 · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:31

BUDFORCE said:
60 devices????????????

Ha ok maybe I exaggerate and they’re not all connected and online. It’s a good 40 though when things are going. About 10 of those are light bulbs.

johnw100 · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:34

Armageus said:
A single SSID will help, but it will still be down to the individual device to decide when it wants to switch. If all of your access points were from the same provider then often they talk between themselves and will "nudge" clients across onto an AP with stronger signal. (e.g. Unifi APs or most enterprise systems)

A floor plan/diagram of the house/garden with where the router is located etc, would help with suggesting where to place APs and how many are needed.

Personally I would turn Wifi off on the router and play about with repositioning the BT Mesh, but as @ChrisD. said, ideally you want APs that are wired back to the router, rather than using wifi<-->wifi links between access points (as you end up wasting a lot of the theoretical bandwidth)

ok thanks yeah I did respond to them that I did have a 2.5g backhaul between ASUs routers but I just don’t rate the Wi-Fi on those compared to my 3 BT wholehome pods. Maybe a couple of asus mesh pods is a better option? Downside is quite expensive .

ChrisD. · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:36

johnw100 said:
Ok I did purchase a second asus router that was using the 2.5g from the same model of Asus plugged into next to the virgin router.
That was near the ceiling of the first floor but it was rubbish past one solid wall. Was slower than the BT whole home. Maybe just the wrong type and I should have gone for an asus mesh?

That’s because it’s most likely on 5g which doesn’t penetrate walls too well.

johnw100 · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:37

Avalon said:
So your complaint is you want 5 year old mesh that provides 180mbit via shared radio to do more? That's actually enough to stream a 4K REMUX, even the out of spec ones, but OK. You will need to run cable and use wired backhaul to achieve anything close to gigabit speeds and as such need a mesh system that supports wired backhaul. Personally, anything I need to pull a few hundred bit through regularly would be hard wired anyway, if it's important enough to care about, it's important enough to wire properly.

I think the main issue was phones seem to connect to whatever ssid they like and as I have two one for asus and the other for bt you get a situation where you have one bar of signal and. Having to switch to another ssid.
So maybe I should just merge them. You’re right the speed is actually perfectly acceptable. YouTube videos run instantly at 1080p or even 4k.

Armageus · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:42

johnw100 said:
I think the main issue was phones seem to connect to whatever ssid they like and as I have two one for asus and the other for bt you get a situation where you have one bar of signal and. Having to switch to another ssid.

If both the Asus routers are AiMesh (https://www.asus.com/Microsite/AiMesh/uk/) then it should help, as it's then the Access Points making some of the decision as to when to switch rather than it being left completely to the device

CapitalOne · 17 Jun 2022 at 14:51

I currently have 78 devices connected wired and wireless. 4 of the PCs are not even switched on and some of those 78 are hubs for things (such as 50 hue devices) so the number can build up very quickly.

I have BT FTTC 80mb direct into an Asus RT-AC 3200 with a wired connection out to an RT-ac68u. I run 3 SSIDS. House is 50ft wide so 1 ap on one side downstairs and another at the other end. Works very well and even gives coverage throughout the garden.

Get wired!

johnw100 · 17 Jun 2022 at 15:42

https://imgur.com/a/QUBKDe8
here’s my plan of our house,and main areas of detail. hope you can read my scribbles.
just wanting to get better WiFi in the loft. Has wired Ethernet btw.

thanks

CapitalOne · 17 Jun 2022 at 15:56

If it was me, I would replace your BT nodes (the blue line means they are wired I hope) with Asus routers in AP mode. One in your office and one in your Loft room. I can't see how wide the house is so am guessing!

So - Current Asus router, 2 cables out (go via a Switch if needed) one to each other Asus in AP mode. Brutal but that is what works for me and the house looks a similar size. I would also run at least 2 SSIDs with one of them (maybe just from the Office AP) solely as 2.4ghz. I do this because many smart devices (Ring Cameras as an example) only work on 2.4ghz and setting them up can be a pain in my experience without a specific 2.4ghz network.

Not sure I'm helping here but hope it's of some value!

Armageus · 17 Jun 2022 at 15:56

johnw100 said:
https://imgur.com/a/QUBKDe8
here’s my plan of our house,and main areas of detail. hope you can read my scribbles.
just wanting to get better WiFi in the loft. Has wired Ethernet btw.

Difficult to fully advise with only a single elevation of the house, but something like the below will likely be better:

Remove all the BT devices, place the ASUS access point on the first floor, in the centre of the house (ideally wall mount it on that central wall)

Either position the router as centrally as possible downstairs, or place it near the outside wall facing the garden (to improve outdoor signal).

1-2 access points will cover 99% of "normal" houses (i.e. not mansions and without any thick stone walls or anything else odd)