Home Wi-Fi solution

[Zalosath]

Hi there, 

 

I have BT broadband, it's about 60 down 20 up. We have Sky TV though.

 

I recently 'upgraded' our router to an ASUS DSL-AC88U because our previous router, a Smart Hub of some description, was intermittently turning off and on with no explanation. 

 

I say 'upgraded' because it's got just as many problems as the other one did, firstly, a month or so ago the router changed it's Wi-Fi settings by itself, disabling both 2.4 and 5GHz meaning there was no wireless connection at all, frustrated, we swapped back to the other router while I tried to diagnose the problem with the AC88U, after finding the 'radio on' setting and enabling it, the Wi-Fi problem was fixed but I have no idea if it will happen again or what else might happen with it. I bought it with the hopes that people could download and play games at the same time but it simply is not the case. Today, the Sky box randomly got disconnected from the network and to save any frustration, we've swapped back to the old router.

 

It's worth noting that we have 4 wired connections (over ethernet), 6 mobile phones on the 5GHz band, two PS4's, a nintendo switch, two Sky Q boxes running the 2.4GHz band, a samsung tablet and also a laptop. Which is quite a lot of devices. 

 

I'm basically looking for suggestions for 'next steps' on solving the never-ending issues in my house's network.

 

Thanks in advance.

[WhitetailAni]

To me, with almost no knowledge of networking, sounds like overload.

[LIGISTX]

16 minutes ago, Zalosath said:

Hi there, 

 

I have BT broadband, it's about 60 down 20 up. We have Sky TV though.

 

I recently 'upgraded' our router to an ASUS DSL-AC88U because our previous router, a Smart Hub of some description, was intermittently turning off and on with no explanation. 

 

I say 'upgraded' because it's got just as many problems as the other one did, firstly, a month or so ago the router changed it's Wi-Fi settings by itself, disabling both 2.4 and 5GHz meaning there was no wireless connection at all, frustrated, we swapped back to the other router while I tried to diagnose the problem with the AC88U, after finding the 'radio on' setting and enabling it, the Wi-Fi problem was fixed but I have no idea if it will happen again or what else might happen with it. I bought it with the hopes that people could download and play games at the same time but it simply is not the case. Today, the Sky box randomly got disconnected from the network and to save any frustration, we've swapped back to the old router.

 

It's worth noting that we have 4 wired connections (over ethernet), 6 mobile phones on the 5GHz band, two PS4's, a nintendo switch, two Sky Q boxes running the 2.4GHz band, a samsung tablet and also a laptop. Which is quite a lot of devices. 

 

I'm basically looking for suggestions for 'next steps' on solving the never-ending issues in my house's network.

 

Thanks in advance.

Any router should be able to handle all of that, but what exactly is the issue? I understand the wifi decided to turn itself off which makes no sense, but I guess things do happen. As far as able to download and play games, is that not working..?

 

How far are the sky boxes from the router? Can you direct wire them in vs wifi?

 

How large is your house, sq ft wise? 

[Zalosath]

2 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

Any router should be able to handle all of that, but what exactly is the issue? I understand the wifi decided to turn itself off which makes no sense, but I guess things do happen. As far as able to download and play games, is that not working..?

 

How far are the sky boxes from the router? Can you direct wire them in vs wifi?

 

How large is your house, sq ft wise? 

Download and play games is an absolute no go - ping skyrockets to 200+ makes many games unplayable. 

 

Router is about 5 meters from the sky box, through two walls though. (There is a door through both walls) Router has a maximum of 4 ports, we do have a switch but we found it even worse with the switch.

 

About 720sq ft.

[Donut417]

3 minutes ago, Zalosath said:

Download and play games is an absolute no go - ping skyrockets to 200+ makes many games unplayable. 

 

Router is about 5 meters from the sky box, through two walls though. (There is a door through both walls) Router has a maximum of 4 ports, we do have a switch but we found it even worse with the switch.

 

About 720sq ft.

60/20 is not bad speeds. I had 75/10 for years. 

 

There are a few things I would check. Firstly check to see if there is a firmware update for the router. Lots of times software bugs can cause weird issues and this should fix the issue. Secondly the amount of walls matters to an extent, but the material the walls are made out of matters more. Dense materials like brick and concrete dont do well with WiFi. If possible try to place the router high up. Like on a shelf or something, it will help it throw the signal a bit. Lastly use a WiFi analyzer apps to see if there is other networks around using the same WiFi channels as you. 

[Zalosath]

Just now, Donut417 said:

60/20 is not bad speeds. I had 75/10 for years. 

 

There are a few things I would check. Firstly check to see if there is a firmware update for the router. Lots of times software bugs can cause weird issues and this should fix the issue. Secondly the amount of walls matters to an extent, but the material the walls are made out of matters more. Dense materials like brick and concrete dont do well with WiFi. If possible try to place the router high up. Like on a shelf or something, it will help it throw the signal a bit. Lastly use a WiFi analyzer apps to see if there is other networks around using the same WiFi channels as you. 

No complaints on the speed front, just the high ping when people are downloading.

 

Firmware is fully updated. It does go through a brick wall but my phone receives the signal just fine and I sit 4 walls away from the router. WiFi analyzer shows that we are the only one on the frequency on the 5GHz band and a small overlap in the 2.4GHz region.

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Zalosath said:

No complaints on the speed front, just the high ping when people are downloading.

 

Firmware is fully updated. It does go through a brick wall but my phone receives the signal just fine and I sit 4 walls away from the router. WiFi analyzer shows that we are the only one on the frequency on the 5GHz band and a small overlap in the 2.4GHz region.

Could be a defective router. Just because its new doesn't mean it wasn't broke when you bought it. 

[Falcon1986]

On 12/29/2020 at 7:12 PM, Zalosath said:

just the high ping when people are downloading.

Well, the more people using the connection simultaneously, the slower the connection will be for each individual user. There is higher traffic between you and your ISP, but so too on your LAN. Therefore, I would expect ping to increase. Some routers just can’t keep up when the network gets busy.

 

On 12/29/2020 at 7:12 PM, Zalosath said:

but my phone receives the signal just fine and I sit 4 walls away from the router.

This is purely anecdotal, but for some reason, smartphone WiFi seems to perform better even in poorly-optimized WiFi environments. It isn’t a good measure of WiFi performance as some smartphones will dynamically switch between cellular data and WiFi depending on signal strength.

 

On 12/29/2020 at 7:12 PM, Zalosath said:

WiFi analyzer shows that we are the only one on the frequency on the 5GHz band and a small overlap in the 2.4GHz region.

Then push your devices to use the 5GHz band as much as possible. If any of your devices is connecting through 2.4GHz on an already busy channel due to interference, you will get poor WiFi performance. Add to that walls and other sources of interference (e.g. microwaves, fridges, other electrical appliances) and you’ve got a difficult situation.

[Zalosath]

11 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

-snip-

Totally get that, just looking for a way of improving this lag caused by the many clients.

 

Good to know.

 

I think the Sky Q will only connect to the 2.4GHz band unfortunately.