Help: Mesh wifi, baby cam and chromecast problems

[Xavier Marik]

I have the following setup:

• COVR-X1860 system made up of 3 access points in a mesh
• 1 x DCS-6500LHv2 camera to monitor my disabled son in his room
• 2 x chromecast audio for ocean sounds in my son's room to help him sleep

I used to have just a D-link router (DIR-X5460) and an extender, but the coverage of the house was terrible. The mesh seems to cover it better, but the D-link camera keeps disconnecting, and the chromecast also seems to just lose connection. All devices have the latest firmware

 

A few questions:

• Is the Mesh routers are issue?
• Is the camera at issue?
• How would I troubleshoot beyond checking the wifi strength on my phone in each location?

 

What I want to be able to do is:

• have a strong wifi signal everywhere in the house and in the backyard
• have a non-subscription camera to monitor my son that I can use on my PC and phone, and
• be able to play an audio file from a PC in his room and my room.

 

[Allan B]

There are a few things you can try:

 

• What are your wifi security settings?  Do you have it on WPA3 only?  Try lowering the security, some devices don't like WPA3...  (You can also enable the guest wifi at a lower security setting to test as well if that is easier)
• Do you have the option to disable the "mesh" feature for certain devices in the app? (i do in the tp-link deco app)   This keeps the device on one AP, some devices do not like\support being on a mesh network and drop instead of switching.  This is most likely your problem.
• A little more extreme but you could try disabling the 2.4ghz or 5GHz radios just as a test, see if it works when only one is enable (i know not ideal but would help narrow down the issue).
• Is your SSID and wifi password simple?  no spaces or special characters?

 

[Xavier Marik]

1- WPA2-Personal - I have a guest wifi mode, but I can't tweak it's security separately.

2- I go the mesh for this purpose... I can disable it... I will try and let you know.

3- I can't disable the "smart connect" which is the auto 2.4 to 5 Ghz switcher... odd

4- SSID is simple, and a long, but simple passphrase with no spaces.

[cmndr]

 

Quote

• Is the Mesh routers are issue?
• Is the camera at issue?
• How would I troubleshoot beyond checking the wifi strength on my phone in each location?

Hard to say over the internet. In general anything that eats up "airtime" (cameras are one, also using repeaters and mesh set ups means the airwaves are more congested) hurts wifi performance. Walls and distance hurt. Lots of devices on the same frequency hurt. It's definitely a case where you could be "death my a thousand cuts" and add more stuff congests it further. One thing you COULD do is to set different SSIDs temporarily so it's easier to test different parts.

Some things to do to collect info - download "wifi sweet spots" on your phone. Use that to assess performance. Consider turning off as much stuff as possible and measuring one thing at a time. For context, I'm getting around 480MBps on my old 2x2 WiFi 5 phone (doesn't properly utilize my 4x4 Wi-Fi 6 AP) right now. When I walk to the opposite end of my place, I'm getting around 300

 

 

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The ideal way of getting "good wifi" everywhere is have multiple wireless access points throughout your property. These APs should be wired via an enternet cable. Most APs support power over ethernet (poe) so you only need to worry about getting one ethernet cable to the right location. You'd set each AP up under the same SSID/password but ideally on different radio frequencies (or at least with units on the same frequency being relatively far from each other). Everything near an AP will get a good signal. Modern APs handle roaming/handoff. The rule of thumb that I use would be 1AP per floor OR 700-1500sq ft. (with the AP in the middle of the area it's covering). Also, if you can, WIRE EVERYTHING that doesn't move. Especially cameras. Cameras are grave offenders.


The "next best" choice would be mesh, which is kind of a bandaid. These are essentially using one AP to echo the same signal to another. This adds latency and cuts bandwidth greatly as each time a signal is "echoed" the AP has to spend half its time listening and half its time transmitting the signal. All this chatter also clogs up the airwaves (consumes airtime). The big benefit you get from a mesh set up (over a single AP or wireless router) is that every time you double distance you cut signal strength by 4 (before even factoring in walls) and mesh lets you get much better range. One thing to note - most mesh systems end up sharing the same radio frequencies with all the other APs. This means congestion can be a very real issue (compared to using separate frequencies in a multi-AP set up where everything has a wired backhaul). As an FYI outdoor (so semi covered) APs exist.

 

I haven't researched this in a while but my baseline suggestion would be Ubiquti Unifi-6 for APs. There's probably competing products that are also solid (Engenius got recommended by Wendell at L1Techs). They should also have an outdoor version as well and these work fine if covered by an awning.

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For your set up, get as many APs/mesh nodes into "strategic locations" as possible. Distance, walls and mirrors kill signal. If you're doing "mesh things" wirelessly error on the side of getting nodes close to each other (and close to anything that's wired).

If you're able to, wire things. Thin cables help a lot. A thin cable and some small nails with white painted edges (or get some other cable color that matches your home) used to wedge the cable against a baseboard or corner will work wonders. My SO couldn't tell that I ran a cable in one case and she was complaining before hand.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13527

If you absolutely can't run wires but you have coaxial cables run in your house (with either nothing going over the coax OR only cableTV/internet) then MoCA is also a good way to "convert" the coax to ethernet.
https://www.amazon.com/goCoax-Ethernet-Bandwidth-existing-MA2500C/dp/B098SYGX3P/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=moca+adapter&qid=1663303555&sr=8-6&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.304cacc1-b508-45fb-a37f-a2c47c48c32f

If you can, add 1 or 2 APs in strategic locations, possibly by running an ethernet cable (ideal) or using MoCA adapters, you can get decent gains.

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Anecdotally, I covered the inside of my father's old house (2500 sq ft) with 2 APs near opposite corners. I then used a pair of MoCA adapters to get "ethernet" over to his detached barn. I then hooked up an old wireless router (in AP mode) over there. Between those 3 APs I had excellent coverage inside his house and barn plus "pretty good" coverage throughout the backyard and the front of the house on his 1.5 acre plot of land. Getting "pretty good coverage" was NOT a design goal, it was just a side effect of targeting the locations where I wanted excellent coverage. I could've added one more AP to get "excellent" coverage on the entire plot. I also installed a bunch of cheap reolink cameras. These are all PoE based (so hard-wired).

 

I also had similar success with 2AP set ups at my mother's place (1600 sq ft), my uncle's place (2200 sq ft) and a few others.

[Xavier Marik]

Solved the problem by running 3 wires from the router, one for each heavy user in the house, where I put a switch. I then upgraded the router to Asus zen 6600, which uses an ethernet backhaul. No more issues.