Need help with Ubiquiti Nano HD

[NickKz]

Hopefully someone here is familiar with the Ubnt Unifi stuff, as I am tearing my hair out over this one.

 

I have a very simple home setup, just one access point, the nano HD.

 

I have one SSID that is on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

 

5 GHz speeds are amazing, I can completely saturate my internet connection, which right now is 100 megabit.  

 

Using WiFiman for speed tests from iPhone 13 Pro as a test device and I get just 100 megabits per second both up and down. 
 

On 2.4 GHz though, we have some serious problems — with download speeds only.
 

Uploads are fine, averaging around 40 megabit, but downloads are around 10 megabits per second!
 

The other problem is that even with band steering turned on, my iPhone 13 Pro will be on the 5Ghz radio… and then if I set it down for 10 minutes, screen locked and not being used, and then unlock it and pick it back up and start to use it again, it will be on the 2.4 GHz radio…!

 

I totally wouldn’t even care about this issue though, if the 2.4 GHz download speeds weren’t so god awful.

 

I’ve tried changing the channel, I’ve tried making other setting adjustments, changing from 20 to 40 MHz spectrums, and nothing really changes.

 

I’ve tried running the scan, even tried running the optimize thing, I’ve tried setting everything to auto, and there’s no difference.  

 

I see that the maximum PHY speed for the 2.4 GHz radio on the nano HD is 300 megabits per second, which is fine…but I’m getting nowhere near, like 1/5 of that that — even within 10 feet of the AP!

 

I’ve tried switching to a MBP as a test device, since with that I can at least get more info about the wifi adapter (iOS really doesn’t expose anything at all in the way of information), and it says that in system profiler that the “transmit rate” for the wifi adapter is 58 megabits, even directly in front of the damned AP, within ten feet of it!

 

I have around 15 2.4 GHz IOT devices that need internet, so I can’t just turn off / disable the 2.4 GHz radio either…I don’t care about their download speeds, I mean a washer and dryer doesn’t need to stream 4K Netflix, but yeah when my phones and laptop etc are using the 2.4 GHz radio, it’s absolutely horrid.

 

I’m using all the latest firmwares and I did open a ticket with Ubnt, but they’re off on the weekends.  If anyone can suggest anything I would really appreciate it, thank you.

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, NickKz said:

I have a very simple home setup, just one access point, the nano HD.

How is this mounted? Is it ceiling mounted at a central location in the house? Any other device nearby that might be utilizing the 2.4GHz frequency? Any obstructions?

 

2 hours ago, NickKz said:

The other problem is that even with band steering turned on, my iPhone 13 Pro will be on the 5Ghz radio… and then if I set it down for 10 minutes, screen locked and not being used, and then unlock it and pick it back up and start to use it again, it will be on the 2.4 GHz radio…!

Some devices have an issue with band steering. You can turn it off to see if that changes anything.

 

I would actually suggest you use different SSIDs for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz broadcasts. Some IoT devices can have a difficulty connecting.

 

Also, ensure your security is set to WPA2-PSK with AES encryption.

 

2 hours ago, NickKz said:

I’ve tried changing the channel, I’ve tried making other setting adjustments, changing from 20 to 40 MHz spectrums, and nothing really changes.

As guided by a spectrum analyzer, I hope. Use the one built into WiFiman and post a screenshot of the 2.4GHz spectrum in your area.

 

Do not change the channel width of 2.4GHz to 40MHz unless there is room.

 

2 hours ago, NickKz said:

I’ve tried running the scan, even tried running the optimize thing, I’ve tried setting everything to auto, and there’s no difference.  

Manually set the power output for 5GHz to high and 2.4GHz to medium.

[NickKz]

According to the analyzer in Unifi this is the best channel to use for 2.4 Ghz, at least as far as I can understand the graphs

 

But as I’ve said just for fun (lol) I’ve manually tried every single channel and nothing changes 

 

My iot devices all work and connect perfectly fine and stay connected, never had any issues there or with anything else really 

 

As far as I know there are no other devices interfering, the mount is on a cieling in the living room, it’s a very small place

 

[Falcon1986]

@NickKz

 

No. Get the analysis from the client's perspective by running WiFiman on your phone or WiFi Analyzer on your PC.

 

Secondly, are you using the global AP settings within UniFi or the AP-specific settings? Can you post a screenshot of these settings?

[NickKz]

WiFiman doesn’t run on iOS devices or macs as far as I know, unfortunately, well it does but there’s only a speed test, there’s no radio scanning 

 

I don’t have a PC or an android phone to test with at the moment 

 

I only have one AP, I’ve got meshing disabled and using AP specific settings

 

Changing transmit power has no effect, I’ve tried them all 

 

[Falcon1986]

@NickKz

 

Before proceeding, how are you hosting the UniFi Controller? If it’s running on an always-on device or in the cloud, many of the optimizations can be executed as per a schedule. I’m not sure how that works if you’re hosting the Controller on a computer.

 

First of all, as I previously recommended, avoid using a 40MHz channel width on 2.4GHz. Set to 20MHz.

 

Secondly, for the 2.4GHz radio, set the channel selection to “auto”. Since you don’t have a client device that can run a spectrum analysis, let UniFi try to figure it out. But keep in mind that this will take some time. When scans are done, the antenna might be unavailable for use. So, turn on “channel optimization”, which runs the scans at late night when no one should be online.

 

Thirdly, access the main UniFi Network settings and go to WiFi > Your-SSID. In the Advanced Configuration section, turn off “band steering” and “UAPSD”. Disable “BSS transition” and “fast roaming” if you only have a single UniFi AP. Under the Security subsection, ensure WPA-2 is being used and PMF is disabled.

 

After you apply the settings, re-provision the AP to ensure all of the settings are applied to the AP. You can also power-cycle the AP within UniFi.

 

I’d also recommend you “forget” the wireless network on your iPhone then reconnect. Some client devices might retain old details from WiFi connection profiles, so doing this updates the profile.

[NickKz]

I've tried all those settings changes prior, unfortunately.  20Mhz channels on the 2Ghz radio don't make a diff.  Transmit power doesn't matter either.

 

I'm using a generation 1 cloud key currently, hopefully will move that over to a dedicated server sometime soon.  

 

I submitted a ticket with Ubiquiti support but I don't have much confidence in them.

 

I decided to just make a new 5Ghz only SSID, and I'm using that for all of my high performance Apple devices...it works great, I just won't get the range out to the backyard, but I guess with winter coming that isn't going to make much of a difference anyway.  

 

Not going to be spending much time outside in the back in November / December here in cold ass NY anyway.

 

My hypothesis at this point is that there's something wrong with this particular nanoHD that I have...but as to what or why, no clue.

 

I just can not fathom why it would be THIS bad on 2.4Ghz, and for downloads only, and with the AP scans of the 2.4 Ghz spectrum showing only minimal interference.  Even the ping times on 2.4 Ghz are consistently up to 3x what they are on 5 Ghz.

 

I've tried resetting it before and re-provisioning, I've even tried using it in standalone mode without Unifi, same deal.  

5Ghz speeds rock, 2.4 Ghz speeds are around 10 megabits per second for downloads with higher pings.

 

I was thinking about maybe replacing the nanoHD with the new 6E AP, however it's pretty expensive, and I don't even have any 6E devices right now anyway, so probably best to just keep this for now and hope Ubiquiti support can offer up some info or help.

[Falcon1986]

46 minutes ago, NickKz said:

so probably best to just keep this for now and hope Ubiquiti support can offer up some info or help.

Ubiquiti doesn’t tend to offer support directly to consumers. If you post in their Community Forum, you’ll get help from other users.

 

Just for completeness: are the UniFi Controller and the nanoHD firmware up to date? I would try manually resetting the nanoHD, re-adopting, updating and setting things up again as a final effort.

 

I’ve used the UAP-AC-Pro and UAP-AC-LR previously (released close to the nanoHD) and had no problems with them. I thought the nanoHD would be better device especially since it’s supposed to be a WiFi 5 (wave 2) generation device over the other UAP-AC devices.