topic Re: Total Home WiFi in Full Fibre

Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 14:56:28 GMT

A Full Fibre 150 upgrade was installed at my home one week ago incorporating a single Eero router but with subsequent mixed speed results at both router position and workstation positions - two devices much improved and two devices hardly improved from previous Fibre 65 installation.

TalkTalk technicians have made several attempts to improved the installation but with little success and are suggesting an upgrading to Total Home WiFi.

What is not clear to me is whether such upgrade, having two additional Eero units sited at workstations, will give me, at best, simply the same ratings as currently received at the incoming router location or do they somehow boost the signal reaching the workstations to give me nearer to what I was expecting on all devices.

Put another way, would I be wasting my money on upgrading wifi as opposed to buying some newer devices?

More generally, is Total Home WiFi a successful and useful upgrade?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:17:56 GMT

I am not sure what you mean by:-

"two devices much improved and two devices hardly improved from previous Fibre 65 installation" ?

However, I would not spend any money at all, without first investigating the root cause of the problem. This is an area where I can help a lot.

Slow speed, intermittent dropouts, breaks in the signal or no signal on some or all devices or no internet access might be caused by Wi-Fi interference from other local networks, which can also lead to a permanent reduction in speed. No ISP can be responsible for your local environment, this is mainly a byproduct of the popularity of Wi-Fi.

Generally speaking, the 2.4GHz band suffers much more from interference than the 5GHz band, but the 2.4GHz one can sometimes have a better range, but this all depends on your local area.

The next stage involves sending out a guide to you to help you get me some important diagnostic results so that I can analyse them for you and recommend changes to your router configuration to solve them.

I only send this out to people who request it.

Whilst the Eero is supposed to manage Wi-Fi interference, if this is very bad, particularly in the 2.4GHz band, then it cannot do anything about it, no router can. The same goes for any router at that point. Other things that may then need to be investigated are its location within your property and the WiFi bands that you use. It is possible that you may also need to purchase additional Eero nodes as it is supposed to operate as part of a mesh system. I can help with any of this. However, I would suggest that you follow my help to find out what the root cause of the problem is, before throwing money at it.

The information below is provided by TalkTalk, for confirmation please contact @Debbie-TalkTalk or@Michelle-TalkTalk.

KeithFrench is one of our valued Community Stars and can help with a range of issues related to wireless and networking. At times he may ask you to send him test results via a Private Message to help analyse/diagnose an issue. Although Keith does not work for TalkTalk, he very kindly shares his time and knowledge to help with others.

If you need further help or, if we need to take any details such as personal information about your account like phone numbers, account numbers etc. one of the TalkTalk team will jump in and help out.

Re: Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:21:18 GMT

Many thanks for your prompt reply and I would appreciate access to the guide mentioned in due course.

What I meant with regard to the devices is that, directly in front of the Eero router, an Acer tablet and a Xiaomi Redmi Note mobile phone receive speeds in excess of 150Mbps and also both achieve those speeds at workstations some 8 metres from the router. However, a Lenovo laptop and a Samsung Galaxy A20E each register only around 30-35Mbps in front of the router and around-30Mbps at the relevant workstations given above. All above devices have WiFi 4 standards 802.11n or 802.11a/b/g/n whatever that means as I have only limited tech knowledge. The Eero appears to work fine with some devices but not with others which suggests that the the problem may be with those devices?

I look forward to you response.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 22:06:09 GMT

Those WiFi 4 devices may only be using the 2.4GHz WiFi band, just because 802.11n can work in the 5GHz band, is does not follow that these devices support it.

I will PM you a link for a guide of mine on Wi-Fi interference & initially look at the section called "Are you suffering from interference – prove it first". This section includes full details of Wi-Fi analysers that I recommend for Windows, Windows phone, Android and Apple operating systems. However, I have no way of testing the Apple product. Do not worry about interpreting the results, I will do that for you.

Please post the screenshots to me in a PM (to protect your privacy), which I have requested in my guide. No photos please they can be difficult to read as text can get out of focus when zoomed in, from the analyser you are using (also in my attached guide). Please ensure that the analyser window is maximised (if Windows) before taking the screenshots & upload them via the "Insert Photos" button (in a mobile browser it's the picture icon) on the post editor's toolbar with the Size parameter set to Large. If they are too small, I will not be able to read them & although I can enlarge them, this puts the text out of focus.

Re: Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:30:13 GMT

Thanks for that, will look into your guide as soon as I have time. I believe PM is a Facebook device? I do not use Facebook basically only Gmail for messaging - is there any alternative way to send the requested screenshots etc?

Sorry to be a pain.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:11:33 GMT

A PM is the private messaging system of this Community forum site. Just click on my avatar and use the send message facility.

Re: Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:07:06 GMT

The screenshots have been removed as the whole world can see them in a public forum like this.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:09:47 GMT

Hi @Jeggers

I have just removed the screenshots from your reply after saving a copy of them, as they are readable by anyone in this public forum. Please PM any further ones to me, as I requested, to protect your privacy.

I will now look at these & come back to you in a while.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:20:40 GMT

I have looked at your screenshots & just sent you a PM requiring some more information. You will receive an email notification of my PM when it arrives.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 15:07:44 GMT

The customer is currently getting information for me about this laptop.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 15:45:35 GMT

It now appears that more than one device is suffering poor performance over WiFi. Slow speed, intermittent dropouts, breaks in the signal or no signal on some or all devices or no internet access might be caused by Wi-Fi interference from other local networks, which can also lead to a permanent reduction in speed. No ISP can be responsible for your local environment, this is mainly a byproduct of the popularity of Wi-Fi.

Generally speaking, the 2.4GHz band suffers much more from interference than the 5GHz band, but the 2.4GHz one can sometimes have a better range, but this all depends on your local area.

The next stage involves sending out a guide to you to help you get me some important diagnostic results so that I can analyse them for you and recommend changes to your router configuration to solve them.

I only send this out to people who request it.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 15:46:20 GMT

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 10:56:19 GMT

Hi @Debbie-TalkTalk @Anonymous

I have been doing some diagnostics with this customer via PMs. The problem is that the signal strength measured by a laptop about 1.8 metres away upstairs from the Eero is incredibly weak. There is no real WiFi interference on this at all. I can only assume that he would benefit from an additional Eero to for a mesh. Can you still supply them?

Re: Total Home WiFi

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 10:58:57 GMT

Morning,

Can you please update your community profile to include your:

Name
Telephone number
Alternative contact number

We'll then look into this further. Please do not post this information on this thread. Once you've updated your profile please post in your topic to confirm it's updated.

Thanks

Michelle

Re: Total Home WiFi

icesteelman — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:39:31 GMT

Hello

I have also recently upgraded to Full Fibre 150 with a Eero router and from the start knew that I would need additional Eeros to get wifi throughout our bungalow as a single Eero is not as powerful as the old TalkTalk Hub Router. Rather than get them from TalkTalk (don't know what they charge for the Total WiFi service), I purchased a three pack directly from Amazon when they were on offer/reduced. Installation was a breeze using the app and I now have reliable wifi throughout my home. Would recommend this approach based on my experience.

Michelle and the community have been very supportive throughout the process of upgrading and asking lots of questions !

Simon

Re: Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:59:49 GMT

Thank you for your message and my apologies for the delay in reply. You must forgive me but this is all new territory for me and I have only limited technical knowledge.

Could you please clarify what you mean. Where do I find my profile to update? What do you mean by a 'different' thread and how do I find one? Post 'what' in my topic? My topic is presumably 'Total Home WiFi'? How do I stay in contact with you on this matter other than on this page?

I suspect that the terminology and directions which I do not understand come from social media usage - something that means nothing to me.

Your help and guidance will be greatly appreciated,

Geoff.

Re: Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 11:20:07 GMT

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your response and I'm pleased to see that your problem was satisfactorily resolved.

I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on my particular problem which may or may not be similar to yours.

Basically, my problem is with older (2021) 2.4Ghz devices. These devices sited directly in front of the single Eero 6 router achieve, at best, 35Mbps and at my workstation location some 8 metres away achieve maybe 25Mbps - in practice similarto results as achieved by the previous Fibre 65 installation.

What I have been unable to establish is whether an additional Eero or Eero's will simply just replicate that 35Mbps at the extended locations or whether there is somehow a major boost to give nearer the 150Mbps as promised at those locations ? - that seems unlikely to me. Newer 5.0Ghz devices do not seem to have a problem with this installation.

Does this relate to your experience in any way?

Thanks,

Geoff.

Re: Total Home WiFi

KeithFrench — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 11:26:39 GMT

Hi @Jeggers

This is your thread, do not worry about that. @Anonymous from TalkTalk needs to tie up your forum user name to your broadband account, they do this via your profile being updated by yourself. I have asked one of TalkTalk's support to pick your thread up and investigate it for you.

Please make sure that your community profile includes your first & last names, broadband phone number & if possible an alternative contact number. This can be done by clicking on your Avatar picture then click on "My Settings" followed by:-

Personal Profile > Personal Information

Only you & TalkTalk have visibility of your details.

Once this is all done, then they can respond to my request.

Re: Total Home WiFi

icesteelman — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:51:59 GMT

Hello Geoff,

I am fortunate in that all my devices (TV's, phones, tablets, computers, etc) are 5Ghz capable and connect that way when I view them via the Eero app. On 5Ghz my speed rarely drops below 90Mbps but it does depend on time of day and what else is happening on our network. I didn't do any testing with just the TalkTalk Eero to compare since I knew the WiFi would not reach all our rooms.

Sorry I don't have any experience of older devices that seem to be an issue for you.

Hopefully the support staff will have some answers / suggestions.

Cheers

Simon

Re: Total Home WiFi

Jeggers — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:58:12 GMT

Thanks Simon for that. I thought that would be your experience. I am in touch with TalkTalk and with Keith who are, I am sure, doing their very best to sort this out for me.

Take care,

Geoff.