Fibre 65 signal issues

[durdle]

I've been on Fibre 65 for a couple of years now and, initially, it seemed reasonably stable. Then, I was given a Ring doorbell at the beginning of last year. This has worked as expected except that one or more of the doorbell, the battery cam or the chimes has tended to stop working from time to time and had to be reconnected to WiFi. It's been annoying, but not a massive problem because these devices seem to provide quite good instructions on how to recover from connectivity problems. 

My Epson ET-2850 printer, purchased around mid ’21, has been a different kettle of fish. It has dropped its connection too often for comfort, and required various efforts on my part to become reconnected, eg by powering it, my router, and/or just my WiFi connection off and then back on etc. 

Very recently, however, these issues have become more difficult to resolve in that the printer became unavailable for several consecutive days earlier this week, and I could not recover it using any of my old strategies. Two days ago, I took it to the print shop that originally sold it to me, and they kindly configured it for their shop network, where it appeared to work with no problems. When I took it home, I attempted to reset it for my home network, but this appeared to fail with error (E-9), the subsequent printer generated report being as shown below. 

Later that evening, I noticed that the device was again showing its connected-to-WiFi symbol and found that I could print files again. 

The printer is still working this morning, well over 24 hours later, though it did go offline late last night for a while. While I'm happy for now, I'm not over confident that I won't have similar problems again before too long. 

Apart from my printer and doorbell problems, the other main issue with my WiFi has been that, all too often, I have attempted a Google search but have seen a black ‘no internet connection’ display for a few seconds before the requested information has then appeared. Also, sometimes, I have seen an equally black ‘download pending’ screen that has not delivered the goods, although a repeate attempt sometimes has done. 

These issues have often lead me to suspect my WiFi signal strength. I can't access the same information on my Samsung A9 tablet, but my Samsung A71 phone suggests it's of the order of 110 dBm 30 asu, not that I have any real understanding of what these figures imply. 

The Ring doorbell and accessories have device health displays in the Ring app, all of which seem to suggest signal strengths varying from around 45 and 70 ssi. If I look online, sometimes I see that higher ssi values indicate weaker signals, sometimes I see its the lower ones. As I say, I suspect I'm suffering from a poor signal, even though at least half my devices, including my printer just now, are only a few metres away from my router. 

I apologise for the length of this post, but can anyone offer any thoughts here, please? 

Check Network Connection

Check Result                                                      Unknown

Error code                                                           (E-9)

Confirm the connection and network setup of the PC or other device.

Connection using the EpsonNet Setup  is available.

Contact your network administrator for assistance.

If your problems persist,

see your documentation for help and networking tips.

Checked Items

Wireless Network Name (SSID)                          Pass

Communication Mode Check                              Pass

Security Mode Check                                          Pass

Mac Address Filtering Check                              Pass

Security Key/Password Check                            Pass

IP Address Check                                               Pass

Detailed IP Setup Check                                     Unknown

Network Status

Printer Name                                                      EPSON0xxxxx

Printer Model                                                      ET-2850 Series

IP Address                                                         169.xxx.y.zzz

Default Gateway Network Name (SSID)            abcde

Security                                                              WPA2-PSK (AES)

Signal Strength                                                  Excellent

MAC Address                                                     E0:BB:9E:01:XX:YY

[KeithFrench]

Hi @durdle 

Can you use a WiFi analyser app on your phone near the doorbell? That should give you an independent assessment of the RSSI.

[durdle]

@KeithFrench , the doorbell battery is around 55%, according to the app. With only booster 2 powered up and much nearer the bell (on an extension lead) than the router I took the bell down down and briefly disabled it, whereupon the rssi value shown in the app shot up from -70 to -45. This is all a bit like herding mice, and it seems to me that using the app is a hopelessly inaccurate way of checking signal strengths, so, for the time being, I'll try for the star topology before I take much notice of anything else. 

[durdle]

My mistake,  @KeithFrench , I thought I had to set up a Star topology first, but I see what you're saying now. I'm not optimistic about any of this, though,  because power points in my house are few and far between, with none in the the corner part of the house where the doorbell is located. I'll give it a go. 

[KeithFrench]

It does indeed and you want Star topology, which is why I gave you my recommendation in my previous post to try & achieve that.

Thinking a bit more, you were concerned about the Ring app & the RSSI values that it gives. If any Ring device of yours is battery-powered, are the batteries fairly well charged?

[durdle]

Thanks, @KeithFrench, but my attachment above shows a tree topology, does it not? Should I not try for star one? 

[KeithFrench]

Hi @durdle 

This is my recommendation:-

Each 266 needs to be in a location that has an excellent or good signal reception from the router. To test this connection, first turn off all other F266s and try moving the one F266 to a suitable location to achieve an excellent or good signal strength from the router (gateway). Then turn that one off & repeat the sequence for all other F266s, one at a time. Next, each F266 needs to be far enough apart from the other F266s, to ensure that the signal an F266 receives from the router is higher than the one it receives from a nearby F266.

Similar to a router, they need to be out in the open, not shut in a cupboard. Neither must it be near any electrical equipment or large expanses of metal, fish tanks or water. Wi-Fi signals do not travel well through any type of glass.

[durdle]

@KeithFrench, I connected the new booster using WPS on the router,  but I seem to have ended up with a Tree configuration.  How do I unravel this, please? Should I delete them both and start again? If so, how do I do that, please? I've never previously changed anything this deep in Not what I was expecting.router settings. 

[KeithFrench]

Of course, I can't help with their app.

[durdle]

Thanks, @KeithFrench. Makes sense but, if there's one thing I've definitely decided, it's that the signal strengths reported by the Ring app only provide very rough guidelines when it comes down to deciding whether a wifi booster is helping to make the doorbell system more stable or not. We had a short power failure last night, and the kitchen chime, which is only about 8" from the first booster, and had shown a constant -18 for the previous 5 days, has been showing a consistent -52 since the power came back on.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @durdle 

There is no need to power the first 266 off before connecting the second via WPS. Yes, a Star is what you want, that way, any device connected to either 266, has only got to go through the router & out to the internet. A Tree would force devices connected to the furthest 266, to first go through the other 266, before they can get to the router & the internet.

[durdle]

My second F266 has been delivered. Am I right in thinking that to create a Star configuration, I don't need to have my first one powered off when I set up the new one via WPS, because I'll be linking it to the router?

[durdle]

@ferguson , thanks, I'll try that. 

[ferguson]

You can use Live chat from the contact help page:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/How-to-contact-TalkTalk-Broadband/ta-p/2230529 

[durdle]

@Chris-TalkTalk Thanks, but I don't know how to contact the loyalty team other than by phone, which is very much a no no for me as I've already mentioned. Would I be able to contact the right part of customer services if I used their WhatsApp chat? 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi durdle,

Yes I would recommend speaking to Customer service or Loyalty about another wifi booster, they may be able to help

Chris

[KeithFrench]

Hi @durdle 

I don't think that you can buy them from the forum, but I will ask them for you now. You should be able to do an online chat & get through to the Loyalty dept that way. Whilst I have no idea about the cost, other people have bought them from there at a discount.

[durdle]

Thanks,  @KeithFrench , I was going to say that, with the router dashboard showing only a good F266 connection over the 24 hours to last night, the prospects of getting a second one working well didn't look promising. In addition my poor hearing makes my chances of managing a fruitful telephone conversation of any length with the loyalty department rather minimal, and I was inclined to say I would stick for now. However, this morning, the F266 shows as having an excellent router connection and I'm rather more keen to keep going. Out of interest, why can I not just buy a second booster; are they prohibitively expensive, in short supply, or just likely to cause chaos in the wrong hands? 

[KeithFrench]

Hi @durdle 

You need to contact the Loyalty Dept (0345 1725157 or 0330 1278960) to get a second booster.

To answer what you asked me is fairly long & technical, but it is worth preserving to get the best out of a multi-node mesh network.

There are some technical challenges when using two or more of these. When you are using more than one FAST266, you need to pay attention to the network topology that has been adopted in the Wi-Fi Mesh management’s Overview page:-

Dashboard > See Wi-Fi Settings > Manage Advanced Settings > Wi-Fi 2.4Ghz gear icon > Wi-Fi Mesh > Overview

The fastest connection for a device connected to a 266, will be if that 266 is connected directly to the gateway node in a Star topology (see diagram later).

However, that 266 might be connected in a Tree topology to another 266 before routing to the gateway node (router). This will represent a slower path for any device connected to that 266, as it first has to go through the other 266 to reach the router.

These are examples of Star & Tree topologies:-

Star/Tree Topologies

This is an all Star topology, which is what you want to aim for:-

All star topology

The gateway & extender nodes compute the current network topology & are dependent on their location & signal strength of the backhaul network. The only real way to change this is to pay close attention to the location of all these mesh nodes.

This is my recommendation:-

Each 266 needs to be in a location that has an excellent or good signal reception from the router. To test this connection, first turn off all other F266s and try moving the one F266 to a good position as far as signal strength is concerned. Then turn that one off & repeat the sequence for all other F266s, one at a time. Next, each F266 needs to be far enough apart from the other F266s, to ensure that the signal an F266 receives from the router is higher than the one it receives from a nearby F266.

[durdle]

On reflection, I have to say that the new booster is now very near one corner at the rear of the house. Its exact placement in the kitchen appears rather critical; ie move it just a little, and the Ring ssi figures go haywire,  so I don't really want to move it at all now, unless of course the figures go haywire without my touching anything. @Michelle-TalkTalk  or @Debbie-TalkTalk, can one of you please advise me how much another booster would cost me? Also, can @KeithFrench  please comment on how complicated a second booster is likely to make everything?

[durdle]

I can try, but not at the moment.  I need to get my Hive thermostat to connect to my boiler again. I suspect hat could well involve turning the booster off.