New to full fibre 150, but...

[briantrumpet1]

Hi,

I'm finding my way around my new Eero router, and doing speed tests on wifi via fast.com, but so far mostly only getting about 40Mb/s, although got one at 150 (see attached). The loaded latency seems to jump all over the place when testing.

Looking at the Eero app, the 2.4GHz channel is going over the 40% congested mark once I'm using the laptop, but the 5GHz channel looks to be unused. 

Is there a trick I'm missing here?

Thanks.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Good afternoon,

I've been advised that eero will be making some changes today/over the weekend so we will check back in with you on Monday to see how the connection has been.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

We've been advised that this has been escalated with eero and we should know more by Friday. We'll keep you updated.

Thanks

Michelle

[magames]

Agree with you Keith, as you said, Channels 149 to 161 should not be used as a first instance in any case, as they are the least compatible ones.

I also read that even the Amazon Fire 4K TV (same company as Eero) is not compatible with Channels 149 to 161. I do not understand why Eero has not fixed this yet! Are they forcing the users to use Eero 6 Pro with dual 5GHz band?

[KeithFrench]

Hi @magames 

Thank you for your comments.

I must slightly disagree with you, whilst 36 - 48 gives the most compatibility, the DFS channels 52 to 140 should definitely be available as an option as sometimes 36 - 48 can get congested. Channels 149 to 161 should again be an option, but not enforced on you in the way that 155 is at the moment. Obviously user control over channels, again as an option would be good, but I don't think that will happen.

[magames]

Hello @briantrumpet1

I can see this is the same issue I reported. I share it here in case you want to track it as well:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Full-Fibre/Eero-6-5Ghz-channel-not-compatible/m-p/2997470#M20159

@KeithFrench you did a very accurate technical explanation of the issue. Hopefully TalkTalk can find a solution soon, since the current channel setup for the 5GHz band on the Eero 6 routers is restricting drastically the overall WiFi performance.

Just an extra note. In my house, there are no other networks from neighbours, Eero 6 is supposed to be an "smart" router with auto-channel selection, therefore it should use channels 36 to 48 for a better device compatibility rather than using channel 155. Eero 6 routers should not move out from 36-48 range unless they are very congested (which it is very unusual for the 5GHz band).

[briantrumpet1]

Thanks Keith - yes, as you say, I'm misreading - they are mostly channel 36 (and some 44).

[KeithFrench]

Hi @briantrumpet1 

You must be misreading channel 80, it does not exist. I can only assume that you are looking at the channel bandwidth by mistake.

The most compatible channel range is 36 to 48 in the 5GHz band. Channels 52 to 140 are more complex and the extra circuitry required means that not all Wi-Fi adapters support this range, even though it is allowed in the Ofcom regulations. Channels 149 to 161 are OK to use, but just like channel 155, only the newest & high-specification WiFi 6 or 6E & later adapters can detect them.

[briantrumpet1]

@KeithFrench  - thanks for your technical explanation.

Just spitballing here - if I'm reading you correctly, it strikes me that a solution would be to limit the upper channel to something that is universally usable... I've noticed on NetSpot that all my neighbours routers have channel 80 for their 5Ghz band - is that a reliable channel, and if so, could TT (in theory) do a push firmware upgrade that limits the Eero to that at the upper end, without noticeable loss of performance?

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Thanks @KeithFrench I'll pass your comments over now. Will keep you updated 🙂

Michelle

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Michelle-TalkTalk 

I appreciate that you have to ask the questions, but it does make me wonder if the Devices Team understand the problem. Channel 155 is not even in the old Band C UNII-3 Upper frequency spectrum, but is in the much newer & renamed UNII-4 specification & it requires 160MHz channel bandwidth. The only adapters that can support this combination are typically very new & high-specification WiFi 6 or 6E WiFi adapters in the newest devices.

Simply put, this problem is why is the Eero locked on channel 155, when it is rendering virtually all 5GHz compatible devices unable to detect the 5GHz band at all.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thank you. The Devices manager is liasing with eero so hopefully we'll know more soon.

Thanks

Michelle

[briantrumpet1]

I'm not quite sure that will achieve, given it's the Eero's being stuck on channel 155 that's the problem (which Keith says is unusable by nearly all network adapters), but my laptop is a HP Pavilion - 15-cw1500sa, and the network adapter is a Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Adapter.

From the speedtest on my (Huawei) phone, it must be accessing the 5GHz band, as it's getting 150Mb/s. The HP laptop is stuck on 52Mb/s.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi brian,

Our Product Manager has just come back to me to ask for a specific list of devices (make and models) that are experiencing this specific issue please?

Thanks

Michelle

[briantrumpet1]

Starting to wonder if I'd just be better off with a different router - the coverage even on 2.4GHz is a bit rubbish elsewhere in the house. The old Talktalk-branded router seemed to have much better coverage. I'd give it a try, except it's got different shape connectors on the broadband lead - the old style (squarer) which plugged into the filter socket from the phone line.

If giving me the Eero for 'free', hoping that I'll pay more to have it as part of a mesh system, it seems like a bad deal, if the single router has a poor signal. Maybe I'm being cynical....

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi briantrumpet1

Sorry for the delay.

I've asked our Devices Team for an update and I will post back as soon as I have further information.

Thanks @KeithFrench

[briantrumpet1]

It's looking more likely that the Eero is not fit for purpose, if the 5Ghz channel can't be changed to something usable. And I can't try an old router, as the connectors from the Openreach fibre box to the Eero are a different shape from the old format.

So I'm stuck on the 2.4GHz band on the Eero, at a slightly slower speed (52Mb/s) than my previous fibre/copper connection through the old Talktalk router.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Michelle-TalkTalk @briantrumpet1 

From my research over the last few days, the only WiFi adapters that might support channel 155 are fully specified WiFi 6 or 6E ones and even then they must support 160MHz channels. Hence why I suggested trying Legacy Mode but alas that did not resolve the issue.

[briantrumpet1]

Thanks @Michelle-TalkTalk  - it would be great if the app could be tweaked so that users can switch channels on the 5GHz band to one that's usable, but I suspect that would be a longer-term solution. In the meantime, I'm guessing that this problem will become widespread, as few network adapters recognise the 155 channel.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

The team are still investigating so I'm hoping to know more by early next week.

Thanks

Michelle

[KeithFrench]

Hi @briantrumpet1 

I could bore you with a lot of specifications & regulations about channels 149 & above, but I won't. So far (with a very quick look) I have only seen one WiFi 6E card that supports this frequency range.