Surprise and a problem

[MerlinBengal]

Well got an  email today saying the service was active which was a surprise as it is meant o have been Friday this week. Never mind though. So we have now gone from 150 to 950, whoopee...maybe.

Problem I have is the eero 6 pro. Presently I am setup nicely with the issue talk talk router and my wifi bridge connecting to it linking my networks together. Problem is the Eero will not play ball/ It categorically refuses to connect to the wifi bridge, despite what ever I try.

I do not have time to play around too much with it all right now as I trade financial markets during the day and NEED a stable connection. Or in this case simply a connection 🙂

Only thing I can think of is the Eero uses only one wifi identifier and password and my previous setup through the wifi bridge is one for the 2.4ghz and a different identifier for the 5ghz.

Maybe Keith or other knowledgable person can throw some light on this. Despte being on the top range product and being on City Fibre I was told I cannot have the extra Eero routers due to City Fibre contract and not BTOpenworld. I was also very wrongly told that the upload was 112 when infact City Fibre is synchronous. So 950/950 which it is at the router. I just cannot connect to the damned thing. Powerline adapters despite again being very expensive ones, give only a staggering speed of 73 up/down. Ouch.

I am qualified in networking etc but for the life of me this persisher just will not play ball.

Any input greatly appreciated and likewise if I am eligible for the extra routers to enable wifi throughout, could I be advised and have it arranged or it looks like I am going to have to either replace the Eero with something else or buy another Eero to connect all the network, which being a poor old pensioner now, lacking the winter fuel payment 🙂 

Any input appreciated please. I will play around with it again over the weekend.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @MerlinBengal 

I think the eeros can be a bit like Marmite, you either love them or hate them. Personally, I think they are very good, but as the only WiFi control that you have is all down to location, they work well in some homes & not others. I think they would be a lot better with manual control over WiFi configuration, which is apparently being considered. The documentation says that they support the DFS WiFi channels, but mine have never used them, as far as I am aware.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Merlin,

Thanks for the update, glad to hear you got your cabling completed

Chris

[MerlinBengal]

Finally got the cabling completed yesterday after some somewhat hasty moments. Having never had a failed or cross connection in all my years of cabling etc. I had a total of 15 failures, traced finally to these horrid Keystones they use nowadays. You need to use an inserting tool they say, yes, like how on earth do you get one to fit in this stupid connector, oh you can't because they aren't designed for them!! There must be some logic there somewhere!

Eero gateway in now in the living room attached via my new cable to the ONT in the garage and reporting 940/940. Not getting anything like that at the computers, so need to look at the network cables supplying from the switches. The 2 switches I use are 1gb so not them. Still the same speeds as when I relied on the wifi from the Eero.

Only 1 eero is needed as the cover is enough for my echo dots to pick up all over the house. I had to resort to moving the router back to the house not only because of connection/speed problems but because the echo dots were suffering some form of interference from these Eeros. There being a 6 second delay on the upstairs lights coming turning on off.

Another strange happening 2 days ago was the powerline adapters got knocked offline and refused to reconnect until the Eero had been rebooted. They stopped working the other day and refused all efforts to reconnect to the network. I even tried 2 new ones I purchased a few months ago (1Gb if you believe the hype), same problem. For some unaccountable reason the Eero just decided enough was enough with them and shut them off internet access. Never had that with a conventional router before. Nothing I could do would clear it. I was tempted to switch in the faster fibre routers (apart from a power block failure twice, the routers themselves worked without a flaw) and pension off the Eero until I got a new router.

The wifi from the Eero is somewhat erratic and goes all over the place speed wise but adequate for my needs as most of my stuff is hard wired.

Got to admit that I am not a fan of the Eero. There is some lack of technical access for those of use that have slightly more elaborate setups. 

[MerlinBengal]

Just a little update, as I have not got around to running the new cables yet. I changed my mind how I was going to do it, from running a plugged cat6a end from the ONT through the garage wall to the BT input point on the side of my house. Decided to instead increase the hole size a fraction connect the box up inside the house and run the cable through the hole back to the garage and make off the end with a new cat6a connector. That saves my poor old back and the hassle of dealing with a small amount of cat6a in the wall box.

I bought a 25m pre-made cable as trying to find cat6a was like looking for hens teeth, especially the price 🤑, cheapest way.

I also straightened the cables around the Eero 6pro in the garage and gave the Eero on my desk a bit more free space around it and so far speeds have climbed up to 745/745. Only problem I am experiencing is access to the Amazon site. It doesn't seem to like the Eero as it takes ages to connect and very slow. I never had that problem with my previous setup using Tplink routers and wifi bridge. I need to look into that further. It may just be coincidence as I suspect my poor old 8 year old computer is having processor core problems. If I have multiple downloads in operation the whole computer system becomes unstable and unresponsive.

[KeithFrench]

I use Cat 6, specified for speeds up to 1Gbps & distance of 100M.

Category	Max. Data Rate	Max. Distance
Category 6	1 Gbps	100 m (328 ft.) 10Gb at 37 m (121 ft.)
Category 6a	10 Gbps	100 m (328 ft.)
Category 7	10 Gbps	100 m (328 ft.)
Category 7a	10 Gbps	100 m (328 ft.) 40Gb at 50 m (164 ft.)

[MerlinBengal]

Ever tried to get hold of cat 7 cable, connectors and faceplate/boxes?? Flaming minefield. Tried Amazon but some pretty ropey reports that the supplied cat 7 cable is stranded when it should be solid conductors. Faceplates/boxes? Lots of rubbish but quality lacking, many reports of poor connections.

Do you reckon cat 6 will do as it is right on it's limits. Have to go about 25 feet from ONT though garage upright and out to BT existing entry. Fitting to a faceplate/box (if I can find one) by the desk. I will probably make the end of the cable direct fitting to the ONT rather than another box.

[KeithFrench]

Insulation, if encased in tin foil can cause issues as it will reflect the WiFi signal back to where it came from.

[MerlinBengal]

AH yes, I see what you are saying Keith. Initially I thought it best top have the router by the ONT in-case anything went wrong, plus they needed to see the line working and the engineers could easily see everything. However, I see now what you are saying.

I was thinking of fitting a network box in the garage but I suppose the less connections in the line the better.

[MerlinBengal]

Hi Keith

Yep, had it installed in the garage as I'm not always available to let anyone in to do any repairs as I am carer for my mum who is vulnerable. Plus have 3 mad house cats running around that dare not be let out on their own.

Idea was to use the wifi bridging of the Archer which worked just great with the 150 fibre, receiving the full rate at my desktop via the Archer c80. I had expected the 950 to work in the same way but obviously either the fibre router cannot handle to 950 or the Archer couldn't handle the increased wifi throughput.

So the Eero it was but the Archer cannot connect to the Eero either through some incompatibility with the Eero or the fact my Archer has 2 different wifi idents for the 2.4 and 5 bands.

The second Eero is on my desk and basically doing the same as the Archer was, however speeds have not increased.

My thinking now is if there ios a problem with the type of insulation used in the house which is this polystyrene cover with thermal sheet. My guess is this is cutting down the connection speed through interference.

I have already decided to put a cat 6 box on the wall by the Eero, run some cat 6 through the garage wall with the garage door on by the side of the incoming fibre but not too close so when I drill there is not chance of damaging the incoming fibre. Then run it low to the old BT incoming point for the telephone and fit a new box in place of the telephone box. That way there should be full rate to the desk top.

My only concern is that I took my netbook into the garage today close to the Eero and did a speed check and it di not increase. So, not sure why this Eero is cutting down bandwidth at source. There is absolutely nothing else in the garage that could cause any interference.

Of coursed it could be the netbook adapter causing the drop. Right now everything is up in the air. I may reset the old Archer to the same wifi identifiers and passwords for all channels and see if that connects again and if so if any better.  Not going to have time to play around with it all now until next Saturday. Then I will probably just drill and fit hard wire to the desktop anyway.

It is concerning though why the wifi cannot get through this wall. Breeze block with standard wooden modern house wall. Most houses now are wooden framed.

I will keep you posted with what I find.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @MerlinBengal 

I have been thinking about this some more. Do you need internet access in the garage? 

• If you don't. then why not run a longer Cat 6 minimum Ethernet cable from the ONT to the gateway eero, say in your lounge & site the other Pro 6 elsewhere in your property?
• If you do need the gateway eero to be in the garage with the ONT, why not do away with the wireless backhaul between the eeros and replace it with a Cat 6 minimum Ethernet cable, so that the backhaul is wired?

[KeithFrench]

Hi @MerlinBengal 

I did offer to check for WiFi interference, but that was before you got the extra eero, so that is still a possibility if you want to go down that route. You have now mentioned echos, are you using these to extend the eero coverage or not?

[MerlinBengal]

Hi Keith

Many thanks. It actually turned up Saturday and I wish it hadn't 😠

Speed is actually no better than with the existing 150 fibre router and my wifi bridged Archer c80 (wifi 5). Eeros are only about 8 feet apart, one in the garage with incoming fibre and one in the lounge. Only a breeze block wall and wooden house frame between them. No other electrical items close. Max I have managed to get to the computers is only 475mbps download, 650mbps upload. Something very wrong there. Tried it also via wireless to the main Eero and that was a stupidly low 65mbps from both computers download, 23mbps up-load. (Wifi 6.)

I did get the new Archer C80 working but TPlink have updated the firmware and it now only works on one channel, either 2.4 or 5ghz whereas my older router used both channels at once and also still transmitted it's own 2.4 and 5ghz wifi channels. Strange as it isn't meant to do that.

Speed to the main Eero is 940/940mbps. It just isn't able to get that to me in the lounge. Going to have to revert to fitting a network socket on the garage wall and run a cable through the wall to another network socket as close to the computers as I can. My powerline adapters which refused to connect together, one managed to blow itself up !?? Yes, God knows why. Never been used before and way out of warranty. They are Tplink AV1000's. Max they gavce last week when I first tried the Eero was 75mbps.  Crazy slow.

The other option is to ditch the Eeros and revert back to the old equipment.

Another problem is a delay on the echos and all devices only connecting to the main Eero in the garage and not the easy close one in the lounge.

Now to scour Amazon for some network sockets, back boxes, cable and drywall box.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @MerlinBengal 

I will chase up TalkTalk for you, but they will not be back on here until Monday, now.

[MerlinBengal]

I had hoped to have been able to give you a good update after receipt of the extra Eero but alas Royal Mail have decided not to bother to turn up yet again. Probably gone to the same place as my mums controlled drugs via prescription which to this day are still missing after 2 weeks!!

So for now having to persevere with the old 150 fibre router. Couldn't get the Archer c80 to connect to the Eero I have as it appears this latest c80 is faulty, no internet, no wifi! I do have the best of luck 🤕

I do not understand why people use Royal Mail anymore, totally unreliable. I would rather pay the extra for someone like DPD etc.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @MerlinBengal 

Yes, the extra Pro 6 has 1G Ethernet ports like your current one. Whilst I have never tried the Pro 6, my package only allows the eero 6 and initially I thought that the reception left a bit to be desired. After doing some work I proved that with eeros you can get good coverage, but it is all about location, location, location.

These are my recommendations for the best locations for a router, extender mesh nodes and your devices, but obviously, this is not always practical, and a compromise has to be reached. Where Full Fibre is concerned, the router connected to the ONT can easily be moved to a better location via a longer Cat 6 minimum, Ethernet cable.

The general rule is do not keep them in a cupboard, but out in the open and sited as high & centrally within the property. Keep them away from:-

1. Cordless phone (DECT) base stations
2. TVs
3. Loudspeakers & any sub-woofers (including those used with a PC)
4. Computer monitors
5. Electrical appliances – they often transmit their own signals that can interfere with Wi-Fi signals.
6. Bluetooth devices – they operate on the same Wi-Fi frequency as your broadband, which can cause signal problems.
7. Mirrors – they actually reflect Wi-Fi signals, stopping them from passing through walls and reflecting them back into the room.
8. Anything containing large amounts of water – things like fish tanks and boilers can absorb Wi-Fi signals like a sponge.
9. Large metal objects – radiators, for instance, will have the same effect on your Wi-Fi as mirrors. If you have a tower PC case with an internal WiFi card, the metal of the case can block signals to & from the antennae if they are located behind the tower case.
10. Glass - different types of glass can cause problems for Wi-Fi signals to pass through:-

a) Thick window glass or glazing can block Wi-Fi signals.
b) Low-emissivity (Low-E) windows have a metallic film that can reflect and block Wi-Fi signals more than clear glass.
c) Tinted glass often has a metallic film that can interfere with radio signals.
d) K glass double glazing has a metal vapour coating that can reduce Wi-Fi signal strength by 30-50%.

If you are using a USB Wi-Fi adapter, use a USB socket on the front of the PC, as there is more open space around it than at the rear. If a USB extension cable is used, try to ensure that it is fairly short, so that the power from the computer is not attenuated. Long extension cables can cause the adapter to not have enough power from the computer to work correctly.

Where USB or PCIe-connected WiFi adapters are concerned, power management is best disabled if running in Windows to keep a reliable Wi-Fi connection working at full speed. Once you have made the changes outlined below, it is probably best to restart the PC.

Windows Power Management issues. To check this in Windows 10 or 11, open Device Manager and expand Network adapters. Then right-click your WiFi card & select Properties. Next, click on the Power Management tab and untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. If the adapter is connected via USB, then expand the USB section in Device Manager. The same option can be found in the Power Management tab in most Root Hubs and USB Controllers. Untick it there as well.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Apologies, it's an automated email. It definitely won't be chargeable.

Thanks

Michelle

[MerlinBengal]

Certainly will do Michelle. Yes, that charge looking at it quickly makes you go cold 🤑

many thanks for all the help.

Dave J.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

The eero is on the way and should arrive in the next 48hrs. Please disregard any emails about an eero charge as this won't be chargeable. Please let us know how your connection compares.

Thanks

Michelle 🙂

[MerlinBengal]

Good morning Michelle 😁

I only have the one Eero 6 pro. Yes please, I would gratefully accept another Eero to sort this problem out. This will have the 1ghz ports? Many thanks for your help.

Kind regards

Dave J

[KeithFrench]

In that case @MerlinBengal I would accept the kind offer from @Michelle-TalkTalk and we'll do the analysis after that, if you still have problems.