Weak WiFi signal

[DaveinLeeds]

On March 1st engineers came to my house to install Full Fibre 150. Since then I have had a variety of issues:

My Ring doorbell camera at the front of the house has stopped working, along with the chime. The Ring report regarding the camera at the back of the house is reporting a weak signal.

My mobile phone will not connect to the internet in the lounge, nor will it send or receive messages or emails. If I go upstairs or go into the kitchen, which is directly underneath where the router (Eero) is in the bedroom, then the phone connects. 

My tablet, generally located in the lounge, usually connects up but again, on occasions I have to go into the kitchen to get a good enough signal to get it to work.

My printer, located near the router upstairs, is no longer functioning, reporting a DNS gateway problem.

Features on my TV such as Apps and Catch Up do not work, and the message tells me I am offline and need to connect to the internet. 

I have my main computer in the bedroom upstairs, (my house has two floors), together with the printer. My TV is downstairs and the Ring features are obviously outside the house.

To my amateur mind,  the problem would appear to be the distance the items are from my Eero, although of course that is only my guess. These issues have occurred since the introduction of Full Fibre, so rather than getting a better service, it is in fact much worse, especially now not being able to print anything.

Will TalkTalk provide me with a separate router to be located downstairs, or some sort of booster which will fix things?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi DaveinLeeds

I've just had a look back through your posts, are you using the eero and WIFI hub?

[DaveinLeeds]

Just an update on this.

My issues unfortunately continue. My desk computer is fine, but the services on my TV are still intermittent; when I checked a couple of hours ago Home/Catch Up/Apps etc were working but I know full well that if I had another look, maybe today, maybe in a couple of day's time, they would probably have dropped out.

The camera and hallway chime on my Ring doorbell are working, but the Ring app is stating "poor Wifi connection". 

My son-in-law is quite well up on these matters and suggested I should try asking Talk Talk to send a signal booster through the post and he would then purchase a Switch from Screwfix and he would set these up for me. He is with Sky and has had a similar problem in the past. His house is bigger than mine and there are three teenagers all using devices, but Sky did send him a signal booster for free.

It was with some trepidation that I decided to use the Live Chat feature and my fears were justified, being on the line for just short of two hours, going round in circles and getting absolutely nowhere. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to print the full transcript but managed to get through to "Camille" after about 20 minutes.  After going through the usual security drills I gave her the details of the issue and was requested to stay on the line for 3 to 5 minutes whilst she made some enquiries. Twenty-five minutes later she hadn't come back, so I typed a further message asking if she was still on the line, only to be told to start all over again and was then connected to "Pearl".

Of course, I had to go through the entire security rigmarole again - in fact everything again - including details of the problem. At one point I was asked to submit photos of my Eero and ONT box; don't they know what they look like? Anyway, I was unable to do this at the time, although that did not seem to be a problem. "Pearl" then disappeared for a while also and once again, when I enquired as if she was still on the line, I discovered I had been cut off and was greeted with the "welcome" message again and asked to start over. By that time I had pulled out all the small quantity of hair which remains and just cut the line off.

Needless to say, Full Fibre, which I assumed was going to give me better service, has been a complete disaster. Unfortunately, I am tied in with the deal for 36 months, less of course the three that have elapsed. My son-in-law was sent a signal booster by Sky and I was hoping Talk Talk would reciprocate, but I was just asked the same questions by the Live Chat people and was getting absolutely nowhere. I reckon now I'll just go along to Curry's/PC World/Screwfix, pay for any necessary equipment myself, and get Mark (son-in-law) to come and hopefully get it going for me.

[DaveinLeeds]

Thanks. I'm away for a few days from tomorrow but will digest this and have a look when I get back.

[mrwrighty]

Another router will not do anything as you have nothing to connect to as I understand your ONT is upstairs in the bedroom. Routers require an internet connection.

As a trial you could run a long ethernet cable from your ONT upstairs and plug in your Eero downstairs, you will then get good wifi for downstairs devices, go upstairs and connect to the downstairs Eero Wifi with your phone and you should be able to connect OK upstairs barring any excessive losses due to the building construction.

These devices will run warm because of their size.  As I mentioned before trying to distribution Wifi from a router upstairs isn't going to be as good as distributing Wifi from downstairs upwards.

[DaveinLeeds]

Hi again.

There's an issue here in that the computer has to be placed upstairs and not in my lounge.

One thing I've noticed is that the bottom of the Eero, whilst I wouldn't describe it as hot, is certainly very warm. Is that normal?

Going back to my original question, do you feel that to improve things I need another router positioned downstairs?

Dave

[DaveinLeeds]

Hi Michelle,

Please see my reply to Mr. Wrighty today.

Dave

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Please let us know how the wifi connection compares.

Thanks

[mrwrighty]

It will be an improvement but still not ideal for a signal downstairs particularly with the printer underneath it. A lot of trial and error is required but as I mentioned the Eero WiFi does not transmit below the plane it’s sat on. To be honest it’s better to have incoming services on the lower ground floor and work upwards with WiFi as that’s generally the direction it works. As you say only time will tell. 

[DaveinLeeds]

Thanks very much for your reply Mr. Wrighty.

I have repositioned the Eero as much as possible, bearing in mind the amount of cable I have to work with. I will advise though that the previous router was in a similar sort of position.

The old TalkTalk hub is actually switched on and the red light flashes on and off all the time; the second I took the photo it was clearly not displaying red.

The ONT is in the bedroom underneath the unit as displayed in the photo.

Please let me know if you think this arrangement will improve matters; I suppose time will tell.

Dave

Revised position of Eero.Beneath the desk.

[mrwrighty]

On first impressions from the image you have posted. Your Eero is in the worst possible place.

It is sat on top of a PC and under a shelf against a wall. This will severely impact the Wi-Fi performance.

Having an Eero above you i.e. upstairs whilst trying to connect downstairs is also not a good idea especially with the metal of the PC its stood on acting as a shield. Eero Wi-Fi pattern is along the plane it is stood on and upwards. There is no way you will get a decent signal downstairs from this location.

https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/207897393-Where-should-I-place-my-eeros-

Secondly its not clear from the picture but I'm guessing the old TalkTalk hub is off and disconnected from everything.

Is your ONT in your bedroom or are you running ethernet from the ONT downstairs to upstairs.

I doubt adding another Eero node downstairs will improve matters much because it will not mesh very well with the unit upstairs given its location.

[DaveinLeeds]

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for your reply. I have just the one eero, as per the photo attached. As mentioned previously various other items not working.Eero placed on top of computerThe message I get on the TV screeno.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

I'm sorry for the delay. Can I just confirm, how many eeros do you currently have?

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

@DaveinLeeds, probably Karl didn't know that you had completed your details. 

He'll be back after the weekend. I'll re-escalate this thread for you so it will be back in the queue for attention. Look out for his reply from Monday. 

[DaveinLeeds]

Hi Karl,

I've not heard any more from you. I'm afraid the connectivity issues are still there and preventing me from getting full value from the new fibre.

Do you feel the problem could be that the router is not proving strong enough and another one is needed? If so, would TalkTalk be able to provide me with another one, given that my problems have been with me since the new system was installed?

Thanks,

Dave

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi Dave

Can you add your home phone number or account number to your 'Community Profile' so we can locate your details.

Thanks  

Karl. 

[Divsec]

Hi @DaveinLeeds your post has been escalated so you should hear soon but I have an idea which I can't test as I don't have the kit.

If the eero has a guest network try setting it up on 2.4 ghz only and then selectively adding your misbehaving kit, an item at a time.

Would love to know if this helps at all