topic Re: Better wifi connection through 4G in Broadband & Landline

Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 09:46:13 GMT

I have several wifi cameras all connected to my new EE hub with 900Mbps fibre and several BT extender discs but find that viewing the camera feed is much faster and more stable when I only use 4G on my phone or connect through someone else’s wifi. When I do activate wifi on my phone I have several hundred Mbps connection (but slow & sporadic camera connection).

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

XRaySpeX — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 10:49:40 GMT

@JGC9 : Which BT extender discs do you have? Only the white "high st." Whole Home discs are compatible with the EE SH+.

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 13:01:43 GMT

Sorry, I meant EE discs… I’ve also got the same problem when standing right next to my router (to rule out any issue with the extenders).

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JimM11 — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 13:43:52 GMT

@JGC9 What EE Router, and what EE disk models, some are not compatible with each other in operation?

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 16:56:36 GMT

The discs are ‘Smart WiFi SW30A’ and the hub is a ‘Smart Hub SH31B’. All brand new from EE a couple of months ago.
They all work together, it’s just my wifi connection direct from the hub is much slower than connecting to my hub via the internet through 4G or a different wifi. For example, I was in Italy recently and could connect to the cameras around my house faster than I can when sitting in my living room 6ft away from my router!

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JimM11 — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 17:22:59 GMT

@JGC9 You could try changing the wireless operating mode down to wifi5 to see if the performance improves, also wpa mode may also be worth trying to see if your speed improves. Can be changed through the web admin control.

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 17:39:05 GMT

Thanks, I’ll give that a try.

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 08:48:33 GMT

I knew I shouldn’t have got my hopes up!…

Tried WiFi5 and wpa and couldn’t even connect to wifi on any device. Ended up on the PC with Ethernet to reset it back.
Despite getting 150Mb on my old iPhone 5SE it takes ages (sometimes never) in the EE App to find my WiFi devices although I’m sitting 3ft away from an EE extender with solid blue lights.
I’m beginning to lose the plot as I’ve spent the last 3hrs trying everything I can think of.
I had a Cube Engineer here a couple of months ago when I first setup but all he seemed to manage was to disappear with my hub pull-out card (the bit with passwords, etc.) in his pocket never to be seen again!

I think I might have to ask EE for another visit… can’t wait!!

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JimM11 — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 09:12:57 GMT

@JGC9 Were you trying to admin the router via a mobile app on a wi-fi connected device?

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 14:41:09 GMT

Yep… is that a NoNo?

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JimM11 — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 15:16:31 GMT

@JGC9 👍It's not how you want to check or setup the router, Ethernet connected is best as you will have a lot more control. You may wish to step back and try a few variants, if it was me, i would switch of all the smart wi-fi first, speed test on the router Ethernet to get the baseline speed which you should get up near your 900mb/s, wireless Wi-Fi really needs all devices off apart from the one you use to test, about 6' away from router, record that speed, wifi6 device will be up close to your 900 also. Next one Smart wifi switched on and settled, so you know same rule about 6' away, your device will always show what it is connected to that device as it's sync, the true test is speed from the smart wifi to the router via speed test, record its result also and if you wish you can pop ethernet on its connection to speed test it also this 100% proves the smart device because it has to send the signal over the wireless connection to the router and lets you see how good the mesh is working, (readings should be close to the same) if not then your device may not be latching on to the correct node. I am assuming that you are using the wireless backhaul for all your Smart Wi-Fi devices. Repeat by now switching on the other smart wifi device, same test and record result's. Think that you only have 2 devices as you said couple earlier in the post. Once you have your baseline you can look to see what's next. Router is not the easiest to work out, and app is NOT the way to go IMHO. HTH anything i can do let me know.

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JGC9 — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 15:49:56 GMT

Firstly, thanks very much for the time & effort you’re giving me. 😁
A couple of queries (EMI):

1. when you say the true test is speed from the smart wifi to the router via speed test, does the term “smart wifi” = wifi extender?

2. “wireless backhaul”???

PS: I’m using four extenders to get full coverage (including my man-cave 🙂

Re: Better wifi connection through 4G

JimM11 — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 16:19:45 GMT

@JGC9 Yes to number 1. from you earlier, The discs are ‘Smart WiFi SW30A’ and the hub is a ‘Smart Hub SH31B’.

2. This means, you have NO ethernet connection from the Smart Wi-Fi device back to the EE Smart Hub. Your units are all standalone in a mesh setup and all connection to the router is via wireless. This is the slowest form of connection speed wise as each device has to receive the signal lets say from your phone, then stop - send to the router - stop get back from router - stop send back to your phone. Radio CANNOT do 2 things at once, so they say booster is half the speed, mesh helps a little but it can be the most frustrating when not working correctly. THAT is why i said, switch them all off, do one at a time and speed test every step of the way. You may find that your mesh is bouncing around from unit to unit before it even gets back to the router. Easy to spot when you switch them all off. Quickest test switch only the furthest unit away from the router on and if it does not connect to the router, then it is using one of the other nodes as a stepping stone (This Kills Speed).