Device limits WIFI 5

[SeaKing4Driver]

I have the Smart Hub which I believe is WIFI 5. I now have up to 20 devices connecting and I am suffering slow, breaks and other WIFI problems. I believe this is due to the device connection limits of WIFI 5. Is my only solution to this, to purchase a WIFI 6E or 7 router and connect it to my Smart Hub, turning off the Smart Hub WIFI signal or is EE producing a better HUB anytime soon? Thank you.

[Mustrum]

@SeaKing4Driver   why do you think Wi-Fi 5  is the ki==limiting factor?

That only relates to the theoretical speeds and up to 450Mbps should be possible, but the limiting factor is normally the WAN speed.

The Smart Hub is capable of handling more than 20 devices. Splitting the Wi-Fi bands can help, but what are you WAN speeds and are you getting breaks on the WAN? Sight of the Technical Log from the Advance section of the router settings may help point to the cause of your issues.

[SeaKing4Driver]

Thanks for the reply.. Not exactly sure which data will help and what does it mean? I have accessed the file you indicated so I got Data rate 20 Mbps/80 Mbps: Noise margin 15.3/17.2: Line Attenuation 14.6/12.6: Signal Att 14.6/12.7: That's as much as I can see? Does that help me?

[XRaySpeX]

Welcome to EE's Home Broadband Forum.

Your BB stats are perfect. The WiFi will only affect connections within the home of your devices to the router.

Is it the BB as a whole dropping or just the WiFi connections? Do Ethernet connected devices stay working? What colours are the light sequence when it happens?

[SeaKing4Driver]

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

1. I get various device malfunctions/dropouts. The main ones are with my NEFF kitchen appliances, namely a Hob and a Hood that are connected by WIFI. They are forever losing connection with each other and the App on an iPad in the kitchen where the EE router is situated (I have watched it) loses connection too?

2. EE router lights always on green, no movement.

3. Also my iMac slows or stops considerably all the time.

4. The only connected device to my router is a Philips Hue base. Otherwise everything else is WIFI. I have a TP-Link extender upstairs above my iMac room.

5. According to the Smart Hub Manager this morning I have 22 devices connected to the Hub, 1 is the Philips Hue Hub directly, 21 by WIFI, 8 of those to 2.4Ghz and 13 to 5Ghz.

From all the reading I have done it appears that WIFI 4/5 hubs have a device limit? Which is why the big selling point of WIFI 6/6E and 7 appear to be at least connections to 200 devices with no system slow down or swapping?

thanks again

Kind regards

Seaking4Driver

[bobpullen]

The Smart Hub is capable of servicing far more than 22 devices. I personally have 40+ devices on my local network, and although I'm not using a Smart Hub at the moment, I have in the past without difficulties.

The number of wireless clients on your network will always have some impact as Wi-Fi is a shared resource, regardless of the underlying standards in use.

Also, be cautious if you are considering an upgrade to 6E. The 6GHz spectrum offered by Wi-Fi 6E/7 is only of use if the connecting devices are also 6GHz compatible (only very recent devices tend to be).

It would be interesting to know if there is any difference in behaviour with the extender removed from the equation?

[SeaKing4Driver]

The reason I got the extender was because of this 'dropout', 'slowness' problem. It has not affected the problem plus I have switched it off on occasion in order to try and diagnose - I am getting no further. That is why I trying to get help.

It appears 6E/7 might be my only solution because of the other advances in latency and chanel capabilities etc, etc, in the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz range, I know about the 6Ghz device limitations, that is not what I am asking and is only one benefit of  6E/7.

I have tried many resets, etc, etc, no difference.

Has his EE Smart Hub got device limits? How many?

Seaking4Driver

[ippylad]

@SeaKing4Driver 

You mentioned your iMac was slowing down, have you checked the wifi connection details between the iMac and the Hub ? It may help shed some light on the issues with the iMac speeds.

(click the option key, then click on the wifi icon) this should show what channel, Noise and TX Rate your iMac is getting.

I find the Private Relay, in iCloud can cause my iMac to have issues when connecting to certain website and servers.

[SeaKing4Driver]

ippylad - Many thanks for a really helpful reply.

I had no idea about the option key/wifi icon shortcut.

So: at the moment with a reasonably fast connection  I am getting : Ch48(5Ghz) 80Mhz - RSSI -50dbm - Noise -93dbm - Tx rate 1300mbps.

As soon as I get a slow down I will try this again but where do I go from there? Will that data lead me to what is causing the dropout's/slowdown of all my WIFI connected devices? If I can narrow this down I may be able to make a decision about piggybacking a new 6E/7 router to the SmartHub modem/router (no WIFI mode)?

Seaking4Driver

[Mustrum]

@SeaKing4Driver   The chances are that moving to WiFi6 will only make your issues worse.

Before you do so, have you:

1. Checked for signal strength and interference from any other WiFi devices broadcasting in your area? Use a WiFi analyser to see what is happening, I use inSSIDer on my laptop, but many apps are available. Change automatic channel selection to the least used one.

2. Split the 2.4 and 5Mhz bands as many devices struggle to shift from one to the other, and many will not work on 5Ghz anyway. Adding a 5 to the end of the 5Ghz band and unticking the box "Sync with 2.4)" is all you need to do.

3. For devices such as mobiles that work on either band I prefer to have seperate connections for each band, that way if I am close enough to the router I can connect to 5Ghz for faster speeds, and the 2.4Ghz if further away such as outside.

Ultimately your speeds are limited by what you can get on the WAN in your area.