Mesh Wifi...any tips or gotchas?

[J-Wood]

I recently moved into a new house, and needed better wifi coverage so I picked up one of the netgear orbi systems, the two pack.

I ran some speed tests on my phone and laptops, and it was great, I am getting full speed. But my desktop, which is upstairs, has an issue.

For years, I've been using this wifi adapter and it's been great. Always received my full internet speed (80 down), but this was using an Asus router.

Now, my desktop struggles to get 5 down with the Orbis up and running. Is this some kind of weird incompatibility? I work in IT, so none of this stuff is unfamiliar to me. I tried new drivers, moving USB ports, etc. Still just struggles to get 5 down. I'm wondering if I just need to replace it with this or does anyone have any other recommendations?

 

[TheJTizzle]

What OS are you running?

 

[J-Wood]

Windows 10, fall creators update. Fresh install as well. Did it a few weeks ago, and the adapter worked fine then. The only change is moving to the Orbi.

 

[Arrakis]

I had the same problem recently with wifi extenders/new router etc. the signal was all over the place and wasn't consistant. My PC is upstairs and my media room is in the basement. Finally fixed it with a powerline adapter after trying everything else.

 

[fuzzyset]

What is your signal strength? Does your phone work OK in that spot?

 

[J-Wood]

Yeah that's what nuts. In the same spot as my desktop, my phone gets full speed, which it definitely did not with my old router. Signal strength is full.

 

[Carfo]

Not familiar with the netgear ORBI but if you're connected to the 5Ghz network have you tried the 2.4 and vice versa?

 

[fuzzyset]

Computer is still detecting it as USB 3.0? What is the reported speed in the network manager in Windows?

I had the same problem recently with wifi extenders/new router etc. the signal was all over the place and wasn't consistent. My PC is upstairs and my media room is in the basement. Finally fixed it with a powerline adapter after trying everything else.

Click to shrink...

This was going to be my recommendation if OP could still return the mesh network. Get a 2nd decent access point and just use that. If you're only using 2 in the house, you can isolate the router/gateway and access point on channels 36 and 153. You'll get full speed on both that way. With the mesh network, you're always going to be limited by all the nodes sharing resources and time multiplexing everything.

 

[J-Wood]

Not familiar with the netgear ORBI but if you're connected to the 5Ghz network have you tried the 2.4 and vice versa?

Click to shrink...

To my knowledge I don't think you can control that with the Orbi. If your device does 5GHz, the router should direct you there. My PC did show it was a 5GHz version, but I can't force it to 2.4

 

[J-Wood]

Computer is still detecting it as USB 3.0? What is the reported speed in the network manager in Windows?



This was going to be my recommendation if OP could still return the mesh network. Get a 2nd decent access point and just use that. If you're only using 2 in the house, you can isolate the router/gateway and access point on channels 36 and 153. You'll get full speed on both that way. With the mesh network, you're always going to be limited by all the nodes sharing resources and time multiplexing everything.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it's detecting it as USB 3.0. I just kinda steered away from the powerline adapters, as I've tried them in the past and had bad experiences.

 

[House_Of_Lightning]

I recently moved into a new house, and needed better wifi coverage so I picked up one of the netgear orbi systems, the two pack.

I ran some speed tests on my phone and laptops, and it was great, I am getting full speed. But my desktop, which is upstairs, has an issue.

For years, I've been using this wifi adapter and it's been great. Always received my full internet speed (80 down), but this was using an Asus router.

Now, my desktop struggles to get 5 down with the Orbis up and running. Is this some kind of weird incompatibility? I work in IT, so none of this stuff is unfamiliar to me. I tried new drivers, moving USB ports, etc. Still just struggles to get 5 down. I'm wondering if I just need to replace it with this or does anyone have any other recommendations?

Click to shrink...

Use 5ghz only if possible. No incompatibility unless the wireless NIC in your PC is really old and still running on 802.11g or something.

Does your phone get the same signal strength as the desktop in the same area?

Does the Orbi mesh between two APs and then a base unit or is it AP to Base Unit?

I don't see any specs other than "AC3000" so it's probably 2x2:2.


Anyway, download something like NetSpot, sort the SSIDs by name, and find yours. You'll see multiple even though you only have "one" SSID. Look at the Signal Column and see what you're getting on your PC. Anything about -65 is going to be decent. I suspect you have reception problems.

 

[fuzzyset]

Yeah, it's detecting it as USB 3.0. I just kinda steered away from the powerline adapters, as I've tried them in the past and had bad experiences.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, they've come a long way in the past few years. Some still don't work if your have specific breaker boxes, but for 70-100$ you can get a full gigabit pair.

 

[J-Wood]

So the Orbi has a base unit that I have in the basement, and then it has a satellite that I put on the main floor. Desktop is upstairs.

• Phone gets full speed in the room with my desktop. Signal strength is 100%.
• There is only 1 network SSID. The orbi gives you the 5GHz band if your device will use it.
• The AC Adapter is the one I linked, bought in 2015. So it's a little old now I guess, but is wireless AC-1300

 

[House_Of_Lightning]

Need to see dBm. "Signal Strength" doesn't really mean anything.

Does the Orbi show you what AP your desktop is associated with? It could be stuck to the base in the basement for all we know.


FWIW, I run Ruckus Unleashed mesh in my home and get around -40dBm on 2.4 even 20 feet outside my house.

 

[Arrakis]

Have you tired reversing the orbi and putting the base unit upstairs and the satellite in the basement?

 

[J-Wood]

Have you tired reversing the orbi and putting the base unit upstairs and the satellite in the basement?

Click to shrink...

Can't unfortunately :(. The only spot if I have access to my comcast jack is in the utility closet in the basement.

 

[J-Wood]

Welp, can confirm it was something weird with how that asus adapter worked with Orbi. I just got home and hooked up the Netgear Nighthawk USB adapter, and i'm back up to full download speeds. So weird. I wonder if the Orbi just uses some kind of wifi tech the asus adapter couldn't handle well.