WiFi signal and connecting issues

[Shou Miko]

I been looking around for an iOS app that can show WiFi channels for all WiFi SSID's around me but I haven't really found something useful and the AirPort Utility by Apple could be better.

I am currently running 1xNokia WiFi Beacon 3 and 1xNokia WiFi Beacon 1 setup in each end of my living room if not my LG IPS Smart TV in my bed have internet issues and the signal from my WiFi Beacon 3 goes down to 1 and even disconnect even it shouldn't since one Beacon 3 should be able to cover up to 2000 sqft / 185 square meters I know it's in ideal conditions.

My apartment as drawn below is about 807 sqft / 75 m2 and on this drawning I also added the placements of both the Nokia WiFi Beacons and my Smart TV in the bedroom:


1. I am not using the Nokia WiFi app since it's not really worth it only to change when firmware gets updated.
2. I run 2 SSID's 1x2.4GHz and 1x5GHz and both Beacons are wired with CAT 7 shielded ethernet cables.
3. I changed away from AUTO to channels I couldn't see being used in the AirPort app but still wifi is really bad in the bedroom.

So if anyone got an idea of how to improve the wifi signal or a hint to a good iOS app I will be happy since I cannot moved my WiFi too much around from the places they are at now.

 

[Mussels]

Are they running as a mesh network, or seperate AP's?
A setup like that should be covered by literally one router and one satellite.

You need to focus on removing/powering off sources of interference, especially on the 2.4GHz band (wifi devices, bluetooth devices, game consoles/controllers)

Nokias website only has a wifi beacon 1.1, 2 and 6 - so i cant find specs on these devices (but what matters more, is how they're setup. router mode, AP mode, satellite mode, Ethernet in or mesh in, etc)


Needing a mesh device in the same room just.... no. You should be able to place that in the bedroom and get full signal. Either you have interference issues, or the wifi in your TV is just garbage (which actually does happen, some pretty much require eth)

 

[Shou Miko]

Are they running as a mesh network, or seperate AP's?
A setup like that should be covered by literally one router and one satellite.

You need to focus on removing/powering off sources of interference, especially on the 2.4GHz band (wifi devices, bluetooth devices, game consoles/controllers)

Nokias website only has a wifi beacon 1.1, 2 and 6 - so i cant find specs on these devices (but what matters more, is how they're setup. router mode, AP mode, satellite mode, Ethernet in or mesh in, etc)


Needing a mesh device in the same room just.... no. You should be able to place that in the bedroom and get full signal. Either you have interference issues, or the wifi in your TV is just garbage (which actually does happen, some pretty much require eth)

The Beacon 1, 1.1, 3, 6 and what Nokia named them all are Mesh AP's and when you connect a second Beacon it automatically connects to the master Beacon on the network and check the settings it have and set itself up.

It's actually really easy and if I want I can even disconnect the cable in the second one and run it wireless over mesh.

I am not sure where you can buy Nokia's WiFi Beacon Mesh points because I cannot find them officially on sale.

I brought the Beacon 3 brand new with 3 used Beacon 3's and my ISP provided 2xBeacon 1's with their 500/500 Mbit fiber plan.

But "TheVerge" have tested the Beacon 3: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/18...-mesh-router-review-test-specs-price-features

and PCMag and others have reviewed the Beacon 1: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/nokia-wifi-beacon-1-mesh-router

Their main conclusion is that if you want to unlock the true power of Nokia's Beacon mesh devices skip the app because the hardware is really good and use the web interface instead the only thing I find that the app have the web interface doesn't is the schedule for firmware check/upgrade which is default 3:00 AM.

 

[Mussels]

What matters is: are they on auto channel or manual

What is your network layout setup as - so far we've got

Beacon #1
Beacon #2


But... wheres the internet come in? Are they wired together, or using the mesh to link them?

Are you using a modem or router prior to this nokia network?
are their other wifi networks?
Are there more than one DHCP server on the network? (Is it double NAT/segmented)

 

[Shou Miko]

What matters is: are they on auto channel or manual

What is your network layout setup as - so far we've got

Beacon #1
Beacon #2


But... wheres the internet come in? Are they wired together, or using the mesh to link them?

Are you using a modem or router prior to this nokia network?
are their other wifi networks?
Are there more than one DHCP server on the network? (Is it double NAT/segmented)

I changed away from Auto channel in the wifi setup and running manual channels right now to see if it would improve signal but it haven't until I connnected the Beacon 1 on my computer table.

My internet comes in where I wrote "Fiber internet" and a couple of meters from that there is the Nokia WiFi Beacon 3, then I am running a CAT 7 cables back, underneath the fiberboks, along the wall to with walls the windows (3.47 meters) to the corner and all the way to where it says Nokia WiFi Beacon 1 there I got my big table with my computer, and so on.

There should only be 1 DHCP on the internet because even my wired gaming PC gets a 192.168.87.x IP address.

Nokia uses 192.168.87.x as default for the network, but I will check when I get home from work in about 6 hours.

 

[Mussels]

With mesh you want auto, because they're meant to run on different channels each.

Using 5GHz as the backhaul, with different 2.4GHz on each satellite.
(I have 5 google mesh wifi routers here, so i can have 5 seperate 2.4 channels in use if it wanted to)

You know that by running ethernet across the room to the other device, you've utterly defeated the point of a mesh network - and it's NOT running as a mesh?

You cannot run ethernet from the first router, into the secondary router. That is not mesh networking, that's a wireless AP.
That means they are not working together, and can and will cause interference with each other.


If you want to run eth across to the 2nd location and have wifi access there (in the same room should absolutely not be needed), you need to set up all it's settings, assign its WAN port to a a static IP on router 1's IP range, and then disable its DHCP server... and most mesh satellites don't allow you to do this.

 

[Shou Miko]

With mesh you want auto, because they're meant to run on different channels each.

Using 5GHz as the backhaul, with different 2.4GHz on each satellite.
(I have 5 google mesh wifi routers here, so i can have 5 seperate 2.4 channels in use if it wanted to)

You know that by running ethernet across the room to the other device, you've utterly defeated the point of a mesh network - and it's NOT running as a mesh?

Makes sense that it's actually shows both SSID's twice and on different channels.

I was thinking about scrapping the wire but wasn't sure since the small paper from my ISP showed to leave the cable in

But thanks @Mussels now I got something to try when I get home.

I was thinking about placing the Nokia Beacon 1 in the bedroom and wire my LG Smart TV but not sure when the signal ain't that good using only the Beacon 3.

I seen reviews of the Google Mesh but I am not a big fan of smart products in general.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I been looking around for an iOS app that can show WiFi channels for all WiFi SSID's around me but I haven't really found something useful and the AirPort Utility by Apple could be better.

I prefer and use XIRRUS WiFi Inspector on my Windows based notebook to see what wireless channels are in use and available. NirSoft's WifiInfoView is another good one. As are Acrylic WiFi Home and Homedale. The best is arguably inSSIDer but sadly, it is no longer free .

For Android phones there is WiFi Analyzer. And for iPhones, check out Fing Network Scanner. I have never used Fing, but I have heard good things about it.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

Is WiFiman by Ubiquiti not available in apple app store? I remember that one specifically since most apps to show WiFi channels are sketchy af that one's from Ubiquiti themselves.

Nvm it's an apple wall-garden thing I guess:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/pgq4uy

 

[Shou Miko]

I prefer and use XIRRUS WiFi Inspector on my Windows based notebook to see what wireless channels are in use and available. NirSoft's WifiInfoView is another good one. As are Acrylic WiFi Home and Homedale. The best is arguably inSSIDer but sadly, it is no longer free .

For Android phones there is WiFi Analyzer. And for iPhones, check out Fing Network Scanner. I have never used Fing, but I have heard good things about it.

It's just more handy to use on my cellphone then firing up my laptop, but thank you for all the advice for applications.

Is WiFiman by Ubiquiti not available in apple app store? I remember that one specifically since most apps to show WiFi channels are sketchy af that one's from Ubiquiti themselves.

Nvm it's an apple wall-garden thing I guess:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/pgq4uy

The Ubiquiti WiFiman ain't really showing much when you don't got any Ubiquiti devices it's mainly a speedtest and I don't need that.

@Mussels I now disconnected the cable in the Nokia WiFi Beacon 1 and internet dropped from about 300 Mbit up and down to 100 Mbit up and down it's still useful because I only stream from my Plex server and I use my iphone wirelessly so no big deal.

I cabled my PS4 Pro because I was getting like 75Mbit down and 50Mbit up but after cabling to the same router my PS4 Pro does 554.7/300.7 Mbps which is a huge improvement

Another note is Plex refused to load after sign in on my LG IPS Smart TV in the bedroom yesterday so uninstalling the app and install it again and signed into the app now it's working again and I could read it's a common problem which is just so annoying.

 

[Mussels]

It's just more handy to use on my cellphone then firing up my laptop, but thank you for all the advice for applications.



The Ubiquiti WiFiman ain't really showing much when you don't got any Ubiquiti devices it's mainly a speedtest and I don't need that.

@Mussels I now disconnected the cable in the Nokia WiFi Beacon 1 and internet dropped from about 300 Mbit up and down to 100 Mbit up and down it's still useful because I only stream from my Plex server and I use my iphone wirelessly so no big deal.

I cabled my PS4 Pro because I was getting like 75Mbit down and 50Mbit up but after cabling to the same router my PS4 Pro does 554.7/300.7 Mbps which is a huge improvement

Another note is Plex refused to load after sign in on my LG IPS Smart TV in the bedroom yesterday so uninstalling the app and install it again and signed into the app now it's working again and I could read it's a common problem which is just so annoying.

Changing your network around can screw with plex, since IP addresses and IP ranges are changing
You should have no speed loss with the mesh

Have the main mesh router installed setup and working, and get the second one (power only) connected about a meter away from it. Ethernet to that, speedtest away.
If it gets less than the full speed (My AC1200 mesh can do 60MB/s - anything less than gigabit internet wont be affected) we know something is wrong with the setup

You ran that ethernet cable, so just connect a boring gigabit switch and wire everything up on that side of the room. Every wired device, is one less source of wifi interference

 

[Shou Miko]

Changing your network around can screw with plex, since IP addresses and IP ranges are changing
You should have no speed loss with the mesh

Have the main mesh router installed setup and working, and get the second one (power only) connected about a meter away from it. Ethernet to that, speedtest away.
If it gets less than the full speed (My AC1200 mesh can do 60MB/s - anything less than gigabit internet wont be affected) we know something is wrong with the setup

You ran that ethernet cable, so just connect a boring gigabit switch and wire everything up on that side of the room. Every wired device, is one less source of wifi interference

No not really since internal IP range doesn't change, but it's been a struggle with LG's WebOS 6.xx on older LG Smart TV's for the past couple of years and Plex keeps updating different things on their server side too.

I have actually dropped their relay service because it was enforced on my system outside my network last year and everything now runs as great as when I started with Plex with direct streams to all the users that connects.

I use the internal switch in the Nokia WiFi Beacon 3 but I still cannot device if I should get something like a Asus ZenWiFi or TP-Link Deco instead.

I manage my data's TP-Link Deco devices and they have network optimization feature in the app we use from time to time when his wifi is feeling slow and it really works.

I wish Nokia would do a better job with their Beacon WiFi series and app even got directly contacted by Nokia's Product Line Manager called Susan Baittle because of my review of their iOS app.

 

[Mussels]

The IP range can change, if you're breaking in and out of mesh

For wired devices, you want a plain switch. nothing else. That mesh repeater should be halfway to the farthest end of the house repeating the wifi signal, not being used as an AP where an AP doesnt belong (causing wifi slowdowns in the same room)

 

[Bill_Bright]

It's just more handy to use on my cellphone then firing up my laptop

I fully understand. And for sure, when I'm away from my laptop and only have my cell phone, I use WiFi Analyzer with my Android phone as mentioned above. I would be interested in what you think of Fing for iOS - or if there is something better I can recommend to Apple users.

 

[Shou Miko]

I fully understand. And for sure, when I'm away from my laptop and only have my cell phone, I use WiFi Analyzer with my Android phone as mentioned above. I would be interested in what you think of Fing for iOS - or if there is something better I can recommend to Apple users.

I have downloaded and installed it but I do not see WiFi Channels anywhere but if I got some time later this evening when I am not at work I will see otherwise I am not sure how much I like it or not.