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Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

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Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#111

Post by zoeysmithe »

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #89
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I did some experimentation with UniFi hubs and came to the conclusion that if you can give each device its own WiFi channel that would be ideal -- contention is that bad and often an uncontended channel with otherwise poor characteristics will beat a contended channel that otherwise looks good. The other bit of advice that is buried in there that no-one wants to hear for residences is the best way to speed up your Wi…

I wish I could put Ethernet everywhere but I live in a German apartment in a German house and here walls are massive and made out of brick and concrete. Routing cables through this without it being a massive eyesore is pretty hard.

Does it have any wiring? I've lived in old homes with coax for cable and those can be used with moca adapters to do ethernet. They can do 2.5gbps too.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#112

Post by ashdksnndck »

marssaxman wrote: post #53
JoshTriplett wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The other bit of advice that is buried in there that no-one wants to hear for residences is the best way to speed up your Wi-Fi is to not use it. You might think it's convenient to have your TV connect to Netflix via WiFi and it is, but it is going to make everything else that really needs the Wi-Fi slower. It's a much better answer to hook up everything on Ethernet that you possibly can than it is to follow the mo…

The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one is located where we can make use of it. The two devices in our house which use a wired connection are both plugged directly into the switch in our utility closet. (We do have one internet-connected device which permanently lives about an inch away from one of the ethernet sockets, but it is, ironically, a…

Some friends live in a rental that they’ve decorated well. It wasn’t until multiple visits that I realized they had run Ethernet throughout the house.

You can get skinny Ethernet cables that bend easily. If you get some that match your paint, and route them in straight lines, those can be unobtrusive. Use tricks like running the cables along baseboards and other trim pieces. If you really want to minimize the visual impact you can use cable runners and paint over them. The cables are not attention-grabbing compared to furniture or art on the wall.

If you’re willing to drill holes (if you terminate the cable yourself, the hole can be narrow), you can pass the cables through walls. If you don’t want to drill, you can go under a door.

If you’ve got fourteen outlets, it seems like there ought to be some solution to get cables everywhere you need.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#113

Post by virtue3 »

jojomodding wrote: post #109
baby_souffle wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one is located where we can make use of it. I had a similar situation a few years back. It was a rental so I didn't have access to the attic let alone permission to do my own drops. It'll depend a _lot_ on your exact setup, but we had reasonably good results with some ethernet-over-power adapters.

We have them at home as well and they really suck. They lose connection every 20ish minutes at best, and take about 5 to reconnect. Makes Zoom meetings impossible, among other things.

I’ve used Ethernet over coax in my current apartment.

It’s worked well!

You do need to be a bit careful as coax signal can be shared with neighbors and others sometimes.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#114

Post by XorNot »

In the IoT space I really wish an "ESP for power line Ethernet" existed these days.

I have 50+ ESP based devices on WiFi and while low bandwidth (and their own SSID) I really wish there were affordable options that they could be "wired" for comms (since they mostly control mains appliances, but the rules and considerations for mixing data and mains in one package are prohibitively expensive).

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#115

Post by ahartmetz »

marssaxman wrote: post #53
JoshTriplett wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The other bit of advice that is buried in there that no-one wants to hear for residences is the best way to speed up your Wi-Fi is to not use it. You might think it's convenient to have your TV connect to Netflix via WiFi and it is, but it is going to make everything else that really needs the Wi-Fi slower. It's a much better answer to hook up everything on Ethernet that you possibly can than it is to follow the mo…

The house I live in was built with ethernet, but of the fourteen outlets the builders saw fit to include, not one is located where we can make use of it. The two devices in our house which use a wired connection are both plugged directly into the switch in our utility closet. (We do have one internet-connected device which permanently lives about an inch away from one of the ethernet sockets, but it is, ironically, a…

You can lay your own cables, either to the next wall socket or directly to a switch. Flat ethernet cables can be very helpful for hiding and for crossing doorways. Generous "unnecessary" wire length helps with keeping them out of sight.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#116

Post by Neywiny »

XorNot wrote: post #114

In the IoT space I really wish an "ESP for power line Ethernet" existed these days. I have 50+ ESP based devices on WiFi and while low bandwidth (and their own SSID) I really wish there were affordable options that they could be "wired" for comms (since they mostly control mains appliances, but the rules and considerations for mixing data and mains in one package are prohibitively expensive).

Have you considered 1 WiFi device and 49 sub-ghz devices?

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#117

Post by sokoloff »

passivegains wrote: post #48
eikenberry wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethernet cables can be as long as 100meters, long enough to snake around most any apartment. Add on a few rugs to cover over where they'd be tripping hazards and you're all set.

I got good results from running cables around the entire perimeter of a room to avoid crossing doorways. Doesn't work so well on bathrooms though.

I’m pretty tech-addicted, but I’ve never felt the need for a hard-wired drop in the bathroom.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#118

Post by kuon »

For me the only thing that really matters, and globally sucks with WiFi is roaming.

My house is old and has stones walls up to 120cm, including the inner walls, so I have to have access points is nearly all rooms.

I never had a true seamless roaming experience. Today, I have TP-Link Omada and it works better than previous solutions, but it is still not as good as DECT phones for examples.

For example if I watch a twitch stream in my room and go to the kitchen grab something with my tablet or my phone, I have a freeze about 30% of the times, but not very long. Before I sometime had to turn the wifi off and on on my device for it to roam.

I followed all Omada and general WiFi best practice I could find about frequency, overlap... But it is still not fully seamless yes.

Re: Does our “need for speed” make our wi-fi suck?

#120

Post by sokoloff »

stacktraceyo wrote: post #95
typpilol wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that most people only have a single cord coming into the house So they would have to do quite a bit of work to run cable. Also people living in apartments that cant just start drilling through walls. I'd say most ppl use wifi because they have too, not pure convenience

I wish I could have multiple modems coming into the house using the same provided cable. Why’s that not possible? When I was younger I went and bought a new modem so I could play halo on my Xbox in another room than where my parents had the original modem. Found out then I’d need to pay for each modem.

If you have coax, look into MoCA. I have one attic device on a MoCA connection and it runs very well.
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