Low WIFI signal

W2NER · January 2017

My Maestro has low WIFI signal. My router is a brand new Netgear 3200 and this was a problem with my old Apple router as well. All my other WIFI devices are fine and do not drop out or lag. The Maestro only being one floor away, the WIFI signal varies all over the place and it will drop packets (the display freezes for a sec and then comes back). Its not my router or network as my other WIFI devices do not experience this problem. Matter of fact my WIFI signals throughout my home is at the highest its ever been with this new Netgear router. I'm running the 1.10.8 Beta, is this a known problem with the beta or is this just a problem with the WIFI antenna?

Lewis Cheek · January 2017

Had same problem with my Maestro, was that way from time it arrived back last May. I even had drop outs while hard wired to switch ( same switch computer and Flex connected to ). Was a PITA for me when working dx and needing to reboot Maestro.

Lew
N4CO

Mike va3mw · January 2017

Hi Nick

You can't really use the bars to determine wifi signal strength. However, as you are seeing, it is showing wifi Quality.

Are you able to test on 5Ghz only Wifi - I am guessing you are using 2.4Ghz wifi.

BTW, I can see the same thing in my apartment as you are seeing. The Wifi AP is 3 feet away, but it has a poor connection on 2.4Ghz. I did some serious work on it and it was due to just RF noise and channel sharing. On 5ghz, it is perfect.

The Maestro is also very streaming data intensive and we want low latency and if the foundation (wifi) underneath it isn't perfect, then the Maestro suffers. If it was Netflix, we can't see or hear the difference.

There is a great application you can download called Acrylic that will give you a visual on just how many signals are sharing the only 3 channels on 2.4Ghz Wifi. https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wlan-software/wlan-scanner-acrylic-wifi-free/

We have also found that new AP's are not as good as old ones due to many reasons.

If you can take that one back and and see if you can get a TP-Link Archer C7 dual band, I think you will see a marked performance improvement.

I hope that explains some. Here is a pic of a 'normal' house and all the signals it hears. They all impact performance.

many 73, Mike va3mw

W2NER · January 2017

I switched it over to 5g and it seems better and more stable. I'll give it some time with use and see if it is really stable. However, this is something they FRS needs to address especially when 2.0 is released which is going to support VPN. Sometimes when you are away, you don't have a choice on 2.5g or 5g, many are lower speed. If my other devices have no issues with connections like this, the maestro should work just as well. I'll download that utility as it would be nice to have.

Mike va3mw · January 2017

Hi Nick

There are 2 parts to this, however, we can't expect Flex to be responsible for the transport layer. That is outside of their control and each customers situation is 100% different. Unfortunately, this is a problem we all have to deal with.

As for your other devices, you will need to make sure you are comparing the same types of data flow, etc.

One of my side jobs is going into peoples houses and fixing exactly what you are seeing. Out of the box, most wifi works ... just. I make it work well. The first thing I do is turn all all 2.4Ghz devices if that is possible and force them to use 5Ghz. That provides immediate relief as you have just seen.

It is just like getting on HF Mobile the first time. You can make the radio 'seem' to work, but it is hard to hear well and radiate a good signal.

I know this is hard to comprehend and frustrating at the same time. If you could stop your neighbours wifi from entering your house, life would be better.

2.4Ghz was never designed to support such a large customer base. It is well beyond its useful limit. BTW, you are not the only person seeing this problem with 2.4Ghz devices.

73, Mike va3mw

Mike va3mw · January 2017

Lew, are you able to test other ports or cables? If this continues, you may want a support case opened for your Maestro. However, make sure you do what you can to eliminate other items on your network that may contribute. Most home networks can't handle streaming data very well.

Lewis Cheek · January 2017

I decided someone else could play with Maestro, plus I wanted to be able to have more than two slices open.

FWIW: I changed cables/ports/switches etc, it was random in nature, but seemed to fail at worst time

Michael Coslo · January 2017

I think that with WiFi, when you are using a computer, a signal issue will just seem like a slow website. But if you are using a real time device, you better have a good solid signal without a lot of competition. While I have always said Wires First, my new Laptop is Wifi Only, and I'll be adding a USB-Ethernet adapter. But Until then I use WiFi.

And 2.4 GHz worked, but occasionally the signal indicator would **** on me, and the screen would freeze. It would always recover before the radio itself got mad. But not acceptable. Turns out there are 15 high level 2.4 GHz signals I can see. Oh boy, there are 14 channels available. I should hook up the spectrum analyzer some time, because Intermod is not out of the question.

So I went up to 5 GHz, and it sings - there is only myself, and my guest channel there.

It works great. In addition, even though the 5 GHz signal level isn't the best in the Living room, it works great there as well. Low signal, but a high quality one.

I think the takeaway is that there is only so much that can be done on the radio end of this.

Ria · January 2017

My access points have a "band steering" feature where it will try to push clients to 5GHz by default first before they fall back to 2.4GHz. There are many good reasons to use 5GHz especially in more populated areas. There is less chance of interference because these days everything is on 2.4GHz especially Bluetooth. Even my Apple iPod was having problems being interfered with by Bluetooth on 2.4GHz before I switched to an iPhone using 5GHz. More room to spread out is the main benefit.

Low WIFI signal

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