Additional pods slow down WiFi ???

[wido]

When I first set up Google Wifi (the original), I needed two additional pods to get from my router to my office.

I occasionally have slow WiFi. Now WiFi speeds up if I take the additional two pods offline.

How can this be????

And the problem is I have wired devices on the pods, so they are now offline also.

[wido · Accepted solution]

I don't want to belabor/debate, but I set um my pucks 3-4 years ago, and I definitely needed 2 additional pucks to get from where my gateway puck is to my office. I did experiment with one or none, and it did not work. 

Then a couple of months ago, we started to have WiFi problems. And yes, removing first one, then two made it a lot better.

A mystery! 

Regarding the "engineering" - I am surprised that he pucks don't figure this out and decide among themselves how to configure the mesh to optimize traffic. It's sort of the point of a mesh to do that.

[ElGreco]

I recently took one of the satellites down. I found out that when my device is connected to it, the speed dropped significantly. This satellite was on my first floor.  The Wi-Fi unit connected to the modem that is in the basement actually provides better speed than the one on the first floor. I tested it over and over again to verify. I think you have to experiment with placement on these things. You might have to remove one. 

[Jeff]

Hi, wido.

As ElGreco said, placement and experimentation with your network is important to get the best performance out of your mesh setup. With proper placement, you shouldn't see speed drops by adding points to the network. How far apart are your points placed?

[wido]

Hey Jeff,

thanks. I am still a bit frustrated,  because why do they interfere with each other at all? Seems like poor engineering...

Wido

[ElGreco]

I don't think poor engineering is the issue here. For me the issue was I didn't need the third puck. It was actually slowing down overall speed when devices would connect to it. It was all about the way my house was built and set up. After removing the third puck, I have better speeds on all my devices. So in actuality I only needed two pucks, not three. 

[wido · Accepted solution]

I don't want to belabor/debate, but I set um my pucks 3-4 years ago, and I definitely needed 2 additional pucks to get from where my gateway puck is to my office. I did experiment with one or none, and it did not work. 

Then a couple of months ago, we started to have WiFi problems. And yes, removing first one, then two made it a lot better.

A mystery! 

Regarding the "engineering" - I am surprised that he pucks don't figure this out and decide among themselves how to configure the mesh to optimize traffic. It's sort of the point of a mesh to do that.

[Jeff]

Hey, guy.

The mesh network does communicate between the points and the main router to route devices and traffic intelligently. When there are too many points (I have actually removed one from my network as well), the overlap can be pretty heavy between the points and it can cause a bit of interference between them. It seems simply in regards to network coverage, more is only better up to a certain point.

If there's anything else you need, let me know.

Thanks.

[Jeff]

Hi, wido.
I just wanted to check in real fast to see if you saw my reply and to find out if you still needed any help on this. If you're still needing assistance, please just let me know and I'll be happy to continue helping.
Thanks.

[wido]

Hi Jeff,

I am still struggling with WiFi performance - but I guess the best advice here is "experiment"... so not sure you can help with that.

Wido

[Jeff]

Hey, wido.

It's been a while since we touched base. Have you had any chance to experiment deeper on this or found anything that works better for you?

Thanks.

[Jeff]

Hi again, wido.

I'm circling back to see if you still needed some help on this or if you're all sorted out now.

Thanks.

[wido]

Hi Jeff - thanks for checking in. Things are working but it‘s not optimal.

For example I have a pod in a location where I need Ethernet - and it happens to be a weak reception location. Unfortunately, from my office, the pod with the weak connection has a slightly stronger WiFi signal than the base pod, so my laptop connects to it instead of the base where the connection would be stronger…

The other thing - I used the AirPort app on my iPhone to check for WiFi signal strength, and there is a fair amount of competition from different pods, so maybe not a surprise that devices switch between pods often, which leads to interruptions.

[Jeff]

That's some good insight, wido.

If you have a lot of overlap, you might want to try removing a point and spacing them out differently to see if it has a positive impact overall. It's not always the case, but interference can be possible when points are too close to one another.

[Jeff]

Hi again, wido.

I'm following up to see if you were able to try any testing with the number and placement of points on your network and if it had any impact for you.

Thanks,

- Jeff

[Jeff]

Hey there, wido.

I'm just following back up to see if you were able to try that placement test out. If you're still seeing issues, let me know.

Thanks,

- Jeff

[EdwardT · Accepted solution]

Hi folks,

Just checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

Thanks,

Edward