Ethernet Backhaul Issues

[Vivianite]

I've recently installed an Ethernet cable to my farthest room in my home. It was where my farthest WiFi point was having the slowest speeds (I have a total of 4 points, including the main one)

I have the farthest point connected to Ethernet, but it's stuck on being in mesh mode instead of switching to Ethernet

The speeds I get using the same cable plugged into the farthest point, is 450 Mbps. The speeds I get from the farthest mesh router in WiFi is 30 Mbps.

My route for the Ethernet cable consist of main WiFi<unmanaged switch<long Ethernet cable< umanaged switch<farthest WiFi point

The only circumstances that force the farthest WiFi point to switch to an Ethernet backhaul connection, is to unplug the WiFi point between the main and furthest points. Only problem with that, is that if I do that, it creates a dead zone between the main and furthest points, giving me a weak signal there

I've restarted my mesh network and tested the Ethernet cables as well

Any suggestions to force it to switch to an Ethernet backhaul connection instead of mesh?

[olavrb · Accepted solution]

Combining wireless and wired backhaul is not recommended, as 802.11s (mesh) does not travel over ethernet. Mixing might work, or might not. So I'd recommend you try to wire all pucks. I've also seen that for some it can take some time before a newly wired puck to go for the wired backhaul.

Also, what exact switches do you have? Some unmanaged switches might have conflicting features, like some anti loop protection mechanism.

[Vivianite]

I see, so if I wanted to have some of my pucks on Ethernet, they'd all have to be over Ethernet? I'll try to wire the middle puck between the main and farthest pucks

I don't think it'd be the switches though, because it's capable of working, but it only works when I unplug or move one of the in-between (wireless) pucks far away from the farthest wired one. It seems that the farthest one needs a horrible connection to the closest wireless one, to be forced on Ethernet. But at that point, it creates a dead zone between the points. I'll try to wire the rest of the points to see how it happens. I'm also hoping that after 3 day it might just optimize itself to go over Ethernet. I've heard that the Google's mesh system learns the most efficient way to send traffic through the points, so perhaps it'll learn on it's own like you mentioned

[olavrb]

Switch might matter. If you still have problems after wiring the puck in the middle too, tell us what switch(es) you are using.

[Vivianite]

So an update, you were 100% correct about Ethernet and mesh pucks not mixing well. I plugged the middle puck between the main and furthest ones into an Ethernet cable I brought over, and it instantly had both of them switch over to the wired connection. When I disconnected the middle one, the farthest one went to mesh as well (even though it was still plugged in)

Honestly, I just know one of the switches, which is a Netgear GS308. And the main switch is a TP-Link unmanaged 8-port partial POE switch. I unfortunately can't really see under it for the specific model number cause of it's placement

But the fix you mentioned, to just plug them all into Ethernet did indeed fix the issue. I don't have the wiring in the walls, but now I can rest assured that when I do (hopefully this weekend), it'll fix my issue. Thank you for all your help!

[olavrb]

Sweet, you're welcome! 🙂

[EmersonB]

Hey folks,

@Vivianite how's it going? I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. If you have other questions and concerns, feel free to let me know.

@olavrb I appreciate your helpful response.

Regards,
Emerson

[EmersonB]

Hi Vivianite,

Checking in — we hope you've got the answer you're looking for. Let us know if you have more questions in mind.

Best,
Emerson

[Jeff]

Hi everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know.

Thanks,
Jeff