Huge differences in up/down speed on all units

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Huge differences in up/down speed on all units

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Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-21 12:46:44 - last edited 2022-11-01 14:02:29
Model: Deco M9 Plus  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 2.14.20

Hello,

 

I'm having problems with several devices who are connected to internet via my Deco's. Connections that stop, freezing of streaming, camera's that disconnect etc.

 

I already reconnected the main Deco to the providers router (connected via ethernet cable directly to this) and I restarted the satelite deco's many times.

 

Still no change.

 

But what is weird, when I check the speed up and down on my units it changes constantly from nearly 0 to way above 600 Kbps. First I thought it was only on the satelites, and that it had something to do with the transfer of the wifi signal, but also on my main device I see those weird changes, every other second another speed. But the speeds I see the most remain way under 100 down and under 20 up. I even have 1 Kbps down and 1 up.

 

Is this normal? Or is this the origin of all the problems with my devices that get disconnected or that freeze?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

 

 

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units-Solution
2022-10-23 19:01:46 - last edited 2022-11-01 14:02:29

  @Helga 

 

I will give you recommendations on how to make your Deco mesh work better, and they will be based on what I did at my house with my Deco M9 Plus. But I must say, your Internet speed which is 8Mbps/1Mbps could be too slow to handle two TVs streaming simultaneously and security camera if it uploads video to the Internet.

Other than that, you have good Deco hardware which can support Internet speeds up to 500Mbps.

 

What you see in Deco app is current network utilization by different devices. This number will fluctuate, and it is not a symptom of issues. If device sits idle, speed will be zero or close to zero, for example.

 

Deco tries to guess what devices are on the network, and 'Texas Instruments' could be anything: TV, etc. If it is shown as inactive, this must be device which is not always online, or perhaps you had a guest at your house who you let use your WiFi and who left your house.

You can delete these devices from list of inactive devices. If they appear again and do annoy you, I'll tell you how to figure what they are.

 

There will be multiple steps in tuning your Deco mesh, as I don't want to make one very, very long post. We can start with ensuring your Deco mesh runs well, and next time I'll start giving recommendations on how to improve performance and stability of individual devices connected to WiFi mesh.

 

This is what I would recommend you to do:

 

1. Turn off WiFi in your Sercomm Livebox 4. You don't need it, as WiFi should be provided by Deco mesh only.

 

2. Open Deco app, and each of Satellite Deco pages. Each Satellite Deco reports its Signal Source, example:

 

 

If you see three or two blue bars, it means Satellite Deco has good connection to Main Deco. They should, judging from your map, but it is worth to check.

If you see one yellow or red bar instead, that Satellite Deco is too far from Main Deco. When that happens, devices connected to such Satellite Deco will experience connectiviy issues.

 

3. Sercomm Livebox 4 is a router, based on its description from the Internet. It means, you can let it keep managing your home network and can configure Deco mesh to run in Access Point mode to just provide WiFi signal. This should help with troubleshooting, and also simplifies your home network.

Follow this document: How to set up Deco to work in Access Point mode

After you made that change, you may need to reboot (power off/on) some of devices you have which won't reconnect by their own. This is just one time, after they reconnect they should work just fine.

 

------------

After you've done with this, let me know and next step will be helping individual devices to have stable connection to Deco mesh.

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-21 13:38:06

  @Helga 

 

I have set of Deco M9 Plus for about two years, and it is stable. Let's find reasons your Deco M9 Plus set is not running well with your devices.

 

I have questions for you:

 

1. You listed "Firmware Version: 2.14.20." Are you sure about that? The latest I know about is 1.5.6 or 1.5.1, depending on hardware version. In Deco app, open Update Deco and after it checks for firmware it should report your Deco mesh current firmware version. What is it?

 

2. How many Deco M9 Plus do you have and please describe how are they placed around your house. 

 

3. You said "when I check the speed up and down on my units it changes constantly from nearly 0 to way above 600 Kbps." How do you check that speed?

 

4. What is the speed of your Internet connection, according to your Internet service provider?

 

5. What is the brand name and model number of provider's router?

 

6. In Deco app, there is "Test Internet Speed" under More section. This tests wired Internet link from your Main Deco to the Internet. Please run it few times with few minutes interval between runs. Do you receive same consistent speeds reported, and what they are?

 

7. How many devices do you have connected to Deco mesh (approximate number), what are the devices that suffer most from connectivity issues?

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-21 14:00:43

Hello @Alexandre. 

 

You're right. Firmwareversion is 1.5.1 build 20210126 Ref 62679. Don't know where I got the other number.

 

I'll come back to you tomorrow if I may, have to go to an appointment. But I will make an inventory of the devices and also a quick drawing of the positions of my Deco's, that's maybe easier.

 

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-23 08:58:50

  @Alexandre. 

 

Sorry, yesterday didn't work to post my info

 

I have made a drawing of the positions of my Deco's

 

2.

I have three Deco's

 

The main Deco is in the hallway, as high as possible, connected to the providers router by ethernet cable.

The second Deco is at approx 4 meters from the first, standing on a cupboard to have it high as well

The third Deco is at approx 7 meters, at the end of the hallway in a direct vision-line with the first, also standing on a cupboard to get it as high as possible.

The walls are approx 5cm thick, no metal or concrete, single brick walls.

 

3.

I tested their speed with the app on my phone, tapped the globe to get on the page 'all deco's are online', then I tapped each unit and checked their individual speeds.

On the main Deco there are generally 5-7 units listed (depending where we go with our phones), on the second one there's three listed of which one is always active (with a number like a phonenumber but I don't know that number, could be Hue Bridge) and on the third there are three units listed.

 

On all three there's 'Texas Instruments' listed but all inactive, no clue what these are.

 

4. & 5.

I have a Sercomm Livebox 4, ADSL connection. Speed 'delivered' by the provider according to their info 1020 Kbits up and 8226 Kbits down. Speed this morning according to Speedtest 0,82 Mbps down, 9,92 Mbps up, ping 27 ms.

 

I did the speedtest in the app, two times on automatic server and two times on my providers server (Orange France).

Speeds: 6,4 up 1,1 down / 7,0 up 0,8 down / 5,6 up 0,7 down / 7,0 up 0,8 down

So for my there's not much difference I think

 

7. The problems are really very regular on the two tv's when streaming (freezing or loosing contact for some minutes or even not connecting to wifi at all) but also our security camera's keep loosing connection and reconnect again. One of them is next to a Deco unit, at approx 50 cms so not so far away that it would loose connection.

 

I hope this gives some indication on what could be wrong or what I could do about it.

 

Thank you!

Helga

 

 

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units-Solution
2022-10-23 19:01:46 - last edited 2022-11-01 14:02:29

  @Helga 

 

I will give you recommendations on how to make your Deco mesh work better, and they will be based on what I did at my house with my Deco M9 Plus. But I must say, your Internet speed which is 8Mbps/1Mbps could be too slow to handle two TVs streaming simultaneously and security camera if it uploads video to the Internet.

Other than that, you have good Deco hardware which can support Internet speeds up to 500Mbps.

 

What you see in Deco app is current network utilization by different devices. This number will fluctuate, and it is not a symptom of issues. If device sits idle, speed will be zero or close to zero, for example.

 

Deco tries to guess what devices are on the network, and 'Texas Instruments' could be anything: TV, etc. If it is shown as inactive, this must be device which is not always online, or perhaps you had a guest at your house who you let use your WiFi and who left your house.

You can delete these devices from list of inactive devices. If they appear again and do annoy you, I'll tell you how to figure what they are.

 

There will be multiple steps in tuning your Deco mesh, as I don't want to make one very, very long post. We can start with ensuring your Deco mesh runs well, and next time I'll start giving recommendations on how to improve performance and stability of individual devices connected to WiFi mesh.

 

This is what I would recommend you to do:

 

1. Turn off WiFi in your Sercomm Livebox 4. You don't need it, as WiFi should be provided by Deco mesh only.

 

2. Open Deco app, and each of Satellite Deco pages. Each Satellite Deco reports its Signal Source, example:

 

 

If you see three or two blue bars, it means Satellite Deco has good connection to Main Deco. They should, judging from your map, but it is worth to check.

If you see one yellow or red bar instead, that Satellite Deco is too far from Main Deco. When that happens, devices connected to such Satellite Deco will experience connectiviy issues.

 

3. Sercomm Livebox 4 is a router, based on its description from the Internet. It means, you can let it keep managing your home network and can configure Deco mesh to run in Access Point mode to just provide WiFi signal. This should help with troubleshooting, and also simplifies your home network.

Follow this document: How to set up Deco to work in Access Point mode

After you made that change, you may need to reboot (power off/on) some of devices you have which won't reconnect by their own. This is just one time, after they reconnect they should work just fine.

 

------------

After you've done with this, let me know and next step will be helping individual devices to have stable connection to Deco mesh.

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-24 12:07:29

Hello Alexandre. 

 

I followed your step.

 

First of all I made a mistake in my interpretation of the listed connected devices. The Texas Instruments are not 'non-active' nor are the others I talked about. It's the Mesh or no-Mesh button only that is not activated on a couple of devices but active on nearly all the connected devices.

 

1. Wifi on router is no longer active.

 

2. When checking the signals I had the full three signal source lines on the unit 'Keuken' which is the one at 3 meters. The other one which is a bit further away, 'Séjour', has two blue lines.

 

3. I have set the main Deco to AP modus. 

 

I was thinking, couldn't the TI-devices be the actual Deco units itself? On my main Deco now I see two TI devices connected, on the second Deco I see two TI devices connected and on the third I don't see any TI anymore, maybe because that's the final one in the 'row of AP'?

 

I'm also having a second network, 'Guest', would it be better to delete this one (if I know how to do that)? We don't need that anymore, no more guests on our wifi.

 

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-24 13:29:11

  @Helga 

 

You should see "MESH" button for all devices wirelessly connected to Deco, and it will not be shown for devices that are wired by Ethernet cable. We may need to use that button later, but for now keep it enabled for all devices that have it in Deco app.

 

Texas Instruments company provides chips for WiFi access for devices. You won't see it on smartphone, so this is likely WiFi enabled appliance such as security camera, dishwasher, etc. They connect to WiFi and Deco recognizes them by their WiFi chip.

If 'Texas Instruments' device shown with MESH button, it is connected wirelessly, without - it must be wired. That might narrow the list of suspects.

 

You can also find what are these devices by placing them in Deco app Deny List, which is under More in Deco app. Add such device to Deny List, and it'll lose Internet connection. See what suddenly stopped working. When you figured what it is, remove that entry from Deny List and device will start working again.

 

By the way, do you know you can rename devices in Deco app? Comes handy in situations like this: after you figure what that 'Texas Instruments' is, you can give it meaningful name in Deco app.

 

We are going to use Deco mesh Guest network to improve WiFi connectivity for your devices. Older devices such as security cameras and TVs don't like when WiFi signal is broadcasted on two bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz) under same WiFi network name (SSID). We are going to fix that, by splitting these bands.

 

The configuration is under More/Wi-Fi. Keep Guest Network enabled, make sure it has password (it can run without it, but you shouldn't let it to) and choose for it same Security as it is on your Main Network. You'll have the following configuration:

 

 

Note "Isolated From Main Network" toggle is OFF. Make sure it is OFF in your configuration.

 

After you've done that, some devices (such as security cameras and perphaps TV) may refuse to connect to Main Network. This is because they can only run on 2.4GHz band. On each of these devices, configure them to connect to Guest Network name (SSID) with Guest Network password.

 

-------------------

 

With that, you will be having more stable network. Let me know after you made these changes and the next step will be to deal with devices which still lose connection and reconnect.

 

Also, in the future TP-Link will release firmware upgrade to Deco M9 Plus which will make this type of Deco mesh tuning much simpler. Till then, alas, this is the only way.

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-24 13:33:44

  @Alexandre. 

 

Thanks, I will give it a go tomorrow morning!

 

Looks complicated but I must be able to do it following your step by step explanation.

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-25 11:12:34

  @Alexandre. 

 

Hello,

 

I'm working on it. Found the possibility to stop the 5Ghz but as soon as I do that, my indoor camera doesn't connect anymore.

Funny thing is that when I check the app it's connected to the main network and not to the guest network so actually it shouldn't disconnect at all.

 

Trying to figure out now how to connect it in a forced manner to the guest network. My camera's indeed only function on 2.4, I checked the manuals.

 

BTW, I found the TI devices, they're my heat pump indoor units, I changed their names now wink.

 

For the mesh toggles: I only have one device connected with ethernet, our Hue Bridge. But that one doesn't show this toggle at all. All other devices show on/off toggle for mesh.

 

So I'll continue to get my camera's switched from main network to guest network to connect to 2.4Ghz only.

 

I'll be back!

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-26 13:54:40

  @Alexandre. 

 

Still not lucky yet.

 

Somehow my camera doesn't find any network anymore when I change the guestnetwork to 2.4 Ghz only and it automatically reconnects when I activate the 5Ghz again, but weirdly enough to the main network.

 

I'll keep on puzzling!

 

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Re:Huge differences in up/down speed on all units
2022-10-30 09:46:50

Goodmorning  @Alexandre. 

 

I give up. Tried tens of times to connect my camera's to the network after switching off the 5ghz.

 

It really doesn't make sense, my camera's are both connected to the main network, 2.4 Ghz but when I switch off 5 Ghz on the guest network they both disconnect and refuse to get connected again, no matter what I try, not on the main network anymore nor on the guest network.

 

So I guess optimising the wifi system by setting the guest network to 2.4 Ghz only won't work. sad

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