Deco XE75 struggles to maintain stable VATSIM and Streamlabs OBS connections
Good afternoon,
I recently purchased the Deco XE75 for my home use as a replacement to the useless RealTek 8852CE WiFi Chipset inside my Gigabyte motherboard, as my living situation sadly does not permit me to go direct ethernet from my computer to the router.
Computer specs:
Gigabyte X670 Gaming X AX V2 motherboard
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D w/ Arctic Liquid Freezer III 240 AIO cooler
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super
2x32GB (total 64GB) G.Skill DDR5 6000 MHz RAM
Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB NVMe SSD + 860 Evo 1 TB SATA SSD
Main router our family is using is from Rogers - it's an included internet package as part of our condo unit, meaning we have no choice over which ISP we get to use.
Unfortunately, as of recent, I've been dealing with frequent connection timeouts from VATSIM and Streamlabs OBS. I've checked and rechecked my VATSIM settings as well as Streamlabs OBS, and the connections to online gaming and YouTube livestreaming services haven't been very stable. Even when I turned down the bitrate for the Streamlabs to 1080p60 it is STILL unstable.
The way I have my mesh routers connected are as follows:
Computer -> ethernet cable -> XE75 mesh node -> WiFi -> XE75 mesh node -> ethernet cable -> main router -> TV cable -> ISP
Speed tests are not my concern here - the speeds tested are fast. However, when I test the pings, I get the following results:
MESH NODE CONNECTED TO COMPUTER:
MESH NODE CONNECTED TO MAIN ROUTER:
SOURCE ROUTER:
Troubleshooting steps I've already tried:
1. Reset the main and mesh routers.
2. Disable "enforce streaming service encoder settings" in Streamlabs OBS settings.
3. Turned down streaming bitrate from 4K to 1080p60.
4. Ensured that the Windows Firewall permits Streamlabs OBS and VATSIM xPilot to run.
5. Disabled/re-enabled network adapters in Windows settings.
And I'm not using any VPN or third party antivirus softwares, other than the Windows 11's stock Windows Defender.
Has anyone else here had trouble trying to livestream multiplayer games for more than 5-6 hours while on the mesh network? 'Cause I didn't have this problem in the past when I used to have a previous computer build that had the Intel WiFi chipset on the ASUS motherboard, and if this is the level of instability I'm expecting from the mesh networks then I have serious concerns that my flight sim livestreams are in jeopardy that they can easily disconnect at any given time...
Please let me know, thank you.
Computer -> ethernet cable -> Satellite XE75 -> WiFi -> Main XE75 -> ethernet cable -> main router -> TV cable -> ISP
This tells me that the only WiFi link you have is between Satellite Deco XE75 and Main Deco XE75. Everything else is hardwired.
I can give you two recommendation what to change and check with Deco mesh, and if they won't help there is not much else you can do other than try something else, not Deco.
These are recommendations:
1. Configure Deco mesh to run in Access Point mode: Switching a Deco to Access Point (AP) Mode
2. In Deco app, open Satellite Deco info page and see what it says after "Connected to:" and also above "Signal." If you can, please make screenshot of that part of page and share it with me. Here is an example:
If Signal is Weak, it means Satellite Deco is too far from Main Deco and you must move them closer to each other.
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Looking at the problem from different angle.
1. You said you are with Rogers, I am too, so I am familiar with what Rogers offers. Your condo unit must be wired with coaxial (TV) cables. Do you have TV cable terminating in the room with PC, that starts from the place where Rogers router is? If yes, I may have wired link option, other than Ethernet cable, for you.
2. Rogers offers WiFi pods that go together with Rogers Ignite gateway. If changing Deco mesh setting I suggested does not help, and if you don't have TV cable between room with computer and Rogers Ignite gateway, next step I would suggest is try Rogers WiFi pod instead of Deco mesh.
@Alexandre. Please see image below.
1. No, sadly the TV cable port does not terminate in my room. It was removed at the time when the place was renovated. I do have a phone line that's available for me to use in my room, would that be of any use?
2. What would be the benefits to running the Deco's in Access Point mode as compared to the regular mesh mode? And once I reconfigure them this way, do I have to restart my computer as well?
@Alexandre. So, I have tried switching over to Access Point mode and did tracert tests for the VATSIM voice server and the YouTube streaming server.
Access Point: The internet connection switches to IPv6 mode.
WiFi Router Mode: The internet connection reverts to IPv4.
Just as I feared...the access point did nothing to help at all, other than maybe add more request time-outs to the VATSIM server.
I've also done packet loss tests as well. Very small differences between both if any, but both of them show late packets. Not much, but still may impact the stream quality.
Lastly, I also did buffer bloat tests. Small differences, but here, the access point router scored slightly better with a score of A. The WiFi router on the other hand scored B. Both of them were marked with low-latency gaming vulnerabilities in case of buffer bloat.
I don't know...at this point, am I fighting a losing battle here? 'Cause I've done all I can to try and deal with the sudden hiccups on my VATSIM connection as well as Streamlabs streams, and I'm really concerned that I'm running out of options here...