White pods kill Hub5 wifi speeds
My network has been based on a Hub 5 with two white pods (one with dual RJ45 and one with single RJ45 connections). The broadband service is 1GB Volt Max service.
I became aware that my wifi speeds on my iPhone & iPad even close to the hub were varying between 150 Mbps and 260 Mbps where originally the speeds were 700+ Mbps. The LAN side ethernet ports continued to deliver 950+ Mbps.
I received a replacement Hub 5 a few days ago after complaining about poor wifi performance which Virgin tests failed to identify any issues. Why have a 1GB broadband service if the wifi performance falls to circa 200Mbs?
After installing the replacement router the wifi speeds were restored to 750+ Mbs. Even in more remote locations the speeds were 200+ Mbps. Then I paired the wifi pods to the new Hub 5 (without any difficulties) and placed them remote from the hub. After checking the mesh network speeds of the pods the results were poor and offered no genuine improvement over the Hub 5 on its own. But after returning to the location of the Hub 5 and measuring the wifi speed I found it had crashed to little more than 200 Mbps. However restarting the client and remeasuring the speed it was restored to 700+ Mbps. The Hub 5 shares its SSID and password with the pods.
Virgin Connect scans indicated that all devices were connecting through the wifi pods even when close to the Hub 5. The wifi pods are remote from the Hub 5 location. It suggests that the devices using wifi once connected into the wifi pod mesh network no longer access the Hub 5 directly even when the Hub 5 is adjacent. The mesh network appears to run at a fraction of the Hub 5 wifi speed, and not to include the Hub 5 in the mesh. Restarting the iPhone or iPad is required to free them to reconnect to the hub directly, possibly because they are configured to remember their network connections and rejoin without asking.
I’m left with the following thoughts:
1. Does the Virgin pod mesh network reduce its speed to accommodate 2.4GHz devices (e.g. printers, smart thermostats and alarm systems with online access, and older devices predating 5GHz)
2. Does the mesh network not segregate devices according to their 2.4/5 GHz radio capabilities - the Hub5 is required to be configured to smart channel optimisation in order to use the pods
3. The Hub 5 does not operate as the ‘mesh master’ and is not part of the mesh.
Thoughts anyone?
Why do folks never consider their own kit may be the cause of their problems ?
Ever posted a gripe about the electricity company because your desk lamp was a bit dim