Virgin Media Community

[Doddy1975]

Hi guys,finally took the dive and picked up a tenda nova mw6 wifi mesh system after the superhub 3 wifi was pitiful at any further than 6/7 metres away from the hub!
anyone got this system ?what do you think about it ?

set up was a doddle and after 5 mins I was up and running,all three nodes are carefully located around the house(roughly within 8/9 meters with each other) ,here’s the but - the wifi signal is fantastic around the house but the speeds are not what I expected,first node connected directly to the router is fine and hitting at around 210/220 mbs(same as router) but the other two are only managing around half of that maybe just over at around 110mbs everywhere around the house but the signal is excellent,also I have put it into bridge mode as it was slightly clashing with my sky q box,anyone else experiencing this or is it normal ?

cheers.

[jhuk]

Wonder if they act like a WIFI Repeater and run Half Speed.

https://www.actiontec.com/wifihelp/wifibooster/wifi-extenders-beat-wifi-repeaters-every-time/#:~:tex....

[Andruser]

As a general rule all of the affordable mesh systems will have slower performance from the secondary nodes, for a number of reasons.  A notable cause is that most less expensive systems (like the MW6 and my TP-Link Deco M4) are dual band, not tri-band that you'd generally find on more expensive mesh systems.  Other considerations that apply whether the system is tri-band or dual band are how many nodes there are, whether they've got strong connection to the primary, distance to the primary etc.  In some cases you may be able to improve matters by running an ethernet cable between the primary and secondary nodes - but trial that before going to the effort of actually fitting the cable all round the house - the cost of a long Cat 7 cable probably isn't material, but the effort running and permanently fitting it tidily usually is.  However, the purpose of mesh systems is to offer seamless coverage with speeds adequate for all reasonable purposes, rather than attempting to get ultimate speeds.  So, your options:

1) Accept that seamless coverage with MINIMUM speeds of 110 Mbps is excellent by most standards, and the system is working as expected. 

2) Play with placement of the nodes, maybe trial an ethernet link between primary and secondary, perhaps experiment with QoS settings and see what you can ring out of the system.  This could be a bit of techo-fiddling-fun for a rainy day, perhaps.

3) Sell the MW6 on eBay (mesh systems command decent prices, so you shouldn't lose much) and buy a premium tri-band mesh system.  But you'd still probably see a far more modest fall in performance when connected to the secondary if its a pure wireless mesh.  However, if you're that desperate for the performance, and are willing to spend the money I'd say be an early adopter of Wifi 6 mesh, which are just coming on to the market.  These are about 50% more expensive than an otherwise comparable 802.11ac mesh system, but are probably a wiser buy now than investing in any 802.11ac mesh.  Take a look at coverage of TP-Link's Deco X20 to see what the makers claim as an example - that seems to be in distribution for about £280 for a three node system.  Obviously you won't get all the benefits of Wifi 6 until the client devices support it, but premium devices have supported this for a couple of years now, and it will cascade down as products are refreshed over time, and in the meanwhile the Wifi 6 mesh should still be better with "ac" devices.

Regarding bridge mode and clashes with the Sky Q, sorry, not got a clue.

[gary_dexter]

Have you tried putting the hub into modem mode and the mesh system in router mode?

[Doddy1975]

Hi there,thanks for the feedback,I’m a bit of a novice in regards to the mesh system and the advanced settings in general wifi/router. 
you mentioned about the Qos settings-what is this   Please?

[Doddy1975]

Hi,looking at the settings on the tenda nova I don’t think I can do that,unless you know how ?

regards 

mark. 

[Andruser]

Not 100% sure because I don't have an MW6, but looking at the results I found there is a basic QoS setting that you turn on or off within the Tenda Nova app. 

QoS (Quality of Service) is normally associated with prioritising particular devices.  So my TP-Link enables me to elevate the priority of my devices over the other household members (what they don't know won't hurt them, haha!), but on the Tenda app all you can do is turn it on, without being able to select devices for preferential treatment.  Best thing is to turn it on and leave it on if there's no obvious problems - most mesh systems are quite smart.  

Tenda Nova products are usually superb value, but one way they've got the cost down is not investing as much in the app and control capabilities - and for most people that's an excellent compromise.  My TP-Link offers a little bit more control at a slightly higher price like for like on the spec, but still with limitations, whereas if you invested in a top-notch Asus AiMesh you'd have a huge amount of control (and a huge hole in your bank balance).

I think what you've got is working fine, and rather than giving too much thought to the maximum client speeds, I recommend spend time enjoying the devices.  At 110 Mbps what exactly would you be unable to do?  A "mere" 110 Mbps would in theory carry 22 concurrent different HD video streams.

[Doddy1975]

Thanks for the information,I really appreciate it. 
I did notice that putting the tenda nova into bridge mode has slightly increased the wifi speed,is that normal ?

[Andruser]

I did notice that putting the tenda nova into bridge mode has slightly increased the wifi speed,is that normal ?

Sorry, I don't know.  If the MW6 and the Sky Q were squabbling then potentially that could explain a small improvement in speed, but I'm not familiar with the Sky Q.  

[gary_dexter]

SkyQ connects on the 2.4Ghz band only then uses its own mesh network to pin together to the mini boxes.