Tv box (xi6-t) reports weak signal

[Dean604]

Hi
I just updated to ignite tv and both tv boxes (living room and bedroom) report “weak signal” although I do notice excellent at times but mostly weak. I’m not getting any lags or cutouts but wonder if a weak signal would impact HD quality. I have the arris router/modem and also a eero (directly from eero not the Rogers version)- both have different ssid’s so it’s easy to see what the tv box connects to - I tried both but get similar results. I live in a 2 bedroom smallish condo and both routers are in my 2nd bedroom.

I ran rffi on my Mac just to see what signal strength I’m getting and it’s around 63 in the areas that the TV set boxes are - around 33 near the router.

It’s a small condo so think it’s crazy to think of an eero extender but may consider it.

Should I be concerned about options ->devices ->network name indicates weak even though I don’t have cutout or lag.. but again wondering if it’s impacting HD quality

What’s involved with Ethernet hard wire - I have the original coax connections near both TVs - is it as easy as getting a coax to Ethernet adapter?

Thanks
Dean

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[RogersAndy]

Hi @Dean604!

A poor connection could definitely lead to impacted IgniteTV performance and quality for sure. I appreciate you bringing this to our attention! Though I can appreciate wondering if in a small apartment an extender would even be necessary it's important to note that the size of a home is actually quite a small factor among many when optimizing your wireless network.

I'd be happy to assist in helping to identify what's best for you :). To get started, can you confirm a few quick things for us?

1. How many stb's are running within the home?
2. Is your modem located someplace central to where it's being used most?
3. Does performance improve if you unplug the additional router?

Based on the RSSI values you've provided it's clear there's a strong level of attenuation weakening your wireless signal. The strongest combatants for that are a modem/router relocation (if possible), a mesh network or a stronger single source signal output.

Regarding the extender, I can't recommend it with the limited knowledge I have of your situation but I can confirm for you that they're only effective for extending signal to a small area and only if the signal and throughput received is sufficient to repeat. This wouldn't appear to be the case. A mesh wireless system would be the more ideal solution to potentially work around the attenuation, alternatively, a stronger stand alone router could potentially punch through the attenuation without as much of an impact.

Have you considered the Wall to Wall WiFi pods offered by Rogers? You can read more about them here. Feel free to reach out to support at your convenience if you're interested in trying them out :).

Thanks!

@RogersAndy

[Dean604 · Accepted solution]

Thought I responded so apologies if you get a 2nd variation of this response.

Thanks for getting back Andy!

I’m happy to say the issue is resolved and both stb’s are indicating excellent strength.

When I initially set it up I started with the bedroom and given it was reporting a weak signal on the ignite router  I switched to the eero one, and never tried the living room stb on ignite.

I re-tried connecting the living room stb to the ignite router earlier today and got an excellent signal.   Reconnected the bedroom and it was also indicating excellent.  Using the RFFI tool I’m getting about 55 in the living room and 58 on the bedroom unit  55 after moving the stb to the other side of the dresser. Interesting enough the wifi graphic on the roger’s menu screen is showing 2/3 bars but still indicating excellent. 

It’s puzzling - The eero is a mesh router and I believe from some of the threads I’ve seen that rogers home wifi uses eero as well  although I got the unit directly from eero about 1.5 years ago.  If I have time I’ll  read up on bridging the ignite router to see if it is impacting my eero.

At the end of the day it seems to have a strong signal now and I don’t really care what router the stb’s connect to.  I wish I took rffi measurements with my rocket modem (which I put into bridge mode) and old next box setup but too late for that now.

What is involved with a stb hard wire connection - is it as easy as a coax to ethernet adapter and use the existing coax outlets?

To answer your questions and in case any other member is interested, 

The router is in my 2nd bedroom - but it is a downtown Toronto condo so everything is central lol.

The living room stb is approx 25 ft away and the bedroom stb is a few ft further.

I have a total of 2 stb’s

I never tried unplugging the eero given the improved rffi readings.

Thanks

Dean

[Alex4161]

If you are in a condo, why do you need the pods?  How many sq. feet is the condo?  When I had the Rogers pods I found that they can't deliver great speed and made things worse than better.  My home is 2700 Sq. Feet and am just using the Ignite XB6 modem and get great wifi signal without the pods.  The key is to select 5 Ghz as 2.4 Ghz in a condo is useless given everyone is using it.  Generally, the modem is set to share the same SSID for 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz and uses band steering to select the channel and best speeds possible.  

Pods are used to spread the available signal around a home so that you don't have areas where the signal drops.  This is ideal in homes where people are at different floors and having some signal is better than not.  In a condo where you have one floor with a modem that tends to be centrally located, the Pods are not much use and can actually slow things down further.  

One thing to keep in mind is that signal level on a app does not equate to fast speeds.  You can be near a pod and due to environment congestion, the max speed can be slow.  Your phone will say strong RF, but the actual speed (measured by a speedtest app) may be very slow.  The only way to get the MAX speed from any pod is to connect a Cat 6 wire from the XB6 Modem to the Pod so that you have a dedicated hard wired connection to the pod to give it the optimal speed.  Again, for a condo, this would be overkill.

Here is a test to see how fast your speed are:

Connect your smartphone to your wifi and do a speedtest with the pods connected

Remove the pod, reconfigure the modem and then connect the phone to the router wifi and rerun the speedtest.  If you get connected to 5 Ghz, you will find a noticeable speed difference.