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Weak signal at ignite tv box

stoneball
I plan to stick around

My ignite tv box won’t consistently connect to my pod, instead it reverts back to gateway for weak signal. Everything around the tv box connects properly to pod eg chromcast, 2 iPads, cell phone, even the tv itself, and various echo devices but the tv box reverts back to gateway wifi w weak signal. I rebooted gateway and pod and ignite box many times but still inconsistent to ignite box only. i've moved the pod around, i've moved the ignite tv box around as much as possible, but no diff. Rebooting the gateway has no effect, rebooting the pod either, and rebooting the ignite tv box occasionally causes it to connect to the pod vice gateway. I would love to move the gateway next to the tv but I have home phone and have no tel hookup near there.

 

Any suggestions?

 

 

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Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

stoneball
I plan to stick around

Thanks for the replies. I moved the gateway to the main floor beside the tv and did some mcgyvering to connect the home phone to my wireless phones/bell house outlets. And it all works fine as expected. Easier to Mcgyver bell than play around w pod locations. 🤓

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Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

57
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@stoneball wrote:

 I would love to move the gateway next to the tv but I have home phone and have no tel hookup near there.


1. Most rooms have a telephone outlet somewhere, so you can use it to "backfeed" all the other jacks in the home.  This is typically possible and is not tricky unless you have an alarm system connected to your home phone.

 

2. Many people have cordless phones with the base station connected to the gateway.

 

3. I use a powerline adaptor instead of a pod to get to the far reaches of my home. This allows me to connect my Ignite Box via Ethernet.  Here's the model I have, purchased a few years back. There are other newer models, but what I like about this type is that it also does WiFi with a seamless handoff to devices when they are closer to this than the Gateway.

 

https://www.tp-link.com/ca/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa8630-kit/

 

The speeds quoted for the adaptor are highly theoretical and I consistently get 100 Mbps when connected to it via WiFi or Ethernet, which is more than enough for most applications.  Ignite box uses a max of 25 Mbps on 4K channels.

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@stoneball wrote:

My ignite tv box won’t consistently connect to my pod, instead it reverts back to gateway for weak signal. Everything around the tv box connects properly to pod eg chromcast, 2 iPads, cell phone, even the tv itself, and various echo devices but the tv box reverts back to gateway wifi w weak signal.


This is most likely due to client steering.  The Ignite Pod only has Wi-Fi 5 radios, so its wireless uplink to the Gateway maxes out at 600 - 650 Mbps in a perfect situation.  When a Pod becomes overloaded, the mesh will steer clients (typically those with lower bandwidth requirements) to another Access Point in the mesh.

 

It is best if you can place the Ignite Gateway in a prime location so that it can service the majority (and the most active) Wi-Fi clients in your home, with Pods extending the reach of your Wi-Fi network to handle any remaining devices.

 

In your case, you may also be able to make things better by moving the Pod so that it has slightly better connectivity (and more available bandwidth) to the Gateway.

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

stoneball
I plan to stick around

Thanks for the replies. I moved the gateway to the main floor beside the tv and did some mcgyvering to connect the home phone to my wireless phones/bell house outlets. And it all works fine as expected. Easier to Mcgyver bell than play around w pod locations. 🤓

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

Pauly
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

Wait till you hear about the discussion I had with my parents.  They ordered ignite, during the phone call, the telephone agent specifically told them they can ask for the gateway to be installed anywhere.  My mom called me and asked about where to put the modem and I suggested the main floor to provide maximum coverage.  When the guy comes over to install he was adamant about installing it in the basement near the hydro panel, probably because he was in a hurry and wanted to do a simple job.  Despite the fact I had structured wiring in that house for over 20 years, cable and ethernet drops everywhere, but the guy  was adamant and insisted to install it in basement,   these technicians are such a joke you know? I dont work for rogers cable and can do a better job than most of them.

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

stoneball
I plan to stick around

That was the genesis of my problem. All my coax, and bell stuff went to the basement office with its desktop computers, routers, modems etc years ago. As everything migrated to wifi, the gateway stayed in that remote corner because it was always there… I just etherneted the ignite box to the gateway too! Take that you stupid pod, you can’t be the boss of us anymore 🤨

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

TVNick
I've been here awhile

I have been having an ongoing discussion with Rogers technical help on an "intermittent black screen" issue. One suggestion was that the W-Fi signal at the ignite box was too weak. A smart phone WiFi analyzer signal strength meter showed -51dbm the technician said remote access to terminal showed a -60dbm level and I will need to boost with a POD. What minimum signal level is really needed does anyone know? If it is higher than the -51dbm then that doeas not seem to be a good WiFi receiver design. Anyy comment from the "experts"?

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

-51 dBmw isn't bad, neither is -60 dBmw.  The Ignite TV box should be able to operate within those levels.  

 

You can't really compare the numbers unless you know how many antenna the smart phone and tv box has and which network the box is using, the 2.4 or 5 Ghz network.  Ideally the tv box would have at least two antenna, if not more.  That subject has never come up and one would have to check the FCC site to look for internal pictures of the box to determine how many antenna are installed on the motherboard.  Fwiw, more antenna are better than fewer antenna.

 

Keep in mind that the scale is a negative scale, that is to say that 0 dBmw is at the top, -90 dBmw is at the bottom.  The best that you will typically see with a wifi analyzer is about -25 dBmw.  

 

Are you one of the customers who are discussing the black screen issue in one of the following threads:

 

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Ignite-TV/Regular-blackouts-four-or-five-per-hour-when-watchin...

 

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Ignite-TV/Intermittent-screen-freezes-and-audio-dropout/m-p/51...

 

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Ignite-TV/Ignite-Screen-Goes-Black-Intermittently/m-p/515929#M...

 

If you're in any of those threads, then you're not alone.  I personally don't believe its a wifi issue, unless of course the modem drops the connection to the tv box for a period that is long enough that any buffered data is used and there is no more data to display.  In that case, it might be a modem issue, not necessarily a wifi issue, but a modem issue that causes it to drop the tv box for a long period.  

 

Its time for Rogers engineers and techs to pay a visit to a customer that is experiencing this issue, along with enough test equipment to monitor the wifi data and HDMI data.  At the end of the day, that should determine which path is at fault. 

 

That approach, going out to a customers home for one of more troubleshooting sessions has been done in the past.  It looks like it might be time to do it again.  It shouldn't be that difficult to find a customer who lives close to the headquarters location, that would make this an easy tack to accomplish. 

 

Fwiw, here's a link to an online article regarding signal levels:

 

https://eyenetworks.no/en/wifi-signal-strength/

 

 

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

57
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@TVNick : Have you used the Home Connect app to go to the device and click "troubleshooting" to see if the signal actually does come back as "weak" or "strong".  Another option is Rogers - Settings - Device Settings - Network, where it'll state the signal strength, as well as showing the number of "WiFi bars" at the top right.

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

TVNick
I've been here awhile

Checking signal strength again and I still find the smart phone scanner consistently shows better signal strength than the ignites internal reading.  I dont know if there is an antenna gain in the smart phone influencing the readings. even so the 10db difference from the box's diagnostic reading and the phone seems excessive. Now I've installed the Rogers recommended WiFi POD as a solution to the "intermittent black screen" and over the next few days I'll watch for black screen elimination!! I still feel the problem isn't weak signal but something to do with the protocols used in streaming Rogers content, Netflix/Prime never "black screen"

Re: Weak signal at ignite tv box

TVNick
I've been here awhile

The continuing saga of "intermittent black screen". I need to stand corrected on this phenomena as it applies to Prime/Netflix. After careful and attentive viewing "black screen" DOES occur on these streams although it does seem less frequent.

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