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Hello @hansm0leman
I can imagine how frustrating it has been dealing with the issues on the 2.4G Wi-Fi network especially when it's affecting your Nest camera.
We have not been advised of any issues with the 2.4G Wi-Fi network dropping on the CODA running the latest firmware. It's possible there could be some intermittent interference occupying channels that your modem is also using for the 2.4G network.
I will tag in some of our Resident Experts who may be familiar with this issue and can provide some insight, @Datalink, @Gdkitty, @gp-se, @57.
If any one else in the Community is using the CODA with the same Firmware and is noticing the same issues with the 2.4G please feel free to chime in as well!
RogersTony
Hello @hansm0leman!
Did you have any luck switching to mixed mode?
Please let us know.
Regards,
RogersCorey
Greetings and welcome to our Community @M1K1A5!
You've come to the right place. I understand that your 2.4Ghz network dropping like this would be a source of frustration when you have so many services relying on this particular frequency. Do you know how much bandwidth each of these services uses as per the manufacturer's specifications? I don't suspect that bandwidth is the issue here but I don't want to dismiss the possibility outright.
If I could get you to send us a PM, I'll look into this history of this issue as it's documented on your account and determine the best next steps that we can take to resolve this. If you're not familiar with our PMing process, you can find instructions here.
Regards,
RogersCorey
Good morning @DarleneStapley!
I have responded to your PM and I'm standing by, waiting to help with this setting adjustment. It will take just a few short minutes so please reach back out to us when you have the time.
Regards,
RogersCorey
Hello, @howcanyoubesure
A lot of devices still connect only to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi so I can understand how frustrating it must be to have these issues popping up.
2.4GHz is easily susceptible to Wi-Fi interference due to the sheer number of devices that use 2.4GHz. It would be a good idea to utilize a Wi-Fi Spectrum Analyzer to see which channels have the most congestion and set your Wi-Fi settings to avoid those channels.
You can find Wi-Fi scanner Apps in the Google Play Store if you are an Android user the Wi-Fi Analyzer App is a free download. There are other options available that our RE's can speak more about.
I will tag them into this post for you; @Datalink, @Gdkitty, @-G-.
RogersTony
@howcanyoubesure Just to clarify, is the problem that your Nest Hello is able to connect but loses its connection randomly?
As @RogersTony suggested, I would install a Wi-Fi scanner on a smartphone. Bring it (literally) right next to the Nest Hello and check the signal strength to your router. If it's marginal (say around -80 dBm) it may barely be able to maintain the link. 2.4 GHz does have quite a bit of range but there are a lot of devices out there that use that frequency band, so it's also susceptible to interference from neighbouring Wi-Fi, baby monitors, leaky microwave ovens, etc. The 2.4 GHz signals are also blocked by metal and absorbed by water so any number of factors could cause a connection to drop, especially if it was marginal to begin with.
Re: Wi-Fi scanners, for an iPhone, I install Apple's "AirPort Utility" from the App Store. It's normally used to configure Apple's (now discontinued) Wi-Fi routers but it also has a Wi-Fi Scanner that can be enabled in Settings. It's free and ad-free.
@howcanyoubesure One other thing came to mind: I wonder if somebody could be trying to knock your device offline with a Wi-Fi deauth attack.
@falccros have you checked the modem's 2.4 Ghz network with a wifi monitor? If you don't have one available on a laptop, download Winfi Lite from: https://www.helge-keck.com/
Fire that up and sort the columns by RSSI which is the signal strength. You can sort any of the columns by selecting the column title once or twice. Each click, or selection will sort the column in one direction of the other (up or down). Sort the column so that your wifi network sits at the top of the list.
To bring up the lower graphical display, select the "i" for info icon in the second row from the top, on the right hand side. That will bring up a lower display. In that display, select "Spectrum" to show the networks in a graphical form. That display will depend on the very top selection of 2.4 Ghz channels, 5 Ghz channels or All.
What you want to confirm at this point is whether or not the modem is transmitting the 2.4 Ghz network. If the front LED shows that it is, but there's no network in the text data or on the graphical display, then I'd say that the modem is unserviceable. You can swap the modem at the nearest Rogers store, but, it might need a work order to swap the modem Call the nearest Rogers store and ask if they have a 4582 modem in stock and whether or not they need a work order to swap your modem. If the answer is yes, call tech support and ask the Customer Service Rep to generate a work order to swap the modems. If the answer is no, simply swap the modem at the store.
So, if the modem's 2.4 Ghz network is running, have a look at networks in that RSSI list, and then their channels to see if any of the nearest RSSI channels match your operating channel. Perhaps your neighbour has set up a new modem or router, or mesh network that is killing your network. The text and graphical data should indicate that to you. Ideally, what you want to see is that your network is at the top of the list when you sort the networks by RSSI. If there are other networks above yours, and their on the same channel, thats not good news. In that case a channel change is required, but, in the 2.4 Ghz band, finding a working channel can be extremely tough if not impossible due to the number or modems and routers running in that band, in which case its time to move anything and everything up into the 5 Ghz band.
One last item to check is whether or not the the Band Steering is enabled. If so, I'd disable it.
To do that, log into the modem and;
1. navigate to Wireless 2.4G .... Advanced.
2. disable the Band Steering if its enabled.
3. save the changes.
4. navigate to the 5G .... Advanced tab.
5. disable the Band Steering if its enabled.
6. save the changes.
7. navigate to the 5G .... Basic Settings.
8. change the SSID back to its previous setting
9. save the changes.
10. Reboot the modem at ADMIN .... DEVICE RESET .... Reboot
You might have to manually reconnect your 5 Ghz connected devices if the previous 5 Ghz network wasn't designated as an Auto Connect network.
@falccros if the 2.4 Ghz network disappears and reappears, it sounds like the wifi transmitter in the modem is failing. For the wifi speed issue, have a look at the following settings and change your wifi settings as required to match:
UPNP: If you're not a gamer or don't require UPNP for VOIP phone purposes, disable it. If you are a gamer, you can manually set the ports required for port forwarding. This is found in BASIC .... GATEWAY FUNCTION ..... UPNP .... Disabled.
2.4 Ghz wifi parameters:
Wireless Mode: 802.11 n
Channel Bandwidth: 20/40 Mhz. In a crowded wifi environment, I would set this for 20 Mhz. It will default to 20 Mhz in a crowded environment.
Wireless channel: Channel 1, 6, or 11. I'd set this to the channel that offers the least interference from neighbouring routers and modems as seen with inSSider.
WPS Enabled: OFF (WPS is not secure and hasn't been since it was first released)
Security Mode: WPA-Personal
Auth Mode: WPA2-PSK
Encrypt Mode: AES only (Do not use any form or TKIP/AES combo as TKIP is no longer secure)
Check/set the following 5 Ghz wifi parameters:
Wireless Mode: 802.11 a/n/ac mixed
Channel Bandwidth: 80 Mhz
Wireless channel: 149 to 165 Use this higher channel range as it runs higher transmit power levels.
WPS Enabled: OFF
Security Mode: WPA-Personal
Auth Mode: WPA2-PSK
Encrypt Mode: AES only
If you had to change any parameters, reboot your router after the changes have been saved.
Do you happen to have ethernet devices that are gigabit capable that you can use to confirm the modem's data rate capability. This should always be tested with a gigabit ethernet device.
In terms of wifi performance of any device, there are two main components to consider, the number of antenna on the device, and, the design and construction of the device beyond the wifi adapter, which in the end will determine the end data rate capability of the device.
Let me draw you attention to the following chart, http://mcsindex.com/
That chart shows the raw data rates that you can expect between a wifi transmitter and receiver. The actual data rate can be calculated as indicated below. The orange component is the original 802.11n design, the blue is the 802.11ac component added years later. There is a newer edition with the 802.11ax capability, but, we'll keep this simple for now. On that chart the spatial streams basically equate to the number of antenna on a given device. Typically a run of the mill laptop these days will have one, probably two antenna on it. Same for a cell phone. Mac Pro's have three from what I understand, and there is one, maybe two gaming laptops on the market with four antenna. So, if you look at that chart and follow it down, you can see the max data rates offered at the bottom line for each section, 1, 2, 3, 4 spatial streams. Going right, you can see columns marked with 800 nano-seconds and 400 nano-seconds, which is the guard interval (no transmit period) between successive wifi broadcasts. When you're attempting to evaluate any wifi performance of a device, you need to keep in mind, how many antenna does it have, does it support 800 and 400 ns intervals and does it support 802.11n, or 802.11ac?
The range of speeds available in each spatial stream section, 1, 2, 3, streams etc is dynamic in practice and also depends on the construction of the wifi adapter itself. As you move around the home with a mobile device, the received signal level and signal to noise ratio changes at both ends of the transmit/receive path, and as a result the data encoding that is used varies, literally moving up and down that range that is seen in each stream section. If you have a windows laptop, right click on the wifi icon in the taskbar on the right and select "Open Network and Internet Settings". Then scroll down the popup page and select "View your network properties". On that page is a Link speed. On a fixed ethernet device that should indicate 1000/1000 Mp/s for a gigabit adapter. On a wifi device that link speed will show the raw data rate, as indicated in the MCS chart. As you move around the home, that link speed will change and is dependent on the received signal level, signal to noise ratio and limitations built into the wifi adapters hardware and firmware. The actual max data rate can be calculated by taking that raw data rate shown in the MCS table and Wifi Link speed and multiplying it by the Modulation and Coding rate in the chart. For example, index line 15. Take 130 Mb/s or any number to the right and multiply that number by 5/6, as in 5 of 6 bits are actual data bits, with one bit used for error correction. So, as the received signal level and signal to noise ratio changes, the number of data bits and error bits changes dynamically, moving up and down the chart. Normally, you can take the number that you see in the Link speed and match that up with a raw data rate indicated in the chart. From there you can determine what the guard interval is, and what the current split happens to be between data bits and error bits. The additional wild card in all of this is the presence of other networks on your channel which include those that are recognized as active networks, which cause channel sharing, and those that that are recognized as noise as their far enough away not be recognized as an active network, but, their transmissions end up being received as background noise. The end result is a reduced data rate either due to channel sharing or background noise.
One problem in all of this theory is that the wifi adapter and device manufactures typically don't release the performance data for the wifi adapters. They will show a maximum data rate but won't list whether or not the adapter can use both short (400 ns) and long (800ns) guard intervals, and, they won't specify if the adapter has one or two or more antenna connected and if the adapter can make use of the full range of transmit speeds listed in each section of 1, 2, 3, etc, spatial streams. Very rarely will a manufacturer show that data in some location that is easy to find. End result, you don't know what you're getting until you actually have the device at home and your experiments result in either a pleasant or unpleasant surprise. Anyone looking to maximize the wifi data rates on their home network has to do a considerable amount of homework to find out how many antenna are on a device and what data rates the adapter will actually support. One point to note, an adapter with multiple antenna has better performance than an adapter with a single antenna. Essentially that's due to the math behind reception of the same signal by multiple receivers. For that reason, the modem, with three 2.4 Ghz antenna and four 5 Ghz antenna is pretty sensitive compared to a normal laptop, so, it might be detecting an already occupied channel while your laptop shows nothing. An occupied channel will cause the modem to wait until its clear to transmit, slowing your data rate. Also note, the adapters don't necessarily support the full range of speeds listed in the chart. Some have cut off points at some point down the chart, which is not specified anywhere by the adapter or device manufacturer.
Ok, so, thats a little background info on wifi data rates. Unfortunately its not cut and dried as they say. Its a mix of adapter hardware and firmware limitations and dynamic inputs in the form of signal level and signal to noise ratios. Given the devices that anyone has, the best that one can do is optimize the modem/router wifi settings and use the best channel available. For a 2.4 Ghz network, thats usually pretty tough and there's usually no good choice. For a 5 Ghz network, use a channel in the 149 to 161 range with an 80 Mhz wide channel. Unfortunately the modem doesn't offer good control of the base channel when you set an 80 Mhz wide channel. So all you can select is the 149-153-157-161 selection. If you knew what any other network in that region was using as a base channel, you should be able to select a different base channel in order to maximize the performance of your network. With a router you can do that.
Last but not least, there is the modem performance. That will depend on the cable signal levels. If your interested and have time, log into the modem and navigate to the STATUS .... DOCSIS WAN tab. Select of highlight the signal table, from the Downstream Overview line, all the way to the bottom right hand corner of the OFDM/OFDMA section. Select that entire area, right click .... Copy. Then start a new post and paste that into a post, right click .... Paste. That should paste in the entire table and it should look like the table in the modem's user interface. Its worth having a look at this just to see if there are any cable issues that might cause slow data rates.
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