@Mjmallik Okay, first things first. Start by disabling Bridge Mode and disconnecting all third-party equipment from your network. Perform a speed test using a computer that is connected directly to the Ignite Gateway with an Ethernet cable. Confirm that you are able to attain speeds in the 930 - 940 Mbps range. Also try performing a speed test through the Ignite HomeConnect app. You should see results well in excess if 1 Gbps.
If your Internet connection is not stable, see the following help article: https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Internet/Troubleshooting-a-Slow-or-Intermittent-Connection-Wir...
Log into your Ignite Gateway with a web browser and go to "Gateway > Connection > Rogers Network"
Make sure that your signal levels are within acceptable norms. Also, scroll down to the bottom of the page and check your error stats. The Uncorrectable Codewords Errors should be zero (or close to Zero) across all channels. If you are seeing a ton of errors, that's a problem that will need to be investigated.
If all of the above checks out okay, there's a problem with the installation of your equipment. When installing a mesh network, you need to be very mindful of where you place each node. More is not better. Install only enough to provide adequate coverage in your home. Also, do not place mesh nodes too close to one another. The secondary/child nodes should be placed in a area where clients get an RSSI on their connection at around -60 to -65 dBm, at a point where the signal to the primary node is still pretty good... but also close enough to -70 dBm where the network client will consider looking for a better connection, and (if you are not using a wired backhaul) also in a location where the secondary node can still get a good connection back to the primary node. If the secondary node is placed in a location where the primary node's signal is too strong, the network client will not hand off to a more optimal node; too weak, and your Wi-Fi mesh network will not perform well.
@Mjmallik separate the modem and main deco router as there's a good chance that the wifi output from the deco router is having a detrimental EMI effect on the modem. I'd recommend at least 5 to 10 feet apart. The further apart they are, the better. Give that a go and see what happens.
You should be able to run the modem in its default Gateway mode or Bridge mode without any drop-offs.
Are you in a house, townhouse, apartment, etc, etc??
If you're in a house or townhouse, did a tech install the modem and did he or she install new external cabling?
If not, would you happen to know how old that external cable is?
If you do have an external cable, does it run overhead to a nearby utility pole, or underground to a local pedestal?
@Mjmallik Also, I probably should have asked but what do you mean by "frequent disconnection"?
Has Rogers tech support confirmed that your modem has (or had) an unstable link to the Rogers network? They CAN tell how often your modem loses registration and needs to reconnect to the network.
If your Wi-Fi connectivity is just plain slow, keep in mind that a basement is pretty much THE WORST location to place an access point, especially the primary node of a Wi-Fi mesh or an access point that serves the entire home. There are so many things that can attenuate your Wi-Fi signal. Plumbing, electrical, duct work... even the mesh underlayment under ceramic tile floors. If you are getting full speed when you have a computer connected directly to the Ignite Gateway via Ethernet, you are done with anything that you can ask or do from a Rogers perspective. If your TP-Link Deco equipment is performing poorly, your next step is contacting TP-Link tech support for their input.
What is your Wi-Fi connectivity like if you go down to your basement, disconnect your computer from Wi-Fi, then reconnect to Wi-Fi while in the the basement so that you test while connected to the primary node? Does your connectivity improve if you also disconnect the secondary satellite Wi-Fi nodes?
I don't know what to say about your Internet service dropping out like that. When it happens, does the status LED on your Ignite Gateway remain solid white OR do you see it flash green and then flash amber, indicating that the gateway actually dropped off the Rogers network and had to reconnect?
As for your slow throughput, I did a Google search for "deco x60 slow" and saw a shocking number of results.
Looking at the specs for the Deco x60, it looks like each deco node only has two radios; one for the 2.4 GHz band and one for 5 GHz. What that means is that the 5 GHz radio will be used both for client connectivity and for a wireless uplink. As a result, you will only be able to make use of (at most) half of the available bandwidth of that Wi-Fi link because a satellite node will spend its entire life alternately receiving and then relaying that same traffic.
If you have three deco nodes and the most distant node cannot connect directly to the primary node, that intermediate satellite node will be even more overloaded and throughput will suffer.
What is even worse is that the deco nodes will also need to share a common Wi-Fi channel, so every AP and client device will need to wait for quiet airspace before it can transmit.
The only way to improve this with dual-radio Wi-Fi mesh nodes is to use a wired Ethernet backhaul. More expensive Wi-Fi mesh nodes have three radios, with one radio dedicated to the uplink.
@Mjmallik See this for more information about setting up a wired Ethernet backhaul: https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1794/
With this option, you interconnect the Wi-Fi mesh nodes with a wired Ethernet network rather than over Wi-Fi. It will improve performance SIGNIFICANTLY. However, it also requires that your home is wired to allow this connectivity.
Your Wi-Fi mesh will also perform better if satellite nodes have an extra radio for a dedicated Wi-Fi connection to the primary node.
Ignite Pods are also a great option.
What will help the most is if you can move the primary Wi-Fi access point out of your basement, whether that is the Ignite Gateway or the primary node in a Wi-Fi mesh.
@Mjmallik, no, changing wifi channels has nothing to do with running the modem in Bridge mode.
Are you running the modem in Bridge mode with your own router after the modem?
Fwiw, output power of wifi devices in Canada is restricted to 200 milli-watts conducted power for the channels 36 to 48. The output power for the DFS channels (50 to 148) is 250 mw. The output power for the channels 149 to 161 is 1 watt.
So, given a choice, if you're having issues with wifi connectivity, switch your router wifi channel to 149 or 161 with the bandwidth set to 80 Mhz.
Comcast has decided that its customer can't manage their modem channels, so, it won't let the customers do it. Same for Rogers. If you have pods connected to the modem, that will force the modem into the 36 to 48 channels range, along with the pods.
The real question here is whether or not you really have a wifi issue, or an ongoing cable signal level issue, which might be causing all of the drop-offs. Do you have anything connected via ethernet to the router, which also drops offline when the wifi drops offline?
@Datalink wrote:
Comcast has decided that its customer can't manage their modem channels, so, it won't let the customers do it. Same for Rogers. If you have pods connected to the modem, that will force the modem into the 36 to 48 channels range, along with the pods.
No, no, NO, it doesn't. If anything, with Pods, the gateway is more likely to select the higher-powered channels so that the Pods can get a better connection for their backhaul link. In my parent's home, their Gateway auto-selected channel 157 on the 5 GHz band, and has actually auto-selected higher-powered channels ever since it was installed years ago.
On the other hand, I have seen Pods auto-select lower-powered channels for device connectivity, and that is probably to facilitate hand-off when a device roams within the home.
Pods used to guarantee that the Gateway's Wi-Fi settings got greyed out, but now that is now the norm.
As for Rogers and Comcast completely locking out the Wi-Fi settings for all, regardless of whether or not Pods are installed, yeah, that is ridiculous. Sure, most of the time, the Gateway actually makes very sensible Wi-Fi channel selections, and also allows it to respond automatically to changes in the local Wi-Fi environment... but when it does not, it is essential to have an override.
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