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Forum Discussion
Throughput Tests While Roaming
Please see attached. It was a real world test as I had two Apple TV's streaming YouTubeTV while doing this test, and wife browsing web pages. The test device was an iPhone 11 Pro Max with wifi swee...
CrimpOn wrote:My experience has been that my Android smartphone and tablet took about 2 minutes to "Fast Roam" from router to satellite (and back). (Apparently two minutes is "fast". I did not experiment with Fast Roaming off.)
There was not a lot of science in my Fast Roaming experiment. I opened the Orbi web interface and brought up "Attached Devices" on my Android tablet. Saw that I was attached to the router. Went downstairs and sat by the satellite watching the Attached Devices display update. Eventually, it said I was attached to the satellite. Maybe the actual time it takes to switch is less than two minutes. What I was trying to verify at the time is that devices actually do switch back and forth. And, at least some of them do.
Thanks all. I’m evaluating my placement to see if that’s affecting it. Does anyone have any recommendations on signal strength of the router on where to place the satellite (especially if hardwired)? Place it at -60, -75, -85 etc?
Also is it generally better practice to leave power levels of 5G alone or lower the power levels down and place additional satellites?
Also is it generally better practice to leave power levels of 5G alone or lower the power levels down and place additional satellites?
I think the key element is "hardwired". When using the 5G WiFi backhaul, I would want the satellite to be close enough for the Orbi to report the backhaul link as "Good" rather than "Poor". This means that the router and satellite user radios also are going to have "good signal" from the router when they are right next to the satellite. With two good signals to choose from, my guess is it doesn't matter which radio the user device picks. "Service is great. Enjoy it." Keeping the radio at full power allows service to extend farther in the direction away from the radio.
I would think that hardwired satellites can be placed quite a bit farther away than WiFi backhaul as long as that does not create "holes" in coverage. Consider having three Orbi units. On the left, each unit is close enough to have "Good" 5G backhaul, and many devices get good signal from more than one. On the right, using wired backhaul, they can be placed where user devices get "good" signal from only one Orbi. Total area covered with good signal is larger.
Of course, the physical layout of the building matter a lot. There's not a lot of purpose in providing good signal to locations where there are never any user devices. Many of us prefer to wire some of our user devices to Orbi ethernet ports, which also affects where the Orbi is placed.