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AC1200 EX6200v2 Maxed out. Where should I go from here?
Hello,
I currently have an AC1200 in AP mode connected to my Uverse Pace 5268AC modem. Between the two of them, there are roughly 49 WiFi devices (mostly WiFi light switches and outlets - 23 connected to the AC1200; 26 connected to the Pace), and another 12 or so devices connected through the ethernet.
Incredibly, everything has been working well until I added a couple of Blink cameras, which intermittantly either have slow connectivity or none at all, and horrible range.
So at this point I need to consider upgrading and need some ideas as to what would be my best solution. Within reason, I am willing to spend whatever it takes to improve the speed and range of my WiFi, and hopefully get my cameras to work better and at longer distances.
My house is relatively small, 1400 sqft, with the Pace 5268AC at one end and the AC1200 approximately in the middle.
Hope I put this in the correct forum, and my thanks for your ideas and help.
Dave
4 Replies
1400sq ft isn't to large of a place. for having the PACE and the EX6200. Realistically a single router could cover the whole area if its just 1400sqft.
But it might be more related to the # of devices as well as what radio they're connected to. Most consumer routers support roughly 30-32 devices per radio.
Potentially with a dual band you could have 60-64 wireless devices connected if you spread them out evenly over the 2 bands. You'll have the option of more if you split between pace and netgear and then by radio.
Then you start getting to bandwidth. Wifi cameras use much more data. Blink recommends at least 2mbps UPLOAD speeds per camera. Not sure what your current upload speed is. Its usually quite significantly less than download.
Another though is that blink uses 2.4ghz. 2.4ghz has lower throughput (quite significantly) than 5ghz. If you have several devices on 2.4ghz that use a good amount of date, you'll have issues. As well as 2.4ghz is more sensitive to interference than 5ghz because there's less available spectrum (channels).
A couple things you can try.
1. change wifi channels for the device the blink is connected to.
2. separate out the 2.4ghz radios between your Pace and the EX6200. put one on channel 1 and the other on 11. Try to stick to 1-6-11. That avoids wireless overlap.
3. If you have higher bandwidth devices, try to have them on the 5ghz. Keep the IoT devices on the 2.4ghz as they usually use little data.
4. Again, balance out your network. Put some devices on the pace and some on the netgear with keeping in mind to even balance it between radios once you've devided them out.
Give that a shot and see what happens.
Thanks for your reply.
1) WiFi Channels were originally 11 on the Pace and 6 on the EX6200. Changed the EX6200 to 1, but lost connectivity on one of the cameras, so changed it back.
2) Devices attached as follows:
Pace 2.4ghz: 22 devices
Pace 5ghz: 4 devices
EX6200 2.4ghz: 18 devices - this appears to be the max this device will accept. Any time I have tried to add more devices it has failed.
Ex6200 5ghz: 5 devices
14 devices are connected thru the ethernet including 4 DVRs, a blu-ray player, 3 FireTC sticks, 1 Echo Show, 5 Echo Dots, ADT pulse which includes 2 cameras, a garage door controller hub, and a VOIP phone that is never used.
3) Devices are assigned to either the Pace or the EX6200 depending on their proximity to each.
4) Any devices that CAN be connected to 5ghz radios are, with the exception of a couple of Blu Ray players which are seldom used and an Echo Dot that doesn't like connecting to 5ghz for some reason.
5) My ISP upload speed tests out regulary at 5mbps.
When I did a test with the guy from Blink, he said that their test showed a lot of latency issues.
Would it be worth it to upgrade my AP to something else?
I am grateful for your help and any further ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Dave
A simple AP isn't going to add a bunch of latency. If you're running it in extender mode, it will. But if its in AP mode, you should be fine.
That's a lot of 2.4ghz devices. :( shouldn't be a huge issue if most are IoT devices but if you're running streamers off 2.4ghz, that might not work the best.
And that's not much upload speed for all your devices. If blink is recommending at least 2mbps/camera and you've got 2 cameras, 80% of your upload bandwidth is being used by 2 cameras.
Only other thing I'd look at would be the camera's themselves. I've read a couple reviews of the blink cameras and the one's (few) that talk about wifi, speak to the same spotty/weak coverage you talked about initially. Not sure if they had to dial back the wifi module to get their advertised lifespan or whats going on.
