I'm trying to work out what I did to break my wifi. Pretty sure it's just the Amplifi mesh network, it's crazy unstable. I tried changing channels but that didn't help. Anyone have suggestions?

[–] eagleeyedtiger 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Change anything in the setup recently? Or just started acting up?

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Heaps! Haha, I shouldn't have messed with things. I actually discovered today one of the mesh points wasn't working. Not sure why, but it was reported as disconnected when it was plugged in. Maybe the OS had crashed?

I also had another go at using an Ethernet backbone just now. Last time I tried it did not go well, but it's working great now! Of course, the nature of unstable WiFi is that it's great sometimes and terrible others so we will see if its new found solid connection will last.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fingers crossed!

I'm personally not a big fan of mesh systems, but there are situations that call for it. Luckily, our house is small enough that a centrally placed AP covers the majority of it.

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A centrally placed AP would cover ours too, but the fibre box is behind the TV in one corner of the house, and my bedroom in the opposite corner. Watching Netflix in bed didn't really work.

Now that I've had a mesh system, I think putting the effort in to do a centrally located AP would have been a better choice.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The previous owner of our house had the fiber run at the furthest corner of the garage in the roof all the way to the other side so the ONT is in the kitchen/lounge/dining. Since there was already a fiber optic cable coming through our ceiling, I just said screw it and ran Ethernet back up from the ONT and into the garage, where I put my router/switch/NAS.

Since I already put holes in the ceiling, I just did a run so my AP could be mounted on the ceiling centrally. I covered the hole where all the cables go into the garage with a brush plate, so it’s not as ugly 😂

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago

Haha nice! Our wifi on the mesh network seems stable now that the ethernet backbone is back again. I'm nervous to say it though because it might jinx it 😟

[–] sylverstream 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How old are the devices? I've had routers in the past that after a couple of years just gave up. They were cheapish though.

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hmm at least a few years but not old by any stretch. They are Ubiquiti so should be decent quality.

I've actually had another go tonight at connecting an Ethernet backbone (wire in the second mesh point with Ethernet instead of using half the WiFi bandwidth for the transfer), last time I tried it, well that was about when all the troubles started so I assumed it was related. Reversing it didn't help though, and I've just tried reenabling it and the internet is better than it's been in ages.

Hopefully it lasts, though it has been off and on great and terrible so we will see.

[–] sylverstream 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ubiquity should be fine yes. I'm running one AP in our living room and it's been awesome.

Guess you tried the obvious, like changing channel and restarting it. Sorry no experience with mesh networking except zigbee which is a different topic.

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It seems like it's been more stable this last 24 hours so fingers crossed!

If you're an expert in zigbee, my humidity/temp sensor isn't working all of a sudden and I don't know why. It's a cheap one off ali express so it probably just died (only a few months old) but you said you're an expert in zigbee and it uses zigbee so I might as well ask 😆

[–] sylverstream 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Probably dead battery. The battery indicator in HA is useless, some of mine goes from 90% to dead.

I've stopped trying to re-pair missing Zigbee devices, it usually fixes itself over time. Otherwise restarting HA works.

[–] Dave 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Update: I replaced the battery and it's working now. Hopefully this one lasts a lot longer!

[–] sylverstream 2 points 10 months ago

Nice!

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ah OK, I'll have to try a new battery. Is it normal for the battery to only last a few months?

[–] sylverstream 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ive had one last only 4 months on a proper Panasonic battery. Also depends on the battery, Eg if it came with a battery it's probably low quality.

Pbtech is cheapest for those batteries.

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's the one it came with so makes sense it's not great. These panasonic ones at pbtech are a great deal! Get 5 for the cost of 1 at the supermarket.

[–] sylverstream 2 points 11 months ago

Yep I've got those. Great pricing.