WiFi troubles with Netgear R7800

[routerlooter]

I'm running ACwifidude's NSS build on this Netgear R7800. I've created a few SSIDs, as shown in the image below but currently I've only got the main 5Ghz one enabled, and on the 2.4Ghz I've got one named main-24G (for family), one named Guest, and one named IoT.

The router is on the first floor in a room near the top of the stairs and my phone has no problem connecting to the main 5Ghz SSID anywhere downstairs, but the 2.4Ghz signals keep disappearing, which doesn't make much sense as it's supposed to be better at transmitting through walls/floors than 5Ghz. I'm in the UK, and the default/max db for 5Ghz is 23db (199mw) and for 2.4Ghz it's 20db (100mw). I had a TP-Link Archer C64 router in the same location for a couple of months before it died, and the signal with that was fine downstairs.

Sitting in the room next to the R7800, WiFi analyser on my phone shows the 5Ghz SSID at -28dBm; and the 2.4Ghz ones are at -36dBm.

Are there are WiFi settings I can change to improve the 2.4Ghz signals?

[greem]

My first suggestion would be to start afresh with a single 2.4GHz SSID on channel 1, 6 or 11. Channel 8 is likely to struggle if you're in a hostile 802.11 environment (as most of us are) because it'll be getting swamped from both sides by APs using channels 6 or 11.

I would also suggest - for testing - not using WPA3 at all. It won't affect the radio, perhaps self-evidently, but for compatibility's sake I would start with WPA2/PSK to keep everything as simple as possible.

[routerlooter]

Thanks, that's all good advice to note for future reference.

After hours of testing, it actually turned out to be a problem with the mains!

It started a couple of weeks ago, when my parents said they got up one morning and all their smart devices had lost connection, including their Drayton Wiser heating hub controlling their boiler. When I tried to reset it, my phone was having problems connecting to the WiFi hotspot it creates during setup and even after I got past that, it was struggling to connect to the router's WiFi.

So I assumed that their devices must have spontaneously died overnight, and I got the Wiser Hub replaced and returned the TP-Link router that I bought from Amazon a couple of months ago (which provided great coverage of the house on both bands from upstairs up until this point) and I bought this Netgear router in the hope that it would be more reliable.

Plugging it in upstairs I could connect to all the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz SSIDs no problem, but 30ft away in the hall downstairs the 2.4Ghz signal disappeared, whilst the 5Ghz SSID still worked fine. Then I plugged the router in downstairs in the hall and in the kitchen, and in both places standing right next to it my phone couldn't see the 2.4Ghz SSIDs.

So I figured something must be malfunctioning downstairs which was jamming the 2.4Ghz signal and went around unplugging everything, Powerline adapters (one upstairs, one downstairs), smart plug sockets, smart light strips, dumb night lights, TV, HiFi, wireless doorbell, etc. to no avail, before going to the consumer unit in the cupboard under the stairs and switching off the ring main which powers the boiler and microwave in the kitchen, which I couldn't easily switch off at the socket.

That didn't help either, and the only other ring (apart from the lighting) powers all the sockets in the house, upstairs and downstairs, apart from a couple in the kitchen. So I plugged the router in there (which I'd already tried earlier), switched off the other ring main, and voila, the 2.4Ghz SSIDs appeared, and thankfully remained visible after switching the ring main back on.

I have no idea what could go wrong with a ring main that would permanently jam the 2.4Ghz signal on basically the entire downstairs floor, whilst not affecting the 5Ghz signal at all, and only clear once the ring main was switched off and back on again. My parents had their current modern RCD consumer unit professionally installed a couple of years ago to replace their old traditional fusebox, and they had solar panels installed about a year ago, so there's some large boxes in the loft with power switches for that, and a small box in the downstairs cupboard next to the consumer unit which feeds spare power back into the grid if it's not used, but none of that is recent so I can't see how any of it could be responsible for this problem.

I knew that "turn it off and on again" often fixes computers, but I didn't know it also applied to houses!

[slh]

Maybe the power inverter(s) oscillating.

[routerlooter]

Is that something that they're meant to do? If so, they must have done that loads of times in the year since the solar panels were installed and they've never caused this problem before.

[slh]

No, they 'should' never do that - at least not to this extent, but they 'could'. Devices like that can be noisy on the EM spectrum.

[routerlooter]

OK thanks. I'll mention it to my Dad and he can look into whether he needs to get the equipment checked.

[greem]

Ah, I see you mentioned a pair of Powerline adapters.

A neighbour had two of them (brand unknown). Driving along the road listening to good old BBC Radio 5 Live on MW in the car resulted in total obliteration of the signal within 25m either side of their house.

Turned out that one of their ring mains (downstairs) had several metres of 32A twin and earth coiled up neatly behind a piece of plasterboard and it was a perfect antenna to broadcast static noise on 693 kHz. It was very odd - they uncoiled it and put it under the floorboards instead, and the problem disappeared!

[routerlooter]

Yeah, when my Dad bought them a few years ago I told him that they can interfere with radio signals and annoy radio hams, but he hasn't had any complaints and there probably aren't any living near him.

I did suspect they might be causing this problem when I was trying to sort it out, but unplugging them didn't make any difference and he's never had this problem before, so unless they've developed a fault and the mains cable can retain a signal and keep emitting it even after they're unplugged, I don't see how they could be responsible.

Having said that, I'm still going to try to persuade him to run some Cat 6 cable from his office upstairs (where the router is) up the wall into the loft, then across the floor (it's already boarded but he needs to increase the insulation, so he can hide the cable in conduit under the boards when he does that) and drill a hole in the chimney stack to poke the cable through, down to the living room, then drill another hole to poke the cable out of the side of the chimney and fit a wall plate next to the TV. He's recently removed the gas fire and installed an electric fire, so the chimney doesn't have any smoke or anything going up it and I reckon the cable should be fine in there.

I guess he might be able to run it down whatever shaft the cable from the TV aerial in the loft uses instead, but I'm not sure how he'd fish the other end out of the wall in the living room.