Pellet Fan
Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits => Memphis => Topic started by: okie smokie on August 03, 2022, 08:04:14 PM
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Have noticed that WiFi is on/off with the Beale Street and note that others complain about it as well. Two points were apparent to me:
1. Distance from your router can be one problem. Walls, metal appliances all subtract from the signal, and also how many other items are using wifi at the same time. Or just a weak wifi system.
2. Your Memphis grill is all metal and may be in the way of the signal unless you position it with the antenna facing the router.
So I said to myself, "Self" what can you do with a weak signal. Answer, "Boost It". Well I can't do that because it is all that ATT can provide in my area. So I said to myself again, "Self" how can I get better reception of the signal at my Memphis? Answer: with a better antenna! So I got on Amazon and looked for bigger antenna offering a stronger reception and found one! Instead of a dinky 2" length, it is about 7.5" long and gives a 6+ decibel increase. Or so it says. For $8 and change I got two of them and exchanged my antenna with one. Had the BS plugged in all day today, not turned on, but the wifi light is solid green, meaning it is receiving a good signal. Time will tell but I am confident that this will do the job. So for those of you who have the wifi equipped Memphis grills and who have had wifi problems, this may be a cheap fix. BUT be careful what you order. This is a BINGFU SMS (NOT RPSMS) MALE CONNECTOR ANTENNA. The difference is that the add on piece has a protruding center wire. The wrong one RPSMS has a hole instead. And Bingfu makes both types and they look identical until you look into the adapter end. see pic below for size difference of old and new. Second pic shows correct SMS MALE on the new antenna.
(https://i.imgur.com/S0IvEiWl.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uKrTOUTl.jpg)
:clap: :clap:
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"Self" did a good job @ diagnosing the problem & finding a good fix. One less Memphis hurdle overcome.
As stated, this may help others with Wi-Fi dropout issues.
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Great Idea!!! And a lot cheaper than what I did for the Elite.
I put a WIFI Extender in my family room (router is in garage) and that solve it for me.
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I guess a bit of caution is in order since I have not proven success over a longer period. I will test it daily for a while and make sure it works consistently.
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I suspected it was a cheap part in the grill causing the issue. You should be able to get decent wifi on your patio from within the house. I have a Google mesh wifi network and get really good reception everywhere in the house, garage, patio, yard... That is another option for folks but is not cheap.
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I suspected it was a cheap part in the grill causing the issue. You should be able to get decent wifi on your patio from within the house. I have a Google mesh wifi network and get really good reception everywhere in the house, garage, patio, yard... That is another option for folks but is not cheap.
Ill be going to a mesh network a week from Monday in the new house, as builders are not running cat-5/6 cables to rooms anymore.
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I suspected it was a cheap part in the grill causing the issue. You should be able to get decent wifi on your patio from within the house. I have a Google mesh wifi network and get really good reception everywhere in the house, garage, patio, yard... That is another option for folks but is not cheap.
Ill be going to a mesh network a week from Monday in the new house, as builders are not running cat-5/6 cables to rooms anymore.
That is strange that they are not running ethernet. We ran it when we built our house which I can't believe we have been in over 7 years already. At some point, it may be obsolete if wifi can get to over 1GB speeds, but for now I love it especially for someone who works from home all of the time and had pre-covid era.
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I have an eero three piece mesh network attached to my system and while it has been great in the house, it was a little less so on the porch. I had ATT tech (I use their phone, tv, and internet package) come and place the mesh units in an optimal spots and we have good service and signal strength in house, garage and back porch. So it was logical to me that it must be inferior antenna quality. I tested the reception again this AM and WiFi is solid on the Memphis. Also, my new control is coming today, so I will be installing and testing again. Will post results on the other thread that addresses this. A word of caution on mesh boosters. Be sure and place the mesh units at the edge of good signal strength so it can extend a good signal. If you place it in a weak spot, that is what it will project. And if you have more than one mesh extender, be sure to not to place them too close together, or your electronic gear, esp. TV's will oscillate between boosters, and you will loose signals at those times. Very aggravating.
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Maybe if we move closer to the Mayberry in a few years we will get close to 100mbps...Our provider right now gives us 5/2mbps for $70/month. I cant imagine what 100/50 would be like and the numbers you are talking about...that is 2001: A Space Odyssey numbers for us!
At some point, it may be obsolete if wifi can get to over 1GB speeds, but for now I love it especially for someone who works from home all of the time and had pre-covid era.
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Maybe if we move closer to the Mayberry in a few years we will get close to 100mbps...Our provider right now gives us 5/2mbps for $70/month. I cant imagine what 100/50 would be like and the numbers you are talking about...that is 2001: A Space Odyssey numbers for us!
At some point, it may be obsolete if wifi can get to over 1GB speeds, but for now I love it especially for someone who works from home all of the time and had pre-covid era.
Our upload speeds are horrible at about 25Mbps comparative to the 1GB download speeds. I think the best I have got has been about 800+Mbps. It usually runs in the 500-700 range. My wifi runs in the 250-450 range.
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Unfortunately, I only can get 50 Mgb here which is marginal, (ATT has higher but not in this area.) That is most of my problem. My new antenna had to be retuned after I inserted my new control today. Otherwise it seemed to work most of the test times.
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Maybe if we move closer to the Mayberry in a few years we will get close to 100mbps...Our provider right now gives us 5/2mbps for $70/month. I cant imagine what 100/50 would be like and the numbers you are talking about...that is 2001: A Space Odyssey numbers for us!
At some point, it may be obsolete if wifi can get to over 1GB speeds, but for now I love it especially for someone who works from home all of the time and had pre-covid era.
If you live in an area which offers fiber(holy grail of internet speeds), or a solid cable system - a wired solution usually is the best overall solution.
If not……..
You may want to check on T-Mobile or Verizon Home internet offering - @ $50 month - Modem/router included. (Less if you are a current customer with a compatible plan - T-Mob $30 - Verizon $25) If it is offered and works for you in your area, it is a good value.
These are a ‘Fixed Wireless’ solution which uses their cell phone towers for the internet - thus no wires to your house.
Verizon offering - https://www.verizon.com/5g/home/
T-Mobile offering - https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet
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A local telephone company just dug through our neighborhood to lay down fiber. The speeds look incredible. I think it was 1000/500. Unfortunately, the costs were more than 2x what I am currently paying. I also think if I dropped my current provider who is also my cable tv provider that my all in package deal now will probably end up close to what I would end up paying for just cable tv if I dropped internet and phone. I will look at the T-Mobile offer as they are our cell phone carrier. I know we recently got a year of free Hulu and Apple TV from T-Mobile.
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Fiber or cable, that's a good one!
Neither of the other options are available in rural Mayberry, but thank you for thinking of me!
If you live in an area which offers fiber(holy grail of internet speeds), or a solid cable system - a wired solution usually is the best overall solution.
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There's always Starlink, but good luck with that one, I've been waiting for a year and a half so far...... :pig:
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We just got the T Mobile 5G home internet this week. We are very happy with it compared to what we had. The down side is we only get 100 Gigs of data a month but for $50 a month we will make due. It's unlimited but after the 100 Gigs the speed slows way down apparently. We had the Verizon 4G for several months and it was good at first and then got horrible. It was 150 Gigs a month for around $118.
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We will have fiber to the curb, then copper to the house is what I was told.
So Okie, you have me concerned now when you talked about the extenders being too close to each other.
I planned on buying a 4-pak of Netgear Orbi WIFI-6 devices. One router and 3 satellites.
Reason being each Extender has a 1G jack on them that I intend to use for wife's PC, my PC, and one for my Servers.
Now I'm thinking I should probably cut it down to a 3-pak as wife's PC does have WIFI in it. So only 2 extenders that way.
Each will be a separate room.
Only 2 cat-5 cables are run into the house. The Router will have to connect to one.
My current house has cat-5 to every room and 2 to some rooms.
Unfortunately, my current Internet speed is only 20mb (two 10mb lines), which I don't quite understand unless they are basing that on upload speed,
as I get about 120Mb down, and 14Mb up.
II have 1G through the house though.
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I had a 3 piece eero set, with one at the router, and two peripherals. Router unfortunately has to be in a far corner. House is 2900 sq. ft. After setting up, I had TV going off line intermittently and lots of restarts. After being frustrated in correcting attempts, I called ATT and demanded a visit by a tech to analyze and correct the problem. He came. He saw. He conquered. First he turned the eero off and checked the signal strengths. First noted that I had the two peripherals too close together so that they would compete which results in the intermittent offs and ons. Second I had placed the peripherals in weak signal areas, and so what I was boosting was a weak signal.
He found two strong signal spots, as far from the router as possible, and as far from each other as possible. That took a little time, but turned out well. After 2 weeks or more, we have had no signal failures at the 6 TV's in the house. Signal is good even tho ATT wifi strength varies during high use times. The only remaining weak signal is to my wifi controlled smoker on the back porch, which is now improved with the better antenna.
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We will have fiber to the curb, then copper to the house is what I was told.
So Okie, you have me concerned now when you talked about the extenders being too close to each other.
I planned on buying a 4-pak of Netgear Orbi WIFI-6 devices. One router and 3 satellites.
Reason being each Extender has a 1G jack on them that I intend to use for wife's PC, my PC, and one for my Servers.
Now I'm thinking I should probably cut it down to a 3-pak as wife's PC does have WIFI in it. So only 2 extenders that way.
Each will be a separate room.
Only 2 cat-5 cables are run into the house. The Router will have to connect to one.
My current house has cat-5 to every room and 2 to some rooms.
Unfortunately, my current Internet speed is only 20mb (two 10mb lines), which I don't quite understand unless they are basing that on upload speed,
as I get about 120Mb down, and 14Mb up.
II have 1G through the house though.
The ‘Orbi’ is a ‘mesh’ Wi-Fi system. You will likely have to plug the main orbi into the ISP system router - then you are good to go. After setting up the orbi and its nodes of course.
Today a ‘mesh’ system is the way to go. Each node hands your devices off to whichever node is closer/better signal, along with the other benefit of the same Wi-Fi name and password across your whole network. Connect once and forget it.
The 1g speed is to your network, each device will likely have a somewhat lesser speed. Which is still able to stream and surf the internet on many devices at the same time. Congrats on the high speed.
I am personally running an older Linksys Velop system for home and another at the in-laws. And a few TP-Link systems for some friends and other family. We have been very satisfied with the results so far,
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I had an original Google mesh system and then bought a newer version. I have 5 access points - basement storage room where router resides, basement TV room, wife's office on main floor, living room next to TV, and last one in the garage. It is probably overkill, but I had the extra devices so why not use them. I have about 10 ethernet connections throughout the house that has most computers, printers, servers, and TVs connected with several 8 port switches. Wifi is used mostly for laptops, tablets, phones.
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I forgot to say that the eero is a mesh system also. Easy to install and use. The main thing is not to install a booster in a weak signal area. It should be installed in area still strong but at the periphery of that strong area. Strength in equals strength out.