Poor Wi-Fi reception

[TSHRED]

The only knock I found on the Pro Plus is that it does not have very good Wi-Fi reception.

I have the Ultra downstairs with a direct ethernet connection so that's fine of course. The Pro Plus is upstairs.

I don't have the ideal situation with a two-story house and opposite ends of the house. I have an ASUS as my router downstairs.

My desktop computer is upstairs also and it has a Wi-Fi card with antennas on it and it does fine.

I have an extra ASUS router. It is also mesh capable but I got so frustrated trying to connect them that I've given up.

 

[Smartplug]

The only knock I found on the Pro Plus is that it does not have very good Wi-Fi reception.

I have the Ultra downstairs with a direct ethernet connection so that's fine of course. The Pro Plus is upstairs.

I don't have the ideal situation with a two-story house and opposite ends of the house. I have an ASUS as my router downstairs.

My desktop computer is upstairs also and it has a Wi-Fi card with antennas on it and it does fine.

I have an extra ASUS router. It is also mesh capable but I got so frustrated trying to connect them that I've given up.

Do speed test and are you getting advertised speed your paying? If I were you, bypass auto channel and choose channel that no one use. No matter how expensive your router on auto channel will pick the congested one and when you speedtest you get half the speed.

 

[LennyBruce]

I use a TP Link 5G extender and connect with ethernet cable. Works well for me. Never bothered with mesh systems.

 

[alpha_zulu]

The only knock I found on the Pro Plus is that it does not have very good Wi-Fi reception.

I have no issues with my Pro+ using wifi 5 GHz. The connection is shown as „very good“ in the app. The challenge is your rather suboptimal wifi constellation. You need either an extender or an access point on the upper floor. This is usually quite easy to realise and worth the effort.

 

[Nappy7989]

Glad I found this thread. I was pulling my hair out with device not found issues. Was about to send it back.
Moved my mesh repeater into the same room as WiiM and connect to Ethernet works fine now.
WiFi point was just in the next room maybe 20ft away and my laptop on the same desk never had an issue so a little disappointed. Might recommend an external antenna for future feature.

 

[Smartplug]

Glad I found this thread. I was pulling my hair out with device not found issues. Was about to send it back.
Moved my mesh repeater into the same room as WiiM and connect to Ethernet works fine now.
WiFi point was just in the next room maybe 20ft away and my laptop on the same desk never had an issue so a little disappointed. Might recommend an external antenna for future feature.

In order to get maximum performance use manual channel. Auto channel picks highly congested channel and not really good picking best channel. This is true if you live in urban and suburbs area where you see several dozen ap meaning WiFi interference. Do speed test near the router and see if you get the plan you’re paying.

 

[Kampernaut]

Wi-Fi coverage is often difficult to get right for various reasons.

Modern mesh-based systems are a great help because they exploit a wider range of 5GHz channels with improved signalling and excellent automatic channel selection algorithms that avoid congestion with neighbouring networks. You do need to choose the locations for your base stations judiciously, and a Wi-Fi scanning app for your computer can help with this if you have a complicated physical environment in your home.

I recommend you avoid manual channel selection if you have a mesh system. Moving around base stations like you did or adding some is the way to go.

 

[Smartplug]

Wi-Fi coverage is often difficult to get right for various reasons.

Modern mesh-based systems are a great help because they exploit a wider range of 5GHz channels with improved signalling and excellent automatic channel selection algorithms that avoid congestion with neighbouring networks. You do need to choose the locations for your base stations judiciously, and a Wi-Fi scanning app for your computer can help with this if you have a complicated physical environment in your home.

I recommend you avoid manual channel selection if you have a mesh system. Moving around base stations like you did or adding some is the way to go.

Mesh doesn’t let you change channel. Under auto channel you get low speed since it picks what other ap pick. The latency is bad as well. I have friend who live in urban area where he pick dozen of ap and pick same channel as the rest. He has set his auto. He has the latest wifi 7 router. I went to his house and he’s paying fiber 2 gig but close range next to router only getting speed test of 250. He’s smart phone was also wifi 7. Open WiFi man to see what’s going on. Change from auto to manual and pick a channel that only him that using it. Speed test close to router gets close to advertise speed. Latency was reduce significantly. When he open app or web browser it was lightning fast. Now, if your auto gets you close to your advertised speed leave it there.

 

[RyanWithWiim]

I agree with the recommendation of Smartplug and some other folks in here that if you're having trouble with playing music or connections, it's a good idea to start with checking out the wireless environment and try to pick a channel on your network manually that's not congested. Music playback relies on a strong connection and there isn't much tolerance for lost data, especially for high quality streams which are larger streams, AKA need to transfer more data without loss.

You could try out the WiFi Analyzer app on mobile (there are free ones) and you can see all the wireless networks in your area, and what channels they're on. That'll help pick a safe one.

If you're connecting to a 2.4GHz network, keep in mind that these channels overlap each other up and down by 3 channels, IE channel 6 causes interference down to 3 and up to 9. It's good to be on 5GHz when possible as there are more channels available and 5GHz and 6GHz are great at short distance.

Mesh networks are another good option, but I've found that not all of them are as robust as they should be. I usually recommend simplifying things down as much as possible if you're having trouble until you can start to identify where it's coming from.

 

[Kampernaut]

Mesh doesn’t let you change channel. Under auto channel you get low speed since it picks what other ap pick. The latency is bad as well. I have friend who live in urban area where he pick dozen of ap and pick same channel as the rest. He has set his auto. He has the latest wifi 7 router. I went to his house and he’s paying fiber 2 gig but close range next to router only getting speed test of 250. He’s smart phone was also wifi 7. Open WiFi man to see what’s going on. Change from auto to manual and pick a channel that only him that using it. Speed test close to router gets close to advertise speed. Latency was reduce significantly. When he open app or web browser it was lightning fast. Now, if your auto gets you close to your advertised speed leave it there.

The poster already said he was using a mesh network.

Your example seems to be about somebody with a single WiFi modem router.

 

[HoosierHiFi]

I agree with the recommendation of Smartplug and some other folks in here that if you're having trouble with playing music or connections, it's a good idea to start with checking out the wireless environment and try to pick a channel on your network manually that's not congested. Music playback relies on a strong connection and there isn't much tolerance for lost data, especially for high quality streams which are larger streams, AKA need to transfer more data without loss.

You could try out the WiFi Analyzer app on mobile (there are free ones) and you can see all the wireless networks in your area, and what channels they're on. That'll help pick a safe one.

If you're connecting to a 2.4GHz network, keep in mind that these channels overlap each other up and down by 3 channels, IE channel 6 causes interference down to 3 and up to 9. It's good to be on 5GHz when possible as there are more channels available and 5GHz and 6GHz are great at short distance.

Mesh networks are another good option, but I've found that not all of them are as robust as they should be. I usually recommend simplifying things down as much as possible if you're having trouble until you can start to identify where it's coming from.

When I try to use a WiFi extender with an Ethernet cable the ultra is telling me my phone is connected to a different network. I would prefer my phone stay on the main router if possible. What is the best way to configure the extender? Should I change its SSID to match the router? Or temporarily connect my phone to the extender to setup Ethernet on the ultra, then change my phone back to the main router? I would rather not have to manually change networks on my phone every time I want to stream music. So far my ultra has not connected well to WiFi but the extender close by shows full strength so I think it could help solve the problem. Sorry for asking a basic question and apologies if this is too far off topic for this thread! Thank you for any suggestions!

 

[Doublej]

The only knock I found on the Pro Plus is that it does not have very good Wi-Fi reception.

I have the Ultra downstairs with a direct ethernet connection so that's fine of course. The Pro Plus is upstairs.

I don't have the ideal situation with a two-story house and opposite ends of the house. I have an ASUS as my router downstairs.

My desktop computer is upstairs also and it has a Wi-Fi card with antennas on it and it does fine.

I have an extra ASUS router. It is also mesh capable but I got so frustrated trying to connect them that I've given up.

This might help you get your ASUS mesh network going.

Asus AiMesh Setup: 100% Solid Tips | Dong Knows Tech

Looking for a detail step-by-step guide to get yourself a proper AiMesh setup? You're at the right spot for that robust home Wi-Fi system.

dongknows.com

You can likely also set up your extra ASUS router as a wireless bridge and use an Ethernet cable between the ASUS and the WiiM to emulate a wired connection for the WiiM. I think ASUS calls this a Media Bridge.

[Wireless Router] How to set up media bridge mode? | Official Support | ASUS Global

Make sure all of your ASUS gear has the latest firmware installed and the ASUS App is at the latest available version before you get started.

 

[henninggodske]

SSID name does not matter. It can be anything. Samme or different from your current.

You will have to set the WiFi extender as an Access Point and not as a router. A router will create a new sub-network, an Access Point will just make a new SSID on the original network.

 

[HoosierHiFi]

SSID name does not matter. It can be anything. Samme or different from your current.

You will have to set the WiFi extender as an Access Point and not as a router. A router will create a new sub-network, an Access Point will just make a new SSID on the original network.

Thank you! I was able to use this info to re-set my extender so it syncs with my router and it’s working great now. I’m hoping the move to Ethernet resolves my issue with dropped cover art.

 

[MrA]

I agree with the initial comment about Pro Plus vs Ultra - initially setting up both in the same room, the Ultra wifi strength shows excellent whereas the Pro Plus shows weak. Both connect and play just fine though which is all that matters, with the Pro Plus now much further into the house (& still showing as weak).

 

[HoosierHiFi]

Thank you! I was able to use this info to re-set my extender so it syncs with my router and it’s working great now. I’m hoping the move to Ethernet resolves my issue with dropped cover art.

So unfortunately syncing the WiFi extender to the router did not work. When I would change location in the house the ultra would disconnect I’m assuming when I hit the main router even though the extender was using same SSID and password as the router. My WiFi extender has an Access Point mode. To set it up it is asking for my LAN IP address. Should I just set up a static IP from my router and use that? Would I also then have to use same IP on my phone? Thanks for any ideas anyone might have. Sorry I’m new at this and I think I’m close to getting it right.

 

[Doublej]

What is the make and model of your WiFi extender? Do you know if the extender can be configured as a Bridge, sometimes called Media Bridge? In the mode the extender would act as a WiFi TX/RX for the WiiM.