So here’s the setup. I’ve built myself a “smart” home. Light switches, door locks, fans, TVs, stereo, heated floors, kitchen appliances, Roomba, automated lawn mower, sprinklers, holiday lights, security system, thermostats, etc., are all hooked up and run through our internet. This is on top of the standard computers, phones, and game systems. Overall, approximately 70-80 items are on the same network.
I am utilizing a 1 gig fiber optic service through AT&T with their equipment (all in one modem/router) BGW210. Most of the automated systems are on the 2.4GHz network while the more important stuff is on the 5GHz network. At times, everything works great and I can get 250-300Mbs on wireless devices. But more often than not, it seems as though the myriad of devices are causing the network to bog down and when I want to stream something, it can’t do so properly due to lack of speed. On regular occasion our computer will even bog down and read at 1-5 Mbs for 5-10 mins before going back to normal. (wired connection to the work computer and game systems are fine).
So this leads to my questions-
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Is the network divided up equally among each device? If so, is there something I can do with my current set up that will limit speeds to everything except items of my choosing (computers and streaming devices)?
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Would buying a router and setting it up as an access point solely for all of the automated devices allow me to accomplish what I’m trying to do (ie- can I throttle just the secondary router)?
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Other ideas?
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What is causing the sudden drops in my internet speed? Is that simply due to the large amount of devices on my network or is it an issue with my service? I understand slow speeds when multiple devices are actively using bandwidth, but when nothing is being actively used other than a single device, why would I get a drop to 1Mb?
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There could be a number of reasons things slow down.
You’re off to a good start. I would get a second router ONLY for the smart/automated devices. Someone else mentioned ethernet and that you didn’t want to. But a good rule to consider is that you only use wifi when you have to. If it’s not too much to run ethernet do so. Get a switch to give you more ports.
Wow that’s a lot of devices for one ISP router. First thing I would do is swap that for a commercial grade one with an AP. Something like tplink Omada or unifi if you prefer. I know it’s a chew but run that eth cable to your wired devices. Long term it’s really worth it since 2Gbit+ is becoming the new thing.
The root-cause may be that you have locked client devices to the 5Ghz radio when they really need to use the 2.4Ghz radio sometimes, like on rainy days.
Possibly consider to put the boggy devices onto the 2.4Ghz not the 5Ghz, as a test ?
Also consider to let the clients decide which radio to use, 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz, as another test?
Your router/wifi/hub thang may provide visibility into TX/RX error counters per client to give you an idea if you are trying to get too much distance out of 5Ghz vis-a-vis these tests or your baseline setup.
Update- I disconnected everything but 3 items from the entire network to run a test. All that remained was our work computer (because it’s a PITA to reconnect), the firestick, and the PS4. The computer and PS4 are hardwired. Speed tests on all 3 of those items showed around 150MBs. I contacted AT&T, and they ran some tests. Supposedly the modem/ router is faulty (a faulty dynode?) and they are setting an upgraded replacement (BGW320). Judging from the AT&T community forums, there’s a chance this will improve the speeds, but will not likely resolve the issue entirely (looking at 300-400, hopefully). Once I get the new unit installed and tested, I will update again. If it does’t work, I will probably hardwire what I can and then set up a new access point.
Final update- Got the new gateway hardware and it fixed the issue. Initial scans provide for 600-700 MBs on wifi. Thank you everyone for your help/support!