Ring doorbell and BT mesh wifi
Discussion
BT router in middle of house, 5 BT Wholehome mesh discs set up to provide good wifi coverage.
One disc is close to the porch door, but the ring doorbell has a habit of trying to connect to the disk in the kitchen. Signal is very poor, so there's a long delay before the chime unit (in the inner hallway) and Alexa devices respond, and video doesn't work.
It's like the doorbell struggles with mesh wifi, failing to pick up the point with the strongest signal. If I go through the wifi setup again, it will find the closest disc, and then respond pretty much instantly.
Would the solution be to use a dedicated wifi access point with a different network name?
If so, what would be the best way to do it?
One disc is close to the porch door, but the ring doorbell has a habit of trying to connect to the disk in the kitchen. Signal is very poor, so there's a long delay before the chime unit (in the inner hallway) and Alexa devices respond, and video doesn't work.
It's like the doorbell struggles with mesh wifi, failing to pick up the point with the strongest signal. If I go through the wifi setup again, it will find the closest disc, and then respond pretty much instantly.
Would the solution be to use a dedicated wifi access point with a different network name?
If so, what would be the best way to do it?
It might be an issue with the doorbell not working well with the mesh.
I had similar issues with a cctv system, which I eventually tracked down to this issue. I hard-wired one base station to the main router and then manually bound the second base station to the same home router via Wi-Fi... Too far away for practical hard-wiring.
I had similar issues with a cctv system, which I eventually tracked down to this issue. I hard-wired one base station to the main router and then manually bound the second base station to the same home router via Wi-Fi... Too far away for practical hard-wiring.
sgrimshaw said:
Which Wholehome discs do you have?
The white ones with the LED at the bottom edge. Not the Mini, or the later "Premium".It's strange that the mesh setup seems to work well with phones and tablets, which all swap to the closest disc when they are moved from room to room.
Also, the Ring chime unit (mains powered) stays connected to the closest disc, no problem.
I've got an ethernet connection close to where the offending disc is sited, so I could easily add a dedicated wifi access point if that would solve the problem?
Actually, could I just connect the BT disc using ethernet?
The "master" disc in the inner hallway is connected directly to the router. The router's WiFi is enabled, but unused.
Edited by clockworks on Friday 21st June 15:02
You could also disable the WiFi on the router, as it'll be somewhat reducing the capacity of the mesh network, just by sitting there and broadcasting.
Do you have any control over the power levels for the Meshed APs? It may be that you get better results by reducing the power levels if that's possible, to try to ensure that devices can't even hear the distant APs
Do you have any control over the power levels for the Meshed APs? It may be that you get better results by reducing the power levels if that's possible, to try to ensure that devices can't even hear the distant APs
As someone with Ring cameras around the house and currently have BT Complete WiFi and previously used BT Whole Home WiFi, then the answer is that the WiFi connections with Ring cameras just don't seem to play nicely with mesh WiFi.
Rebooting the camera through the Ring app sometimes makes it grab a connection with a source closer to it than the weak one it likes, but even if it does then a few days later it will have gone back to the weak one again.
And the distance between the camera and the source doesn't seem to make any difference, with the distant cameras (mostly) picking an appropriate source, and it tends to be the ones that are close to a source ignore that and decide that something distant is far more desirable to connect to.
I have just accepted that 'it is what it is' and if it uses more battery power maintaining that weak connection then I just charge the battery more frequently.
Rebooting the camera through the Ring app sometimes makes it grab a connection with a source closer to it than the weak one it likes, but even if it does then a few days later it will have gone back to the weak one again.
And the distance between the camera and the source doesn't seem to make any difference, with the distant cameras (mostly) picking an appropriate source, and it tends to be the ones that are close to a source ignore that and decide that something distant is far more desirable to connect to.
I have just accepted that 'it is what it is' and if it uses more battery power maintaining that weak connection then I just charge the battery more frequently.
Could I set up one disc as a separate wifi network - different name and password?
If that'll work, I could connect the porch disc via ethernet, and connect the doorbell to that.
Hopefully the chime unit being on a different wifi network won't cause a problem?
Presumably the BT router will take care of dhcp for two wifi networks?
If that'll work, I could connect the porch disc via ethernet, and connect the doorbell to that.
Hopefully the chime unit being on a different wifi network won't cause a problem?
Presumably the BT router will take care of dhcp for two wifi networks?
SpidersWeb said:
No, because that isn't how they work.
Google suggests that it should be possible?I'm trying to create a new wifi network with a spare disc, but I can't even get it to accept the admin password.
I'm using the app on a different tablet. The tablet is connected to the router's WiFi (not my existing Whole Home mesh). Disc has been factory reset. App sees the disc, I switch to the disc's wifi, then it fails with error 029.
Using the app on the tablet that I normally use for administering the mesh, the "new" disc is trying to join the existing mesh, and is turning off the default wifi.
Problem, the router is "shielded" from the doorbell by several block walls. Line of sight between the two is at a very shallow angle to one of the walls, so effectively several feet of blockwork.
Router can't really be moved, as the phone line comes in through the loft at the back, and drops down to a point under the staircase in the inner hallway.
I currently have 5 BT discs just to get coverage all around the house
Router can't really be moved, as the phone line comes in through the loft at the back, and drops down to a point under the staircase in the inner hallway.
I currently have 5 BT discs just to get coverage all around the house
We have 6 Ring doorbells and cameras and they play quite nicely with our Netgear Orbi Mesh.
We did have a similar awkward Wi-Fi problem...
Our absolute oldest Wi-Wi device is a set of Withings Wi-Fi Bathroom Scales which would not collect to my Netgear Orbi Mesh.
To solve this I had a very old Netgear Wi-Fi Access Point which only does 2.5 Ghz which I centrally located in the house and I then physically connected it to one of the mesh satellites using Ethernet and I then created a new Wi-Fi SSID for the Access Point and called it SOMETHING_IOT for Internet of Things.
I connected the Withings Wi-Fi Bathroom Scales to the SOMETHING_IOT Wi-Fi
The SOMETHING_IOT Wi-Fi is on the same network as everything else including Home Plugs which work over the ring mains and it just works.
If I have any other awkward devices then I will use SOMETHING_IOT Wi-Fi as long as it is in range.
We did have a similar awkward Wi-Fi problem...
Our absolute oldest Wi-Wi device is a set of Withings Wi-Fi Bathroom Scales which would not collect to my Netgear Orbi Mesh.
To solve this I had a very old Netgear Wi-Fi Access Point which only does 2.5 Ghz which I centrally located in the house and I then physically connected it to one of the mesh satellites using Ethernet and I then created a new Wi-Fi SSID for the Access Point and called it SOMETHING_IOT for Internet of Things.
I connected the Withings Wi-Fi Bathroom Scales to the SOMETHING_IOT Wi-Fi
The SOMETHING_IOT Wi-Fi is on the same network as everything else including Home Plugs which work over the ring mains and it just works.
If I have any other awkward devices then I will use SOMETHING_IOT Wi-Fi as long as it is in range.
I've found with ring that the more ring items you have conencted then the worse the signal is. i can have a device thats the furthest away from the router and as long as it's on the network alone its super fast, as soon as I add other devices then suddenly that device becomes slow. sometimes it isn't even the device thats the futhest away, it sometimes decides the one the nearest can be the slowest. really random and has done he same thing on 2 different routers
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