P2P Extender Question

[aaluck]

As you know I recently received my Starling and I'm LOVING it. Here is my issue. I have a gate about 700 feet from the house that has a Ring and a WiFi gate opener. With my current EERO setup I get very weak service at the gate, as it is connecting to a EERO about 700 feet away in the house.

I recently got a P2P set up and it has greatly improved the signal at the gate to full strength. Here are my two issues:

1. The EERO at the gate connected to the receiving P2P bounces from wired to wireless. In other words it will sometimes be connected to another EERO in the house and sometimes to the ethernet cable on the P2P. Why?

2. The Ring will not connect to the EERO 8 feet away. It is insisting on being connected to the EERO in the garage 700 feet away. Why? I have reset the Ring as new and it went back to the garage EERO.

 

[aaluck]

One other thing that's perplexing is it is hooked up to my Backyard ring which is no mare that 40 feet from two other EEROs in the house. I guess if its working I shouldn't care?

 

[mikester]

Could be interference, bad software, or an incompatibility on the wifi. Are you using wifi or hard line or both? Both on one device can be an issue. Check your router/wifi logs for hints

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Wi-Fi devices are constantly 'pinging' to find the strongest link to other devices,same as cellphones 'roaming' towers.
if you have 2 devices and 2 extenders,,there's 4 combinations of connections and that could change EACH time a 'ping' occours.
Simple solution is to 'tie' the units together. Somewhere in the software of the devices you should be able to 'lock' or 'assign' devices to your EERO units. this is 'standard practice' for all network setups.

 

[aaluck]

Here is what I have discovered and hope someone out there can help me. The EERO at the gate keeps going from wired to wireless. According to the manual the green LAN should be solid. Mine is randomly flashing. When I plug the eero with an ethernet cable directly to another eero, it stays wired all day long. But when I do it via the point to point, it keeps flopping from wired to wireless.

Does anyone have any idea? Could this be a bad unit? I think my return window and Amazon is about another four days, so I’m about to give up and take it down.

maybe I was wrong, but I thought the whole point of the point the point was to send a full signal strength down there and hook up another router via an ethernet cable. If it keeps switching from ethernet to wireless, I might as well just plug-in another eero down there without the P2P.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

All wireless systems have to test to be sure they're connected to the best device. They send a test signal then look at the RSSI (Relative Signal Strength Indicator) value to determine where to connect.This may happen once per second, once per hour, up to the manufacturer. Say you can connect to two other devices, one 'A' return an RSSI of 9, the other 'B' 7. You'll connect to the '9' one, strongest signal. fine, minutes later , you step between in front of 'A' during the 'test'. Now 'A' drops to 3 so you'll connect with 'B'. 30 seconds later, you're no longer in front of 'A', so it's strongest again, so you connect with 'A'. This is how most wireless systems or networks work. A LOT of 'overhead' and time is spent finding a good 'link' between several devices. It's dynamic..nature of the beast.
ANY intereference between wireless devices can cause 'problems'. Birds, leaves, blowing trees, laundry on the line.Anything that's near the 'straight line' from unit A to unit B might interfere

Now ethernet ,being 'hard wired' is rock solid, will always be faster and more reliable. Copper will always win.

Check the manual ( or line) and see if you can setup the device to ONLY use wireless. If there isn't an option, then it has to be testing both all the time.

If you can swap the unit with another(make sure you write down where they came from..) and see if the problem STAYS at the original location or MOVES to the new location.
If is STAYS, then NOT a 'defective' device.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Coming from a novice - is your P2P cable cat 5, 6 or latest? I.E., is the P2P cable slower than the ethernet cable you used and, therefore, sometimes slower than wifi?

I'm using 2 routers in a mesh, and I think the setup allows me to select wire, wireless or auto.

 

[mikester]

Trying to run a wired and a wireless connection at the same time on an ethernet client can cause network routing conflicts on your device. Strange things will happen. Try using only one network connection either wired or wireless.

 

[aaluck]

Try using only one network connection either wired or wireless.

That's my problem. I do not think I can 'force' the EERO--at least I cannot find a way in the app. But what doesn't make sense is when I have the two routers side by side connected with an ethernet cable it stays wired. However, when I use the point to point it switches between the wired and wireless, even though the next closest EERO is over 600 feet away with a very, very weak signal.

If is STAYS, then NOT a 'defective' device.

I will try this tonight. Thanks

is your P2P cable cat 5, 6 or latest

Im not sure. Im using the ones that came with the P2P.

Thank you all for the responses. I will try this tonight. If nothing changes I have to believe it is the P2P that is the problem.

 

[Ammobeetle]

The unit at the house is set as A 'Master' ethernet port connected to internet?
Remote unit Set as B, what is connected to the ethernet cable? The random flashing should be network activity if a device is connected. If you have a switch connected to the bridge you should be able to connect a laptop by ethernet and test your connection.

 

[Ammobeetle]

Looks like you might have 2 power supplies connected, it only needs one and a 2nd can cause problems.
1. Looks like a POE Injector, you use this if you want to power the device over the ethernet cable.
2. Looks like a power supply plugged directly into the device.
I would remove the POE injector and just run off the power supply.

 

[aaluck]

The unit at the house is set as A 'Master' ethernet port connected to internet?
Remote unit Set as B, what is connected to the ethernet cable? The random flashing should be network activity if a device is connected. If you have a switch connected to the bridge you should be able to connect a laptop by ethernet and test your connection.

Yes, the one in the house is set to A and the one at the gate is B. Another EERO is connected to the B device to extend the mesh network to the front gate,

I would remove the POE injector and just run off the power supply.

The POE is only going to the P2P unit. Only one side of the switch is POE and that is running to the A/Master unit. The other power you see is for the white EERO router in the photo.

Its a head scratcher for sure...