Is Cool Ideas or ASUS?

N

neoprema

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 12, 2016
Messages
19,752
Reaction score
18,808
So, some background:
I had Ubiquity Mesh devices in my house (2) and I got full coverage inside and out with WIFI6.
Unfortunately a lightning strike took out the main unit and my insurance company only approved 2x ASUS RTX92U which I’ve setup on a mesh config in Wi-Fi5.

My problem is, streaming media on my Apple TV is pathetic. Either there’s low quality pixelated stream or it plays for a few minutes then stops like it’s caching.

Also my HomeKit devices often don’t work with Siri pausing for a while then saying she could not accomplish a task. It’s very random.

A Speedtest on my laptop shows 540mbps down on a Cool Ideas 1Gbps line which should be more than enough?

Tonight I tried a test. I setup a router in the lounge with an MTN 5G sim. I connected my Apple TV and some Homepods to it.

To my surprise it worked PERFECTLY - we watched a full length 4K movie without a single change in quality and no pauses. Usually anything the AppleTv does is pixelated or pausing all the time.
My HomePods responded with no issues and are still responding to requests instantly.

So my dilemma now is this.
Is the problem:
1. A Wi-Fi issue caused by these ASUS devices or;
2. A Cool Ideas problem when talking to Apple servers?

Any input?
 
Nike7 said:
Test with a cable plugged into the ONT?
Click to expand...

Process of elimination

Part 1: eliminate the Asus mesh units to ascertain whether they are the cause of the issue

keep using the 5G router, but via a network cable plugged directly into the Cool Ideas fibre ONT (remove the 5G simcard for the test to make sure the router is not using this)

test thoroughly by connecting your Apple TV and all your Homepod and other devices simultaneously to this 5G router's wifi

if everything works perfectly, then the problem is NOT with the Cool Ideas Fibre

(make sure to also do the tests during the 18:00 - 22:00 weekday evening peak)



Part 2:

if Part 1 above does point to the Asus mesh units being the culprit, take their settings down to 2.4 Ghz to see whether there is an improvement
(5 Ghz struggles to go through walls as well as 2.4 Ghz, and also doesn't travel as far through your house to the Homepod devices)



If all else fails, speak to your insurer and return the Asus devices on the grounds that they are not a like-for-like replacement for what you previously had.
 
Last edited:
neoprema said:
So, some background:
I had Ubiquity Mesh devices in my house (2) and I got full coverage inside and out with WIFI6.
Unfortunately a lightning strike took out the main unit and my insurance company only approved 2x ASUS RTX92U which I’ve setup on a mesh config in Wi-Fi5.

My problem is, streaming media on my Apple TV is pathetic. Either there’s low quality pixelated stream or it plays for a few minutes then stops like it’s caching.

Also my HomeKit devices often don’t work with Siri pausing for a while then saying she could not accomplish a task. It’s very random.

A Speedtest on my laptop shows 540mbps down on a Cool Ideas 1Gbps line which should be more than enough?

Tonight I tried a test. I setup a router in the lounge with an MTN 5G sim. I connected my Apple TV and some Homepods to it.

To my surprise it worked PERFECTLY - we watched a full length 4K movie without a single change in quality and no pauses. Usually anything the AppleTv does is pixelated or pausing all the time.
My HomePods responded with no issues and are still responding to requests instantly.

So my dilemma now is this.
Is the problem:
1. A Wi-Fi issue caused by these ASUS devices or;
2. A Cool Ideas problem when talking to Apple servers?

Any input?
Click to expand...
I get the same without a vpn on my nvidia shield pro 2019 (wired, 500mbs) and the recent upgrade for andriod tv. This was fine without the vpn before...

I should probably retry without being vpned to usa. *shrugs*.
 
Thanks all. Okay so today i'll start by eliminating the ASUS and lets see how it goes...

Also strange - there's a mesh router in the lounge. But the AppleTV and PC both insist on connecting to the one in the office 2 rooms away...
 
Space said:
Process of elimination

Part 1: eliminate the Asus mesh units to ascertain whether they are the cause of the issue

keep using the 5G router, but via a network cable plugged directly into the Cool Ideas fibre ONT (remove the 5G simcard for the test to make sure the router is not using this)

test thoroughly by connecting your Apple TV and all your Homepod and other devices simultaneously to this 5G router's wifi

if everything works perfectly, then the problem is NOT with the Cool Ideas Fibre

(make sure to also do the tests during the 18:00 - 22:00 weekday evening peak)



Part 2:

if Part 1 above does point to the Asus mesh units being the culprit, take their settings down to 2.4 Ghz to see whether there is an improvement
(5 Ghz struggles to go through walls as well as 2.4 Ghz, and also doesn't travel as far through your house to the Homepod devices)



If all else fails, speak to your insurer and return the Asus devices on the grounds that they are not a like-for-like replacement for what you previously had.
Click to expand...
Status:

AppleTV running on 5G router (separate) was having trouble loading and playing series and movies.

Back on MTN 5G - worked perfectly.

I get the same issue on Amazon Prime. But YouTube and Netflix and DSTV steaming works fine :unsure:

A Speedtest on Cool Ideas from AppleTV gets about 179mbps. A bit sucky when you consider it’s a 1Gbps line with 4-radio Wi-Fi .

I do still think I need to optimize my Wi-Fi but I’m beginning to think my AppleTv problems are Cool Ideas specific. Because apart from AppleTV and Prime all other steaming works perfectly…
 
neoprema said:
Status:

AppleTV running on 5G router (separate) was having trouble loading and playing series and movies.

Back on MTN 5G - worked perfectly.

I get the same issue on Amazon Prime. But YouTube and Netflix and DSTV steaming works fine :unsure:

A Speedtest on Cool Ideas from AppleTV gets about 179mbps. A bit sucky when you consider it’s a 1Gbps line with 4-radio Wi-Fi .

I do still think I need to optimize my Wi-Fi but I’m beginning to think my AppleTv problems are Cool Ideas specific. Because apart from AppleTV and Prime all other steaming works perfectly…
Click to expand...
And with a vpn?
 
neoprema said:
Haven’t tried. There’s no VPN for Apple TV right? Will need to get my router to dial a vpn service?
Click to expand...
No Apple TV will still get ZA unless you have an US account. The test is to see if it's better and mine was without issues. I haven't tried again without it.
 
A rudimentary question perhaps, but what is your latency like?

Specifically, what does this return?

Speed test - how fast is your internet? | DSLReports, ISP Information

Use our NEW speed test tool to test how fast your broadband or mobile internet connection really is. Read broadband news, information and join our community
www.dslreports.com www.dslreports.com

It should be close to if not better than this:

1650235232643.png
 
Last edited:
So, i read the ASUS forums and tried something - i disconnected the second mesh device (Turned it off)

Low and behold - so far the AppleTV is streaming fine.

My problem now is half my Shelly switches can't get strong enough signal lol.

I feel like just packing up and going into farming..
 
So what i've done today;

I noticed that using the Asus APP on my phone kept asking if it can fix this and fix that and I kept saying yes.

I noticed when logged into the main node that all protection was on - IPS, AV, Malicious site blocking, active scanning blah blah blah.

So i've done a hardware reset, and set it up all from scratch. Also i notice it is set to move clients from a node to another if the client is at -70db signal. What i'm going to do is ban the AppleTV from the secondary node as its further away. To make sure it always sits on the closest one. I'm wondering if it wasn't "hunting" and that could explain why some of my HomePod's also kept saying they're offline 6/10 when trying to speak to them.
 
Okay, possible final update. I have stability - on my AppleTV streaming and also it seems most of my HomeKit devices.

What seems to have done the trick is one of 2 below. I'm not sure which...

1. I set my ASUS AiMesh to "Smart Mode" where it has ONE SSID and it will decide based on the client whether it connects to 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. What is interesting - is that since enabling this my AppleTV always prefers a 2.4Ghz connection even though 5 is supported. Before this, I had split-up the 2.4 and 5Ghz into separate SSID's and AppleTV was only connected to 5.

2. I noticed that despite the ASUS AiMesh "logic" - some devices refuse to connect to a nearby AP. For example one of my Shelly switches kept trying an AP almost on the other end of the house with a signal of -86db. However, the AiMesh according to my reading is designed to disconnect a client less than -70db and move it to another node. I'm thinking the system was trying this all the time and a few of my Shelly devices spent their day reconnected every minute.
Using the AiMesh settings i've now FORCED each Shelly to only be allowed to connect to its closest AP and not to drop it if its weak. So far all my Shelly switches are performing fine. I hope it stays like this because i've been battling forever with them too.

So will run this for the week and see. But we're 3 movies in on AppleTV so far and not so much as a pause, pixelation or loss of quality...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X