How to debug WiFi problems? (Understanding Signal / Noise / Rate)

Omnia hardware Omnia HW problems
1

Since the Wifi experience seems worse with the Omnia than with the previous router, I try to investigate. Whithout knowing anything about radio makes it of course challenging.

In the Luci interface, I note these indicators:

Signal / Noise RX Rate / TX Rate
 (192.168.2.30)  -58 / -104 dBm 72.2 Mbit/s, 20MHz
 (192.168.2.12) -58 / -104 dBm 2.0 Mbit/s, 20MHz
 (192.168.2.15) -50 / -104 dBm 1.0 Mbit/s, 20MHz
(192.168.2.32) -62 / -104 dBm 52.0 Mbit/s, 20MHz

How to interpret them? Are they “good” or “bad”?

2

Youre example is 2,4 or 5 ?

I think if this signal level is good. 40-50 dB is very near by router, 60 dB i standard, 70 dB is poor but you can to use.

Your example evaluates the signal quality and location of the clients (mobile, tablet, printer) - power nad antenna. No router quality !

Some devices are in sleep mode without active transport - sleeping maybe.

Noise is good - no microwave oven i function :slight_smile: )

3

Technical details that I forgot.

I use 2.4 Ghz because, unlike what some people say, there are still many devices that cannot do 5 Ghz.

iwinfo wlan0 scan show 33 cells in activity.

#  iw reg get
country FR: DFS-ETSI
	(2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
	(5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
	(5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS
	(5490 - 5710 @ 160), (N/A, 27), (0 ms), DFS
	(57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

# cat /etc/config/wireless 
config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path 'platform/soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:02:00.0'
	option disabled '0'
	option hwmode '11g'
	option htmode 'HT20'
	option channel 'auto'
	option txpower '20'
	option country 'FR'
	option distance '20'

System log shows things like:

2016-12-18T14:25:17+00:00 debug kernel[]: [39285.623144] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: ath10k_pci ATH10K_DBG_BUFFER:
2016-12-18T14:25:17+00:00 debug kernel[]: [39285.623155] ath10k: [0000]: 0265F270 10004C1D 00437860 00000001 00000000 00000140 0265F270 10004C1D
2016-12-18T14:25:17+00:00 debug kernel[]: [39285.623160] ath10k: [0008]: 00437860 00000001 00000004 00000140
2016-12-18T14:25:17+00:00 debug kernel[]: [39285.623164] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: ATH10K_END
4

Signal strength of -104 dBM indicates that you have a problem somewhere, either in your neighborhood due to overcrowded frequency spectrum and/or settings or a problem with your TO. First thing I would try is removing the anttena’s, opening the TO and disconnect and reconnect the wifi cards, closing it and reattach the antenna’s again.

A very rough table of dBm values (ripped from Metageek)

< -90 dBm - Unsuable
-90 - -80 dBm - Not Good
-80 - -70 dBm - Okay
-70 - -67 dBm - Very good
-67 - -30 dBm - Amazing

Can you give more information about your environment (router placement, type of house, etc) since without this information we cannot deduce what and why it is happening?

5

It is the noise level if you look again the readings bortzmeyer provided.

6

If you are using the AC card (the larger card) for 2.4 GHz you should not do that unless you rewire the antenna cabling.

7

Reading can be hard :blush:
So the values are considered good.

8

You highlight the topic as resolved ?

9

Why? It is not resolved.

10

Here is the cabling (picture taken when receiving the Omnia):

Opening the box, I noticed that some cables went disconnected (the gold connectors of the antenna were not properly fixed, the small cards rotated and apparently unplugged some cables). I fixed it but it changed nothing to the results.

11

I tried the 5Ghz setup and, indeed, things seem much better, even in remote corners of the house.

I configured the second WiFi interface to use 2.4 Ghz (apparently, from the Foris Web interface , it is not possible to use two different frequencies for two Wifi networks, I used Luci), to accomodate my old Fairphone 1.

So, pending future tests, it seems OK now.