pod set up guide

[FJD0]

I am helping a friend with set up of pods to hub 3000.

He is 6 hour drive from me and I visited recently and will not visit again for a year.  On this last visit, we troubleshot his hub 3000 and a bell tech set up a replacement.  The new hub 3000 is now in place and WiFi readings from a few feet from the 3000 are still below my expectation, however, better with the new hub.  2 pods were sent as I theorized that 2 would likely allow us to have a more accptable WiFi in two locaitons.  One was not performing well enough, and the other not at all.  There is a lot of interferance and I would have him place the first Pod quite close to the router, but after seeing what he measured, I feel a connection by ethernet between hub and first pod would be so much more successful.  I have set up many extender/access points and we know that hard wired especially to the first link is more likely to yeild better results.  Online, there are many references to using the app.  This would be fine if I was there to help my friend, but I am not.  So the questions are:  1.  Can I get a data set up sheet?  2.  There seem to be two types of pods.  Pod, and Pod Mini.  How can we tell which one he just received?  3.  If an ethernet cable is connected from hub 3000 lan port to ehternet jack on the pod, can the pod be configured to work in the typical mesh mode with first link being wired, and second link being over air digitial?  I am confident that this type of connection will allow us to get a robust enough source signal to the first pod that would allow the relay ot second that will be wireless to be quite effective.  I am very experianced in set up of repeaters and we all know that a wired connection to the access point is the best failsafe method to get a good singal.  My friend sent me measurments from your app at a close point in the house where the first pod would seem to be well located and it is (just) my opinion, that the signal is so degraded that I feel this set up will be challenging. I am confident that with a data sheet / set up sheet, would allow me to give him advice that makes the set up go very smoothly.  His previous set up (that I helped with) had a router was placed in a location where the data could make it to the two key locaitons where internet was required.  When the tech who set up the 3000 did his work, he placed the 3000 in a locaiton  that can not get signals out anywhere close to what the old netgear router could achieve.  I have to assume the much newer hub3000 would be at least as good as the old netgear router, and I know how critical position of WiFi router can be to acheiving results.  So you can see I have experiance with the locaiton and I am confident if we could get a good signal to access point that was clean, the relay should be very good and my instinct tells me ethernet to that first node would likely be way better.  If these Pods can not do that, we can go through the motions with the app, but I suspect the final result may not work well enough.  I might suggest a third party solution that can allow ethernet between access points in mesh system.  If I could tell what these pods can actually do and had the set up sheets, all could be theorized before proceeding.  Can anyone in your forum help us? 

[dks · Accepted solution]

Pods (I have 5) are very much a time, trial and error setup process. Documentation doesn't really help. The Bell Wi-Fi app (Apple or Android ecosystems) is very good in establishing network conditions and optimizing the pods. 

When locating pods, make sure that if they are the Wi-Fi Pod mini pods, no more than 7 metres from the modem or another pod. If they are the larger Wi-Fi Pod, no more than 14 metres from the modem or another pod. You also have to account for floors, concrete walls and other obstacles such as steel appliances. Yes, you can plug the pods into the modem using an Ethernet cable (Cat6 preferred). 

Once positioned, give the pods a few minutes to optimize themselves. No human action is necessary. The pods will set their own optimal configuration. 

Use the Bell Wi-Fi app to determine the pod network topography and signal strength. Move the pods if necessary and let them reset. 

Wait 24 hours and recheck the wireless setup with the app. 

Your friend will have to have an account on the Bell web site to use the app. The same credentials (not yours) are used for the wi-Fi app. 

[FJD0]

Thanks dks for taking the time to give me the advice.

I appreciate now, that at least for the short run, my friend will just have to be on his own to try and figure this out as really, I would have to be there with phone in hand.  Do you know if written doccumentation actually exists?  Even though it may be deemed useless to most, I guess, this old guy is just too old school.  I know if I was there we would figure it out and if the App is so well written, it really could be easy with patience as you have to wait a day to see how it self adjusts.  My concern out of the gate is that with the working 3000 in place the measured speed just 5 meters away in the next room is degraded 8 fold.  My old school understanding of how these things should behave tells me that picking up that degraded signal at the first node is just a recipe for disappointment.  Clearly, there is some major obstruction, or RF interference that is causing this, and we know the best solution is to run an ethernet from 3000 to first node (pod).  Good that the option exists since nothing I read on bell site would have led me to that conclusion.  Will have him go through the motions, and likely he will be off to local computer store to buy a short piece of Cat6, and get his drill out.  Great to take advantage of any advice, thanks again.

[dks]

Good questions. I make no claim to any deep technical knowledge, but I find the pods don't degrade the signal much. I ran some tests this morning and found the second pod in a chain would still test at 250-300 Mbps. An ethernet cable run to the first pod should give 500+ Mbps or better. Obstructions are a major unknown. Moving a pod within a room can often make a huge difference, too. It becomes patience and trial and error. 

[Joce13]

My modem has excellent signal and my pod has poor signal. Yet all the devices keep connected to the pod so everything is running on slow internet. How do I get it to distribute the devices better?

[BellNick]

Hi there @Joce13 
Thank you for your post and welcome to the Community.
We'd recommend giving @dks suggestion a try by moving the pods to see if the connection is better.
Looking forward to hearing back how that goes.