Resolved Wi-Fi Calls Degrading-Linksys Velop System

[Alpha Centauri]

Hi all.

As the title implies, after about 30 min the calls degrade to the point where the other person become difficult to hear, eventually it actually drops the line. Due to location of the apartment the LTE signal is woeful. I'm using the original SE (2016), iOS15.5 but the problem is unrelated to iOS versions.

1. I can confirm Wi-Fi calling is activated and supported by my ISP.
2. Upload speed 10Mbps, download 50Mbps consistently throughout the small apartment.
3. No difference to this degradation if calls made with social media apps or normally.
4. LTE outside of my home has no issues.
5. Basic modem connected via ethernet to primary node of a Linksys Tri-Band Velop setup.
6. Router and Modem SW is up to date.

There's 3 mesh routers in a small apartment. It also occurs with line of sight to the primary node but worsens even more once I move about and the Velops struggle to switch to closest node. No difference prioritizing/ or not the ph in the Linksys App.

I've tried separating the 2.4 and 5GHz network, but again no improvement in quality. So even when primary node is only 3m away, ph confirmed connected to it, the problem persists. No amount of restarts of any devices improves things.

My ISP blames mesh routers in general. Lynksys support theorizes too many nodes in a small apartment, system gets confused. Find that hard to believe if the primary node is exclusively connected to the ph at the time of calls.

Any ideas or similar experiences?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

It does sound like overkill so you could try shutting down one or two access points to see if it improves. You could also check if QoS is implemented on your network. A lot of times mesh system, which tend to be more consumer focused, have certain settings automatically enabled. If you like QoS then give primary to voice traffic but as someone who has been around for awhile I always turn it off.

If you want to get more dialed in, download a free program like NetSpot to see what other freq & channels other routers are using around you then set yours up to be on an open one.

 

[jav6454]

Check which channels are being used by others and modify it if there are overlapping.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

@Sheepish-Lord yes too many nodes perhaps. Building from 1901, all walls extremely thick thick plastered, concrete material with much funky stuff beetween, including steel girders. 3rd node (for balcony) in last room at times even loses connection to 2nd. I'll try shutting all but main primary off for diagnostics.
I'll go into Linksysremotemanagement online tool, look for QoS, it is quite extensive.

Netspot revealed many Networks around but less than a handful with a stronger signal. My 3 nodes showed up with 7 Channels of 2.4 and 5GHz use. No channels however used by others, no intersection. I had forced channel searches in App prior when speedtest Apps showed less than theoretical max speed. Stable and slight higher download speed over WiFi even than advertised througout.

New development: Few days ago, 11 minute call and only first 5 min usable. Night after running Netspot, in morning woke to ph losing WiFi entirely. All other devices ok on the network. Ph wouldn't accept known network password as correct one. Restart or ph network restart did nothing. Rebooted nodes and password on ph accepted, was in again.

My AVM modem (call it that as no WiFi and old base model from ISP) has a know issue dropping internet entirely every couple months. No issue, unplug, plug in, caches auto cleared and off again we go again. That thing with password not being accepted is a worry. Is this keychain kept in the Mesh nodes or modem?

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Check which channels are being used by others and modify it if there are overlapping.

Thank you, no overlap with very few outside Channels in use that show a strong enough signal.

 

[jav6454]

Keychain is an Apple feature.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Keychain is an Apple feature.

Indeed, it was meant figuratively, re which part of the chain failed. Not only did the ph drop the WiFi connection overnight, but it failed to accept the correct password until rebooting the mesh routers. In short, I'm trying to figure out if the password 'handshake' occurs in WiFi routers or the modem that they connect to via ethernet. No other devices were affected.

 

[Harmless.Transition]

I have been using a Linksys Velop router mesh network for 18 months very successfully with wifi calling, until 7June22 when my Vodafone UK iPhone11 stopped connecting to the Vodaphone wifi calling network. After several days fault finding with Vodafone & Apple 3rd line support, I added a gl.inet wifi AP to my network and everything started to work again. I reset my Linksys devices to factory settings and thought the issue was resolved, but I am still getting dropouts (the other party cannot hear me) after a few minutes. I'm running firmware: 2.1.18.206964.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Just to give this post some closure.

I'm for a couple weeks now the owner of a 13 Mini and have retired the OG SE. There's been no change to the Mesh set-up and immediately the Ph hardware update has resolved all issues I had with WiFi calling.

Actually, the calls are now so loud and crystal clear that I initially thought that the speaker must be on. It wasn't.

Thank you again for trying to help out on this one. Happy to now finally mark the OP as resolved.