I am planning the installation of a solar system. The Multiplus and batteries are in the house loft and I would like to connect via Wi-Fi to my modem on the ground floor, two floors down. My house has 50cm stone walls and I suspect, from previous experience, that Wi-Fi will be a problem.
Simple questions. How can I ensure a strong Wi-Fi signal from the Multiplus? For example, is a usb compatible dongle available/possible?
Presumably you have mains power in the loft so you could use a Powerline WiFi extender? I use this method to my garage.
Thanks. Yes mains is very available! I was thinking maybe the extender would be easiest.
Just wondered if the dongle idea was a runner?
Bearing in mind what you said regarding distance and structure between Multi and router, it's probably better bringing the WiFi to the loft (via hardwire eg mains cabling) rather than try and boost a signal from the loft back to the router? Plus, most powerline wifi extenders also have an ethernet socket, so you would have an option of an ethernet connection to the Multi?
I think that’s the best idea. I’ll experiment. Thanks.
Do not use a Wifi Extender/Repeater, as it will cut the available bandwidth in half....for all your WiFi clients, when it doesn't use a seperate band to access the main WiFi.
If you cannot bring wired ethernet completly to the location, try to extend the LAN wires from both sides. Use a WiFi AccessPoint that supports to connect in Client mode and that bridges the WiFi-Connection to its LAN Interface...plug the LAN interface of that AP into the GX, once the AP is configured...you can then experiment with the best location of that AP to connect to your main WiFi,
Hmm! I already have a slave modem linked to the master via an extender and you are correct, the rate is practically half. I get about 50M download & 18M upload with the master so is half that really going to be a problem with the Multi?
the Wifi bandwidth is shared for all wifi clients. If there is a lot of traffic from other clients, you could face congestion problems...not limited to the Multi but of either client.
If there is not much traffic (like no media streaming, no youtube, only Web-Browsing) there shouldn't be a severe problem.
Tested with Wi-Fi extender and easily got 20M download and 8M upload. Does anyone know if that sort of rate is adequate for the GX systems?
This is the reading of my Cerbo, connected to a Switch-Port via LAN (100M, wired).
The maximum Rx/Tx Rate I see is about 80kbps / 2.3Mbps - while connected via Web to the remote console of the Cerbo and VRM being actively viewed simultaneously (realtime view).
So the number for Rx is upload in that scenario and it will consume about 25% of your WiFi bandwidth of 8Mbps. Note that you cannot congest a WiFi channel to 100%....my best guess is, it will allow for about 50% max before packets need a re-transmit....so your setup is already congested by 50% with the GX on WiFi,
But this is only my best guess, as I am not a WiFi expert.
2.4GHz has much better range than 5GHz.
