Hey, @hio77, is the mesh extender meant to be compatible with any type of router that it can plug in / WPS to? I had a customer with an older 659b who got hold of Spark and apparently the CSR checked if they had the right modem and sent out the mesh unit - he got it working apparently after a lot of mucking around, and it works great, but is it meant to be marketed for use with another router? It's being used in a minor dwelling with cat6 wired backhaul and seems to be working great, the only concern I have is the potential device limit. I left them a Grandstream AP to plug in if it has problems during lockdown, but should he be buying the smart modem just in case? He's renting out the minor dwelling to a couple with quite a few wireless devices. I didn't try to log into the mesh unit, mind you, so no idea if it's handing out DHCP itself or not

im shopping for some replacement AP's at the mo.. how well would the smart modem work as 2x stand alone AP's in a house.. ?

snnet:

 

Hey, @hio77, is the mesh extender meant to be compatible with any type of router that it can plug in / WPS to? I had a customer with an older 659b who got hold of Spark and apparently the CSR checked if they had the right modem and sent out the mesh unit - he got it working apparently after a lot of mucking around, and it works great, but is it meant to be marketed for use with another router? It's being used in a minor dwelling with cat6 wired backhaul and seems to be working great, the only concern I have is the potential device limit. I left them a Grandstream AP to plug in if it has problems during lockdown, but should he be buying the smart modem just in case? He's renting out the minor dwelling to a couple with quite a few wireless devices. I didn't try to log into the mesh unit, mind you, so no idea if it's handing out DHCP itself or not

 

so there are two deployment situations here.

 

1.  Customer has the smart modem

    

    

   1. Customer should purchase a smart mesh unit, connect it via ethernet first until it pairs
   2. Customer then should place the mesh unit in an ideal location.
   3. Enjoy easy wifi.

    

2. Customer has an alternative modem (including HG659b or B618)

    

    

   1. Customer requires to purchase 2 smart mesh units, Connect the first unit to the other to pair
   2. Once paired, plug primary unit into the existing 'modem'
   3. Customer then should place the mesh unit in an ideal location.
   4. Enjoy easy wifi.

    

Hopefully this helps :) Smart modem does make it easy, but no issues in using other routers.

dt:

 

im shopping for some replacement AP's at the mo.. how well would the smart modem work as 2x stand alone AP's in a house.. ?

 

If your already using two AP's you should continue doing that.

hio77:

 

dt:

 

im shopping for some replacement AP's at the mo.. how well would the smart modem work as 2x stand alone AP's in a house.. ?

 

 

If your already using two AP's you should continue doing that.

 

I'm not sure how i'm meant to take this response?

are you saying I should keep using the AP's that i'm looking to replace instead of using the spark smart modems? or are you saying if im using 2 AP's already I will need to replace them with two APs? 

dt:

 

I'm not sure how i'm meant to take this response?

 

are you saying I should keep using the AP's that i'm looking to replace instead of using the spark smart modems? or are you saying if im using 2 AP's already I will need to replace them with two APs? 

 

 

 

If you already have a need to have 2AP's to cover your required area, highly likely that will stay true.

I'm not saying you shouldn't replace them, if your looking to simplify your setup 1x smart modem 1xsmart mesh would be the best bet.

hio77:

 

dt:

 

I'm not sure how i'm meant to take this response?

 

are you saying I should keep using the AP's that i'm looking to replace instead of using the spark smart modems? or are you saying if im using 2 AP's already I will need to replace them with two APs? 

 

 

 

 

If you already have a need to have 2AP's to cover your required area, highly likely that will stay true.

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't replace them, if your looking to simplify your setup 1x smart modem 1xsmart mesh would be the best bet.

 

Cheers, yeah I do need two AP's, I was thinking of two of the modems but only using the wireless functionality.

I didn't know there was a smart mesh option.. I wouldn't necessarily need the mesh functionality as the locations they would go have structured cabling running to them.. I take that the network port on them can be used for wired backhaul ? they'll work as AP's cabled into my switch? the 4x4 has piqued my interest ! 

hio77:

 

so there are two deployment situations here.

 

 

 

 

1.  Customer has the smart modem

    

    

   1. Customer should purchase a smart mesh unit, connect it via ethernet first until it pairs
   2. Customer then should place the mesh unit in an ideal location.
   3. Enjoy easy wifi.

    

2. Customer has an alternative modem (including HG659b or B618)

    

    

   1. Customer requires to purchase 2 smart mesh units, Connect the first unit to the other to pair
   2. Once paired, plug primary unit into the existing 'modem'
   3. Customer then should place the mesh unit in an ideal location.
   4. Enjoy easy wifi.

    

 

 

 

Hopefully this helps :) Smart modem does make it easy, but no issues in using other routers.

 

Thanks for that -- situation was customer had HG659B and was sold one mesh unit - he got it going, said he kept doing WPS setup on it and it finally worked - I didnt open any config pages, was in a hurry just before lockdown - but it worked with wired backhaul to the HG659b modem in the house while the mesh unit was in the minor dwelling - tested this by unplugging the ethernet cable and the mesh unit light was no longer blue (cant remember if it was red or purple) 

So from what I can understand to get it easily going, 2 mesh units with a non smart modem or if you play with it enough it will run off anything lol  -- only real limiting factor seems to be the client limit of some routers maybe

OVER: Hey all,

Not really an expert here but we have this Arcadyan modem from Spark and have been noticing increasingly that devices connected to it are unable to get an IP address and thus are unable to connect to the internet. Currently both my phone and laptop are disconnected.

The phone (Android 10) constantly says "Obtaining IP Address" and the laptop (MacBook Pro, Catalina) says it has a self assigned IP address of 168.254.81.84 and will not be able to connect to the internet. Yesterday it was up and down but today both devices are just sitting there with no connection.

Some people in our flat are connected fine which is frustrating because while they're working from home, it's difficult to find a time to reset the router and get it working for the devices that can't connect.

Is there a trick to this router or do we need to bin this POS and get something more reliable?

Do you know how many devices are trying to use it? Maybe the DHCP pool can be increased? Obviously you've tried a hard reset?

OVER: Hey all,

Not really an expert here but we have this Arcadyan modem from Spark and have been noticing increasingly that devices connected to it are unable to get an IP address and thus are unable to connect to the internet. Currently both my phone and laptop are disconnected.

The phone (Android 10) constantly says "Obtaining IP Address" and the laptop (MacBook Pro, Catalina) says it has a self assigned IP address of 168.254.81.84 and will not be able to connect to the internet. Yesterday it was up and down but today both devices are just sitting there with no connection.

Some people in our flat are connected fine which is frustrating because while they're working from home, it's difficult to find a time to reset the router and get it working for the devices that can't connect.

Is there a trick to this router or do we need to bin this POS and get something more reliable?

We have the same problem.  

Have 20-25 items connected and sometimes we have issues getting an IP address.  Have tried using the guest network and that helps sometimes.  Tried everything we can find, sometimes setting a manual IP address helps, but not always and then you have to clear it when you go somewhere else.

Have done a hard reset and setup wifi again but issue has appeared again. 

Any suggestions?? Or do we have to get a router that can accept more devices connected?  

dt:

 

Cheers, yeah I do need two AP's, I was thinking of two of the modems but only using the wireless functionality.

 

I didn't know there was a smart mesh option.. I wouldn't necessarily need the mesh functionality as the locations they would go have structured cabling running to them.. I take that the network port on them can be used for wired backhaul ? they'll work as AP's cabled into my switch? the 4x4 has piqued my interest ! 

 

they actually can be used purely for AP's too. I'd be temped to pair then use them like that (i haven't personally tried this setup though!)

Your right, they are really well priced for their wifi.

snnet:

 

Thanks for that -- situation was customer had HG659B and was sold one mesh unit - he got it going, said he kept doing WPS setup on it and it finally worked -

 

If that did work that's a bonus feature...

snnet:

 

So from what I can understand to get it easily going, 2 mesh units with a non smart modem or if you play with it enough it will run off anything lol  -- only real limiting factor seems to be the client limit of some routers maybe

 

Correct.

the wifi limits on these are 56/64 (2.4ghz/5ghz) from memory and that's mainly set from the angle of if you jab every possible device on wifi, your going to have a bad experience purely from it having to handle unicast to each device.

@mule and @OVER please DM me your serial numbers and mac address for one of the devices struggling to connect. I'd be keen to have a poke at the logs and see what's happening, DHCP is set quite large by default so you shouldn't be hitting issues there.