obiwifi problems
nmstough:
I have an obiwifi USB stick in an Obi 200 device. Frequently (but not always) the inbound caller cannot hear me and hangs up. And when I call somebody they usually complain about distortion and bad audio. I temporarily disconnected the obiwifi and use a hard wired connection and none of these problems occur. But that's only a temporary solution because the obi device cannot be placed near the router.
What should I do? Get one of the obiwifi5G devices?
azrobert:
Do you have any old routers? You might be able to use one as a network bridge. See:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=5229.msg33913#msg33913
drgeoff:
Although you seem to have identified W-Fi as the culprit you need to find out if your current OBiWiFi and router are working properly of if one of them is faulty. Can you temporarily bring them much closer together and check if the issue goes away? If it does we must assume the equipment is working as designed and proceed as follows.
There are two main problems with Wi-Fi:
1. Low received signal strength caused by distance and/or objects in the path.
2. Interference from other Wi-Fi networks operating on the same or nearby frequency.
5 GHz Wi-Fi usually suffers less than 2.4 GHz from the second of those (because there are more channels available). But as regards the first problem, 5GHz usually performs less well than 2.4 Ghz. So, running an OBiWiFi at 5 GHz is not necessarily the solution for you. (And if your current Wi-Fi router does not have 5GHz, you would need to obtain one that does.)
My recommendations would be:
1. First, try changing your current Wi-Fi router to use a different channel. If you have a smart phone try a Wi-Fi analyser app - I know there are free ones for Android - to see what channel is the quietest at your location. You can also use it to get an indication of received signal strength. It could be that moving your router or the OBi+ObiWiFi a few feet gives a significant increase. Even if not practical or convenient to reposition the OBi200, you can use a USB extension cable to have the OBiWiFi some feet away.
2. If the problem turns out to be low signal strength which you cannot otherwise overcome, I'd suggest an inexpensive Wi-Fi range extender such as the TP-Link TL-WA850RE, TL-WA855RE, TL-WA860RE or similar as available from many manufacturers. Ideally place one of those midway between the router and OBiWiFi.
SteveInWA:
Quote from: nmstough on May 03, 2017, 02:21:37 pm
I have an obiwifi USB stick in an Obi 200 device. Frequently (but not always) the inbound caller cannot hear me and hangs up. And when I call somebody they usually complain about distortion and bad audio. I temporarily disconnected the obiwifi and use a hard wired connection and none of these problems occur. But that's only a temporary solution because the obi device cannot be placed near the router.
What should I do? Get one of the obiwifi5G devices?
WiFi technology in general wasn't designed to be optimal for real-time communications, because it is inherently subject to signal dropouts and interference. Additionally, the 2.4GHz WiFi band can be severely impacted by other microwave-band signals in the area, such as microwave ovens, older cordless phones, baby monitors, and some "radar" based motion or speed detectors.
I have a couple of the new 5GHz OBiWiFi dongles, and they do at least avoid the other, interfering crud on the 2.4GHz band. It's worth getting one to see if it solves your problem. Do keep in mind, that it will depend on the technology used by your WiFi router, and the layout of your building. 5GHz WiFi has shorter range than 2.4GHz.
nmstough:
No old routers to be used in bridge mode. The 2.4Ghz signal is strong as measured by wifi analyzer. And other devices such as security cameras have no problems. They are transmitting both audio and video. The router is a modern device with both 2.4 and 5Ghz 802.11AC. I don't know if the Obiwifi can use AC however.
What is strange is that if there is a problem it is always that the other party cannot hear me, not the other way around. If there were interference one would think it would affect both parties.
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