Amplifi HD Dropouts

[Mike McCall]

A year ago I recommended and installed an Amplifi HD at a residential clients' home. Lately, they've been complaining about very slow and sporadic internet connections. Since I also installed a new Arris modem at the same time I thought perhaps they had gotten one with the Intel Puma chip. That's not the case. Their SB8200 has the Broadcom chip.

They have a cable internet connection and had a cable tech come out. He told them they need to update their modem/router, she couldn't remember which. I log into the router through her machine and am puzzled by the lame web interface until I remember everything is managed through the phone app. I recall installing the app on her phone and setting things up through it. Hopefully, it's still on her phone and properly configured.

I see on the Amplifi community forums lots of complaints about slow connections and dropouts. So far, those who are having these issues have not found a solution. Is anyone here familiar with these issues, and do you have any enlightened suggestions for dealing with them? I don't know what firmware version they have yet, just trying to get as much information as I can before I get onsite.

 

[SlickMinnow]

I'm chiming in here not because I have any real insight for you, but to ask you to update us on what you ultimately come up with.

I've installed a few Amplifi setups and some Aircubes over the past few years and they've been hit or miss with me after about a year. Hating the Aircubes. I even have a Unifi rig here at the house (controller, gateway, lite ap) and have been fighting with it quite a bit lately. Seems that every firmware update makes it a bit worse (backtracking firmware updates is almost as tough as Apple stuff). I have a few Unifi rigs and lone APs out at customer sites doing well. In short, my experience has been inconsistent. And honestly with the latest 'phone home' snafu, my love affair with Ubiquiti is waning fast.

As far a troubleshooting - if client is a Spectrum cable customer, you might try replacing the modem with one of Spectrum's. As I understand it modems are now included at no extra fee. (you can probably have the customer pick up said modem at the nearest Spectrum office) Occasionally, the techs and helpdesk will point fingers at the modem and not dig any farther if it's not one of theirs.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'd try to see where the slowness is. We're a big....big Ubiquiti house since their early days (when their indoor access points where square), have a lot of deployments out there...from small...to large, schools, hotels, 'n such.

First thing to check...narrow down if the slowness is due to the wireless uplinks, or...if the slowness is right from behind the primary...or if directly from the modem.

Also check for neighboring wifi interference...if this home/office is nearby other wireless networks, could a neighbors wifi stomping on this one. More common these days as we have these ultra fast setups being deployed which span 80 and 160 MHz wide channels. Not friendly to neighbors wifi setups.

For challenging setups where the 5 channels have a hard time getting through I lower them to 20 wide...get a little more punch and stability, however losing a little speed.

 

[HCHTech]

Seems that every firmware update makes it a bit worse

We have a couple of dozen out in the field, and the last time I did a mass-firmware upgrade (after having done it successfully on my own setup) went, well, badly. Broke connection to a few cloud keys (yes, we still do those), made me restore about 5 setups from backup, etc. Several days work and I think 4 onsite visits before everything was working again on the lastest firmware. I don't want a repeat of that, so I won't be so quick to update in the future. Waiting too long carries its own set of problems if things get too out of date, but I think a few months is probably a doable wait time. Give them a chance to fix the problems discovered by the early adopters.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

..., so I won't be so quick to update in the future. Waiting too long carries its own set of problems if things get too out of date, but I think a few months is probably a doable wait time. Give them a chance to fix the problems discovered by the early adopters.

Yup. Much like we manage Microsoft patches from Windows. I don't do MS patches on "Patch Tuesday". We wait til Thu/Fri to roll them out. Giving Microsoft a couple of days to pull, fix, and re-release their patches.

Well, similar with Ubiquiti, and other products. Although at a much slower rate. I just hold back a bit...nothing wrong with holding back a year or so....but at least several months. Sub versions...not "as" bad. But major versions..heh...I'll wait a bit longer.

Not Amplifi related, however..Unifi related....We're down to just 60 Cloud Keys. We've often run pretty split even....between on-prem controllers (such as CKs...or a local install of Unifi)...and hosted controllers. But a bit over a year ago I moved our hosted controller over to Hostifi. And moved probably over half of our CK'd clients over to Hostifi also....reducing the amount of sites we have at unifi.ui.com

Reilly and his tech Safwan are great. They carefully vet Unifi software updates before upgrading your controllers. Really takes the worry out of it. They back it up also, and are very quick to answer any requests for help.

I still have an airCube around...got it from the beta program, I actually liked it..ran my home on it back a while ago. Also have its precedessor somewhere in a desk drawer, the airGateway.

 

[Mike McCall]

I have a bunch of Unifi stuff and while there's the occasional issue they've been quick to resolve it. This is my only Amplifi install. I set it up a year ago and it has received no updates. I won't be able to get any details on the setup until I'm on-site Monday morning due to the app being on their phone. (I hate that.)

A Cable tech was out the other day and claims all is well outside the modem. The Arris SB8200 is certified by Wavecable to be compatible with their network. There are no consistent complaints of dropouts due to this modem, and the ones I have found are sporadic. The Amplifi HD seems to have a substantial amount of firmware complaints on their community boards involving this very thing. Interestingly, I think they were having issues previously and we moved them away from the Wavecable modem and as a result, saved them $18mo. All that's moot if the issue isn't resolved and it turns out not to be the gear. The intermittent nature of the problem isn't helping. Once there on Monday, I'll be able to get into the modem and the router logs. Maybe I'll see something there.

 

[SlickMinnow]

Any luck on this?

 

[Mike McCall]

Any luck on this?

No. The Client sent a message canceling the visit saying everything is working fine. I suspect the issue will return, but if they don't want to pursue it right now that's up to them.