Plusnet Hub One, Tenda MW6 Mesh WiFi and P2P gaming (Elite Dangerous) on PC - any solution?

[#1]

Hi folks, appreciate this is a long post but I've tried lots of things before asking here so worth writing it all down for sake of sanity!

Also tried to post it yesterday and it seems to have been eaten, not sure why. I'd ask the moderators if I did something wrong yesterday but can't see how to PM them.

I recently got a couple of Tenda Nova MW6 Mesh WiFi routers to accompany the PlusNet Hub One in our flat.  I was previously using some powerline adaptors to have wired connections around the house for Windows PC gaming and media devices, and a WiFi extender in the lounge to have better signal while the Plusnet Hub One was in the hallway where the phone/DSL socket is. My favourite online game is Elite:Dangerous which uses a P2P online network and is very unforgiving of any online dropouts, just a few seconds of connection loss will kick you out to the main menu screen. 

I was experiencing a few issues with the setup;

• My girlfriend's Mac would sometimes have trouble connecting to the extender, possibly due to poor integration between the two dissimilar devices.
• The powerline/ethernet would drop out occasionally and E:D would kick me out.
• When I tried using WiFi instead of powerline/ethernet, the WiFi would sometimes drop out as well unless I turned off the extender in the lounge so the Plusnet Hub One was the only WiFi source for the PC WiFi adaptor to attach to; so E:D would kick me out again.

I had read good things about Mesh WiFi as a replacement for extenders etc in the house, and there were some online reviews saying the Tenda Nova MW6 was a good budget option. I found an online deal to get two MW6 units for a good price. Setting them up was fairly easy, and they are now connected in our flat with the lead unit connected to the Plusnet Hub One by ethernet cable, with the WiFi on the Hub One switched off. The WiFi in the house is absolutely excellent, all web browsing, streaming etc on all devices is very fast, much better than the previous setup; but there is one killer problem. 

When Elite:Dangerous runs, the internet on the PC grinds to a complete halt. This is limited to the PC (or packets being routed to and from the PC); my girlfriend had an international Skype call over the WiFi while I was trying this once, and she had no issues while my internet disappeared. And as soon as I exit E:D, the internet just starts working fine on the PC again. This can also be verified by running a ping in a command line window at the same time; the pings return from 10-20ms almost every time, then when the game runs they time out, then when the game exits they start returning again. 

So one of the main reasons I got this hardware for, is slapping me in the face and refusing to work. It's a horrible feeling of denial right now.

Tech support at Frontier (the E:D studio) have been very helpful. I've also asked Tenda tech support in China and not heard back yet. I've tried various things:

• Setting the MW6s to run as a bridge, so the Plusnet Hub One is handling all the DHCP etc
• Setting the MW6s to run in DHCP mode
• Switching QOS on or off on the MW6s
• Setting a Static IP for the PC on the Plusnet Hub One
• Port forwarding the recommended ports for E:D, *both* on the Plusnet Hub one and on the MW6s to avoid the Double Router Forwarding problem
• Adjusting the MTU for my WiFi adapter from 1500 to 1450 or 1498 because these rates apparently work well with the game for some reason
• Performing a full adapter reset at the command line level to make sure some problem settings weren't lingering
• Updating the firmware on the MW6s
• Setting E:D to manually use the forwarded ports, or try UPNP
• Setting UPNP on the Plusnet Hub One, while it is switched off on the MW6s - and vice versa

Despite all this, something somewhere is still losing all those packets. It may well be the MW6s' fault, but it's worth asking here since I've seen some other replies about Mesh WiFi and Plusnet hardware, so here goes:

1. Any other settings on the Plusnet Hub One I should try? e,g, is there a way to set it to run as a bridge/ Modem only so the MW6s receive the internet, and do all of the routing? Any filtering or firewall settings I've possibly missed which might be eating packets?
2. Any similar experiences with Mesh WiFi, and tips for settings to make it run better with Plusnet Hub One and P2P?
3. There is an option on the MW6 for PPoE rather than DHCP or static IP etc. If I found the right cable to plug the DSL connection from my wall socket to the WAN socket on the lead MW6 (the unit only has ethernet type sockets), could it replace the Plusnet Hub One and act as the DSL modem itself, removing one layer from the network and potentially removing clashes?
4. Did I just buy the wrong hardware, and if so is there another Mesh WiFi solution which people have found to work well with Elite Dangerous? or should I just go back to powerline for gaming (I sold my old adaptors to offset the cost of the new kit ), and tweak more settings to avoid the dropouts?

Comments very welcome...

[#2]

What wifi adapter is in your PC ?  

Have you looked for newer wifi drivers?

Have you tried a totally different wifi adapter?

The MW6 has ethernet ports.  Have you tried hard wiring PC to closest MW6 satellite to see if problem still persists?

You cannot wire MW6 to telephone socket as MW6 does not have a built in DSL modem.  To use PPPoE on MW6, you would need a bridge modem.  (Plusnet hub one does not offer bridge mode).  TBH, I doubt it would fix your PC issue.

[#3]

Thanks Bill, will try the Ethernet connection tonight. Trying another WiFi adaptor may be a bit more drastic (especially if I don't know the new hardware would work...)

[#4]

Still seems that you could possibly be hitting a double NAT issue, these are painful with P2P traffic - did you test your port status when it was running to see if it showed open?

You can't put the Hub 1 in a modem only mode - so you'd need to pick a vdsl modem up to try the ppoe and use the tenda as they only router.

I went for the BT whole home wifi option as that just provides the mesh wifi and isn't a router as well.

[#5]

Hi Dvorak,

Please give more detail re how to check the port status, and I will try this?

Thanks.

[#6]

Easiest way would be to set up your port fowarding, install a torrent client (you don't need to add any files, just have it open) to to listen on that port and then use https://canyouseeme.org/ to check.

[#7]

You should configure the MW6 in 'bridge' mode if wired to Hub One, which you briefly mentioned in your original post.   Don't use default router mode (ie. DHCP) which will cause double NAT issues.

[#8]

Hi Bill,

I've tried that (first point on the list in my post)... but will try again with the other stuff people have mentioned so far.

If Ethernet is the answer then I may as well connect straight up to the Hub... but at least trying a different network adaptor will see if the WiFi adaptor might be part of the problem. 

[#9]

Progress! (thanks folks)

I moved a Nova unit from the lounge to the bedroom and connected it to the gigabit Ethernet adapter on the PC motherboard. I also set its MTU to 1498 as Frontier suggested. So in this setup the Nova is still using its mesh connection to connect to the Internet via the unit in the hallway connected to the Hub One. 

And, success! Elite ran fine, I had two play sessions of 10-20m each which worked fine and the Ping sent 2809 packets with 0 losses.

So now to figure out if the WiFi adaptor can be updated or replaced, or if the Nova WiFi settings can be un-broken, or if it just works for the second Nova unit to settle in the bedroom (a bit dumb considering the Hub is only about 20 feet away in the hallway, but what the hell...)