Started at a new company recently and noticed something that brought back some bad memories from my previous job lol.
We’re using UniFi, and the WiFi in our main meeting room is pretty terrible. Internet works fine everywhere else, but get 10–15 people in there for a Teams meeting and suddenly someone’s screen share freezes, laptops start lagging, and people complain about the connection.
Had almost the exact same issue at my last company. Also UniFi. We never really figured it out, even after getting outside IT support involved.
I’ve worked with Meraki before and didn’t run into this particular problem, though maybe I just got lucky with the setup.
I’m not exactly a WiFi expert, but I’d like to actually learn how to troubleshoot this instead of randomly changing settings in the controller.
Where would you guys start? Channel width? AP placement? Client count? Any tools worth using besides the UniFi controller?
First question: where’s the nearest AP? Inside the meeting room or somewhere out in the hallway?
@progressus_on Hallway, just outside the room. Maybe 15 feet from the conference table.Signal looks pretty good on my laptop though.
Good signal doesn’t necessarily mean good WiFi. What’s the room like when it’s empty? Same problem or only when everyone’s in there?
@soft.tide Mostly when it’s full. I was in there alone yesterday and everything seemed fine. Which makes this even more annoying.
15 people in a meeting room and the nearest AP is in the hallway?
How many other clients are connected to that thing?
I’d do a proper survey of that area. NetSpot is pretty decent for this. Check the signal, SNR/SIR and which APs are actually reaching the meeting room. Run a few active tests in there too, ideally when the room is busy. Then compare that with the client count and channel utilization in the UniFi controller. Could be a coverage issue, could be too much overlap, could be something else entirely.
@Fast_pony_XXX Haven’t used NetSpot before. Can it show if multiple APs are overlapping in that room?
Yep. You can map the coverage and see where signals from different APs overlap. Just don’t confuse the heatmap with actual airtime usage. You’ll still want the controller data for that.
Are you sure you’re not on the guest network? I’ve seen companies spend days troubleshooting “slow WiFi” only to discover the conference room was connecting everyone to a guest SSID with a bandwidth limit.
@MacStuckInTheMud Actually… the room has a printed QR code for the guest WiFi. Most employees use the corporate SSID, but visitors obviously don’t. I’ll check whether the guest network has any limits.
I’m surprised nobody has asked about the wired side yet. How’s that hallway AP connected? Gigabit Ethernet? Wireless mesh? Some ancient switch port negotiating at 100 Mbps?