What is your Wireless Joey experience like?

scottk52

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Jan 15, 2014
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Thinking about buying a access point and wireless Joey from a local hardware dealer - $99 for Wireless Joey and $75 for access point. I have a remodeled garage and want to go wireless out there, its about 35-40 feet away from my Hopper. I also want to install this myself. Any tips? Will the wireless Joey get a signal that far? Am I paying to much? Is setting this up with Dish a pain? What other questions should I ask before I go for this? Thanks in advance. I'm really on the fence here....
 
I've seen them for less, Like $69 for the wireless joey, and $50 for the WAP.

But Dish my even offer you the Joey for free, and Just $50 for WAP.

Dish claims 200 feet from the Hopper, But certainly conditions apply.

But I would think 40 feet should be fine.

I'm getting one soon myself. So if you get one before me , Let me know how it works.
From what I understand the setup is easy, the WAP is USB fed right from the Hopper. So I can't see there being any real issues and since it uses its own wifi and not your home network, it should be basically trouble free.
 
I've seen them for less, Like $69 for the wireless joey, and $50 for the WAP.

But Dish my even offer you the Joey for free, and Just $50 for WAP.

Dish claims 200 feet from the Hopper, But certainly conditions apply.

But I would think 40 feet should be fine.

I'm getting one soon myself. So if you get one before me , Let me know how it works.
From what I understand the setup is easy, the WAP is USB fed right from the Hopper. So I can't see there being any real issues and since it uses its own wifi and not your home network, it should be basically trouble free.
I agree with most of this. According to this website, it is installed with Ethernet, though, and not USB.

http://manuals.solidsignal.com/wirelessjoeysetup.pdf

It uses a 5ghz network, compared to the average 2.5ghz. It is also a closed network, so not competing should take place. We have seen in the past on this forum, issues with 2 hoppers and internet being on one with bridging on and WAP on the other. I haven't heard about it in some time though.
 
Well I pulled the trigger and got it all set up on Friday! Pretty straight forward and easy, took about an hour with the rep on the phone and getting everything plugged in where I wanted it. Must say it looks amazing and works very well. The Wireless Joey is about 40 something feet away through 3 walls and I get an alarmingly low 28-36 signal display but I see or hear no drop outs whatsoever. So far I'm impressed and I'm glad I bought the equipment on my own and in stalled it myself and avoided the 2 year re-commitment. Now if we could just get some Carbon UI over here.....
 
How is the speed and menu response?
Dish wanted to charge me $50 for the Wireless Joey, $50 for WAP and $10 for the service call to swap out regular joey.
Even though I bitched since day one about how slow it is from day one, and yet while even having the protection plan they still needed to throw that addtional $10 in.
Gotta tell you not to impressed so far with Dish networks customer service or their tech support.
That fact that this Joey is still in my house, and I'm forced to buy or pay fees for a replacement, well IMO that's additional costs that go into the cost of Subscribing to Dish service.

So the $120 I saved this year with Dish already went out the window.
 
I would rather have the hardwired Joey in case you have an issue with the wireless then you have the option to hardwire and you have more control of making your own wireless connection with better equipment.
 
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I would rather have the hardwired Joey in case you have an issue with the wireless then you have the option to hardwire and you have more control of making your own wireless connection with better equipment.
That's brings up an interesting question. To the folks with the wireless Joey. Is there a coax port to turn it into a wired Joey?
 
I would rather have the hardwired Joey in case you have an issue with the wireless then you have the option to hardwire and you have more control of making your own wireless connection with better equipment.
Agreed.
 
Thanks. That alone is something that will prevent me from wanting a full time WJ. If I could have it wired for everyday use, and wireless ability to bring it outside, or in the kitchen or something.. That would be great. I'll just keep doing hardware, and if need be, for the short periods will continue to just move it via wifi adapter.
 
I would rather have the hardwired Joey in case you have an issue with the wireless then you have the option to hardwire and you have more control of making your own wireless connection with better equipment.
Also my understanding is , It's not using the Wifi from your home network, WAP is connected ethernet from the Hopper.
It uses its own network that has nothing to do with Wifi from your Home network.
 
Also my understanding is , It's not using the Wifi from your home network, WAP is connected ethernet from the Hopper.
It uses its own network that has nothing to do with Wifi from your Home network.
Yes, hence the separate and additional cost WAP.
 
Yes, hence the separate and additional cost WAP.
Exactly, well that eliminates 90% of the normal Wifi issues referenced here as compared to your home Wifi system experiences.
Some comparing the Wireless Joey is less reliable as compared to a Wired joey because it's Wifi is invalid.

Comparing a Hopper using Wifi internet vs Ethernet connection that's more then likly true ,as Wifi has more issues because of several factors over ethernet.

But if you are in the proper range, I see nothing that would indicate the Wireless Joey is any less reliable than a Wired Joey.
It uses it own private network between only the WAP to the Joey. Which the WAP is directly connected to the Hopper.

Wired joeys lose connection too, I've seen many threads on that right here.
Not to mention the Moca issues that are raised here weekly.
And the fact that they are Slow to the point where they are almost unusable, I wouldn't mind doing a extra reboot here or there if necessary on a Wireless joey to get the proper function and performance.

I'm almost tempted to drop both Wired joeys and get 2 Wireless ones. That would eliminate any need for inline splitters.
 
Anyone connect a PS4 to a Wireless joey?

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