Are the wireless Joey's really this bad?

[olds403]

I spent an hour last night trying to get the wireless Joey in our bedroom working correctly. I turned the Joey on around 9:15pm last night. It came on normally, watched about a half hour of a DVR program and all of a sudden the Joey unlinks from the HWS. I went downstairs to reset the WAP, the Joey relinked for about 30 seconds and then dropped the link again. I spent about an hour trying various combinations of power cord resets of the HWS, WAP and resetting the Joey from the tools screen, and resetting the network via the Joey. The last thing I did was a power cord reset on the Joey itself which brought everything back up.

It rarely works for more than 3 or 4 days without some sort of reset of something in the system. Usually a power cord reset of the WAP helps, but for some reason EVERYTHING had to be powered off last night, multiple times before it would work.

HWS is in the living room downstairs, connected to our router via WiFi, the WAP is about 6 feet away from the HWS connected by ethernet. Wireless Joey is upstairs, probably 15 feet from the WAP. Consistently get signal strength in the 60's at the Joey. Don't have an option for a wired Joey so I really wish this would work better. Is it possible there is a problem with the WAP as I have to unplug it so often to keep it working?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have had my wireless Joey outside for over 2 years now and have never had an issue with it.

Its about 100 - 125 feet from the base.

 

[HipKat]

I have had my wireless Joey outside for over 2 years now and have never had an issue with it.

Its about 100 - 125 feet from the base.

Same here. I’ve had mine for about two years and I’ve never, ever had a single issue with it. Sounds like the joy is too far from the access point, possibly

 

[HipKat]

And let me add that certain electronica devices can’t interfere with the signal from the access point to the Joey, including the hopper itself. Also, your Internet if it’s set up close to the access point can cause interference

 

[olds403]

The internet cable modem/router is setup pretty close to the WAP, maybe I will try moving the router and see what happens. I did have to change the WiFi channel on the router to a static channel and that did help with some interference problems with the wireless Joey last year (yes it was worse before). Thanks for the tips.

The wireless joey is upstairs and the HWS/WAP are on the main floor, so the signal goes through the floor and through one wall to get to the upstairs master bedroom, straight line distance from one to the other is about 15-20 feet max.

 

[Radioguy41]

You might want to check for other sources causing interference and knocking it off-line. Look for any source of RFI. A neighbor's Wi-Fi for instance can be one source. I had a client a while back who was suddenly getting knocked off fairly often and I noticed a brand new wireless house phone near the router. It was a 5Ghz band (5.8) type so as an experiment I connected her laptop and then dialed her phone. As soon as it rang the laptop dropped it's connection. I moved the router to another room and the problem went away. Technically that shouldn't happen but devices don't always obey the rules, especially when they're made in China.

Oh, yeah, you aren't located near any radar are you? Naval, weather, airport, etc?

 

[peggy97850]

Guess you guys don't watch tv around 1 am - my WJ consistently updates at 1am no matter what time I have my H3 set to update just like it used to do with old Hopper w/Sling & 722. Freezes & goes black screen then reboots after 3 min of no service - nothing I have done to my H3 or WJ makes any difference - & support has pretty much given up on fixing it. I finally gave up 6+ months ago (after complaining for 2 years) & went back to wired Joey 3 & only use the WJ in the daytime in the warmer months (perfect on sun porch but Fire Stick is cheaper so I probably need to sell it).

 

[DishSubLA]

I'm just adding to the chorus: my aunt has had her Wireless Joey for years, and she uses it often. I also use it just about every time I come to visit her, and she has absolutely no problems with the wireless Joey. In fact it's snappier and faster than the Joey 2.0.

 

[reubenray]

I have recommended Dish to my brother and told him he would need a wireless Joey to pair with a H3. Now after reading this I may need to warn him about issues.

One question I have is does the internet connection between the H3 and wireless Joey need to be a fast ethernet system or is the setup only between the H3 and wireless Joey? I don't know what my brother has. I have a wired J3, so I know nothing about how a wireless Joey works.

 

[HipKat]

I have recommended Dish to my brother and told him he would need a wireless Joey to pair with a H3. Now after reading this I may need to warn him about issues.

One question I have is does the internet connection between the H3 and wireless Joey need to be a fast ethernet system or is the setup only between the H3 and wireless Joey? I don't know what my brother has. I have a wired J3, so I know nothing about how a wireless Joey works.

It has nothing to do with the internet. The Hopper& WAP set up a a sort’ve VPN with the WiFi Joey

 

[Tampa8]

I'll add my Daughter's wireless Joey has no problems.

 

[olds403]

I ended up moving the WOW internet modem/router farther away from the WAP and have not noticed any further issues yet, but am keeping an eye on it.

 

[KAB]

I normally have to reset the WAP at least once a week. I've had to the last two days in a row. So, yes I agree they can be a PITA. My WJ is only 16 ft away from WAP.

 

[olds403]

Ok, so it has been a couple weeks since I have had any issues with the wireless Joey in the master bedroom. Last night, again, it turned on normally and selected DVR content to watch, then it froze. I tried a menu reset of the Joey, and when it was coming back up got a message I have never seen. "Refresh in progress, please wait" in the lower right corner, it did that for 10-15 minutes with no signs of coming back up.

I finally unplugged the Joey and did a hard reboot. It came back up but would not link to the HWS, so I had to go downstairs to the WAP and unplug that to reset. I had previously moved our WOW internet modem/router farther away from the WAP to reduce the chance of interference, while I was waiting for the WAP to restart I again moved the modem another 6 feet away from the WAP in the hopes that it was WiFi interference. Talk about a pain in the ass when I just want to watch a TV show.

 

[DISH Support]

Ok, so it has been a couple weeks since I have had any issues with the wireless Joey in the master bedroom. Last night, again, it turned on normally and selected DVR content to watch, then it froze. I tried a menu reset of the Joey, and when it was coming back up got a message I have never seen. "Refresh in progress, please wait" in the lower right corner, it did that for 10-15 minutes with no signs of coming back up.

I finally unplugged the Joey and did a hard reboot. It came back up but would not link to the HWS, so I had to go downstairs to the WAP and unplug that to reset. I had previously moved our WOW internet modem/router farther away from the WAP to reduce the chance of interference, while I was waiting for the WAP to restart I again moved the modem another 6 feet away from the WAP in the hopes that it was WiFi interference. Talk about a pain in the ass when I just want to watch a TV show.

That's certainly strange to hear! There have been several reports about the wireless showing some errors, but nothing about it freezing. Have you noticed anything happening with your Hopper? Does it freeze or have any error messages coming up?

 

[olds403]

The hopper doesn't seem to have many issues. Mostly the biggest issue with the wireless Joey is that it unlinks from the Hopper (and then the video freezes or just goes black). There have been nights I have spent close to an hour restarting/unplugging/resetting the HWS, WAP, and wireless Joey in varying orders to get the wireless Joey working again. I assume it was wifi interference as the WAP was located several feet from my Internet modem/router. I have twice now moved the modem/router farther away from the WAP to see if that fixes the issue.

 

[HipKat]

I might have missed it, but is the WAP at the Hopper? It might be beneficial to have someone come out and use a HIC to relocate the WAP closer the Joeys

 

[olds403]

The WAP is located in the same room as the hopper, the hopper is connected to the modem by WiFi, the WAP is connected to the hopper by ethernet. Our internet comes into the same room on a different wall than the satellite feed, but they are all in the same room. The WAP is probably 6 feet to the right of the Hopper on the front wall of the living room. The internet modem is on the right wall approximately 7 feet from the WAP. I do have the WAP sitting on top of a DVD rack about 5 feet up, and the internet modem is on the floor to have as much space as possible between them. Hope that isn't too confusing.

 

[HipKat]

I'm thinking the Wireless Joey is too far from the WAP or something between them is inhibiting the signal

 

[olds403]

All three wireless Joey's are in upstairs bedrooms, the hopper is on the main floor. The WiFi signal must travel through the ceiling and one wall to get to the master bedroom. Straight line distance between the Joey in the MB and the WAP in the living room is not more than 20 feet. I don't have any issues getting WiFi from the internet modem upstairs.