My Experience Upgrading to Koalasafe Dome

Показать описание

In this video, I’ll share my experience upgrading to the KoalaSafe Dome.

Hi, everyone! This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll share my experience upgrading to the KoalaSafe Dome.

I’ve been using Koalasafe’s router-based Internet Control product to limit screentime for my kids for several years. I’ve done a couple of videos on the upsides and the downsides of using KoalaSafe in my house with 2 teenagers.

One of the major downsides is that the range and speed of the original KoalaSafe router was very limited. To recap, KoalaSafe attaches to your normal Internet WiFi router and creates a new WiFi network for your kids. The problem was that that network was slower and also smaller. For example, my kids couldn’t really use the Internet in the basement or our sunroom — they were both too far away from the router. Our house got a bit of a reputation among their friends for having crappy Internet (and also crappy snacks, but that is another issue).

So, when KoalaSafe announced that they were launching a new faster router, we were among the first to put our names on the waiting list. The old router had a max of 150Mbps whereas the new KoalaSafe Dome was going to have a max of 1300Mbps. This was going to solve all of our problems.

Transitioning to the KoalaSafe Dome was not difficult, but not super straightforward. I have NO idea why they don’t provide a guide on their website or in the box for folks who are upgrading from the original KoalaSafe router to the Dome. But essentially, you can use all of your profiles and filters that you already have set up in App, but you have to unpair the old router and pair the new router with your account. You cannot do this on your own. You’ll need to contact customer support for them to unpair and pair using the MAC address of each unit. I think they are in Australia, but I found them fairly responsive considering I’m in the US. Make sure the old KoalaSafe isn’t plugged in anywhere when you attempt to pair the new one or it’ll automatically join and you’ll have to go through the whole process again.

Once the new KoalaSafe was installed, I thought my kids were going to high five me for making the Internet so much faster! Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, my daughter said it was SO MUCH WORSE. Our house is not that big, so even though her bedroom is upstairs, it’s probably less than 15 yards away from the router. She was complaining that the new KoalaSafe was so much slower, that she couldn’t FaceTime her friends anymore and so weak that the WiFi would keep dropping and she would find herself using up her precious cellular data inadvertently. What was happening?

So, once I had some time to investigate, I tested WiFi speeds using the regular WiFi and KoalaSafe WiFi from her room and she was right — the speeds were atrocious. I used Google’s tool. If you Google “Speed Test”, a widget will come up that allows you to quickly test the speed of your connection. It gives you a download and upload speed. Regular WiFi gave me 51Mbps download speed and 55Mbps Upload speed. KoalaSafe Dome was giving 4Mbps download and right around 1Mbps upload speed. Awful.

So, I appealed to customer support. They suggested that I move the KoalaSafe router farther from my regular router. That didn’t do anything. Then they suggested I manually change the channel that the KoalaSafe router was using — usually the channel is chosen automatically. They suggested changing the channel to 1, 7, or 11. It’s possible that this picked up the speed slightly, but we are talking fractions of a Mbps, so not enough to make any difference.

I was about to send the Dome back and revert back to the old KoalaSafe, BUT I decided to try one last thing — a WiFi extender. Koalasafe has several on their website listed as compatible with their system. I ordered the first one on the list from Amazon for $35: Netgear AC750.

Once It came, I installed it. It is a dual band WiFi extender which means it creates two different networks: one for the 2.4Ghz band and one for the 5Ghz band. Here is what that means based on my extremely limited understanding of this technology. These communication bands carry WiFi traffic through the air. The 2.4Ghz band has maximum speeds of up to 450-600Mbps. It is also really crowded since it is used for more than WiFi traffic — so like your cordless phone and baby monitor are probably also using this band. It has long waves that are good for going through walls and giving a wider network. The 5Ghz band has higher maximum speeds — it can go up to 1300Mbps. This band is less crowded, so it IS more stable, but the range is smaller . . . .