Advised internet slowdown/dropout due to poor wireless connection - advice please

walwyn1978

Looking for suggestions/confirmation, thank you in advance.

Switched from standard broadband to fibre almost 4 months ago. Same provider as before. No issues when standard BB.

Since fibre came online have experienced slowdown/lack of internet connection at irregular times, can be 5-6 times a day or can be 2 days with no issues. Slowdown/dropout lasts up to 20 mins but usually about 2-4 mins.

Having gone round and round the houses with the ISP (line tests, speed tests, being told to change the phone point, being told the router was faulty so being sent another one, changing wireless channels, etc) they have now concluded that the service into the house is fine and it is our wireless connection is the issue and 'this is outside their Quality of Service requirements'

They say the only solution is to buy a 'more powerful router' at my own expense (and extenders, but we already have them)

For obvious reasons they cannot guarantee this will improve things.

I see two options:
1) buy this 'bigger' router, with no guarantee of success, spending more money, but potentially getting a working fibre service
2) try and negotiate with them to get out of my contract with no penalty to go back to standard broadband with them, ideally with a refund of the difference between the costs of fibre/cost of what I would have paid for broadband over the last 4 months

Thoughts welcomed from anyone else who has had this problem of 'poor wireless connection' and whether solution 1 worked/if you think solution 2 might work/anything obvious I've missed that I could do.

Thank you.

Neil_Jones

Who's internet are you on? What router have they sent you?

Are you actually connecting devices wirelessly - phones, tablets, laptops? What happens if you run a computer with a network cable, does the internet itself still drop out when connected via a cable?

The fact you have wireless issues in the house probably isn't ground to break a contract, as their obligation is to get it into your house stable - what happens after that isn't their problem, so to speak. Since you've upgraded to Fibre its plausible you had a new router sent to you?

That being said, wireless issues are almost always caused by co-channel interference - we live in an increasingly wireless world where more and more devices work in the same part of the wireless spectrum - wireless routers, phones, tablets, wireless computers, wireless senders/receivers for utilities, doorbells and what not. Add to this wireless overspill, the same sort of things from neighbours all around and you can see why its easy enough to have problems.

walwyn1978

We're with Plusnet and it's their standard fibre Hub One.

Yes, they sent one hub and then a second one because they thought the first one might be faulty.

We're connecting both wirelessly and the laptop has an Ethernet cable into it, still having the same issues.

In terms of co-channel interference, anything obvious I can do? I've already moved around the wireless channel spectrum to no avail so far.

JJ_Egan

The lap top is what you need to test with .
Its Ethernet cable so rules out WiFi problems .
Is the router near the master socket and how long is the Ethernet cable .

walwyn1978

Router is approx 30 cm from master socket, Ethernet cable is approx 1.5 feet long

almillar

If you can truthfully say that the dropouts are still happening with the laptop plugged in via ethernet, WiFi turned off on the laptop just in case, and the router is plugged into the master socket (generally at the front door), it's not a WiFi problem. You may be able to take half of the front off your master socket, and plug the router into that - if that fixes the problem, then the blame lies with your house phone wiring. Otherwise it's your router or line. If you have been able to test this with 2 routers, 2 faulty routers seems unlikely...

JJ_Egan

Does the BT wholesale test work for PN ??
Further diagnostics from that test gives your Internet profile figure .
http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

teddysmum

walwyn1978 wrote: »

We're with Plusnet and it's their standard fibre Hub One.

Yes, they sent one hub and then a second one because they thought the first one might be faulty.

We're connecting both wirelessly and the laptop has an Ethernet cable into it, still having the same issues.

In terms of co-channel interference, anything obvious I can do? I've already moved around the wireless channel spectrum to no avail so far.

I guessed this as we had exactly the same problem, but on changing to PlusNet with ADSL. Each person you spoke to gave a different reply; some agreeing they could see a fault and others saying they couldn't see anything.


I pestered frequently and was sent a new router, had channels changed and some other office based interference. I knew it wasn't a computer causing the problems as they affected all three, so was asked to try using a wired connection and finally agreeing to switch off the house phone, during agreed hours, so they could run tests, which proved that the phone was not causing problems.


The person asking me to do the phone test, then did something and from then I had very few drop outs but speeds were 2Mbps slower than with the previous supplier.


I decided to put up with this, then leave at the end of the minimum term as they were keeping to the contract ie giving more than 2Mbps.


However,just before I was going to cancel,I replied to apost similar to your,on the PlusNet forum and one of their staff sent a message saying he had altered something which should help and the speeds went up to almost the ones before joining, so with a good retention deal I have stayed and the speeds have stayed higher.


I suggest posting on their forum and waiting for staff to reply, as this is one area where they have improved the service.

walwyn1978

Thank you all.

Yes, it's the BT wholesale test I'm using.

Ive taken the front off the master socket and run it that way, it made no difference to the issue.

I'll experiment more with trying to move around the bands and see if that affects it any. May just be a wireless issue (we have wireless printer, doorbell, etc) but I'd hope that woujdvt affect it this badly.

Teddysmum, good idea, will try that

WaxiesDargle

I had exactly the same with Plusnet, did all the test, different channels, test with the cable ect no difference...they then said it must be the router and that I had to pay for a new one

I'm out of contract.....bye bye Plusnet

walwyn1978

WaxiesDargle wrote: »

I had exactly the same with Plusnet, did all the test, different channels, test with the cable ect no difference...they then said it must be the router and that I had to pay for a new one

I'm out of contract.....bye bye Plusnet

Have you changed yet, and do you still have the same issues?