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Tigsteroonie's avatar
Tigsteroonie
Dialled in
7 months ago

Connected but no Internet - only Chromebook!

I feel sure that this has to be something to do with Chromebooks, as it has now happened with two different (brands of) chromebook devices and with nothing else on our network.

Randomly and quite frequently, my Chromebook loses the ability to talk to the VM network - either "connected but no internet" or "captive portal". Sometimes switching wifi off/on will work, other times I have to restart; and sometimes if I just give up and put it aside, the chromebook reconnects with no intervention at all.

This doesn't happen to ANY other device in the house - we have different brands of mobile, a Windows laptop, a Mac laptop, CCTV and wifi cameras. We also have TP-Link booster devices with identical SSID to the main hub. I am very reluctant to change any settings on the VM Router (Hub4) because everything else is working just fine - it's only Chromebooks that seem to have the issue. I have rebooted the Router at least twice. 

I have no adblock, and although NordVPN is installed, it remains disconnected 99.9% of the time. Both the former and the current Chromebooks have been powerwashed, with no improvement. I had thought it was the adblock extension as i saw a minor improvement for a short while but the problem returned after a couple of days.

Does anybody have suggestions as to what else I can try?

13 Replies

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  • Tigsteroonie's avatar
    Tigsteroonie
    Dialled in
    7 months ago

    Just to add, my Chromebook is connecting to the main Hub and not to any TP-Link booster. I am sat 1.5m away from the Hub and probably have the best "line of sight" to it compared to all other devices that remain successfully connected.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    7 months ago

    VM's "Smart Wi-Fi" and "Auto Channels" are responsible for incompatibility issues and repeated disconnections.

    In the menu of the VM Hub menu :

    1) Disable "Smart Wi-Fi" aka "Wireless Channel Optimization"
    2) Set the 2.4GHz band to a fixed channel, use 1 or 6 or 11 only
    3) Set the 5GHz band to a fixed channel, use 36 or 44

    • Tigsteroonie's avatar
      Tigsteroonie
      Dialled in
      7 months ago

      Can VM updates reset that information, or does a reboot work as a reset?

      I had already disabled Wireless Channel Optimization a few weeks ago but checked after reading your response, and found it was back on. I had also switched the 2.4GHz to ch11 and found it was on ch6 ... Weird.

      Have followed your recommendations anyhoo. Switched off the optimization, 2.4GHz left on ch6, 5GHz to ch44. I'll report back. Many thanks for the reply.

  • Tudor's avatar
    Tudor
    Very Insightful Person
    7 months ago

    Yes, VM does reset some of the hubs parameters. One of the many reasons why I run and have always run my VM hubs in modem mode.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    7 months ago

    We have a Hub 3 and it is configured on manual channels as I've outlined.

    For months it will hold the settings, even after a random power cut it resumes unchanged.

    But every so often is get the wanderlust and the 2.4GHz channel changes.

    In Router mode we are never going to be totally free from the nuisance effects of VM's Wi-Fi policy.

  • Tigsteroonie's avatar
    Tigsteroonie
    Dialled in
    7 months ago

    Thank you, it's been 9 hours and my connection hasn't dropped in that time, so I've marked your answer as the most helpful - it's that 'wireless channel optimization" that is presumably moving the connection around with my Chromebook unable to keep up. 

    When it happens again (as it sounds likely), I shall check the Hub settings first to see if that option has 'reset' before returning to this forum for further help.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    7 months ago

    "wireless channel optimization"  does not re-enable on our Hub 3, it just the 2.4 band that shifts occasionally the Hub 3 even has the cheek to display the revised channel it has chosen, once selecting 13 which not all devices support.

    Do be aware that the VM Connect app will constantly attempt to re-enable "wireless channel optimization",
    the only way to prevent this is to uninstall the VM Connect app from ALL devices in the home.

  • Tigsteroonie's avatar
    Tigsteroonie
    Dialled in
    7 months ago

    Now that is interesting about the VM Connect app. It's only installed the once  in our household, on my own phone.

    Unfortunately although wireless channel optimization hasn't re-enabled, the issues have returned with my Chromebook. I had about 24 good hours before it started to drop the connection again [nothing else changed, no other devices affected]. 

  • Tigsteroonie's avatar
    Tigsteroonie
    Dialled in
    7 months ago

    Bumping this for the weekend crowd to see if anybody else has ideas of what to check/change, thanks.

    • Ilyas_Y's avatar
      Ilyas_Y
      Forum Team (Retired)
      6 months ago

      Hey Tigsteroonie Thanks for reaching out to us on here. 👋🏽

      I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the Chromebook connecting, 😢
      If all other devices are connecting and not experiencing this issue, it would indicate possibly a device issue itself.

      Does this happen on any other network?
      How is it when wired in?

      Let us know.

      Kind regards,
      Ilyas.

  • Tigsteroonie's avatar
    Tigsteroonie
    Dialled in
    6 months ago

    (1) It happened with the Chromebook before this one - a different make. I actually replaced that Chromebook because I thought its Wifi was on the fritz. Nope, turns out that it's an issue with the Chrome OS and VM Hub interface.

    (2) I don't have access to another network, unless I use my mobile phone and its limited data package.

    (3) I don't have a long ethernet cable to run from the Hub to the Chromebook, which itself doesn't have a network port so I'd need some kind of adapter too.

    I stress again that nothing else in the house has this problem - not Android phones, not the iPhone, not Windows laptops, not the wifi cameras, not the Roku box ... Only the Chromebook(s). 

    When it fails (as it just did, I had to reboot again), it tells me that it "can't find Gateway". 

    Looks as though my choices are either to test with the mobile phone as a hub (and it could take hours for a failure to manifest, or it could be immediate, who knows!) or ditch using Chromebooks, which would be a shame. Oh and I've tried rebooting the VM Hub, that didn't help.

    I am amazed that nobody else seems to be reporting this problem, given that I've had it with two different Chromebooks now.

    Thank you for responding, btw.

    • svmiddleton's avatar
      svmiddleton
      Settling in
      6 months ago

      My wife has a Lenovo ChromeBook, and we have recently been experiencing the same issue. As it is the wife's, there is some pressure and frustration on her behalf, and now mine, as we are experiencing the same issue.

      Investigation wise, this is ONLY happening to the ChromeBook. I can see that it initially connects to the Wifi / Router, and after about 7 seconds drops out with the "cant connect to Gateway". The setup is with the VM router setup in MODEM Mode, with WiFi provided by a Draytek Router. this happens whether in Auto Channel Negotiation, or whether fixed on channels 2, 6 or 11 as suggested above. This issue is reproducible 100%.

      In testing, I can connect it via Mobile Hotspot on mobile phone to Vodafone and O2 with NO issues, browsing all sites, etc., NO fixing of WiFi channels.

      To confirm whether it is the router and its Auto Negotiation of Channels, I have also taken the ChromeBook into the office where I have an identical Draytek router. To confirm this operates in Auto Channel mode, and is connected to BT as the ISP through the BT router also operating in Modem modem. The Chromebook connects and functions perfectly with NO issues.

      On a separate thread on Reddit, "asus_chromebook_flip_cant_connect...", the final post was "Turned out not to be the Chromebook or the router but the internet service provider". "Solution was to ask the ISP to switch from Dual Stack Lite to Dual Stack. This solved the problem completely".

      As to whether that is possible I'm not aware, but presently the ChromeBook is useless at home.

      The Chromebook is up to date, and ALL other devices in the house connect OK. It's not possible to connect it via LAN cable as no port.

      As BT / OpenReach have just supplied Broadband to the area I'm investigating price and options. 

      • Vikki_M's avatar
        Vikki_M
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        6 months ago

        Hi svmiddleton,

        We're very sorry to hear about the service issues you're having.

        For us to run checks on our side and pull accurate data from the hub, we'd require the hub to be in router mode with no third party routers connection, for at least 24 hours.

        If you're happy to do so, please let us know and we can take from there.

        Please pop back to us when you can.