Forum Discussion

HaydnS's avatar
HaydnS
Tuning in
4 months ago

Random disconnects Hub 5

I recently got upgraded to a Hub 5 and Gig1 fibre as part of a volt upgrade. I was previously on the M500 package with hub 3.0 and had similar issues, just not as frequently. I never mentioned it before as due to work commitments i had no time for online gaming and the issue went unnoticed. Since returning to online gaming i am getting frequent server disconnections and high packet loss. Speaking with the other half, she has since told me that the wifi generally drops out all the time and has always done this when i am at work and that devices around the home stop working such as smart lights, tvs (netflix gives a disconnect error) etc. Alexa responds "im having trouble connecting to the internet" and all our cameras go offline. It usually comes back again itself within 5 minutes, but it seems to be happening far too frequently and it's noticed more now I am at home. 

I have read through some other forums first and didn't find any advice that helped me. I have gone ahead and set up a BQM already. I had one of these before and noticed random ping spikes and packet loss but that issue resolved itself with issues in my local area fixed. It's now happening again so i've set up a new one today. 

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/cb268041ff4ecbe462a0e406e6748fc0b70c81f1

Whilst having a dig around with my equipment and following reconnect and quickstart guides, i've noticed the VM setup in my house isn't "standard". I don't have any wall sockets installed anywhere, just cables coming through the wall. The hubs have always been connected straight to the incoming cable. I connected onto this cable and it always worked so never thought of this being an issue as my property was listed as "quickstart" when i originally signed up. The exterior of my property has some kind of junction box with what looks like splitters for 4 VM connections in different rooms. I can see the cables externally on the house and they all penetrate into the building in different rooms. None of the rooms have VM boxes on the walls, apart from under the stairs where a singular black coax connects straight to the router and has always worked - so it's very confusing. I assume there are multiple disused connections as this property used to be rented. The incoming cable is wrapped in tape and has some sort of splitter connected to it. 

As we have always had random drop outs, now more noticeable when trying to game, i believe there could be an issue with the incoming cables to my property and/ or signalling after reading through other users posts. 

 

I have attached some photos as to how my router is connected and the external cracked open VM box. external vm boxincoming VM connection

For testing purposes, i am not using the router pictured and i am back on router mode on the hub 5, where issue still persists, which further makes me believe its an issue with the cabling or signalling. 

  • Hi HaydnS 

    Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

    Sorry to hear of the Broadband issues. From a diagnostic check, the Hub has been online for nearly 30 days. Can you unplug it for us, wait two minutes and then replug it back in?

    Also go round any wiring/cabling, check there are no kinks in it etc.

    If it's just a WiFi issue, can you also download the Connect App and run a wireless scan in the property?

    keep us posted.

  • jbrennand's avatar
    jbrennand
    Very Insightful Person

    See this...

    _________

    Firstly... Can we check… are your issues only evident on wifi connections or do you see them at the same times on devices connected on ethernet cables? If you don't know, can you check on one to help diagnose whether it is just a wifi issue or it could be network connection/Hub related?

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person

    If you are now the owner of the property and it is no longer "split" into separate rooms, I would get a VM engineer to sort out the cables.  For starters, that taped connection should be fixed, the un-used connection on the splitter should have a termination cap fitted.  As for the four way splitter, if you are only using one cable, it should also be removed, along with the other redundant cables.  The whole setup at the minute is liable to be creating "noise" on your incoming circuit.  The bare minimum as a stop gap would be fitting 75 Ohm termination caps on the non connected ends as a start ......

  • It's not just a Wi-Fi issue, when I drop packets its enough for my computers LAN connection to show as "no internet access" for a minute before it auto-reconnects. On the BQM I setup where the dropped packets show in red that's me disconnected completely (even though a few dropped packets shouldn't mean a full disconnect). 

     

    Yes - there is numerous cables. Some rooms have 2 which I assume at one point would've done TV boxes too.

    How do I get a VM engineer to remove all these redundant cables and splitter and just fit a singular wall socket? Will I have to pay for this even though it's not my fault? And could this be the cause of intermittent connection?

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person

      IMHO this cable "mess" should be fixed for free, as not only will noise ingress be affecting you, but possibly everyone connected to the same street cabinet.  Cables should not be left unterminated and I would have thought VM would be pleased at getting the chance to fix this? 

      Hopefully a VM Mod will pick this up in a day or two and discuss directly with you.