2.4GHz WiFi grinds to a halt / unusable

[philnumbers]

Hello

I have an issue where my 2.4GHz WiFi connections grind to a halt and become unusable.

Ethernet and 5GHz are fine, speedy in fact and have no issues.

As far as I can tell the issue arises when our phones (iPhone 13 and 13 Pro) switch over to a 2.4 connection. Doesn't seem to happen to my Mac Book but maybe that is better at keeping the 5GHz connection?

I have a Hub 3 and have 2.4 & 5 both switched on with everything set to Auto / Enable Channel Optimization - I believe it has to be set like this for my plug in Virgin issued WiFi booster to work properly.

The greyed out channel on 2.4 shows Channel 6, I assume this is the channel it's using even though I can't manually change it. I have a Sonos system with various speakers, that is set to Channel 1.

Is poor 2.4 speed a known issue with Hub 3 and anything I can do to help fix it? I'm trying to get VM on the case but need to try again tomorrow on their chat so thought I'd ask here in the meantime. And I'm talking very slow, like a single simple page will take minutes to load, videos in YT / FB etc won't load.

Cheers

[Adduxi]

However with 2 separate WiFi systems in close proximity there will be some contention perhaps? I’m still not convinced the Intelligent WiFi / Pods are not an issue. 

[Sephiroth]

There is no contention between Channel 1 & Channel 6.

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @philnumbers 

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to the community forums, it's great to have you here. 

I am so sorry that you have faced an issue with your connection and thank you again for posting. I have taken a look on our side and I cannot see any issues that would be causing this. Can you post your Hub status and logs? How to do this;
• Please go to http://192.168.0.1 (or http://192.168.100.1 - if in modem mode),
• Don't log in, click on 'router status'
• Copy/paste the data from each of the tabs as text into a 'REPLY' as opposed to 'QUICK REPLY'. Please do not include your MAC address.
Also, set up a 'Broadband Quality Monitor'. This will monitor the state of your connection and record any network dropouts etc
Give it a while to gather data and then click 'Share Live graph' and paste the 'Direct Link' into the forum
 

[philnumbers]

Hi @Ashleigh_C thanks for the reply. As requested below, I've deleted any MAC addresses.

Worth noting is that it is ONLY the 2.4GHz connected devices that slow down and when they are running slow any wired devices / computers are fine and as far as I can tell any 5GHz connected devices too.

(I have tried to contact Virgin via phone and web chat, web chat switched me to WhatsApp but then never actually contacted me through it).

Acquired Downstream Channel (Hz)	227000000	Locked
Ranged Upstream Channel (Hz)	49600000	Locked
Provisioning State	Online

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

1	227000000	2.4	38	256 qam	12
2	235000000	2.2	38	256 qam	13
3	243000000	2.4	38	256 qam	14
4	251000000	2.2	40	256 qam	15
5	259000000	2.2	40	256 qam	16
6	267000000	2.2	38	256 qam	17
7	275000000	2.2	40	256 qam	18
8	283000000	2.4	38	256 qam	19
9	291000000	2.4	38	256 qam	20
10	299000000	2.5	38	256 qam	21
11	307000000	2.2	38	256 qam	22
12	315000000	2.2	40	256 qam	23
13	323000000	2.2	38	256 qam	24
14	331000000	2.2	40	256 qam	25
15	339000000	2	38	256 qam	26
16	347000000	1.7	38	256 qam	27
17	355000000	1.2	38	256 qam	28
18	363000000	0.9	38	256 qam	29
19	371000000	0.5	38	256 qam	30
20	379000000	0.2	38	256 qam	31
21	387000000	0	38	256 qam	32
22	395000000	0	38	256 qam	33
23	403000000	-0.5	38	256 qam	34
24	411000000	-0.7	38	256 qam	35

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1	Locked	38.9	70	0
2	Locked	38.9	86	0
3	Locked	38.6	89	0
4	Locked	40.3	118	0
5	Locked	40.3	106	0
6	Locked	38.9	119	0
7	Locked	40.3	113	0
8	Locked	38.9	99	0
9	Locked	38.6	110	0
10	Locked	38.9	100	0
11	Locked	38.9	106	0
12	Locked	40.3	109	0
13	Locked	38.9	120	0
14	Locked	40.3	81	0
15	Locked	38.6	84	0
16	Locked	38.6	101	0
17	Locked	38.9	156	0
18	Locked	38.9	189	0
19	Locked	38.6	286	0
20	Locked	38.6	276	0
21	Locked	38.9	563	0
22	Locked	38.6	633	0
23	Locked	38.6	815	0
24	Locked	38.9	949	0

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

1	49600000	45.5	5120	64 qam	1
2	23599932	44.5	5120	64 qam	5
3	30100000	44.8	5120	64 qam	4
4	36600000	45	5120	64 qam	3
5	43100000	45.3	5120	64 qam	2

 

[philnumbers]

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	0	0	20	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	10	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	9	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	12	0
5	ATDMA	0	0	8	0

General Configuration

Network access	Allowed
Maximum Number of CPEs	1
Baseline Privacy	Enabled
DOCSIS Mode	Docsis30
Config file	cmreg-vmdg505-bbt060+voc-b.cm

Primary Downstream Service Flow

SFID	986
Max Traffic Rate	287500061
Max Traffic Burst	42600
Min Traffic Rate	0

Primary Upstream Service Flow

SFID	985
Max Traffic Rate	27500061
Max Traffic Burst	42600
Min Traffic Rate	0
Max Concatenated Burst	42600
Scheduling Type	BestEffort

Network Log

Time Priority Description

19/08/2024 13:44:42	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
19/08/2024 01:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
18/08/2024 23:02:17	notice	LAN login Success;CM-MAC=;CM-VER=3.0;
15/08/2024 15:23:4	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
15/08/2024 13:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MACCM-VER=3.0;
12/08/2024 02:34:2	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MACCM-VER=3.0;
12/08/2024 01:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
11/08/2024 12:55:29	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
08/08/2024 13:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
05/08/2024 03:10:45	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
05/08/2024 01:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
01/08/2024 16:22:7	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
01/08/2024 13:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC CM-VER=3.0;
29/07/2024 01:58:22	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
29/07/2024 01:02:50	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
26/07/2024 03:50:14	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
25/07/2024 23:12:40	Error	DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
24/07/2024 01:32:29	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
24/07/2024 01:23:11	critical	Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;
24/07/2024 01:21:15	Warning!	Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=CM-VER=3.0;

[Sephiroth]

---

@philnumbers wrote:

<SNIP>

I have a Hub 3 and have 2.4 & 5 both switched on with everything set to Auto / Enable Channel Optimization - I believe it has to be set like this for my plug in Virgin issued WiFi booster to work properly.

<SNIP>

 I should have noticed this earlier.  Your modem stats and BQM have no bearing on the matter - especially as you've confirmed it's a 2.4GHz wireless problem.

Presumably, your devices would only be on the 2.4GHz channel when working off the (wretched) pod.  And there's you problem.  The (wretched) pod isn't working properly - assuming the degradation occurs when you are in close proximity to the (wretched) pod.

What do you think?

[Steven_L · Accepted solution]

Thanks for coming back to us philnumbers, have you been able to check for issues with the WiFi pod turned off as you mentioned earlier in the thread? We can then determine if the pod is causing the issues that you're experiencing.

Kind Regards,

Steven_L

[philnumbers]

No I haven't managed to yet, haven't been around much and I'm away for a week or so now.

I will follow this up when I'm back though as it's still be playing up this last week.

[philnumbers]

So I'm back home now and have tried with the WiFi Pod turned off and have still had the slow down issues.

I've also tried leaving the Pod on and then turning it off once the slowdown happens - the connection on the phone doesn't get interrupted and it doesn't speed up after switching off the Pod.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey philnumbers, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear this.

I've run some tests and the connection is looking great on our end, how has it been over the last few days?