Connected to Router, no internet

[sprocket72]

Hello,

We've had Virgin Media as our broadband provider for many years.  I'm not one to complain often, but I have to be honest that we have never had a completely stable service.  But, to the point:

We re-joined on a new contract over the summer and was upgraded to a (I believe) a Hub 4.  It frequently drops out on ALL devices but my main issue is about two devices in particular.  All was working fine until an unexpected power cut about a week ago.  Since then I have had to reconfigure wireless for nearly all my devices (we have many connected to this Hub, laptops, desktops, security cameras and video doorbells as well as Alexa and Google Nest and a Wifi extension in her bedroom because the signal will not reach there.  I have them all back working now except two:  My daughters Xbox console and a new laptop we bought her for Christmas. Both of these devices will connect to the router but has no internet connectivity.  I have gone into the router settings but do not understand the technical aspects of the various settings, but saw nothing obvious.  It appears these two devices are being assigned IP addresses, but no internet.  Strangley, if I get close enough to the extension we have in her bedroom, it will connect.  That is not a solution has the signal is only good a few feet from from her room.  I have found numerous post on this exact topic, but all of them seemed to suggest changing the name of the wifi which I cannot do because EVERYTHING else will cease to work.

Can anyone help with this?  Calling support is useless.

Many thanks to anyone who can help.

Bob

[jb66]

I had same issue with my hub4 loosing sync to all my alexas randomly, I bought my own WiFi router used from ebay and its been a dream since 

[sprocket72]

Thank you taking the time to offer help.  However, after 8 years of purchasing services from Virgin and with the cost involved every month with 5 TiVo units, I don’t find “buy your own equipment “ a solution at all.  

There must be a solution. 

thanks again for your help

Bob

[Adduxi]

The "solution" is better wifi.  If you don't want to buy your own better networking kit, then VM will rent you additional wifi Pods.

The choice is yours, but I know what I would do.

[sprocket72]

Thank you again. I appreciate your time. But if that is true and that is my only option, the real solution is another supplier. 

thanks again. 

Bob. 

[Adduxi]

Bob,

With respect, I doubt if any ISP will provide a "full house" wifi experience without the need for additional kit..

VM have Pods, BT have Disks etc. etc.

You should have a look at a Mesh system perhaps?  They are relatively easy to install and several users of this Forum are great advocates.

I've never used any of the VM Hubs as routers, they go straight to Modem mode as I have my own networking kit.

[sprocket72]

You may be right, I don’t have enough technical knowledge to argue the point. But, covering the entire house was not my problem or the topic of my original post. I was connecting to the router just fine but it would not connect to the internet. I’ve done everything inside e Windows (which I hate with passion but it is my little girl’s preference). Windows reports the problem as a DNS issue within the router.   Surely there is a solution to that. Linux is my OS of choice, and that forum is my next stop.    As I mentioned in my original post, her Xbox has exactly the same issue. It will connect to the router, but not the internet. 

I have to say that when I sold this very pricey package from Virgin, had they told me I would need better equipment than theirs to get a stable service, my decision would have been quite different. 

Thsnks again

Bob. 

[jbrennand]

The two devices that wont connect but have been assigned IP addresses..... what are thos addresses (dont post them here !) - more specifically - are they "static" ones and are the in the same subnet range as the Hub's ? As all of your other devices must have addresses in range

if those two have a static ip address for some reason and they are out of the range.... then they simply wont connect

[sprocket72]

Hello, thank you.  They are both DHCP but the laptop seems to be assigned the same IP at each attempt. Her Xbox I will have to check.   

I know of

no reason they would have been changed to static.  

thank you again

Bob

[sprocket72]

Just a follow up to my posted issues from yesterday.  I got in touch with the Laptop retailer.  After 30 minutes on the phone with their tech team, no solution was found and they were convinced that the problem was the router, possibly with DNS server.  When I explained that all other devices attached to my network were working as intended,   I couldn't convince otherwise, so I (gulp!) Called Virgin support who in turn passed me off their "gadget" support team.  They refused to offer any help unless I signed up for 6-month contract for "gadget support".  By this point I was so frustrated that I simply agreed to it just to get this sorted.  

Well, as you may have guessed they couldn't sort it either, insisting it was the Laptop  After two hours on the phone I was no closer to a solution  

So, off I go for a fight with the retailer, who immediately was able to connect to their WiFi with no issue.  So, I took it home and restored the Laptop to factory settings and set it all up again.  As soon as it reached the setup screen to connect to a network, same exact issue   Connected to the router but not the internet.

One of my associates on a computing forums (Linux), whether it is correct or not, has suggested the ONLY plausible answer I have heard:  the router has somehow blacklisted the laptop's MAC address from the network adapter.  That would explain why virtually every other device I have connects with no issue and this brand new laptop will not.

I am by no means an expert so if anyone who has ever experienced this issue, I would love to hear the solution  you used.

Many thanks

Bob