Hub 3 Wifi problems

[logabex]

Hi

My hub 3 wifi keeps dropping out intermittently. It will be fine for up to an hour and then the SSID disappears for a couple of minutes. I've tried factory resetting it a few times and it still does it, but I can't see any useful logs to show it happening.

To my mind it needs replacing but based on my and other people's experience I think that will be a long and joyless process.

Can anyone suggest some way I can capture evidence or some magic form of words I can use to persuade VM of my problems?

[jbrennand]

See this
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Firstly... can we check… are the 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 to help diagnose whether it is just a wifi issue or it could be network connection/Hub related?

What are the various Hub lights showing/doing when this happens if a Hub3 is the base light a steady white(ish) or flashing green?
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You could also try this first....
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If you haven't done this already - try it first - it helps sort some Hub3/4/5 wifi issues for some devices.
Go into the Hub’s settings. Type in  http://192.168.0.1  into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it). Then in Advanced>wireless signal >smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or “Smart Wifi” box and save settings.  May be different pathways and wording on the 3 Hub types
Then, go to advanced>wireless signal>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just type over to change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - Billybob2 & Billybob5) Try to avoid spaces and periods in the SSID names as they can cause issues with certain devices. Use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want each device to connect to… individually from the "available networks" list on each of your devices. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.
All things being equal, 5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less congestion/interference (and is better for iDevice speeds than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and will be needed when the 5 GHz drops out of range and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one. 

You should also use a wifi analyser App (or Airport Utility on iOS) to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but it wont help if there is other interference.
See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

[logabex]

Hi

Thanks for replying, and sorry for the delay getting back to you - I've been away from home for a bit.

I have checked that an ethernet connected device works fine during the wifi dropouts, and the lights on the hub stay as normal (one white and nothing else).

I have also used a wifi analyser app to watch what happens when it drops out and both the 2.4 and 5G networks are disappearing from the list of APs. It looks like the 5G comes back a bit quicker. The time taken seems to vary from a few seconds to over a minute.

Still sounds to me like the wifi parts of the hub are failing and it needs replacing.

Cheers

Tony.

[jbrennand]

Could be...or it may be like our wifi which totally drops out as soon as our new Panasonic microwave oven is switched on. Comes back on at the "ping" 🙂

That is - interference from an external source could be causing it too.

[logabex]

Not in my case unfortunately. It goes off when I'm just sitting working on my laptop and nothing else is happening.

[jbrennand]

There was athread a year or so ago where a customers Wifi wa dropping every night at ~ 9.02pm. Bottom line was it coincided with the automatic street light outside his house turning on.

Moral is - external influences can affect your wifi. That said you should call VM and see what they say about it

[Natalie_L]

Hi logabex, 

Thank you for reaching out to us here on the Community. 

I am very sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with your WiFi service. 

I would like to check some power levels from our side so I am going to pop you over a private message to grab a few more details. 

This will be available via the purple envelope on the top right of this page. 

Speak soon, 

[Kain_W]

Hi there logabex,

Natalie is currently out of office so I've assigned this to myself to get further updates.

I've dropped you a PM so we can discuss further.

Regards,