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Hub 3 dropping wifi regularly

z80dan
On our wavelength

Hi,

Our Hub 3 drops wifi completely for about 5 minutes each month, seemingly at random times. Sometimes it'll happen a few times per month. All devices will lose their connection and then reconnect after the blip.

Most recently it happened yesterday and kicked me out of a work Teams meeting (very annoying) 😞

The Hub itself doesn't restart (current system uptime shows about 3 days). 2.4ghz and 5ghz have been separated, signal strength is great and automatic channel optimisation is off. Is this just a normal Hub 3 problem that would be resolved with either using it in modem mode or getting a Hub 5?

Thanks
Dan

11 REPLIES 11

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
See this
________

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 - is the base light a steady white(ish) or flashing green?

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John
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I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

z80dan
On our wavelength

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I've got a few devices connected directly to the ethernet ports on the hub and they don't drop out - i'm pretty certain it is a wifi only problem. I've not managed to spot the colour of the status light on the hub when it happens. I'm usually upstairs on a call trying to reconnect or or letting my colleagues know why i've suddenly disappeared mid conversation! Next time it happens i'll run downstairs and look. When a blip does occur all wifi devices are affected. For instance, my Teams conversation will drop and i'll look at my phone and see it is running on 4g. It's like the wifi networks just disappear.

I've just remembered that the speed of the wifi connection sometimes reduces hugely for no apparent reason (although this hasn't happened for a few months). Despite excellent signal strength a device (i.e. my PC) the connection will drop to ~5kbps. The router admin screen shows the cable connection is stable and, again, ethernet isn't affected. After restarting the router everything is back to normal.

I don't know if this suggests the router is faulty or if this is the general wifi unreliability on the hub 3 that people mention quite a lot.

Thanks,
Dan

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
OK for wifi only issues see this...
________________________
On a Hub3/4/5, you could first try separating the SSID's of the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi bands by renaming them in the settings At the same time switch off "channel optimisation/Smart wifi” and “ apply and save the settings. All wifi devices will now need reconnecting to the best SSID at each location. Also use a wifi scanning App to find the best wifi channels to use (just select and use channels 1,6,11 on 2.4GHz) - this often helps Hub users get better wifi performance - but its still no substitute for getting better kit 🙂

To address the wifi issues, VM now supply “wifi Pods” (no longer doing cheap and cheerless and poor value “boosters”). However, their Pods are only free to customers on the 1GB, Volt (or old Ultimate Oomph) packages - is that you? If so they are worth trying - they should work for you. VM Wifi is now “guaranteed” to 20 Mbps/room it’s now called… Wifi Max see.-

https://www.virginmedia.com/wifi-max

You can call  0800 064 3850 to order the first one - or follow instructions on that website - or just wait here for a VM person to respond in a day or two and they will sort the first one for you . If you call dont get fobbed off by the offshore CS agents' saying you aren’t eligible it will be £5 or £8 month - you are… and it wont be - just look on the webpage.

If not free to you… you will be charged £8/month (note - BT charge £10/mo for their whole home wifi solution). It’s a simple solution and should work for you. However, you would soon pay off that cost by buying your own wireless solution that will be yours to own and use forever, although the VM Pods should be a simpler option.

If you do want to invest in better equipment, you would need to get either a… (1) Mesh System, (2) Wireless router, (3) Wireless access point (4) A combination of (2,3).

£30-100 (that’s ~4->12 months of Max Pod rental) should sort it for most customers with an average property and usage.

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John
--------------------

I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

z80dan
On our wavelength

Hi,

I've already split the SSIDs of the 2.4 and 5ghz bands...it's something I usually do anyway. And i've switched off the channel optimisation...again, I don't think i've ever had an ISP supplied router where that didn't cause problems!

I am on a Volt pack and, funnily enough, recently renewed so got a mesh pod for free. I'm waiting for it to be delivered. Must admit, I wasn't too worried about signal strength or coverage...I was just interested to try it out.

I beginning to think investing in my own wifi router is probably the way to go. As you said, it'll be mine forever and then i'm not so reliant on the patchy kit that ISPs send out. Maybe a hub 5 would sort this issue but might well introduce other oddities.

Thanks,
Dan

Kain_W
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Many apologies for the issues faced z80dan,

Welcome back to the community.

From checking our service I can see that you have an appointment booked in.

Do let us know if the issues persist after that.

Take care,

Kain

z80dan
On our wavelength

Hi Kain,

The appointment was about something else (reburying the cable on our drive - which has been booked in to be sorted). Strangely the 2.4ghz band completely disappeared earlier (with the router admin screen just returning a generic "168.0.0.1 experienced a problem" error when i tried to change the settings on it). I've reset the router and the band is back...not sure if this is a sign of hardware failure?

The mesh pod arrived today and has been set up. I'll monitor things for now and get back to you if the wifi outages persist.

Thanks,
Dan

Hi z80dan, thanks for getting back to us.

Please do keep us updated with how your intermittent WiFi connection issue is going?  How have things been since you posted?  Have things improved?  Do you need us to take a look from our side?

Regards

Lee_R

z80dan
On our wavelength

Hi,

I think it's too early to tell. It's been about 5 days since the hard reset on the router and the problem occurs about once per month (sometimes more often).

Is it a big hassle to be sent a replacement router? Or does the current one need to be verified as being faulty?

Thanks,
Dan

Hi Dan, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one. 

In order to have a replacement router, we would need to verify the one you have as faulty. 

For now then it will be a case of continuing to monitor things and update us when you can. 

Many thanks, 

Kath_F
Forum Team

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