Intermittent area signal

[Loggsie]

I'm hoping someone from VM will pick this up and organise accordingly.

I require a network engineer to take a look at my local cabinet and the cabling from the cabinet to my property.

Within the property the cabling, fittings and kit have been checked over twice on two separate call outs. On the second visit the amplifier and splitter from a removed TiVO box has been taken away and a filter added to stabilise the power range across channels.

I can see the improvement, but an issue remains. Whatever the cause to my underlying issue those visiting the property can not address, nor resolve the issue.

I don't have performance issues, but stability is an issue. It is making working from home unbearable with continuous disconnects because of an intermittent signal issue in the area, I'm having to rely on 5G for some tasks.

It seems my adjoining neighbour is also affected. Hence my request for a network engineer to visit and check/replace the cabling from/to the property. 

I would be grateful if someone could message and arrange.

Thanks

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @Loggsie 

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

I am so sorry that you have faced this issue with your service, can I just check, when previous engineers have been out to the property have they advised there may be some issues with the cabinet at all?

[Loggsie]

Hi Ashleigh,

They haven't no, however a couple of months back something in the cabinet blew and needed replacing, I suspect the same to have happened again as symptoms are identical albeit not as bad this time around.

Thanks

Paul

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for the reply @Loggsie 

The issues with the signal - are they Wi-Fi related or related to hard wired connections?
When these issues occur - do the lights on the hub drop out as well as all the devices?
Are you able to check that the RF cable (white one connected to the hub) is sealed in securely and tight.

Let us know.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[nodrogd]

I would think that you are either around 200 - 250 metres from the cabinet or have a large installation requiring further amplification. Cabinet amplifier failures do not normally result in ongoing problems. The new amplifier is pre-calibrated with the identical values to the one removed & tested off-site prior to installation, so performance should be the same. The fact that immediate neighbours have the same issue is symptomatic of the cabinet amp driving your lines at the absolute limit of it's capabilities. No doubt when the infrastructure was put in several decades ago it was considered uneconomic to add an additional cabinet to serve a handful of properties.

If the property has been fitted with an HDU (amplifier) & RG11 coax, there is not much else that can be done to improve the situation, apart from eventual replacement with fibre. Fibre upgrade is in the pipeline for all customers now & will be standard as of 2028.

[Loggsie]

It has been affecting all devices wired and wireless. 

No lights on the hub change, solid white light remains. RF cable is tool tightened. 

Having restarted the router with no resolution I performed a factory reset and reconfigured from scratch, as the backup config file fails to restore port forwarding rules. 

Stability is now normal, however a new issue has arisen the 2.4GHz frequency is enabled, broadcasting the SSID (differs to 5GHz) but not visible to any wireless compatible device. The 5GHz is however working as normal. The 2.4GHz frequency appears briefly upon a reboot/reset before disappearing again.

Router issue or firmware fault?

[Loggsie · Accepted solution]

Everything you say here is correct, consistent with distance from cabinet to property and reaffirmed by the VM engineer who visited.

He noted the power levels were implying the same and made some adjustments which has helped.

Docsis 3.0 is present and unless we upgrade to a 1GB package the fibre won't be installed prior to 2028 without asking.

I appear to have resolved my issue as outlined in my reply to Ilyas_Y.