cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Intermittent iPhone, Apple MacBook & HP Printer connections to wifi

StevieD3
Joining in

I signed up with Virgin Broadband about a month ago.

I added two wifi pods to my Hub 3 to expand the mesh network to all parts of the house, and that resulted in a strong signal everywhere with no blackspots.

However, I found that my iPhone and Apple MacBook would often be connected with full signal but no download connectivity.  Often the iPhone would only connect to the internet for browsing/ using apps if I switched off wifi and used my mobile signal instead.  My Apple Mac would often be connected to the wifi network and have no download speed when checking with ‘SpeedTest’.  I also had intermittent issues printing to my HP Printer as well.

After a lot of trial and error I have fixed the issue, so sharing the solution here:

Simply log in to the Hub admin on 192.168.0.1 (the password is on the underside of the Hub).

Click on “Advanced Settings” in the left hand navigation

Click on “security”

Click on “MAC filtering”

Scroll down to the section titled “When would you like your MAC filtering to be active”

The “Always On” check box was ticked.  I think this was the issue.  You don't want it on.

So I ticked the box “I only want to restrict internet access at”, and then the box “Different times on different days of the week”

I left all the blocks blank expect for an hour at 2am on Sunday morning as I think I had to have at least one time blocked.

Then clicked “Apply changes”.

Since doing this I’ve not had a single drop out on an apple device.  My HP printer is always visible and available.  I believe it is down to the way apple devices change their MAC address, and the Hub blocks the devices with MAC filtering on if the MAC address changes.  From what I’ve read MAC filtering is not essential, and someone determined to access your network can easily get around MAC filtering, so I don’t think this causes any security issues.

Hope that helps anyone else in the same situation - it was driving me mad and I was close to giving up with Virgin broadband.

0 REPLIES 0