Virgin Media Community

[jpan1989]

Hello,

I've been on Virgin Broadband since November 2020 now and a few times a week at least I will experience unexplained internet outage for a few minutes before it generally fixes itself. If I reset the router this can sometimes be a fix sometimes the outage recurs shortly after.

Today this has caused me a major problem because I had to attend a very important interview, and the outage literally happened 2 minutes from the start of the interview which caused tremendous stress until I managed to do the interview by telephone instead.

I have reset the router many times but this is clearly not a long-term fix.

Please could a member of staff check my area to see if there are any area issues and let me know if so and how and when it can be resolved?

Many thanks indeed.

[jbrennand]

Can we just check summat. You say unexplained "internet outages" - how do you distinguish that from simple wifi dropouts?

Are your devices connected by ethernet cable or wifi? If wifi, do you see the same outages when you test on an ethernet cable connected device? What Hub model do you have and what are the various lights on it showing/doing when the outages happen?

When you say "reset the router" do you mean yo have "pinhole reset" it - or just "rebooted" it?

To check for issues in your postcode call... 0800 561 0061

[jpan1989]

Thank you for your response. I don't pretend to know the source of the problem, which is why I have posted here. Answers to your questions below in bold.

- If it is indeed the router then that is pretty disappointing for a router that is only 3 months old. Do other users have a better experience after upgrading the router?

- If it is not the router then what is it?

- I have not tested ethernet cable as I do not have any devices that can connect to cable. 

Thanks

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@jbrennand wrote:
Can we just check summat. You say unexplained "internet outages" - how do you distinguish that from simple wifi dropouts?T
The wifi on my devices remains connected, but I cannot access the internet.

Are your devices connected by ethernet cable or wifi? If wifi, do you see the same outages when you test on an ethernet cable connected device? What Hub model do you have and what are the various lights on it showing/doing when the outages happen?
- All devices via WIFI - I have no devices that can connect via cable at present
- HUB3, during outages just the white power light is on.

When you say "reset the router" do you mean yo have "pinhole reset" it - or just "rebooted" it?
- Plug and unplug

[jbrennand]

If the bottom light remains solid white it suggests that the network connection is still fine and its looking like it may just be due to a wifi issue. Can you possibly check on an ethernet connection - ALL devices can do so with a suitable RJ45(ethernet) - to - "any port you device actually has' adaptor.

That will help determine whether its a wireless only issue (Interference in your location separate from your Hub?) - if so - that requires a different solution.

[blockfire]

This also started happening to me at the start of January, I have a hub 3 and has been perfect for many years until now. Everything connected to ethernet is not affected its only the devices connected to WIFI, its like the WIFI resets itself for a couple minutes and fixes itself. On the Hub the bottom light is always white but then the WIFI green light will go solid and then start flickering for a couple minutes until it goes off and all devices work again.

Normally I only notice it around 2 or 3 times a day but still annoying.

[jbrennand]

Put the Hub into modem mode and use your own better quality equipment

[blockfire]

But its been fine for around 2 years and nothing has changed, so you think the router is on its way out?

[cholloway]

Hi.

This has been happening to me over the last month. I have been losing business because of it - there is no customer support online or over the telephone.

Quite frankly it's the worst customer service I've ever experienced. For a 'digital' company they are light years away from their competitors.

Does anyone one know how to get personal help with broadband connection? The text service is useless and so is the online help tools

I hope you solve your problem by the way. I feel your pain

Chris

[jbrennand]

Try this for the Hub3 it often helps. If not you would be best advised to ditch the Hub wifi and source your own better quality equipment.
__________________________

Go into the Hub3 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>smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box and save settings.  Then, go to advanced>wireless>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - xxxxx_2 & xxxxx_5) -- 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 to connect to individually from the "available networks" list on each device.  Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.

5 GHz is usually better and subject to less interference (and is better for iDevices ) than the 2.4 one - although this one has the better "range" and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one. 
You should also use a wifi analyser App 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.