Intermittent wifi

[davedicko]

I have just upgraded my router because of poor wifi and get a lot of connectivity to my doorbell hit and miss,also getting a lot of playback errors on catch up programs,buffering etc,bandwidth problems,what is the problem virgin? it’s worse now than it was?please rectify,EE says it can connect up to 100 devices, i barely have 8!….Dave 🤓😡

[jbrennand]

By router - I assume you mean VM Hub - yes?

What VM hub are you now using? Was the old one working fine? Have you still got it?

[davedicko]

The hub 3 that I had was intermittent at best and was swapped for a hub 4, i was asked to return my old equipment 

[jbrennand]

OK can you give this a whirl first
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1) Do a Hub “pinhole reset” - first make sure the 2 passwords on the Hub sticker are still there and legible first ! Disconnect any ethernet cables from the Hub (leave the coax connected), and then with the Hub still "switched on" throughout, press pin in firmly with paper clip/SIM tray tool or similar "thin thing" and hold it firmly for at least 60 (a timed sixty) seconds, release the pin, leave for 5’ to stabilise - dont manually switch it off at any time. Passwords and SSID’s will reset to those on the sticker.

See if that sorts it. If not try this.....

2) 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.

[davedicko]

Did all that with the hub 3,hence the change,having had 4 strokes doing this is not an easy option,may have to wait for contact from Virgin Media (which is supposed to happen) possible mesh extensions are needed?…..we will see….. Dave 🤓

[jbrennand]

See this re the VM Pods
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VM now supply “wifi Pods” (no longer doing cheap and cheerless “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.

You do have to call in to order the first one (cant do it online the website is borked) - or try the web-chat or Whatsapp functions (that has worked for some) - 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 not… you will be charged £5/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.

[davedicko]

Thanks 🙏 very much for your help….Dave 🤓