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Poor Wifi Signal and Dropouts

Pugzillah
Joining in

Hi,

 

I have been told to come here and state my problems after troubleshooting with virgin all day with no resolution.

Im currently working from home as I guess many people are, the wifi in my house is terrible, unless you are in the room where the router is located you will not be able to use it. It’s the same hub 3 that we got three years ago when choosing virgin as our supplier. 
Around the house it’s easier to just have wifi off on the phone as it just refuses to work even when showing a full signal. Found myself pinhole rebooting every two days just to get a bit of signal from it. 

I would appreciate any help on this matter as it’s not far from going into modem mode and me having to reach into my own pocket (even though I pay for a service) to get a router that will actually supply me a connection around my home. 

Chris 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
Yes you will have to reconnect every device which is a bit tiresome.

But you would only do it once 🙂

There are lots of Apps for scanning - but strangely these are almost all for Android - I have never found a good one for Apple - but I use the Apple Airport Utility which has an inbuilt scanning function. But as I have used Apple Airports to provide my wifi for >20 years - I am not sure if the Airport Utility works for the Hub or other routers - it may be worth a try but I suspect it wont.

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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.

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

6 REPLIES 6

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
If it is a wifi only issue, then on a Hub3, you can try separating the SSID's of the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi bands by renaming them in the settings and at the same time switch off "channel optimisation" apply and save the settings. All wifi devices will 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 Hub3 users get better wifi performance - but its still no substitute for getting better kit 🙂

To address the wifi, VM now supply “wifi Pods” (not “boosters”). Pods are free to customers on 1GB or Ultimate Oomph packages - is that you?

If not you will be charged £5/month. Its a simple solution and should work for you. However, as you have identified, you would soon pay off that cost by buying a "better" wireless solution that will be yours to own and use forever but it isn’t the simple plug and play option of the Pod(s).

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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.

I have thought about separating the bands, what items should I be looking to run on 2.4 and 5? I know some are more suited to one than the other.

I’m on the 200 package so the booster pods would not apply to me but I have seen versions of this from other companies that may be worth looking at in the long run perhaps. 

In the room with the router I get great signal and performance but step 15ft from that and it’s basically no signal at all. 

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

The combined SSID should work just fine - it is used in many other wireless routers/Mesh systems etc, however it does seem to cause some problems for some devices that don't seem to "switch" seamlessly between them.

5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less interference (and is better for iDevices ) than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one (like old printers, doorbells, cameras, CH controllers etc)

So as a rule of thumb 5GHz is always the best one to connect to assuming your device can do that as there will be less interference than in the overused older 2.4 one.

Also as an example, my Macbook Air and iPhone7 both get 220mbps on my Vivid200 wifi connection (and 220 on ethernet of course). However, on wifi, they only get that when I put them onto the 5GHz network. Sat in the same spot if I then flick them over to the 2.4GHz network, they max out at 70-80mbps (others on here get even lower [<50] on their set ups) - it's just the limitations of the technology!

My 2 bands are always separated and as my devices are all Apple they do the seamless switching for themselves - i.e. if I go outside to an area where the 5GHz drops out they just switch to the 2.4 one without any glitches.


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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.

Interesting to know, I may look at separating these tonight and see if that fixes my issues, all phones in the household are iDevices so I will make sure the they are prioritised to join the 5Ghz channel. I will have to find a method to scan the SSID so I can choose the best bands to join. 

Only issue with altering all this is as you say having to log everything back in again, I have doorbell, camera system and other items in the house that will all need to be reconfigured. 

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
Yes you will have to reconnect every device which is a bit tiresome.

But you would only do it once 🙂

There are lots of Apps for scanning - but strangely these are almost all for Android - I have never found a good one for Apple - but I use the Apple Airport Utility which has an inbuilt scanning function. But as I have used Apple Airports to provide my wifi for >20 years - I am not sure if the Airport Utility works for the Hub or other routers - it may be worth a try but I suspect it wont.

--------------------
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.

Ayisha_B
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi Pugzillah,

 

Welcome to our community and thanks for posting. Really sorry to hear that you're having issues with our Wi-Fi services, and that our agents have not provided your with the support you require.

 

As our valued member @jbrennand has already given some amazing advice, we would suggest giving that a go and see how you get on. 

 

Let us know if you have any further issues. 

 

 

Ayisha_B
Forum Team

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