Poor connection

[Koi]

Hi. First Post but would appreciate some help. 8wk ago my WiFi started acting up, dropping connected devices (smart plugs mostly), regularly kicking off our phones and the signal whilst as fast as ever stopped carrying so far through the house.

We have installed no new devices or made other changes.

Virgin tell me the signal is fine and will not listen even after a dozen phone calls. Can only get 90% reliable connectivity in same room as router, more like 40% in other rooms.

Tried the connect app when my phone had no signal at all and couldn't search Internet... It told me the signal was great. A clear lie. My mobile browsing was turned off.

Carried out all troubleshooting on Virgin site and even some others. Still really poor.

Does anyone have any suggestions. Clear Virgin are not interested. Ready to leave them. 

[Koi]

Spoiler
Hi Zoie_p


Thanks for your message.


This issue has been on-going for around 11 weeks now and started suddenly after an evening of outage in my area. I have rebooted the router scores of times, gone through the technical support from your help desk and all of the advice on your website. None of these have made any difference. We still have multiple devices being routinely kicked off the network and devices that connect reconnect. All of this after Virgin contacted me to advise that they were making changes to improve the service in our area... Importantly you made some changes locally and my service has deteriorated. 

I've turned to the forum as Virgin have to date offered no practical advice beyond re-booting my router again or telling me that it must be a change within the house although I can confirm that no new devices have been introduced, no new changes made to any devices, no new routers nearby etc. I would welcome a phone call from someone who can offer practical / technical advice. 

There is very definitely an issue with the WiFi and I'm not sure why your tests do not show this, I can only recommend contacting me where I can explain what testing I have done to date. 

Thanks. 

[Koi]

Hi G0akc

Thanks for your continued support. 

The router uses many of the default settings applied by virgin and for more than 7 years everything was great. 

When reviewing 2.5 my router has an entry on both 1 and 11 and as the closest is the strongest signal usually between - 40 and - 50. There is one other router using channel 1 (virgin router) and a different router using 1 (BT router). Neither of these seem to have 2 entries like mine does. Is this an issue? 

It is my smart plugs that connect to the 2.5, at least 2 of them do as the other 2 were kicked off about 11 weeks ago and I've been unable to get them reconnected. This is issue 1.

The 5ghz signal uses 42 channel but again has 2 entries one with a narrower range than the other but both located between 38 and 50. There are 2 other router in the range however mine is by far and away the strongest signal. The 5ghz is used by our phones. Both will randomly get the no WiFi symbol and if the 4g is turned off will not get any WiFi. When this does happen it can be for seconds or will not reconnect for some minutes. This is issue 2. When happens I check the WiFi analyser and there are no more or no stronger competing signals (by this I mean that there doesn't appear to be any other competing WiFi that isn't there all of the time).

We don't own a microwave and next doors kitchen is on the far side of the house so quite a distance away. There are only adult children nearby so no baby monitors. No new devices on Bluetooth. 

A third issue that I think is related to issue 2 is that before the downtime 11 weeks ago the WiFi signal extended throughout the entire house with virtually no blackspots. We no often lose signal even in the next room just a couple of metres away. 

The speed is as fast as ever, just the reach of the signal. 

What I'm struggling to understand is why the sudden issues after "improvements" were made by Virgin and how they are still saying that there are no issues. 

[Koi]

Hi Zoie_P

Following my response to you I have not received any contact from anyone in the technical team, which is disappointing to say the least given to monthly cost of Virgin packages and the length of the issues experienced. 

I have tried suggestions from some helpful forum contributers unfortunately without success so far. I have restarted my router as you suggest and this still does not fix the issue. I have tested relevant fixes on my phone whilst leaving my wife's alone to test if fixed and no joy. 

I have also completed an extensive search of other forum posts. In all cases similar to mine it seems to have taken a visit from an engineer and a new router to resolve these issues. 

I would appreciate a swift response to this message. I cannot even walk into the next room and back with losing connection and needing either wait 10 or 15 min for the router to allow reconnection or being required to reset my phone WiFi to force reconnection. 

Thanks in advance

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us @Koi, I have found an issue with a few of your downstream channels that would need to be looked into by a technician.

I will send over a private message, so that we can confirm a few details and get this looked into further.

Regards,

Steven_L