Virgin Media Community

[whyslownet]

Hi, 

I live in a house with a fair share of devices connected to the WIFI (around 12-16). We are on 100mbs connection. We have experienced wifi dropouts across all devices for a very long time (up to a year). After calling Virgin customer service multiple times and them stating the same: "You have a lot of devices connected, this might be causing issues" "You have another hardware which is not compatible with Hub 3.0 (I use a powerline adapter)", I finally received a new Hub 3.0. But I noticed the new one also has the same issues.

My home setup

- Hub 3.0 downstairs in a bedroom.
- Powerline adapter plugged into the hub. I use the TP-Link powerline adapter upstairs in my study during work, as the WIFI dropouts caused too many issues while I was on conference calls. (although the powerline adapter plugged into the HUB downstairs gets the full 90-100mbs speed, this speed is lost when it gets upstairs by about 50-60%%) 

I read that HUB 3.0 has issues when a high number of devices are connected to it, therefore, I took an old BT router I had and set it up upstairs in my study (using a guide found in this forum). Connected the line from the TP-link powerline adapter to the BT router and ran an ethernet cable from the BT router to my laptop.
However, when the devices are connected to this BT router via WIFI, wifi is dropping on this as well. But not as much as when it was connected to the HUB 3.0. (there are only 3 devices connected to the WIFI of the BT router)

I don't have the ability to connect an ethernet cable directly from the router to my laptop (as the Hub 3 sits in another person bedroom) to check if the internet drops via ethernet, so I can't be sure if it is WIFI or there is an issue with the broadband connection. I haven't noticed any connection drops when my laptop is connected via the TP-Link.

Any help is appreciated. Sorry for the long wall of text. 

[jbrennand]

You could just get a long (20-50m) run of ethernet cable for £5-10 and connect it "temporarily" trailing over the carpets etc., just for the duration of the test - then put it into your "tech drawer".

If it is just wifi - you should get your own wireless equipment as the Hub may well be struggling as it is a cheap introductory device priced for mass distribution - and of course - you get what you pay for !

You could also set up a free “Broadband Quality Monitor” to continually monitor the state of your connection and record any true network dropouts - it will thus allow you to differentiate between those and simple wifi dropouts. It does it 24/7/365 and it keeps a visual record of any/all of your network disconnections, useful data to have to match to the Network logs (in your Hub settings) and also in discussions with VM - note it will take an hour or two to start seeing a sensible picture.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality

[gary_dexter]

A mesh system or a better router will help. 

[whyslownet]

Thank you both. I will set up something to monitor the net based on the link you provided. 

I think I will eventually end up buying a new router or mesh as you suggested, but I want to rule out any other issues first. I have seen TP-Link Deco M4 recommended in this forum, would this be a good system for under £100? 

[jbrennand]

Deco M4 should be fine - someone using them might comment soon. But be sure that your network connection is fine first - or they wont be of immediate help - will help of course when any network problem is sorted though 🙂

[whyslownet]

Hi, I hooked up a laptop via ethernet to the Hub 3 router and left it on for 24 hrs. I noticed that the IP address is the same for all the devices in my home (I assume this is expected?). Below is the graph I got from thinkbroadband

[whyslownet]

hey @jbrennand,
above is the graph, I assume from this graph that there are no issues with the connection, just the router?

[gary_dexter]

Not really any issues no

[jbrennand]

As Gary says that BQM looks ok. Drop outs are evidenced by full height red vertical bars. Just see how it looks over a few days.

[whyslownet]

I guess I spoke too soon. I can see packet loss for 3 days last week. I have a spare laptop hooked up to the router since 15th June. Below are the screenshots from thinkbroadband. I am not sure about what happened on 17th between 12 - 4pm - we didn't lose the internet for 4 hours straight that day. Thanks for the help. 

https://imgur.com/a/UIZH2Gs