WhatsApp voice/video calls blocked by V2 Router

[LLM]

I've read a post earlier this year (Jan/Feb) on a similar topic which sadly in our case is persisting.

The problem affects VOIP calls solely on WhatsApp through our Virgin router – nowhere else.  Hardware is IOS v14.x on any Mac mobile platform or the WhatsApp desktop app on MacOS 10.15.x  All WhatsApp app settings are correct and double-checked including the new "Local Network" switch.  There are no user-configurable settings in the router – such as Child Safe, etc – impacting transfers as far as I can see, though my technical knowledge is limited.

WhatsApp recognises the incoming call, but continuously refuses to make the connection and drops the line.   The logical conclusion is that either the router itself or some other connection upstream is blocking the transmission.  The service operated normally until this spring and continues to work normally on 4G outside our local wi-fi network.

Does anyone have any suggestions or router settings that I could try?  Thanks in advance.

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

By V2... do you mean you have an SH2 or SH2ac?

EDIT: Afterthought - are you connecting on the 2.4 or 5 GHz ssid?  Are they both the same?

I have the SH2 and have no problems with Whatsapp voice/video call on all of my Apple gear on the same OS as yours.

The big difference is I have my SH2 in modem mode and use my own Apple Airport Extreme to provide my connectivity. So albeit not ideal... you could probably solve it by going to modem mode and getting your own router and wireless equipment.

Or as an (inferior!) option you could lobby VM to replace the SH2 with a Hub3.

Or perhaps Whatsapp is blocking the i.p address of the SH2 - have you been offending someone on there recently 🙂  Note that the VM Hubs only rarely change i.p. addresses (hence only a swap or modem mode will change it).   Or  you could check with Whatsapp and see if it is actually "blocked" - someone more savvy might suggest how you can do that.

[LLM]

Thanks a lot for the speedy feedback. The VM hub dates from 2013 (Hub2?) so is prob due an upgrade. A bit reluctant to fund an Apple router just to resolve what I suspect is a VM tech issue. Hub is delivering 2.4Ghz only. Worked fine until about 4 mths ago then suddenly stopped. WhatsApp still works perfectly on 4G. 
Cheers. 

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

If the Hub is only delivering 2.4 only - have you logged into the settings to see if it has somehow "disabled" itself. Or do a 60 second pinhole reset and see if it magically reappears.

If it doesnt then call it is as faulty and tell them you are unable to connect your faster 5GHz devices and want it fixing so you can.

[sophist]

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@LLM wrote:

There are no user-configurable settings in the router – such as Child Safe, etc – impacting transfers as far as I can see, though my technical knowledge is limited.

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Child safe is configured in My Virgin Media rather than on the hub - you can quickly check whether or not that's interfering though, but changing the DNS servers on your phone / mac to use google's instead.. to do this on your phone go to settings -> Wifi and press on the little "i" icon on the right-hand side next to the network name.. scroll to teh bottom of that page where you'll see "configure DNS" which will likely say "automatic" on the right.. select that option and select manual - then input 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as the server names.. try a call again and see what happens.. if it works, then we can look at web/virus safe as a potenial culprit.. if it still doesn't work then it's nothing to do with them..

[LLM]

Thanks again for the response.  My error for the Child Safe/router reference – apologies.  I have checked the MVM safety settings and all relevant switches seem to be Off and therefore unlikely to be impacting.  Have tested the DNS server switch as suggested but sadly it made no difference to fixing the WhatsApp connections.

Does VM itself offer any specific technical support for issues like this?  For example, is there a means of logging a specific set of data traffic through the router which might reveal why these calls are being refused?

Best regards

[sophist · Accepted solution]

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@LLM wrote:

Does VM itself offer any specific technical support for issues like this?  For example, is there a means of logging a specific set of data traffic through the router which might reveal why these calls are being refused?

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Unfortunately not - there is no support for "applications" - they will just refer you to whatsapp support if the underlying connection looks good.

it is possible to do more troubleshooting but it requires some networking skills/knowledge as well as some potentially additional hardware to investigate what's happening with the flow of traffic

[Zach_R]

Hi @LLM,

Thank you for your posts and welcome to our community forums. We're here to help.

I am very sorry to hear you're having some issues using WhatsApp for calls when connected to the Wi-Fi network on your Virgin Media router. If that's the only app that you appear to be having issues with then it certainly helps narrow down what may be going on?

Have you tried performing a factory reset of the router yet to see if that helps at all? You can find out how to do that here.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks,
 

[LLM]

Once again, thanks for the thoughtful and quick replies from all the VM community.  Time and knowledge is invaluable and well appreciated.

I have recently carried out a factory reset of the router.   I believe that I am now faced with an in-depth technical analysis of the data traffic through the router to establish why, several months ago, this service which previously worked 100% OK, should now be disabled.

I will need to find the mechanism and the time for carrying this out.   It is not a fatal error because our WhatsApp will run perfectly outside wi-fi on 4G.  It's just a major irritant as everyone will well understand.

Regards to all.

[Zach_R]

Hi @LLM,

Thank you for the speedy response. Just to clarify, are you stating that you've recently performed a factory reset of the router (as described via the link provided) and that this unfortunately has not provided any improvement to the situation?

Thanks,