Whenever I plugged in my 24port switch, which had a few desktop connections and a TP link access point, I kept thinking the virgin router kept going into modem mode and routed all the traffic to the tp link access point causing wifi drop offs on all devices. This was not the case
Turns out the switch had the same IP address as the router, both were on 192.168.0.1. Why TP link set their switches to default to this IP I don't know but this was causing significant network issues as 2 devices with the same IP address means the network cannot distinguish between them, leading to confusion in data transmission.
IP conflicts causes packets meant for one device to potentially be delivered to another or be lost altogether. This confusion can lead to unstable connections, such as devices being unable to establish or maintain a network connection to the virgin router.
After changing the IP of the switch in the config, a great relief washed over me as my phone and laptop managed a stable connection to the router.
Such a small thing caused so much headache.
Posting this if anyone else has issues with TP link network switches.
