Fibre Optic Broadband HELL... (or iPhone HELL)... (Or both?)

[Sterillium]

I recently got a new fibre optic deal to replace my ageing old broadband...

All was well, as I moved from a steady trickle of 9 - 12 mbps onto my new (guaranteed) 38 - 40 mbps.

The only problem is, since I've had the new router and what is now a fairly constant (although still not what I was guaranteed!) flow of 25 - 35 mbps, my wireless at home has become really unreliable on my iPhone.

Whenever I try to use the wifi, inevitably, any page I look at will begin hanging, stuck, with a little endless wheel of "loading" on the top bar. This happens on all sites, intermittently.

So far, I have reported it to the provider and been told:

It's a problem at my junction box. (Engineer "fixed" this... no change).
It's a problem on the wire outside my house. (Engineer "fixed" this... no change).
It's the router. (We had a new one sent out"... no change).
It's a problem in the wires INSIDE your house. (Engineer supposedly coming soon).

And so far, on my iPhone (the worst offender for hanging) I have done:

An update. (No change).
A full reset. (No change).
Tried a new DNS. (No change).
Factory reset. (No change).

I'm at a loss as to what to try next.

The broadband seems to be FAST and often when I test it, it's right there pumping out a decent (if not the guaranteed) amount... but it just seems to drop on and off all the time. Clearly, I'm NOT getting what I am paying for and am about to start the process of unhooking from the provider as they clearly are not providing.

It never did this back on normal broadband.

Any ideas?

[jmorgan]

2ghz or 5 on the router ? My 2ghz was dire on the idevices, got a router that did 5 and I issues

[randlemarcus]

Are both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz SSIDs identically named? Can sometimes be an issue.

What provider, and what hardware have they given you? I used to get a few of these issues, and turned wifi off on the router, and used a few Unifi APs instead. Much better.

[dealmaker]

If you are using a BT Home hub then the problem is the 2.4 and 5 ghz coming through at the same time - look on the internet for instructions on how to split the Router box so atet it operates on the two bands independently

[ZesPak]

Not in the OP, but you mention your iphone. Any other devices you've tested with? Other smartphones? Other iPhones? Or just laptops?

Remember, laptops have a much larger antenna's so are hardly a reference point for smartphone wifi coverage.

[Sterillium]

It's a PlusNet HUB thing...

Having looked on the HUB manager I can see that it sends out both 2.4 and 5 at the same time with the same wireless name etc.

The devices seem to be split across the two (some on 2.4 and some on 5) but there are two iPhones, one iPad, one XBOX One and one laptop. It seems to be mainly the phones and iPad that struggle.

I'm not sure what I should do (I am clueless with this stuff).

[Sterillium]

I have no idea what I am doing, but...

I've managed to find "Advanced Settings" and a little map that shows my home devices (XBOX, Laptop, 2 phones and an iPAD) all on a map of where they are.

My iPhone is linked to 5 - everything else is linked to 2.4.

I can't see how to "assign" them to one or the other, and I don't know which is best anyway, but I have now deactivated the stream of 5 and my iPhone has popped up - along with ALL devices - in the 2.4 list.

Am I doing ANYTHING worthwhile here?

[Big Pants]

I'm no expert, but you should be able to choose on your iphone (in wireless settings), whether to connect to the 2.4 or the 5. Get it to "forget" the 5 and try logging on to the 2.4

[Big Pants]

My bad. I've reread your post and ALL the iphones struggle. Ignore everything I said. It's normally the safest option ;(

[anonymous-user]

I strongly believe that your your Plus net box



Is the same badge engineered Home hub 5



If so try following this guide:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/broadband/bt-hom...

[Sterillium]

Thanks for all the help so far chaps.

[jmorgan]

I think you have good ones and bad ones. My BT one would not Play ball. A netgear one is sweet as a nut.

[Sheepshanks]

Sterillium said:

It's a problem at my junction box. (Engineer "fixed" this... no change).
It's a problem on the wire outside my house. (Engineer "fixed" this... no change).
It's the router. (We had a new one sent out"... no change).
It's a problem in the wires INSIDE your house. (Engineer supposedly coming soon).

If it's just a wifi issue then messing around with wires isn't going to do much.

How far a way from the router are you trying to use the iPhone, and is the signal going through floors and walls?

Ours is the BT one shown above and it didn't seem happy even when the wifi channels were renamed so I just turned the 5GHz one off. Everything works fine and the speed on 2.4 is perfectly fast enough for all normal purposes. iPhones work though the floor and about 30 feet from the router - get further away than that, which adds a wall too, and it starts to get a bit iffy.

[Getragdogleg]

I had this problem and it was cured by separating the 2.4 and 5ghz channels. It was a bit of a faff iirc but stopped it mucking about.

Phone was an Android HTC One M8

[Sterillium]

I've shut the 5ghz off... is this as good as separating them?

[anonymous-user]

Sterillium said:

I've shut the 5ghz off... is this as good as separating them?

Not really
5GHZ can mean faster speeds but lesser "range" some devices will be able to access the frequencies some wont - depends on wireless card fitted into device
If it works for you great but it does mean your making your devices all connect to one frequency.

[MitchT]

I had to separate the 2.4GHz and 5ghz channels as my MacBook Pro doesn't like 5GHz and wouldn't connect to wi-fi with the two synced. I gave each channel a distinct name, connected my MacBook Pro to the 2.4GHz and all our other devices to the 5GHz and all is good.

[anonymous-user]

MitchT said:

I had to separate the 2.4GHz and 5ghz channels as my MacBook Pro doesn't like 5GHz and wouldn't connect to wi-fi with the two synced. I gave each channel a distinct name, connected my MacBook Pro to the 2.4GHz and all our other devices to the 5GHz and all is good.

I'll raise you one.
I was surprised the other week to find that a friends Dell laptop couldn't access 5GHz. It simply didn't have a 5ghz card in it. It does now as I fitted one in for him. It just got overlooked when it was specced out.

[ZesPak]

techiedave said:

I'll raise you one.
I was surprised the other week to find that a friends Dell laptop couldn't access 5GHz. It simply didn't have a 5ghz card in it. It does now as I fitted one in for him. It just got overlooked when it was specced out.

5ghz isn't as common as you'd think. High end phones have just had it for about 5 years. Cheaper devices haven't had it since very recently. The first chromecast didn't have it yet.

On topic, giving both channels another name can help a lot. A lot of devices get confused if you don't.

[Sheepshanks]

Sterillium said:

I've shut the 5ghz off... is this as good as separating them?

See how it goes. That's what I did and everything works fine.

5GHz seemed to work fine if in the same room as the router but leave that room and it becomes iffy but the device tries to hang on to it, rather than switching to 2.4Gz.