Vodafone Connect - can't find various settings

[citixen]

So I moved to Vodafone from BT, as it's significantly cheaper for ostensibly the same service. I've no significant issue with network speeds, though they are markedly slower and show significantly more issues at peak hours (so presumably higher contention at exchange than BT provided) despite being theoretically the same infrastructure. While this is annoying, it's a price I'm willing to pay for the cheaper contract.

What is a total shambles though is the router itself. It's either a complete POC, broken, or I'm just not able to find the things I need in it's kiddie-friendly interface. If anyone can point me in the direction of the following, it'd be a great help : 

- How do I reserve IPs in DHCP by MAC address? I can filter by MAC but I need to reserve specific IPs for specific devices, which do not have the ability to set local static IP addresses.

- Where are the QoS settings? I need to be able to limit bandwidth by both device and traffic type. Can't see it anywhere...

- Where do I see more logs than I can see under "Settings & Support -> Event log"? This only shows me something like 60 entries -and they're useless as a result. For example - I had to reboot the damned thing because it dropped WAN connection about half an hour ago. And it either wipes out all the event log entries, or it loses the current date/time until it reconnects to the WAN, so the first 59 entries I get to see after a reboot are from November 2016, or so it thinks! There must be a store of logs somewhere so I can try and figure out why the bloody thing keeps dropping WAN.

- Can I set it up to record logs to an external storage device? That might help overcome the above issues...

- How can I stop it rebooting itself at peak usage times? The thing seems to restart itself randomly around 10pm, maybe once or twice a week. I presume Vodafone are forcing firmware updates or similar at this time, to try and combat the router being really bad?


In addition to not being able to find these pretty basic things, the router keeps dropping WAN, and when it does so the login page also stops being served, either through a wired or wireless connection. It's almost as if it's just a really poor router, and it's crashing (taking out the web serving component presumably - hence no login page - but not the wifi). To be honest, I'm pretty close to being done with this piece of cr@p...

[citixen]

Becca - my query quite literally doesn't relate to that. That is a side-issue which is presented as a possible solution.

I'll reiterate again the queries : 

- Where are QoS settings located? Beamforming is not QoS. To be honest, I strongly suspect that the router doesn't offer this absolutely basic functionality - but a clear statement would be nice.

- Where can I find more than the last 60 log entries? As a reboot adds more than 60 log entries, I cannot see what went wrong before the most recent router crash.

- How can I stop the router crashing so regularly? This manifests as WAN connection drop (red light flashing). When this occurs, the router also stops serving its web interface to the LAN - which indicates that the issue is on the router itself, and not the WAN.


As I said before, the ideal fix for all of this is for Vodafone to supply the connection information so that a good quality router can be used instead.

[Becca_P]

@citixen

I've sent you a private message on how to get in touch with our Broadband team. 

They'll be happy to look into these queries and assist you with finding solutions.

[sirvelo]

Hi @Becca_p,

This being a forum that people can search to find resolution to problems other users have encountered, it would be great if you could post whatever resolution has been found for @citixen's issues?

I too have just moved to Vodfone from BT, and have also found a major drop in performance, and a very, very major drop in reliability. Using my own router on BT, I had no WAN drops, and could read full historic logs with correct timestamps. This VF router keeps dropping my connection, and has useless logs (incorrect timestamps fropm Nov 2016, and last 60 or so entries only). If I could use my own, reliable (ASUS RT-AC68U) router, I'd be happy...

[Amanda]

Hi @sirvelo

We need to access the account, to look into it further. This is why we're not able to discuss it on the community. 

I've replied to your other post here. 

Thanks, 

[k599rag]

Did you get your issue sorted.  I have a similar issue where the quality of the connection is not as good as it was from BT and my Vodafone Sure Signal has a terrible call quality.  I never had an issue on BT, but on VF with apparently a faster connection speed on upload and download callers tell me that I cannot be heard which leads me to believe that my upload speed is affected.

[Carly]

@k599rag

Vodafone Broadband can differ from BT as they are set up differently. Up to the green cabinet we use an Openreach line, Vodafone then take over from the green cabinet to your home.

It may be worth checking that the router is in a wide open space. What type of master socket have you got? Do you know if it's filtered on non-filtered?

[MrWhite]

OMG.  Carly, that is completely the wrong way around.  Vodafone's kit resides at the telephone exchange.  From there, from exchange to cabinet to home is all provided by BT Openreach.  It's the same fibre and copper lines used - moving between providers doesn't see an engineer come and change the copper wire you use!!

A 'wide open space' - outside?

I imagine the OP already has a filtered socket - both as they were with BT previously and secondly, the VDSL connect would almost certainly not work.  Granted, the filtered faceplate can degrade overtime so connection issues could be assessed by either replacing the faceplate or using a microfilter instead to check

[k599rag]

I have a NTE5 master socket, but i don't use it for my router as my PC isn't anywhere near it.  I have the same setup as I had with BT so I can't see this being the issue with the SureSignal.  I have changed the wireless channels on the 2.4 & 5ghz systems on the VF connect and this seems to have made a bit of difference, but still not convinced and will need further testing.

My router is not in a wide open space as it's in my office, but as I said it is in the exact same place as my old BT HH5 and even older EE Brightbox 2 which both worked without issue with my SureSignal, so it cannot be an environment issue unless the VF Connect has some issue with interference that the others do not. 

[DaneB]

@k599rag

We'd like to look into this further with you.

Please speak with our Broadband Live Chat team to discuss your issues.

Alternatively, you can call our Broadband team on 08080 034 515, weekdays between 8am-8pm.

[paulcormack]

@Sukhi - so much NO to almost everything you say.

Vodafone do not dictate to me how my lan is within my house, end of.

And just NO to everything else you say.