Vodafone Router - WiFi issues? Change Settings?

[Resali]

Hi all

I am aware of the various discussion around the Vodafone supplied router and its poor WiFi performance for some users.

My fibre broadband went live on 2/12/17, so I am still within the 10 days of "finding the best speed". Router says it gets 54Mb (which is great!), MacBook Pro via WiFi gets 50Mb (again, great!), but the FireSTick gets around half of 50Mb and my iPhone only gets 10Mb (not so great). All devices are within 5 metres of the router and connected to the 2.4GHz WiFi as the speeds on the 5GHz WiFi are somewhat slower.

Are there any settings on the router (or the iPhone, or the Fire Stick) I can try to get better speeds across all devices? Or would a new router modem fix this? My previous BT Smart Hub managed to feed all devices at roughly the same speed.

Many thanks.

Resali

[arreytanyisolom]

I agree with you.

I did contact Vodafone support, and was told to split between vodaVoda distance and speed. However, I constantly have issues with WiFI. Did not have such problems with sky or talktatal, although thirt broadband speeds were very low, compared to this contract which is supposed to give over 65mbps.

Vodafone needs to address this issue.

[Mark]

I'm disappointed to hear you're experiencing an issue with your download speeds @Colinbowden and @arreytanyisolom. As our Broadband team will need access to your account to help you further, please follow the instructions in private message I've sent.

[Anonymous]

Okay just resurecting this:

The router is not set up correctly, and I don't think Vodafone care!  So using the default settings you cannot get a link speed on the 2.4GHz band that is better than 75Mbps, by changing the settings you can almost certainly DOUBLE this - provided your equipment is compatible!

On the 2.4GHz band if you use the 20/40MHz bandwidth and set the channel to Auto you will NEVER get a 40MHz bandwidth connection - it will not happen, EVER!

If you use the 20/40MHz bandwidth and pick a specific channel you, then it will auto select a 40MHz bandwidth when appropriate, untill the 2.4GHz radio crashes (usualy takes 2-3 days).

But if all your equipment is compatible selecting 40MHz bandwith AND a static channel will give you a stable sync speed upto 150Mbps!  The downside is that if you have older equipment it won't work.

You can but try!

*The only reason we continue to use the crappy Vodafone router is to get out discount, it really is a VERY sub-part and poorly supported piece of kit!

[Controllator]

I have had the same problem for several months now and despite spending countless hours with Vodafone customer support no one has been able to offer any solution. My line is supposed to provide me with 35 mb. There are 3 laptops at home. If I connect any laptop to the router using a cable, I get speeds of around 34/35 mb. Very good indeed. Wireless is a complete different story. The 5.4 ghz signals provides constant speeds of around 25 mb. Again, very good indeed. The 2.4 ghz signal however is absolutely terrible. The signal drops a couple of times a day and the speed is anything between 2 mb to around 18/20 mb. If is constantly fluctuating and most of the time it is below 10 mb. If I change the channel it sometimes improve (not always), but after a day or 2 you have to change again to another channel. If I look through the forums there are several threads like this yet Vodafone is doing absolutely nothing about this problem. The first thing they need to do of course is to acknowledge the problem and get someone to properly investigate. It is simply not acceptable to expect all computers to be able to connect to the 5.4 ghz signal. This is fairly new technology so any laptop over a couple of years old will not be able to connect to this signal. Can Vodafone please clarify what they are doing to resolve this problem???

[sharsky]

I have had these problems for a long time. My laptop is on the 2.4GHz band because of age. I can achieve speeds of up to 28 Mb/s but then it will suddenly drop to a single figure. I change from auto channel and select a specifice channel, then select another channel but the only way to get back to a decent speed is to carry out a factory reset. Then it's fine for anything from 1-3 weeks then it starts again.  An engineer has checked the incoming line and some weeks ago they sent me a new router. Connected the new router and it jumped back to almost 30 mb/s but after 3 weeks it reverted to below 10. Tried the usual channel changes and then carried out factory reset and bingo, back to 28mb/s. One week later it reverted to single figure again so I called Vodafone for cancellation costs stating that before Vodafone I was with Plusnet and before that BT and never had any problems in 3 years until joining Vodafone. I asked them to waive the cancellation cost but now they are sending an engineer to check my Openreach connection box, why? I really don't know. If it was the connection box then why would a reset restore speed? 

[Controllator]

You are describing EXACTLY the same problem that I have been experiencing since I moved my broadband to Vodafone in September 2018.  I have 2 laptops. One is fairly new so it connects to the 5ghz signal and has never had any problems. The other one is a bit older so it can only connect to the 2.4 ghz signal. Speeds on this laptop fluctuate from 2 MB to 28 MB. If I change the channel it tends to improve for a few days until eventually you start to see speed dropping again. I have tested this laptop with several other wif networks (friends and work) and it gives me the expected speed all the time plus I was with plusnet before moving to Vodafone and never had this problem while with them. I jave spoken to Vodafone customer services around 15 times to try and resolve this and today I still have the same issue. Last time I called they were cheeky enough to say the issue is with my laptop. Absolutely frustrating... :-(...can you let me know how you get on? I almost gave up with this but seeing your message today made me determined to do something about this. Either leave Vodafone or get this bloody issue fixed. ... 🙂

[arreytanyisolom]

Hi,

I never succeeded in solving the problems. Bought a new phone that connects. I am considering leaving vodaVoda,as my contract expires next month. Someone, however, has posted a solution to the issue recently. I just didn't get to follow the steps he recommended.

All the best

Solomon.

[ch13f]

SOLVED - FOR ME ANYWAY ! - thought I'd post in here as this thread comes up near the top in a google search for bad wi-fi vodafone

I switched to Vfone recently, had same problems re WIFI speed-  3 - 9 mb/s speed test results on my phone.

Only ever achieved proper speed (35+ mb/s) on my laptop when I connected to the router via ethernet.

This morning thought I'd have a go at fixing it by playing with the WI-FI settings- ( was running the speed test google page - and checking the effects , after every change. )

Thought I'd share what worked for me, it might work for others.

• Split SSID 5ghz - connect to that with the laptop gets 37-39mb/s, default settings work fine. (upload speed a bit slow , but not bothered as I dont upload stuff.
• 2.4Ghz settings - 802.11n. 40mhz.  Channel 3 , extension channel 7. Boom 27-33Mb/s - (Live in a block of flats - so I guess using 40 Mhz and not the usual 1, 6, 11 channel solved my problem - also using the "n" setting instead of "mixed g/b/n" 

Any way now Im happy as I dont need to resort to using a TP Link to get as advertised download speeds.

Sync speeds always been reported as 40mb/s .. but what good is that if download speeds over wi-fi are no where near - grumble

Happy Days - I just hope it lasts 

[Controllator]

Spliting the signal and changing the channel works but only for a limited time. You will most possibly see the speed  on 2.4 ghz signal going back to 5/6 MB after a day or 2. I have tried all channels and never managed to get decent speeds on the 2.4 ghz signal for more than 2/3 days in a row. The 5 ghz signal seems fine but computers over 4/5 years old cannot connect to this signal. It seems Vodafone's load balancing is crap so at busier times the user load is not distributed evenly. Or they are over subscribing their lines, not sure. Either way after spending countless hours with vodafone support I have given up so will be changing suppliers soon. Please post an update to let us know if this change is still working after a few days. 

Thanks!

[Tim1889]

I have now junked my Xiaomi upgrade to Vodafone, as while it was much better it did need to be rebooted every week. I have now got a proper Ubiquiti access point. It was £70 to the £20 for the Xiaomi but it is faster, rock solid and doesn't need a weekly reboot. It is also means if I change ISP in the future then I won't need to change anything as the ISP's router is just being used as a modem and DHCP server. A Draytek is the other option I considered as it offers a single box solution but it was twice the price.