Internet connection stops intermittently

[DrFilippas]

Hello all,

I moved to a new address end of December and took my Vodafone broadband with me.

It was supposed to go live beginning of January but it never happened because Vodafone had messed up my order.

Fast forward to end of January, my internet was set up and running, all ok so far. I don't get the speeds I used to as in my previous address but that's fine since I was happy with Vodafone.

However, since Sunday I've noticed that the internet will be cut out for a few seconds for no reason. I noticed it on Sunday when I was playing a video game online and then again yesterday when I was browsing Facebook on my iPhone and videos would play for a short time and then buffer, waiting to load.
I ran a broadband test this morning to see what's wrong and it was confirmed that my internet stops intermittently. The guide suggested to connect to the test socket and give 24-48 hours to see what's the problem. If it's confirmed that cabling is the issue then Vodafone will arrange to send an Openreach engineer to fix it.

I've read a few posts in here and they suggested to split the Wi-Fi channels 2.4/5 GHz or change to a 3rd party router and see if these eliminate the issue

What would you recommend? I already have enough of dealing with Vodafone issues, I just want to enjoy uninterrupted internet.

Many thanks!

[Cynric]

.@DrFlippas 

Firstly do the test on the master socket.  Meanwhile go to the Think Broadband website and register for the quality monitor (BQM), it will watch the line continually and graph the output.

Also go to the BT line check here https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ and once the initial test is complete click on the "Additional Diagnostic" box for the detailed test.

You can try splitting channels assuming that the THG3000 is still letting this be done. It's worth a try, but your description suggests something else. Is there anything in the router logs suggesting a line drop? Likewise what does the router status page show?

[DrFilippas]

Hi @Cynric, thank you so much for your reply.

I have already done the test to the master socket and the guide suggested switching to the test socket. I also spoke with a customer service agent through the phone and they suggested the same.

Will do what you said and come back to you.
Thanks again!

[DrFilippas]

Hi @Cynric, 

Quick update. I split the Wi-Fi into 2.4 & 5 GHz but as you correctly said it didn't make any difference.

I went to the websites you mentioned and created a new BQM.

The BT website some times showed I was getting 28 Mbps and others 0.1 Mbps, very unreliable readings. The advanced diagnostic test didn't help either.

I'm using the test socket now and will monitor for 24hr to see what happens.

I really hope this issue will be resolved soon.

[Cynric]

.@DrFilippas I was hoping that the advanced part of the BT test would have said something like; this result is below the level expected and can be used to have your supplier perform further investigation.

[DrFilippas]

Hi @Cynric, 

The only thing it says is that the system is busy and try again later. I just tried again and same thing.

[Cynric]

Oh bother! That's just what I saw yesterday, but I was hoping it would have been working again. It's normally quite helpful.

[DrFilippas]

@Cynric By the way, the BQM shows 100% packet loss!

[Cynric]

.@DrFilippas I haven't seen the picture (it has to be moderated) but it is very likely that your router needs a setting changed to allow it to respond to Pings. The BQM regularly sends a ping to the router to perform its monitoring.

I do not use a THG3000 router, but thgere is a screen grab of the relevant page in this thread https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Router-respond-to-external-ICMP-pings-on-WAN...

[DrFilippas]

@Cynric thank you for this once again, will try it out when I get home.

If you aren't using a THG3000 router, what do you use?