Router, Extenders, Apple ... and general outages

[TheJasonHearne]

Afternoon all

New to Voda broadband, prev Sky for 15 years, and have been having a nightmate. 

First four days zero service due to an Openzone error, then completely stable and flawless for two days, then last night it went down and since then I have a really unusual issue. 

I've tried speaking to second line support but they were pretty unhelpful.  Usual turn it off and on / check the cables nonsense. 

Here's what's happening when connected to the main router : 

Sky Stream Puck : working via ethernet 

Fire TV Cube : working via WiFi 

Hue hub : working via ethernet 

Ring Doorbell : offline via WiFi

iPhone 13 Pro : no internet via WiFi

Lenovo Win 10 laptop : no internet via WiFi

Here's where it gets odd ... if I connect those failing items to a WiFi extender (via WiFi - not wired) with a different SSID then they have good internet access, if I replicate the SSID (essentially creating a mesh) then they fail.  

Question is why would I have no internet when connected directly to the router but I do have internet when connected to an extension?  

MAC filtering was off in my router settings by default and I have left this off.  I raise only as I've read other similar issues created by security settings not talking well with the router MAC filtering.  

The Firewall on the router is currently turned on but I have a feeling it may be that turning this off is going to be the solution to this odd problem. 

Any help appreciated.  I have about 48 hours before I need to make a decision and cancel or stick with this service.  

[Cynric]

@TheJasonHearne  The sulking WiFi devices probably cannot see channels 12 and 13 on the 2.4GHz band. Not quite sure about the laptop and phone, mind you. Have you checked if the devices all work on 5GHz?

[TheJasonHearne]

Everything is connecting at 5ghz and still failing.  

Not sure I have any legacy tech still using the old 2.4ghz band. 

Had a look into the router settings and can see everything is connected at 5ghz. 

Doesn't seem to be a way to block certain bands within each within the settings.  

[Cynric]

@TheJasonHearne  If you have the Vodafone THG3000 router, then sadly a lot of configuration is unavailable. It's a common complaint on this forum.

[TheJasonHearne]

They're sending me a new one - second line support seem to think something has gone askew in the upgrade which caused yesterday evenings outage.  

They've also given me the user and password for the service so I can use a third party router. 

Presume everyone is going to suggest I use this.  

Any known third party routers that offer a good solution?  Don't really want to go back to my naff Sky Q router.

[Cynric]

@TheJasonHearne  Start here and perhaps save yourself some pain and/or money.

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/How-to-Set-up-a-third-party-router-with-voda...

[Jayach]

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@TheJasonHearne wrote:

They've also given me the user and password for the service so I can use a third party router. 

Presume everyone is going to suggest I use this.  

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Definately, unless you need easy access to the phone service.

[Ripshod]

Ooops, wrong thread

[VFbroadbanduser]

The best thing you can do here is reset the Vodafone router back to it's factory settings and then reconfigure it again. On the THG3000 there is a pinhole reset button on the back on the left handside.

[TheJasonHearne]

Yeah, done that multiple times to no avail. 

It looks like whatever is causing the issue happened during the software upgrade that happened last night. 

I've ordered a TP Link Archer AX58 / AX3000 off Amazon which I understand is compatible with the Voda service.  Will give that a try over the weekend whilst waiting on the Voda replacement.  My logic is there'll be no software upgrades with TP Link, unless I force them through, so if I can get the network going it should be set and forget.