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Self-rebooting Gigafast Routers and Apple Devices

Hot_Penguin
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

I had Gigafast Broadband installed in December 2018. Everything worked flawlessly up until about six weeks ago when my router started to reboot itself, occasionally at first but then constantly in phases. I had several Nest and Amazon devices connected and they soon complained when they kept losing their internet connections. I also had a Philips hue bridge, and Sky boxes connected in addition to a few computers, tablets and phones. Importantly, all my devices were the same as when Gigafast Broadband was first intalled.

 

About 4 weeks ago, I contacted Vodafone (VF) Tech Support and followed their standard advice, which involved connecting and disconnecting devices and changing cables. This time-consuming work made no difference. Later, I installed a new Gigafast router (with updated firmware) that VF sent me, and this made no difference. An engineer came and checked the fibre optic cable and connection, which were fine, and changed the ONT box. This made no difference; the router continued to self-boot. About two weeks ago, my fault was elevated up the tech support chain to Level 3 but I have not heard anything back from them.

 

Also, about two weeks ago, I finally worked out that my iPhone XS Max seemed to be the culprit. When I took my phone away from my home, the router rebooted, and when I came home with my phone the router rebooted. To be fair, VF Tech Support had advised me that there were reports of issues with Apple devices, but they had not been specific. Their advice was to update to the latest version of iOS. I did this; I updated to iOS 13.1.3. The router only stopped rebooting when I also reset the network settings on the phone. So I was happy again.

 

Everything was dandy up until yesterday when the router started rebooting again. I noticed that my iPad Pro (2015) had updated itself to iPadOS 13.2, and my Apple Watch 4 to WatchOS 6.1. My iPhone was unchanged, and yet on testing, it appeared to be the culprit again. I updated the iPhone to iOS 13.2 and everything is stable again – for how long, who knows!!

 

What I can deduct from my experience is the following:

  • iOS 13 looks like it is may be causing significant issues with some Gigafast routers - others have reported similar problems on this Forum. My rebooting issue seems to have started around the same time that iOS 13 was first released in September. People who read about these things will know that iOS 13 has had lots of bugs and caused a host of problems.
  • VF need to fix this issue – I’m assuming it’s a router firmware update that is required. It would be welcome, and even good practice, if VF contacted customers, who have reported issues, to acknowledge that there is an issue and it was working on a solution.

I feel I am being left in the dark.

 

54 REPLIES 54

I should probably point out that it took almost a month and over 8 hours on the phone to 191 to actually hear anything back from Customer Relations (I refuse to call it the director's office; It's simply another call center) but once it gets to them they do appear to be able to offer actual help. They did call me on the days they promised they would, but never at the times we had agreed. Usually much later. 

As for them denying the fact it's anything to do with Apple products, the person you spoke to is either ill-informed, under instruction not to tell customers, or just plain lying. It was only because I had spoken to the tech department that I knew it was anything to do with Apple products and after searching I found a few posts on the forum here. There's nothing published officially from them, which is frustrating, and there's no expected timeframe for a fix. It's disgraceful. Yet another way for Vodafone to show they couldn't care less about their customers. It's no surprise they've been voted worst provider for customer service again. 

 I couldn't agree with you more regarding your comments on Vodafone's ##~## poor customer service it's exceptionaly shocking.

Nick Jeffery couldn't run a bath never mind a professional Directors Office or most other departments when it comes to dealing with customers complaints or issues.

As you've said no wonder they've been declared the worst mobile operator again in customer satisfaction ratings.

Ihave been experiencing the same issues, related or not?

So i have switched the wifi off on my iphones x 2 and watches x 2 to see if this stabalises my connection, will report back after 24 hours.

Update from me!

i noticed the other day that WiFi was off on my Apple Watch (I was at home). I turned it on and connected. Within 5 minutes the connection had dropped and I had a 'system self' reboot! This was the only change made to the network in that time.

 

since then I have had the WiFi switched off on my watch and am currently at roughly 6 days continuously connected.

 

so, I'm convinced that this is some sort of glitch with Apple Watch connectivity. Although without doubt resetting all my network settings improved the matter considerably in the meantime, so if you haven't done that on your devices I would say give it a go - it may make your connection woes more bearable while things get fixed.

 

 

24 hours and no drop outs after diasabling appple products connected to the router!

Does anyone know if the new firmware for the Gigafast router has been released?

My setup using the VF router as a modem and an Asus router for Wi-Fi is working really well. So I'm not reverting back to a VF only setup unless someone can demonstrate that the new firmware fixes the issues with Apple devices.

Certainly still a significant problem and not fixed as of yet.

How many customers is this unknowingly effecting and also ruining Vodafone's already tarnished broadband reputation.

hopefully the press and social media will now pick up on this problem

After weeks of problems with this and calls to try and resolve it I finally got hold of someone who confirmed VF believe this is an issue with router firmware incompatibility with Apple devices and the firmware should be released this week or next week (i.e. by 8 December). I've been promised a call to confirm when it has been released (and the  customer service person I spoke to was the first to call me back when promised last week) so will update here as soon as I know more :Smiling:

Any news?