THG3000 router can't handle enough clients

[JCDH]

Do I have a dud router? It appears to be unable to handle more than about 10 clients at any one time. My "simple" home network comprises wired & wireless clients. Wired are all fixed IP addresses from 192.168.1.3 to 192.168.1.97 & wireless are all dhcp allocated from the router above 97. The router only ever shows about 17 connected clients despite the fact that there are at least 30 at any one given time -  a mixture or wired & wireless. The really annoying thing is that those devices that are connected will randomly lose a connection i.e. drop an IP address - not good for the kids who are trying to do A levels or BTECs online or carry out an online dance teaching class via zoom, or even worse the significant other who is Skyping with the family. The dropped connections are randomly wired & wireless. They don't come back reliably. I've given up with the VF THG300. A Draytek Vigor 130 modem and an ancient ASUS router are rock solid now. My reason for wanting the VF router to work is that it reports my less than advertised/promised/pedestrian sync speed to Vodafone who might , if I'm lucky, get an Openreach engineer to reset my DSLAM. A Vodafone THG300 that works well would be great too but if my current kit does the job I'd forgo a replacement. Any advice and help gratefully accepted. My drop line goes straight into a Master Socket 5c with an Openreach Mk 4 box on the front and no suspect wired connections within the house. Help anyone? 🙂

[Tash]

Hi @JCDH, we'll need to take a closer look into what may be causing any dropouts with your broadband connection.

Please drop our team a message on social media with your Community username and a link to your post - you then won't need to repeat your query. We'll then request for your details to run further tests on your line - please be aware we'd need you to be using your Vodafone router when we're completing our checks. 

When dropping us a message on Facebook or Twitter, please also let us know the following:
- If things improve for you when reducing the amount of connected devices to 3-4

- Where your router is placed at home - is this near any large, reflective objects such as a TV, mirrors or windows?

- Your sync speeds from our Vodafone Broadband app - please include a screenshot as this will help

[JCDH]

Thanks @Tash. The problem I have isn't a broadband line or wifi connection problem. I don't use the wifi on my vodafone hub and Openreach have confirmed a stable but slow line (40/13 at best). I can't use my vodafone hub as it randomly drops connections to wired and wireless devices. It works for a while but then gives up - once one connection has gone all the others follow. A 3rd party modem & router just work. I can't definitely identify a suspect device on my network, although I could blame a Sky 2TB box with a lot of hard disk activity, but with no real evidence. I just need a stable broadband connection for my kids education. .@KeithAlger, have you any suggestions?

[Mark]

We'll be happy to take a closer look into the instability of your connection @JCDH, pop us a message via the links @Tash provided and we'll be happy to help 😊

[JCDH]

An update for anyone looking at this. Thanks Mods for your advice - replacement routers haven't helped and the heartache of re-provisioning and firmware updating before getting any functionality out of the replacements is not something I want to endure again. My Sky Q 2TB box was replaced because of a dying hard drive - unfortunately this didn't solve the problem with the Vodafone router. I have what appears to be a normal Vox 3 THG3000 Vodafone router which maintains a broadband connection but which drops connections on my local network for no obvious reason. The devices then won't reconnect even with a reboot. Rebooting the router temporarily solves the problem but then devices, wired or wireless lose connection again even though the router retains a broadband connection. I know it's not my broadband/copper/FTTC connection as a 3rd party modem/router combination works without difficulty and never drops a device. I have between 35 and 60 devices connected at any one time. Or not if the Vodafone router drops them 😞 . Any advice gratefully received.

[daveb2020]

Haha, my router cant cope with ONE connected device never mind 3 or 4!!!

[JCDH]

Makes me feel slightly better that I can connect a few devices for a short time .... at least

[gipjon]

are you running a (lan) ethernet hub or a wifi repeater when you was using the vox 3 router

also did you try using the vox 3 just as a modem with the ancient ASUS plug into that 

[JCDH]

Vox 3 was connected by ethernet to 2 netgear 16 port hubs - I have 30 permanently wired devices. I disabled the wifi on the Vox 3 as the range was not good enough - I use a Netgear Orbi router in access point mode with a couple of wired satellites, never have a problem with wifi when using the Orbis and the Asus router. I never got on with wifi repeaters so they're in the redundant box along with powerline adaptors and BT premium whole home wifi disks (groan) The problem is that the Vox 3 appears to be incapable of connecting all of the devices I want to connect to it, either wired or wifi. Once connected a device can be dropped at any time and then won't reconnect - very inconvenient, particularly when on zoom/skype/teams calls. Other devices continue to work for a while and the DSL connection isn't dropped by the Vox 3. It's definitely a Vox 3 problem as a Draytek modem combined with the Asus router (wifi off) and Orbis providing the wifi never drops anything. Firmware on the Vox 3 is 19.2.0307-3261013 which I think is the latest.

I haven't tried to use the Vox 3 as a modem only - there isn't an option to put it in to a modem only mode and I want to avoid double natting. The Draytek works perfectly and I'm used to the Asus router so I haven't used the Orbi in router mode instead of the Asus, mainly to keep life simple.

I wanted to try and get the Vox 3 to work as at some point in the next 6 months I'll be able to get fibre to the premises and connecting phones to the Vox 3 should be easier than sourcing SIP phones and associated necessary login details for them from Vodafone. Whether Vodafone will be able to offer me FTTP when it's available here is another matter entirely..........