Slow and unreliable broadband in the evening

[Cliveawalsh]

I've seen some posts about this , but they seem to suggest it's been fixed. Been with Vodafone since October and finding now that the speeds and reliability are poor in the evenings. Watching off iplayer and it will suddenly stop and pause for around a minute, several times. Really annoying. It's fine in the day. I've jumped through some hoops already, like changing from my own tplink router to the Vodafone one, made no difference. Also the tv is connected to the router direct with Ethernet cable and the tech person said to change the WiFi channel. When I explained that I didn't see how the WiFi channel would effect the wired connect she ignored it and insisted I change the channel of WiFi. Anyway. It's still happening. When I do a speed test while it's happening it can be anything from 1 to 15 mbps when it's usually around 35 to 40. Any help or advice?  I think it's due to more people using the internet but not sure. It's jumpy tv when using iplayer or itv hub, or Plex built in to the tv, but if I chromecast plex it seem ok which is odd. Help please

[Mark]

Hey @markegilmour I can understand how frustrating it would be if you're struggling to stay connected. I'm sure we can get you back up and running! To help us understand what might be causing your issue, please confirm:

- If your router's connected to the master socket.

- If you're using a Wi-Fi connection and do you have any other devices connected.

- Are you in the first 14 days of your contract.

- Is the router next to any electrical equipment that might interfere with the signal i.e. Microwave, TV or fish tank.

-  Can you run a speed test through the Vodafone App or on http://www.speedtest.net/ and post the result here.

[markegilmour]

Hi ...thanks for the reply

yep it’s in master socket 

Wifi for iPads iPhones and laptops capable for printer, sky box and NAS

no well over 14 days now but it’s been the same since the start... chat changed the DNS settings on router I think.

router is under tv next to sky box (coincidentally exactly where the old one from sky was for seven years before... which was never worse in the evenings... it was just slow all the time since it wasn’t fibre to cabinet.

Speed test... now there’s a can of worms you’ve opened... why do the two differ so much... 

the apps just tells me it’s 55Mbps and when you hit refresh it tell me it takes 10 days for speeds to settle hence why nothing ever gets done in the first two weeks

speed test from the link you sent... ping 23, download 9.17 and upload5.99.

it is super frustrating especially when the chat seems to take forever

thanks for considering my issues

presume you are a vodafoneemployee?

[Zoltronix]

I had to leave my contract because of the same issues.

We were in a fibre enabled area, we changed our BT service over to Vodafone. While with BT we would hit 80meg down, 19 meg up at any time of the day. The day we moved over to Vodafone this changed, during the hours from midnight to about 5.00pm all would be fine, same speeds as BT, from 5.00pm speeds would gradually decline, by 8.00pm you would be lucky to get 2-3meg download, and the same upload. Speeds would gradually increase from 10.30pm onwards.

It was always evenings, so slow you could not stream from Netflix.

In the end after an email to the chief exec, and loads of contact with 2nd line support we were allowed to leave our contract. Vodafone did the honourable thing and let us leave, fair play to them.

Honestly and truthfully, if Vodafone could resolve this issue the service would be brilliant and great value, just a shame this problem rears it’s head every so often.

[bgregor]

Hi, I would like to add my issue too.

I have a sync speed of 79.9 with a download speed of anything form 73 to 75meg and an upload of 17 meg on both cabled and Wifi.

When i started having problems my speed dropped to 2,7meg in the evening. I called tech support but all I got was excuses, blaming everything from my equipment, cabling etc which I knew not to be the case as I had already swapped router, cables and connected into the test socket.

The following morning everything was back to normal and tech support told me that openreach had been working on the line. BS

That night , the same thing happened again so they wanted evidence to show the drop, which I provided.  was promised a call back which never took place. They couldn't open the jpeg file so I had to wait another 24 hours

Eventually they managed to open the file that showed the drop and also results from the previous year showing the original speed. It was then put up to third tier

After 3-4 weeks of getting nowhere, and loads of phone calls they told me that the jpeg i sent was not acceptable because it didn't show whether or not i had disconnected wifi and other devices. Yet the picture clearly showed results over a year not having any variation until dropping to 2.7 meg.

Another couple of weeks passed without any progress when  decided to make a formal complaint.  I filled in the online form and waited and waited with no phone call or follow-up so i then called in again to complaints after raising another online complaint form.  They said to close the complaint I could terminate the contract with 30 days notice which I did.

Further testing on speedtest.net shows that I get maximum speed in the evening when testing the Vodafone servers but the speed drops like a stone when testing servers outside of Vodafone's network, this is why these so called tech support always say the speed is fine and it must be your equipment.

I cant believe how bad this experience has been, but I am moving on Friday to BT with only having been with Vodafone for 10 month.

Good riddance Vodafone.

[AMYAMELIE83]

Omg I’m having this problem now. They telling me they can’t see my pictures !!! Slow broadband in evening and still not fixed

[bgregor]

I finally figured out the attaching of an image. I was uploading it  duh. 

Anyway you can see how steady my speeds were for nearly a year until I started having the issues. 

3 weeks after reviewing this image vodafone tier 3 decided that it wasn't an acceptable image because it didn't show whether the computer was cable connected or WiFi. They should have looked at the history and looked further into my issue rather than making excuse after excuse. 

I Had to make numerous complaints and a number of phone calls to complaints before I was taken seriously  then I was given the option to leave.  

I have 3 mobile phone contracts which will be terminated  and moved to another supplier at contract end.

I have lost all faith in Vodafone with this absolute pithetic customer service debacle. 

Now I'm with BT my speeds are back to normal. 

[LaurieEdwards]

Hey! I don't want to break the contract, everything else suits me. I also had a bad signal in the garden house and my husband said to buy a signal amplifier. I do not know if it is possible to leave links here, but I chose here - https://www.myamplifiers.com/  There is adequate support and a good choice
Let the moderator remove if links are prohibited.
Good luck!

[Cynric]

The only concern I have, and it is not a criticism, is with boosters and amplifiers (as well as manufactures making the signal stronger with each new model) is that we are getting into an "arm race". From my room I can detect about a dozen strong signals that are not mine and finding a clear channel on the 2,5GHz band is impossible. Lucky for me that the neighbours seem to be unaware of the high channels on the 5GHz band, there's not a soul above channel 48 apart from me.

[GJ_DAN]

Well I'm back down to 3mb tonight... absolute Joke! Only signed up in December and I've had enough. Not getting speed advertised...final straw. I'll be going elsewhere due to very poor service! 

[GJ_DAN]

So I thought I better go the correct route and give them a chance to try fix the situation, though I know it won't work. I don't fancy paying my contract out as it's only been a few months.

I've phoned them today and the chap on phone told me I need to do a speedtest tonight. Using a wired connection and turning WiFi off. I know it's not a WiFi issue and the WiFi speedtest works fine but annoyingly I suppose I have to comply. What worries me is when you do a speedtest on Vodafone app it shows speed as normal but when you use another one you get the true result...rubbish speed.  I don't trust the Vodafone speed test at all! Thought I'd post on here just to keep a record of it all. Attached are speed tests from Sunday 7th March 2021 at 9-11pm