Super Fast Broadband speed and connection issues?

[everson]

Hello, I have recently just joined vodafone from plusnet fibre and whilst the change over has been pretty seamless, I have been noticing some issues from in both connection and speed quality.  I have been carrying out tests for approx a week and hoping someone can help with my findings.  Household contains (1x Laptop, 1x Imac, & 2x phones).

My main issues are:

1) Minimum speeds are what they are meant to be on specific devices.

2) Connection issues: Fairly often on my devices main laptop and phones the internet will drop out and have to do the old school trick of turn wifi on and off on the devices to re-connect.

January 25th 2022: 8pm BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 42.67 mbs / 14.74 mbs

Imac: 42.28 mbs / 13.54 mbs

Phone: 33.41 mbps / 14.81 mbps : at 7:19pm phone apps were not connecting via wifi had to turn off and use mobile data to have them work for approx 10 minutes but internet was fine on my imac.

_____________

January 26th 2022: 9:45am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 41.01 mbs / 14.16 mbs @ 4pm loss of connections (see pictures

Imac: 41.97 mbs / 14.16 mbs

Phone: 3.34 mbps / 13.48 mbps

January 26th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 38.9 mbs / 13.44 mbs

Imac: 27.92mbs / 13.47 mbs

Phone: 25.58 mbps / 13.44 mbps

_____________

January 27th 2022: 10.46am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 42.67 mbps / 14.74 mbps at 11:38am Laptop losses connection (2x in short space of time see pics)

Imac: 42.28 mbps / 13.54 mbps

Phone: 5.22 mbps / 12.75 mbps

January 27th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload

Latop: 8.65 mbps / 13.38 mbps 

Imac: 38.50 mbps / 14.43 mbps

Phone: 41.19 mbps / 12.02 mbps

__________________

January 28th 2022: 9:25am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 33.57 mbps / 14.74 mbps at 9:55am laptop losses connection (See pictures)

Imac: 40.86 mbps / 13.74mbps

Phone: 24.18 mbps / 10.34 mbps

January 28th 2022: 8pm BB Speeds download / upload

Latop: 42.58 mbps / 14.82 mbps 

Imac: 38.50 mbps / 14.43 mbps at 8:28pm Imac losses connection

Phone: 2.87 mbps / 11.43 mbps

_________________________________

January 29th 2022: 12:56pm BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 42.23 mbps / 15.28 mbps 

Imac: 42.98 mbps / 14.14 mbps

Phone: 5.65 mbps / 12.15 mbps

January 29th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload

I forgot to take readings.

____________________________

January 30th 2022: 10:05am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 41.24 mbps / 14.96 mbps 

Imac: 39.22 mbps / 13.34 mbps

Phone: 5.37 mbps / 11.91 mbps

January 30th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload

Will up date once i have the evening time slot for speed tests

____________________

So as you can see from my findings, pretty much every day, somewhere on some device I am not getting my guaranteed speeds and also i am getting loss of connections.  What i am trying to find out is:

1) Is this a common vodafone broadband customer experience, as I have joined a 2 year contract and if this is my next two years i would rather leave and go back to plusnet as I never had one problem with them and they were supposedly slower.

2) Ive read about the routers for vodafone are not great, is it a hardware issue causing this.

Thanks any help appreciated.

[Jayach]

All I can say to you is my broadband and Wi-fi never "drop out", nor would I expect them to. The line has gone down perhaps a couple of times in the last 18 months and the router has updated itself (usually about 1-2 am) but apart from that it has been flawless. (the first 3 months were very different, but Vodafone finally cured my problems)

As users (and from a distance) we can only give advice, If you feel Vodafone are not providing the service you expect, I can only suggest you raise a complaint and see if they can solve it that way. (Do let us know how you get on.)

Complaints Code of Practice | Vodafone

[everson]

yes i agree, so i assume your on super fast 2 pro, and had your service go down couple times in 18months, so me as as super fast 2 customer and one notch below yourself, i would happily give them i get 10x times worse service since i am not a pro user, but i am much higher than that.  Weirdly i checked superfast 2 package today (march 1st 2022) and the min and max speeds are much higher (approx 45 - 55mbs) compared to what my package was a  month ago when i joined (35 -44 mbs)?  Again this feeling of new customers getting better leaves a bitter taste.  I will keep updated on how things are going as i have opened a formal complaint now as i believe i have given them adequate time and resources to try help sort the issue.  I will log my findings and hopefully come to an amicable out.

[network123]

Joined this thread a bit late sorry. There is perhaps one way to establish if this is Wi-Fi or the line dropping out... If you login to the router, click on Status (on the top right) and then click on DSL Status. What does the uptime say and number of cuts? (You will have to be on 'Expert mode' to view this).

[Jayach]

---

@everson wrote:

yes i agree, so i assume your on super fast 2 pro, 

---

No I am on Superfast 2, I would never be on Pro, I think it a complete waste of money, for what you get. 

I would rather spend the money an a decent mesh system, but have not needed to do so as the THG3000 suits my needs.

Just in case you misunderstand, I think Vodafone are probably the worst ISP out there (and no I haven't tried them all) and their "support" is just atrocious. I came here, like so many, because they were cheap but the old adage "you get what you pay for" is very true.

My 2 year contract is up in May, will I stay.? Only if they offer a very good deal, but I would always be worried about needing to contact them for help.

[Jayach]

---

@everson wrote:

Weirdly i checked superfast 2 package today (march 1st 2022) and the min and max speeds are much higher (approx 45 - 55mbs) compared to what my package was a  month ago when i joined (35 -44 mbs)?  Again this feeling of new customers getting better leaves a bitter taste.  

---

The speed you get on FTTC, as an individual customer, is totally down to the length of the cable from the cabinet (and quality of the Openreach line). The speeds quoted on averts is what an average of all the customers are getting at the time they check. So it can change all the time.

*"When you see the average speed advertised with a broadband deal, it's referring to the average download speed available to at least 50% of the supplier's customers during peak hours, from 8-10pm for residential users and 12-2pm for business users"

*From Broadband Speeds Explained

[everson]

March 2nd 2022: Internet loss / Drop out at 11:00am

[Jayach]

Your latest picture has not been moderated yet, but I notice from the previous one you are running Windows 11.

There is a known problem with Windows 11 and (I believe) Intel Wi-Fi chipsets. Try Googling it.

Is it just that one laptop that has the problem? Do you have a USB Wi-Fi adapter you could try temporarily instead?

[everson]

Hey Jayach, so ive given this a google as you stated and ran some tests via youtube and everything checks out with mine, no issues detected.  Whilst i experience this issue the most on my laptop, i do believe that is purely because i am on it 85% of the time, but i have had this issue with my imac and also mobile phones and always results in having to either wait or turn wifi on and off on that specific device.  I do not have a wifi adapter. 

Whilst i do agree with you with the "you get what you pay for" scenario, in my case i dont think vodafone is that much cheaper that they can claim "what do you expect your paying pennies". I am currently paying £20 per month.  Plusnet Charges £22 per month and that did work 90% flawlessly.  £20 - £28 is going market rate and quite a fair price to expect your broadband to be working to a 85% expectancy.  If i was paying £12 per month and having these issues, i would happily say, "fair enough, i have broadband but with issues, but the price reflects that".  I feel for the money i pay daily issues just should not be a thing.

[Jayach]

No matter what you pay, you should get the service you are contracted for.

It's just the cheaper suppliers seem to cut costs on things like support.

If you went to, say Zen, and had a problem it would be properly investigated and resolved as soon as possible. No minimum wage bods working from a script.

Your problem now definitely seems like a line one, and you probably need Openreach to sort it. Unfortunately convincing Vodafone of that won't be easy.

I have a theory (totally unsubstantiated I must say) that when you swap ISP's Openreach move you from your current ISP to an empty port on your chosen one. Sometimes the reason the port is empty is because someone else had a fault and was moved from it, but it wasn't marked/recorded as faulty. I'm sure that is what happened to me when I changed from Sky. It took 3 months of constantly badgering Vodafone before it was fixed. I was moved to a different fibre port, and I often wonder if someone else got my duff one.

[Jayach]

Your latest picture shows you are connected to the router (so not a Wi-Fi problem), but have no internet connection, which is strange.

Do you possibly run any VPN software?

Did you check for multiple disconnections as suggested by @network123?

@network123 wrote:

If you login to the router, click on Status (on the top right) and then click on DSL Status. What does the uptime say and number of cuts? (You will have to be on 'Expert mode' to view this).

---

If you are getting multiple disconnections, the Vodafone line checks should pick them up. Have you checked on the status of your fault call with them?