Vodafone 4G dropping connection overnight

[kbrownuk]

Hi 

I am based in Devon and use 4G for working from home as the BT Connection is so poor in my area. It has been working fine for many months and had fantastic download speeds in excess of 70mbps at most times however I am  finding that the connection drops overnight after midnight and needs to be rebooted in the morning (sometimes more than once ) to get restored. I am using an external antenna and have been in contact with the manufacturers to look into the issue but they are saying the problem is with the vodafone network.

If the router is not rebooted in the morning it does sometimes return on its own without any intervention.

Vodafone network status is not showing any issues but I am convinced this is some sort of bandwidth management or energy saving attempt on the mast outside of peak times. 

I use multiple sites and have seen this at most locations.

Is anyone else seeing this problem recently from about november 22 onwards?

[Rbailey007]

Exact same problem here near Wembury in Devon. Internet drops out at or just after midnight almost every single night. Internet doesn’t come back unless I reset the router. Have spent hours on Vodafone technical services chat on several occasions, with no resolution. Have tried several different routers and am currently running a test with an O2 data sim. If that stays in overnight this week I’ll be switching both my data sim and my whole families phone sims over to O2………. I have had enough!

[Lucy_F]

Hi @Rbailey007 Sorry to hear you're facing this trouble. Please reach out to us with the full effected postcode via the contact information here and we'll get things looked into. 

[Pluginz]

Hello all,

Thank you folks, for spending the time to try and get this little bug resolved.

Try as you may, you're basically banging your head against a brickwall.
Initially it hurts, but eventually you get used to it, and it doesnt bother you.

I don't think its a very healthy attitude and way of running a business, intentionally driving people
crazy from the lack of cooperation. There isnt any.

Good old vodafone, like folks have said on here, either do not have a single clue what the problem
is, or just plain dumb and havnt got a clue either way.

Anyways,
I was really getting into this thread and thank you to all that participated.

Seeing the thread had 8 pages to go through, i was almost expecting a 'SOLVED' at the end. :-()

But as always, i get to the end of the last page, after all the users have pretty much given up, with the good old admin moderator and social media helpline contact.

It's really not helpful and god damn annoying.

Who cares if you say what your postcode is on the forum ! I dont give a ****.
Vodafone do not need personal details in any shape or form to fix a problem from a postcode. End of.

Been there done that.
It's never a problem on their end is it?  Always a sim card problem, or phone problem.
I mean how difficult is it to get a phone working these days?
It's bloody easy. Everything is automatic. It just works. The phone is designed to just work out the box. We all know that.

Anyways, i might have some kind of solution, so don't close the page just yet.

So, i was basically getting exactly the same problem as you guys.
At midnight, my mobile data just literally stopped.  I still had a signal, but zero data. I couldnt work it out. It was doing my head in.

What i did notice, that it was only 4g that stopped working at the time. When i switched it to 2g, i had a data signal. Crap as it was and
slow, data just about worked.  A webpage took about 2 minutes to load, but it worked.

Just to test it again, i put my sim card back to 4g, and the data instantly cut off.

So i was stuck on 2g from 00:00hrs to 04:00hrs.  More than one occasion too.
No explanation from vodafone for the outage. Absolutely nothing. Thanx for that. Nice one.

Why the lack of communication to your users when they may actually need the data and its very important ?
I dont need to explain this, its obvious.
Power saving mode at night time, in my personal opinion, is a load of crap.
Maybe power saving to a point, but not enough to strip people of their actual monthly data allowance, not at all.
It should work the same 24/7.

I can pull 45mbps on my 4g sim card at 03:00hrs.  Come 1400hrs in the afternoon, i can barely get 128kb/s.
So that's kind of the opposite of what vodafone are trying to achieve if power saving at the mast is an actual thing.

I should of complained and demanded a refund for the lost time i had, plus trying to resolve it, but i didnt bother. Too much hassle.
Imagine the hassle and confusion from vodafone if we demanded money back from the loss of time and data ?

Hmm, maybe they would give a refund, if we knew what they could see on their end. They will never say though.
Just act dumb ennit ?!?  It's your sim card at fault.  Well, you sent me the sim card vodafone, so its your fault.
Make sure the sim card works before you send it over, simples. No confusion then.

This is the trick they use,
Problem is, data did work for me, but it was only 2g, so vodafone can't say it was completely turned off, because it wasnt.
Sneaky ##~## aint they ?

Symptons:

After abit of research on my PC, i figured out what was happening. I'm 100% sure now.

I worked out that the sim card at exactly 00:00hrs, (12:00am), stopped, because of an 'invalid profile' on the sim card.

So, what caused the sim card to have an invalid profile at exactly midnight ?
Some kind of daily permissions, which have to be refreshed at exactly 00:00, the next day.
Not our job.

Like i was saying, 2g worked, but 4g was completely dead. With the information 'Invalid Profile'

Who has control, and is responsible for updating the sim cards profile ?
Us as users ? I'm not sure, but don't think so.

Possible solutions:

In these situations, it's definetely a good idea to create your own spare APN, ready to go, and not rely on the default one, vodafone
provides.

What i did, was create my own APN's. Additional to the vodafone one. It's good practise.

I've added additional APN profiles to all my Android, IOS, and Windows phones, plus a 4g router, with some stable results.

You will need to use the + APN setting in your phone or PC router, and add your own APN manually for whenever this sh**e happens.

I will say that swapping the APN should 99% get you back to normal, if it decides to be a sh** and drop at midnight.

These are the two setups i use, for both PAYG and
Contract.

For each APN, give it a unique name, different to the default one.

'Vodafone Contract'

Profile name = Whatever you want (voda APN backup)
APN = wap.vodafone.co.uk
Username = wap
Password = wap
Type of sign in = CHAP
IP Type = ipv4

'Vodafone PAYG'

Profile name = Whatever you want (voda APN backup)
APN = pp.vodafone.co.uk
Username = wap
Password = wap
Type of sign in = CHAP
IP Type = ipv4

Save the profile you created, and then switch to it. It will say 'Active', or 'Applied'. You'll know when its running.

Enter 'Flight Mode' briefly, then switch back.

Take note of the amount of bars your phone shows.
2g will probably be a good 5 bars, but 4g will more than likely be 1-2 bars.
You'll know when 4g is active by the amount of bars. 1 and crap haha

'CHAP' authentication sign in will block picture messages over PAP.  Use PAP if you need to send SMS pictures.

Don't forget to save the profile to make sure it's updated.

Not all users will have the ability to create your own APN. The lack of Admin control on the sim card can be due to the phones lack of support.
Most phones nowadays can create a manual APN.

Good luck and hopefully with positive results.

Conclusion:

We may have administration control on the sim card, with alternative APN's, and website sim control, but the actual sim card profile ? 
Well, that's got to be in vodafone's hands surely, and not really something the user should be updating themselves.
Tell me i'm wrong vodafone.

Okies, see how you get on with creating your own APN. You definetly don't need the one vodafone supplies.
Use your own. It's more reliable.

Laterz all and peace out 🙂

[Pluginz]

Tonight, i lost access to webpages quite a few times.
So i loaded the command prompt in Windows at the same time, did a ping of the webpage address, and found my internet was working.

From this experience, something on vodafone's end must be blocking port 443 temporarily. Its gotta be.

[Tann]

I notice that the connection loss is becoming more random. It still cuts out at midnight or shortly after when it does  but one or two, sometimes three nights a week it’s good. Might have gone off while I was sleeping but not at the usual time. 
It’s odd.  Especially that it happens in central London. 

[Lucy_F]

Hi @Tann You can check for any known network issues in an area here, if you require any further assistance, please reach out to our Social Media Team on the contact information found here. 

[Tann]

Lucy

My connection is fine during the day. My problem like most of the posters above is that most nights  at 12AM I lose it completely. 
I’m not sure if you quite understand my problem. 

it normally comes back by the time I wake up but I can’t tell you what time it starts up because obviously I am sleeping. I use it for my TV and internet so that means I’m without both from midnight onwards .  Lately it’s been at 12.04AM. 
odd!

[Lucy_F]

If you can please reach out to our support team via the contact information here we'll get things looked into with you. 

[Pluginz]

Hello Mods 🙂

In response to your reply to anyone who has a problem.
I know youre only trying to help mods.  But is it really of any help ?

The last user (Tann) :-), who joined the thread, with exactly the same genuine question, about a 4g problem at around midnight, is also suffering from the same problem as everyone else on here for bloomin sake. Same as me.
The thread is called '4G dropping connection overnight'

To get the record straight ok,
This is not an indivdual account specific query about a mobile data problem, far from it.
Please do not try and make out it is so, because it isnt.

It's a query which is across the board, unless you havnt already noticed.
With so many people having the same problem, any slightly tech savvy person would understand.

Mods, i made a post on here a few days ago, about the specific problem at hand.

I mentioned several things about the sim cards problems and the 'Invalid Profile' at around midnight.
I will have a guess, and say that probably 99% of the users on here who have the same issue, will be suffering from a similar 'Invalid Profile'
Why dont you sort it out ?

Remember though, this is only a 4g problem. 2g is quite happily still working.

The other problem people mentioned, were websites not working, even though they have a signal.  They have a signal, but no internet data. 2g is is not enough on its own. You know that already.

From a software data information source, Vodafone know exactly when your data dropped. At what point is packed up, to the exact time and second. Plus which mobile broadband service was working, and which one stopped, which one continued.

As if you havnt got a clue peoples 4g data packed up in the middle of the night ? Of course you know it did.

I bet you, as soon as a 'Pay As You Go' customer, goes over his data allowance by 1mb, you'll charge them a tenner for it ! Yeah £10.

I mean really vodafone, for the sake of your users, please please, do not to make out this an individual problem.

Rather than send people to hell and back trying to fix a problem you created, why not be honest to your paying customers, and give the people the data theyre asking for.
If more people worked a night shift, vodafone wouldnt be able to get away with this.

Safe, peace out to all mobile broadband users.

Roll on 0000hrs.  See what happens eh.