Vodafone Superfast 2 Wifi Drops few times in a day

[surgulati]

Hi,

I have moved to  "Vodafone Superfast 2" recently and using Vodafone's supplied router. I am getting the broadband speed close to the promised speed, but my Wi-Fi drops (devices on ethernet remain online) a few times a day. I have tried resolving this issue by chatting online to Vodafone technical support and have tried the following (as suggested by Vodafone on different occasions) :

1) Moved telephone (input DSL) wire from master telephone jack to a test jack inside the master jack.

2) Changed my DNS (in router admin area) to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.01.

3) Changed the DNS back to the original !!!

As expected none of the above worked as the problem is with the Wi-Fi dropping (nb: devices on ethernet remains online) while the internet is still there.

After spending hours on this issue, researching myself and on chat, I am reaching the conclusion that the Vodafone router is substandard and cannot serve many devices (I have more than 25 devices including a couple of IP cameras).  I never got this issue with my previous ISP BT with the same number of devices.

I have explored the option of buying my own Wi-fi router TP-Link Archer C400 as it capable of serving many devices (IP camera recording etc.) but my problem is that this router has not got a built-in modem. I do not want to spend on buying both router and modem so can Vodafone provide me 

1) A better router which solves my connection dropping issue.  

OR

2) A fibre modem-only device so that I can use my own Tp-link Archer C4000. 

OR

3) Authorization to cancel the contract without paying extra/penalty.

I am happy to return Vodafone router in all of the above cases.

Thanks

[Jayach]

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@surgulati wrote:

As expected none of the above worked as the problem is with the Wi-Fi dropping (nb: devices on ethernet remains online) while the internet is still there.

---

I doubt it is because the router can't handle the number of devices or I would expect the wired ones to drop also.

I don't think there is any chance of any of your options happening except possibly 3 but you would have to go through the complaints procedure and the ADR.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/help-and-information/complaints/code-of-practice

Have you tried splitting the WiFi and making sure those devices that can use the 5Ghz channel as I find that more reliable than the 2.4.

[surgulati]

@Jayach, It is quite possible that the router has some other problem than just that it cannot handle many devices.  However, I have observed that the frequency of Wi-Fi dropping decreases when there are fewer high data transfer devices online. 

Regarding splitting 2.4 and 5Ghz, I have tried both options of splitting i.e. 2.4 on separate SSID and with 2.4 on the same SSID (this is the preference as the suggestions in the router admin). As of now both 5Ghz and 2.4Hz are on the same SSID as wherever possible devices are using 5Ghz.

Thanks for sending the ADR link, I will proceed with that.

[Jayach]

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@surgulati wrote:

Regarding splitting 2.4 and 5Ghz, I have tried both options of splitting i.e. 2.4 on separate SSID and with 2.4 on the same SSID (this is the preference as the suggestions in the router admin). As of now both 5Ghz and 2.4Hz are on the same SSID as wherever possible devices are using 5Ghz.

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Not sure I understand that, I just toggled the "Split Wi-Fi bands (SSID)" option and it added 5G to the front of the SSID for the 5GHz channel.

However you may be correct about the ability to handle a lot of devices. Someone else posted a link to this thread:

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Network-queries/THG3000-router-can-t-handle-enough-clients/m-p/26738...

However they say the wired connections drop too.

[surgulati]

I checked my router there are two options regarding 2.4Ghz and 5.0GHz

1) Split SSID. In this case, it adds the 5G at the end, as you mentioned. However, the router prompts you to merge for better performance.

2) Merged SSID. In this case, it broadcast both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz on the same SSID and devices can automatically choose. I have seen only the devices not capable of 5Ghz register themself on 2.4Ghz.

I will check again for the dropping connection on the wired devices. Most of the time we are on the wireless so network drop on a wired connection may be going unnoticed, Although we use Netflix on wired but that tend those players tend to cache/preload a lot in advance.

[Jayach]

I think one reason for a router to be unable to handle a lot of connections is because of limited memory.

Check to see what your memory usage is. It can be found at the bottom of the status and support page.

System

Serial Number

CP2005RAxxx

Firmware version

19.2.0203-3261005-20191217122049-2861ba0dea80e3c1bd5a2e7c5fb0527a1550a0a2

Bootloader Version

19.02.1146-0000000-20190110090550-897d2844f012557134a272eb8a8a90f85e9a7a8d

Hardware Type & Version

Vox3.0v

Uptime since last reboot

65 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes and 34 seconds

CPU Usage

0%

Memory Usage

72%

Reboot Cause

User Initiated

Wireless Driver Version

7.14.170.36

Wireless Driver Version 5 GHz

7.14.170.36

Date & Time

29.11.2020 | 9:44 pm

[surgulati]

Thanks.  Memory usage generally between 68% and 80%. However, I have temporarily reduced the number of devices. I will keep an eye on the memory usage with all devices switched back on.