THG3000 username / password anomaly

[P3asa]

2 days ago I had the THG3000 installed for full fibre 900.

All was going well until I changed the Username and Password. Username is 2 words no special characters. Password is 12  characters with 1 upper and a special character to meet the standards.

The router accepted the changes and I connected all my WiFi devices. However within 15 minutes they all fell off the network, and my laptop and mobile report, "Connection Failed". The Lan connection still worked but going in to the Gatewey of the router it reported that nothing was connected, even although the laptop was connected by rj45 to the router. The speed had went from 900 down to 100.

I reset the router and ran with the default name and password for 6 hours with no issues. I then changed it to my preferred username / password and again within 15 minutes the same scenario happened again. The wifi dropped everything.

I have since reset and put a similar username in and similar password and it's been fine but the thought of having to reinstall all my smart devices, including having to take my ring doorbell off the well to gain access to the QR code frightens me, so I then changed username / password again to my preferred and yeah the same thing has happened again. Non wifi connection.

I contacted Vodafone and the technical help could see my speed had dropped dramatically. He couldn't get the issue with the wifi. He has sent out an engineer that is due today.

The router is connected to a Netgear POE switch but I don't think that's anything to do with the problem. Interestingly I downloaded the vodafone app and changed the password that way to my preferred and it appeared to work butbinonly tested it for a few hours.

Has anyone had anything similar?

[Cynric]

@P3asa You said "Username is 2 words no special characters", have you used the space character? Lots of devices will not work with the space character.

[P3asa]

@Cynric appreciate the quick reply.

Yes two simple words with a space between them for the username. I've used this same 2 word username since I have had broadband 24 years ago with no issue with routers or smart devices. 

So here's the thing, I changed the username to a different 2 word phrase, same amount of letters same space between, same password and the system lasted 3 hours before I changed it back to my preferred username and again it stopped working within 15 minutes!!

The engineer came this morning and nothing to do with the line although the speed seems to grind to a halt once I'm kicked off the wifi

[Cynric]

@P3asa Just for a test can you try "word-word" or some other character, even just a number? I still suspect that the space is being treated in a particular way.

[P3asa]

I will do.

Although I had a space when I changed it temporarily to two different words and it worked fine which makes no sense.

[Cynric]

@P3asa Length of the total and the length of each word, particularly the first one, may also be important.

[P3asa]

This is what I've done so far

Original username: Xxxxx Xxxxxxx (no special characters) only lasts 9 minutes (yes I timed it  🐵 ) then everything falls off the network and accessing the router via the gateway via LAN is possible but if I go into Status & Support no values are ever updated and using the diagnostic utility times out. 

I changed the username to Xxxxx Yyyyyyy (no special characters) the first word is the exact same and the second word has the same amount of characters. It has now been working for over an hour.

Both usernames have the same passwords.

If I go into the app and change the username to the one I am having issues with, it appears to work okay.

Its as if the first username was corrupted somehow so now when I try using it again, it is using the corrupted info from a cache but I'd imagine when I reset the router it deletes all files plus it wouldn't explain how it works for 9 minutes without issue. 

[P3asa]

I had a Google of Usernames used and there are some creative ones out there.

Loads with spaces and special characters.

Anyway spoke with a knowledgeable agent via the customer support number. He spent 20 minutes over his finishing time (22.20 in the UK) as he was keen to help me. After deleting, reinstalling, resetting, rebooting, upgrading the firmware with the app and router, testing things out on my smart tv and firestick etc. I was extremely impressed.

He reports the Username can be absolutely anything with spaces, numbers and special characters. 

He thought my issue was, that he could see I was putting my username in instantly after a reset when after a reset the router does some internal reconfiguration so if messing about with settings the file can easily become corrupted. He also advised not to do it via the router Gateway but rather use the app as it is more stable. 

So far so good using a similar username to test it out. 

[P3asa]

EDIT: I now see I have "Super Wi-Fi is running your Wi-Fi settings" apart from now unable to split SSID does anyone know what else this feature adds or removes?

I've read up on other users being unable to add 2.4Ghz items to their wifi. This now seems to be going from bad to worse.

[Jayach]

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@P3asa wrote:

EDIT: I now see I have "Super Wi-Fi is running your Wi-Fi settings" apart from now unable to split SSID does anyone know what else this feature adds or removes?

As far as I know, you should only see that if you have the Vodafone boosters. If you don't, and you are seeing that, your router is getting the wrong configuration.