Broadband Problems

[willman 10]

Just a query for any techies really.

I rang Vodafone as my broadband speed had dropped(still within their guarantee range though apparently),all my important stuff is ethernet so they did line tests,pings etc.

However at the end of the chat the guy said -"I'll now help you imprive your wifi". I never said i had wifi issues - but i changed the channel,split the wifi,did th 2.4 and 5ghz thing.

Now my question is - did they know i was having wifi issues(even though i didn't think i was) or was it just a general,lets do him a favour to keep him sweet type of customer servic ething ?

[*Wallace* 333]

I think they work from a script for each particular problem and as we know with computer things one thing can affect another they were probably covering all bases.

[lobster 54]

Got something similar with TALKTALK last week . , Was checking my speed which was a bit slow ,feedback there is a fault on your line which our engineers are aware of and are currently fixing . First I knew there was a fault ?

[apelike 10]

4 hours ago, willman said:

Just a query for any techies really.

I rang Vodafone as my broadband speed had dropped(still within their guarantee range though apparently),all my important stuff is ethernet so they did line tests,pings etc.

However at the end of the chat the guy said -"I'll now help you imprive your wifi". I never said i had wifi issues - but i changed the channel,split the wifi,did th 2.4 and 5ghz thing.

Now my question is - did they know i was having wifi issues(even though i didn't think i was) or was it just a general,lets do him a favour to keep him sweet type of customer servic ething ?

Have you had it long and how much has the speed dropped? I know several people including myself who have had very bad experiences with Vodafone and ended up cancelling, luckily mine was within their then 30 days cooling off period. The wifi thing is just a scripted runaround and in my case the speed regularly dropped from around 36+Mbps to around 3 at peak times so unable to stream. Their supplied router also shows them what you have connected including wifi as well and in my case because I had several lights connected to alexa apparently it was that causing the slowdown.... 

 

Do a speedtest with ookla on an ethernet connection and see what speed you are actually getting and do that at various tmes of the day. Without being too alarmist just have a look at their user forum and the excuses some have been given for slowdowns.

Edited July 31, 2020 by apelike

[muddycoffee 10]

2.4 Ghz wifi channel is normally fixed and set by the person who sets up the router.  So there is a chance that several neighbours are running on the same channel, and this means that they all have slightly less performance as they are using the same frequencies.

If you get a network scanning tool like inSSISer  Or one of several available on android, you can scan your area and find the unused channels. This enables you to set your router up with 2.4GHz in a less crowded space and increase your wi-fi performance.

5GHz works really fast by joining up its adjacent channels so it selects channels automatically, you don't set anything.

 

However the advantage of 2.4 GHz is that it reaches further like out to the car or down the garden. whereas 5 GHz goes much faster but you have to be fairly near your access point,

[soopah 17]

Vodafone are struggling for capacity on their network and are unwilling to invest in it.  Some people are lucky and get decent speeds but the majority are struggling.

If you perform a tracert during the day, then the same one in the evening you'll see a massive difference in where the traffic goes.  Still within the Vodafone/C&W network but it'll bounce all over the world even to a fairly local server.

 

I made the mistake of moving from Plusnet to Vodafone at the end of last year, but they owned up to the problems and released me from the contract.

I was getting 70mb during the day while I was at work and 0.5-1mb during the evening.

 

Went back to Plusnet and had no further issue.

 

Splitting the wifi was something that's mentioned all over their forum, it won't make a difference.  Their speed guarantee only covers the sync speed to the router, not the throughput speed so it's a bit of a con.

 

[apelike 10]

26 minutes ago, soopah said:

Vodafone are struggling for capacity on their network and are unwilling to invest in it.  Some people are lucky and get decent speeds but the majority are struggling.

You have to factor in that they have also paid £387 million for the 5G band to operate 5G so are a bit short on available funds to invest and upgrade their broadband network.

 

26 minutes ago, soopah said:

Went back to Plusnet and had no further issue.

I did exactly the same. Vodafone said it was line problems in my area and yet on the very day of the switchover to Plusnet it all suddenly got fixed!

Edited August 4, 2020 by apelike

[swarfendor437 14]

I've had reverse problems with TT in respect that the wifi of their router's are fine but they cannot cope with MIMO Powerline adapters - they kill the Earth connection. In order for ethernet to work properly I have split the ethernet connections between a TP-Link Router, an old router to act as a 'relay' which in turn is connected to an 8 port-switch. No more ethernet issues.

[Ghozer 112]

2 hours ago, glitterballs said:

TT router work fine for me however, I have an office near the Workstation and I can't get fast internet as the exchange has never been upgraded, a speed check now says 4.63Mbps down and 0.76 up!

Odd, because The Workstation was one of the earliest  places in the City Center to get fast internet, way back pre-2000 even!

[zach 234]

3 hours ago, glitterballs said:

I know, I thought the backbone would have spread to nearby buildings, but no, better than ISDN that I had for a while though.

It's not really what you'd expect from a main link though. Agreed, better than ISDN but in this day and age, it should be way above what you're getting.

 

If it does what you need, fair enough but I hope the price reflects the speeds.