topic Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains in My Router

Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 10:16:24 GMT

Hi there,

Over the past few weeks, my router keeps dropping out, but weirdly the blue light stays on indicating the internet connection is still there. I have both wired and wireless connections to the router and happens to both so im pretty sure it's not a wireless channel issue of the sort.

I've connected directly to the master socket for a few days to see if that helps but doesn't seem to have made much difference. It happens quite often in the morning, but i think this is just conincidental. My wife works from home full time and has meetings in the mornings so its very frustrating for her when the connection is down.

The only temporary solution has been to restart the router (power off and back on again) which kicks it back in to play after a few minutes.

The router does often make quite a loudish coil whine sound, not sure if this is anything linked with a faulty router?

When the connection is up, we do tend to get our promised rate, so d/l and u/l speeds are not the issue.

any help is greatly apprieciated.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

Jo1447 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:10:10 GMT

Mine is doing the same, no internet connection but blue light on. I reboot the router several times and still no internet access.

I have now given up. I am leaving plusnet next week as I've found over the past year the service has gotten worse and customer service is non existent. Bring on the new provider next week!!!

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

Gandalf — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 11:05:21 GMT

Hi @dmachin welcome firstly to our community forums.

I'm really sorry to see you're having issues with your connection.

I've tested your line today and the tests are showing a fault at our suppliers side somewhere along the line which is likely the cause for this, so I've raised the fault now and we've been given an estimated response time of by 15/09/21 23:59:59 for an engineer to go out and investigate further.

I've also created a support ticket on your account Here we'll use to monitor and follow up as soon as we know more.

I think that the buzzing noise your router's making may be a red herring as we're aware the router can do this if the dual band 5GHz wireless frequency is being used. We had discussed this with the manufacturer previously and had been advised the buzzing's within tolerance and doesn't affect the performance of the router.

If though after we've confirmed the issue to be fixed you're still having issues, let us know and we'll be happy to send you a replacement router as the next step in helping to get to the bottom of the problem.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 11:09:01 GMT

Many thanks for looking into this for me.

Unfortunately today the internet has gone completely dead and my wife is in meetings throughout the day and the rest of the week. I'll need someone to look into possible refund for the service lost. Do you have any 4G router on offer that can be sent? At the moment we are having to use a thethered 4G connection which is not ideal for zoom calls and the like.

Thanks for looking into this for us.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

Gandalf — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 14:31:49 GMT

Hi @dmachin

I'm sorry to see you're still having issues.

From what I can see the drop you had around lunchtime would've been an engineer going out to carry out some work.

Testing your line following that is showing a very high number of errors so I've raised this back through to Openreach for further investigation and we'll provide an update as soon as we know more.

We can't send out a 4G router I'm afraid but happy to look at a goodwill gesture once everything's working normally.

Really sorry for the inconvenience.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 13:14:09 GMT

Hi there @Gandalf

I noticed you updated the soloution recently, and thank you for your effort it getting it all resolved for us.

We had another drop out today where the router has gone 'red' again, so another complete drop out, is this still normal, im guessing it isn't?

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

BD — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 07:24:14 GMT

Hi @dmachin, thanks for getting back to us. The connection dropping from time to time can be normal but it depends on the frequency of the drops. When it comes to fault investigation however we're only able to progress faults onto our supplier if the connection is dropping more than 3 times in 24 hours or 6 times in 72 hours. I'd advise then, monitoring the connection your side further some can see if the drops look to be persisting or if the drop yesterday was more so a one off. Let us know how it goes.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 08:59:57 GMT

I would consider connections dropping from time to time is not neccassrily 'normal' especially when a family member works from home full time and requires constant internet access. I agree connections can drop, but there is no effect without some sort of cause, and until it gets resolved, of which 2 of the 8 weeks have alapsed since bringing up the issue, after week 8 I will probably be escalating to the ADR Scheme.

Im hoping that won't be the case, but if it drops out during an important meeting in the day, this is not a normal circumstance. My wife counted 4 times yesterday. We shall see if this happens again today.

I do apprieciate your replies though, even as frustrating as it is for us, its great to have active staff members on the forum at hand.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

Baldrick1 — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 09:54:11 GMT

@dmachin

Not wishing to poor oil on the fire but a couple of things to bear in mind.

1. I think that the ADR scheme only kicks in without Plusnet's agreement 8 weeks after you make a formal complaint. A post on this public forum is not a formal complaint.

2. Unless you have a Business account and mis-posted on this board, the contract that you have agreed to does not include full time working from home, just the occassional work email is allowed. Granted, Plusnet seem to have have waived this condition since the pandemic started but that does not mean that disrupting business meetings is any more relevant than some-one having drop outs whilst streaming a film.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 10:24:00 GMT

1. I think the definition of "complaint" is slightly jaded here. As they have opened a dispute on my issue through the forum, I can assume that they have taken my issue from the forum and formalised it to a complaint/ticket. No more formal than commiting to a contract verbally.

Again its not so much a complaint im after to escalate, but a troubleshooting queiry, and I agree I am maybe being too hasty by throwing in the ADR scheme right away. Of course, i'd rather it just be resolved, end of.

2. Agreed, it's a domestic connection for a full time working person from home and I never said anyone having a streaming drop out is less relevant than a person having a drop out from a meeting, you've just gone on that assumption. Just when you see plenty more posts that have people working from home posting on the forum with resolved issues from PN staff members without this being even brought up in conversation as a matter.

Regardless of working from home or not on a domestic connection, connection issues should not be a daily occurance.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

MisterW — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 10:54:58 GMT

Its not so much a case of whether its more relevant to someone streaming or someone working from home, its that, as Ben pointed out above, Openreach's criteria (right or wrong) is that a there is an acceptable number of drops for a residential connection before a fault will be accepted.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 11:06:35 GMT

Understood. I guess I've done the rounds with different ISPs over the years and have had more drop outs with PN than anyone else, so it's hard to grasp whther its an Openreach issue, or PN. But understand domestic connections will never have the priority over a business connection, I fully accept that.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

BD — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 14:32:19 GMT

Hi @dmachin, thanks for getting getting back to me and I'm sorry for how my previous message came across. I didn't mean to take away from the severity of the issues you've been having and I can see how reading over my previous message it can have come across that way.

What I should have mentioned in my last message is that when checking your connection from this side to the router we've only see 1 drop in the last 72 hours which was yesterday afternoon.
How the connection has been looking our side with the drops can be seen on the graph below:

As you've mentioned the connection dropped around 4 times yesterday this hints there could be other factors at play. Can I ask then, the drops that were seen through yesterday, was this whilst on solely wireless devices or wired connections also do you know?
I ask as wireless issues and interference could very well explain why you've been seeing connection issues your side and why our connection is looking like the above.

I look forwards to hearing from you further.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 15:02:18 GMT

No problem. Many thanks for your help.

To be honest, i did initially think it 'could' be a router issue for the most part. I think the wireless connection could definitely play a factor to this, although i've gone through changing the wireless channels from auto to a manual change of 1 - 13 which has made little difference. Not sure if i have already disabled 2.4ghz and just left 5ghz. I will check this though as i have heard this could help.

Any other tips I could do to help aid the wireless connectivety would be welcomed! 😁

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

Gandalf — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 11:45:51 GMT

Thanks for getting back to us @dmachin

I'm sorry to see you're still having issues. Appreciate that you'd need a connection that's as stable as possible while working from home. I know that from experience while I was WFH, fortunately for me though I only had 3 noticeable drops in the 18 months 2 days I was (I came back to the office out of choice to get me out of the house a little more)

Looking into your router settings, I can see both wireless frequencies 2.4GHz and 5GHz are enabled and merged into a single network name so I'd recommend next splitting them into separate networks you can then choose which one to connect your devices onto. I've written up steps below on how to if you're unsure.

1. Go to the router's homepage at http://192.168.1.254
2. Click on the Advanced Settings tab
3. Type in the admin password found from the back of the router and click the OK button
4. Click on the Continue to Advanced Settings button then the Wireless tab
5. Click on the 5GHz Wireless tab
6. Select No next to Sync with 2.4GHz
7. Change the name of the Wireless SSID to something different
8. Click the Apply button and wait for the change to be applied

Also along with the wireless devices you have connected to your router, I can see you've got a desktop wired into it.

Do you have any issues with the desktop? If you do then I suspect we're not looking at a WiFi issue and we may be better of replacing the router entirely as it may have developed a fault.

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

dmachin — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 08:11:48 GMT

Hi @Gandalf

We still seem to be having some issues, speicifically with the wireless connection.

I've adjusted some settings, but unfortunately the results are either the same or appear to be worse.

Also yesterday our connection was pretty dire at a low of 2Mb D/L. Not updates were happening in the background or of any sort to all the connected devices.

I know you said previously about possibly getting us another router to see if this fixes the problem. Do you reckon we could get this in motion as it does now seem one of the only viable solutions to help?

Many thanks!

Re: Router keeps dropping broadband - but blue light remains

BD — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 12:13:41 GMT

Hi @dmachin, thanks for getting back to us and I'm sorry to hear you've been seeing further performance issues. I can confirm currently when checking your connection from this side to the router we're still seeing a stable 32.4Mbps download reaching the router and no signs that has this has dropped lower in the last 7-14 days. As my colleague Anoush pointed out, unless the speed issues are occuring on both wired and wireless devices then we wouldn't look to replace the router as this still points towards wireless and wireless interference issues.

Ultimately, due to the nature of the technology and mass amount of things both out of our and your control that can effect this connection type, both we and most other providers can't guarantee a set wireless performance. Having said that, when wireless interference is present we'll certainly advise every improvement step that can be made within and around the router to best help with the problems caused by wireless interference. So we can confirm what you've tried so far then please can you answer if you've:

- Split the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies?
( When deciding what device goes on what frequency it's worth keeping in mind that the 5GHz is designed for close range stationary devices and it's the standard 2.4GHz frequency which does most of the heavy lifting in getting your signal around the property.) Some customers disable the 5GHz frequency completely and advise this helps which may be worth trying if you've exhausted other options.

- Tried numerous wireless channels for the 2.4GHz frequency to see if it improves?
( Sometimes it can take trying all of the 1-11 channels to see which best suits your property however if you have an android device then there's a useful app on the android store which may help called 'wifi analyser' which will show other routers in your area and what channel they are on giving you an idea of what channels would be best for you. When testing other channels I'd recommend looking at the speeds you're getting as opposed to the signal bars as they can be sometimes misleading.)

- Is the router currently positioned away from any large electronic / metal devices that could be interfering with the signal?
(Specific devices that can commonly effect wireless are TV's, boilers, radios to list a few.. We advise that if possible router is place unobstructed as this helps.)

There are some cases where customers are surrounded by things that cause interference or a large number of routers all trying to compete on similar channels. If this is the case then we can only advise looking into 3rd party equipment such as wifi extenders, power line adapters or more advance routers which may help combat the interference. I'm hoping though that my breakdown of the wireless improvements will give you a few things to try you may not be aware of that hopefully helps and saves the need of additional equipment.

Let us know how it goes.