Connection keeps dropping?

[#1]

I’m not sure if anyone else is experiencing this. My internet connection keeps dropping unexpectedly.

It’s especially annoying as I’m working from home during the weekdays and during meetings over Skype and Microsoft Teams, I will suddenly get disconnected. I have to keep apologising to colleagues who seem to always have stable connections in comparison to mine!

The same thing happens with my phone and other connected devices — the connection is just unpredictable. I have even resorted to using my mobile data because the connection is far more stable, faster and more reliable.

Can someone please look into why this is happening? I’ve held off on raising this hoping that it would resolve itself but it’s become too much of a frequent and consistent pattern of constantly getting disconnected and it’s having a negative impact on both my work and home life.

[#2]

I'm also having this issue. We've been connected to the service for a few weeks now and have been experiencing drops a few times a day. The router will flash an orange light and then flick back to blue. Less frequently it will disconnect completely and require a restart. After restarting it always seems to be able to reconnect first time. 

[#3]

I am also having this problem. It is causing a lot of issues when it comes to working as I'm sending code off to the server at work and if my internet drops everything stops (and these things take a few hours to run anyway without having to restart them repeatedly). 

I am attempting to ring them this evening to find out what is going on.

[#4]

@th0mps0n and @Swche1  and @barnes765 

All of you welcome to the forums.

I am not PlusNet staff but might be able to help. At least one of you seems have an issue with Wi-Fi from reading your post. If that is the case. a couple of options, one is to logon to your router 192.168.1.254 and then goto the wireless settings and split the 2.4 and 5Ghz radios (you will need to change one of the SSID). This can help in congested areas where lots of devices and or others in nearby buildings are also using Wi-Fi and fighting for available bandwidth. Also note that PlusNet can not resolve Wi-Fi issues as such only advise as they have no control over your Wi-Fi in your area. 

If you are getting an Orange light on the router coming on regularly you might have a fault either internal wiring or an external fault. Do the basic test of plugging in your router into the master socket behind the faceplate, to remote any internal wiring and see if it gets better. But use a wired connection, not Wi-Fi. If still an issue then log a fault at fault.plus.net.

One of you mentioned having issues uploading, when uploading a very large files this can effective grab all the available bandwidth and slow down any surfing. Again best using wired connection wherever possible.

[#5]

I've just rung and they are thinking it is every time the heating comes on in my flats. It is an old system (that is centrally controlled) so it is possible that the trigger is sending out some electrical interference which is then cutting my internet for a minute before allowing it to reconnect.

[#6]

@th0mps0n  I just wonder how support have diagnosed your problem so conclusively? it sounds like nonsense to me. There must be dozens of other reasons for your connection to drop. I would be interested to know what Plusnet are going to do to solve this.🤔

[#7]

@RealAleMadrid Their logic is literally every time the heating comes on the internet is dropping at the exact same time. It is like midnight, 7am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, etc. Which are from what I’ve noticed the times the heating comes on. I can’t turn off the heating for a day to check as it is under the control of my landlord, so I can’t know until March/April when the heating stops coming on.
But that is something my landlord would have to fix by shielding the heating system in some way. The plusnet electrician wouldn’t be able to do anything if it was that but i would still get charged for the call out and as a phd student I’m not keen on spending lots of extra money!

[#8]

@wakeman thanks for the suggestion

I’ve just partitioned my WiFi into two separate SSIDs (I created a separate SSID for 5 GHz). I noticed a lot of my devices were on 2.4 GHz which I read is not ideal. So I’ve changed the ones in close proximity to my router to 5 GHz.

Now I’ll keep an eye on the connection over the next couple of days to see if this has made any difference.

[#9]

@th0mps0n
Hm, that does seems rather strange – I would have thought this would only be a possibility if your heating system was connected to your internet (i.e. smart thermostats). Otherwise I wasn’t aware that heating systems could actually affect your internet connection!

[#10]

@Swche1 yeah it does sound really odd. He said some old heating systems give off a little electrical charge when they start up. But the internet dropping is aligning perfectly for the whole of September to those exact times starting 2nd September when the heating first started coming on. So I am probably at a point where I am just going to have to avoid meetings at those times! Though will also check with the other flats to see if it is happening with them too!