weird wifi issue.. long story sorry

[#1]

i've never come across something like this before, i'll try to explain the experiences for each device to try and give a more complete picture of whats going on.

before i start, the actual internet connection is fine. good speeds, etc., we have a bunch of devices using ethernet and they are all fine, the only problem with these is when the router decides to randomly restart itself at some random hour (i assume this is firmware updates or something? can we schedule these personally for times that aren't inconvenient? or do routers just like to randomly restart, they've always seemed to do it. (oops this went off-topic already!)).

so our wifi seems to.. it doesn't so much drop out (the signal never goes away even briefly on any devices list of available networks) as it does just.. stop working for that device until it either automatically figures itself out or manually reconnecting (usually cycling the wifi adaptor off/on is quickest, as the connection rarely actually disconnects, just becomes.. dead?).

the odd thing about this, any active connections (to streaming video, or a wan pc to pc file transfer for example) seem to be unaffected until interrupted. say i'm watching an hour long youtube video, when the connection "dies" i'll be able to sit and watch that whole video as long as i don't pause it (and it is not because the entire video has been buffered as far as i can tell, as pausing will break the connection and it will not resume.) but while that video is playing just fine, i can't open a new tab and load any website as it just kicks out the "no internet connection" error for whatever browser. similarly, trying to connect to steam or whatever will also fail as if there is no internet connection. but that video will keep playing. and whatsapp web will continue to allow me to receive and send messages. it is very odd and hard to describe because i have no idea what is happening.

the connection is usually fine for anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour of use, at which point the devices connection will just "play dead" until reconnected.

examples per device;

android phone: this phone doesn't see much long session use, only evidence of the wifi being odd on this device is i use whatsapp web via this phone, it will often exclaim about being unable to connect to the phone but usually figures itself out. about 1 out of 10 times i will have to turn the wifi off/on on my phone to fix it. phone is a model from late 2017.

nintendo switch: seems to work most of the time, the 10 minutes to an hour doesn't seem to apply to this device.. perhaps most games use a consistent connection that survives long enough through the "play dead" period for the device to reconnect itself when it does detect a no internet related problem? does occasionally drop out mid-game though. this is another 1 out of 10 times it will need a manual reconnect.

roku lite: from 2014ish? not sure if they still sell this. it always had a kind of rubbish wifi connection even with our old isp, but with the plusnet router this thing has become unusable. netflix was the primary use for this and it became 100% unwatchable. but i blame 50% of this on the roku lite just being awful despite the router only being 10ft away. can't give much experience of this device as we simply stopped using it shortly after switching to plusnet. i'll let this one pass because it was awful even before plusnet, but with the previous router it was at least somewhat usable, so i am mentioning it just because its yet another wifi thing being weird.

playstation 3: this became the roku replacement. this definitely suffers from the 10 minute to an hour issue. watching netflix is all the online activity this console sees, but anywhere between 10 minutes to and hour and netflix will just die. reconnecting the wifi sorts it out for another 10 minutes to an hour. this happens 10 times out of 10.

laptop: currently what i am writing this post on and where the issue impacts the most as this is the device that i use and rely on wifi the most.

right off the bat, i know that before i can submit this post i will need to reconnect the wifi as the connection will have "died" since me starting to write and when i hit post. and this is while i have a tab for whatsapp web happy sending and receiving messages, and bbc iplayer streaming live television at me the entire time with no problem. like i say, this issue is weird. and i don't get it at all.

thats kind of it, i guess. active connections seem to remain alive. new ones fail as if there is no internet. even trying to load 192.168.1.254 doesn't work when it gets stuck in limbo, and trying to discover other computers files on the network fails. so its like its not even connecting to the router - yet the bbc iplayer is happily sending its video and audio along the connection for hours just fine without an issue.. unless i push pause and interrupt that connection.

it is just boggling my mind. at first i thought it might just be my laptop - but then i remembered all the other devices act weird with the wifi too. we have a bunch more devices, but like my phone they don't see enough consistent internet use bring up any noticeable issues.

our main consoles and pc's are connected via ethernet and work absolutely fine, so it is not an internet connection issue. it appears to just be the wifi being very odd.

i can attach a photo of the 2.4ghz channels and the fun amount of wifi network clutter on each channel if needed. oh boy, theres a lot of networks not on 1, 6, or 11. why are other channels even an option given they mess everyone up, including themselves?

oh for reference, the 5ghz connection does the same thing, but with the added bonus of the 5ghz seems to have really poor distance through our house. so most devices aren't even set to try and connect to it. the 2.4ghz connection will hit 10mbps on fast.com in the opposite end of the house to the router, the 5ghz will.. struggle to load fast.com that far away. and then spits out some sad 2002 era speeds (which were great at the time coming from 56k! not so fun today).

so yeah, sorry for the rambling. but i don't know how to describe it succinctly because i'm not even sure whats going on. the above is just my best guess based on what happens.

thanks in advance for any help

[#2 · Accepted solution]

5ghz band is poorer distance wise, but currently far less busy than the 2.4 band.
Have the ssid's got different names for the 2 bands; that may help.
PN's Hub One not well rated for it's wifi capability; think about getting an Openreach one from a well known
auction site; it can be reconfigured to work on the PN network.

[#3]

If you read through the Router board you will see that there are a lot of issues with the current Hub One firmware. It might help if you go into your router settings, separate the 2.4 and 5HHz bands then switch the 5GHz band off.

As @Gel  suggests, many of us use a BT Smarthub 6. I got mine from Ebay for less than £20.

[#4]

Hi there @lortfort,
By the sounds of it you seem pretty well versed in what's going on already and I wouldn't say the problem is particularly weird, but a case of age old wireless interference.

Please accept my apologies if I'm treading the same ground but I want to be as thorough as possible.

Firstly, have you tried all of the wireless troubleshooting?
Things like where your router is situated in your home can also play a massive part in how good your reception is. If your router is near other electrical equipment for example. (It doesn't matter how close you sit to the router. You could be picking up a bad signal).

I like to think of your router as a radio tower and your devices are listening to the broadcast. If there's anything in your area generating interference, no matter how close you are to the router or how many bars of signal you may have, you could be picking up a noisy reception.
In essence, no matter how loud you turn up the volume, a crackly frequency will still be crackly.

Further to the above troubleshooting, have you:
Tried all the wireless channels? If you've got a scanner showing the channels in use in your area, I'd still give them a go. Those scanners only tend to show networks in the area and not causes of interference.

Split off your Frequencies? I know you mentioned the 5Ghz being the same, but have you split them off? (As both you and @Gel say, the 5Ghz band covers a shorter range but it still might be worth splitting if you haven't already)

Finally, disabled everything on your wireless network, even devices that are connected but not using the internet currently and trying one device at a time. A network is only as strong as its weakest link in the chain. If one device is having trouble or causing interference, there can be a domino effect onto all the other devices on your network. If one device is working well, then begin introducing others one by one.

I hope this information helps, but please feel free to get back to us and let us know how you get on.

[#5]

thank you for the replies, apologies for my own lateness - easily distracted - though with the weather last night and today the wifi interference has been even worse to the point of unusable 😧

the 2.4 and 5 bands are split and have been since day 1 of being with plusnet, and since day 1 of our many year run with the previous isp too. never had a good experience with those synced up! why on earth do they default it on?

@Gel could you point me towards a guide on how to configure the ~other isp~ hh6 for plusnets network? i'll try and look for it myself in the mean time but i am hopeless at searching for things (likely to get distracted too!)

@Optimatts thank you for the good info on interference and distance being unrelated - i never knew that, but it makes sense. this also gives me a clearer idea of why whats happening is happening, making it less frustrating and more "oh you silly wavelengths."

i shall dig the old homehub6 smarthub thingy out of the drawer (glad i didn't sell it now!) and see if that improves things - although i will give it a few days as this wild windy weather is doing the wifi no favours. if that shows no improvement i'll consider moving the router to another location, though that will make ethernet a bit of a hassle and those connections are more important than wifi. funky disconnecting wifi isn't the end of the world in this house luckily, so we can probably live with the quirk if need be!

the wifi network clutter on our street is unfortunately awful, see attached image. i don't know why routers aren't configured to favour 1, 6, and 11.. the number of them on 5 here! oh dear. the robovac is a recent addition to the clutter, i only noticed that the other day. what on earth is that thing doing there, smart wifi robovac my butt!

thanks for the replies! i'll see what i can do!

[#6]

oh can't edit my post sorry! found the guide for setting up the smarthub!

[#7]

@lortfort 

Setting instructions for your 'old' HH6. For information the Plusnet Hub One is really an even older  HH5A with a whitish case and tweeked firmware.  https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-the-BT-Smarthub-6-on-a-Plusnet-Account/m-p/1587673#M85...

Take particular note of when to plug in your DSL lead. Some plug it in too early then claim that the instructions do not work.

[#8]

Thanks for the update @lortfort 

No problem about the delayed response, life can get pretty busy (At least it does with me...:D)

Looking at your WiFi analyser that definitely does look terrible with a lot of networks.

Let us know how it goes once you've setup your BT router.

[#9]

been a few days now, issue seems to be totally gone with the homehub6. thank you for the recommendation - glad we had one leftover!

thanks for all the suggestions and help everyone