Wifi won't connect on more than one device

[#1]

I've been with plusnet a few years including a house move in December. Everything was fine up until a few weeks ago. And more so in the last few days - the wifi has been shocking.
I am not a household with heavy use. I have a hive hub thermostat connected to the router and use a firestick for tv, other than that it is my mobile and a laptop.
Speaking to plusnet they think it's a wifi problem. I dont necessarily disagree, although when I tried an ethernet speed test (granted on an old laptop) it was never higher than 4mbps download. I am in an area known for poor broadband, but again things have been fine since december. So I'm being optimistic the issue is with the wifi like they say.

I have tried the different wifi channel tests but it's not helped really. I've realised the issue seems to be when using more than one device at a time. Or more than one thing running. Eg. My firestick is fine until I turn my wifi on on my phone.

I was wondering could the router by the problem? It's the most basic router and I have had it for a few years. I've heard the Bt hub 6 is a good bet, could this potentially solve my issues or am I wasting my time considering it?

Thanks!

[#2]

If it's a router with dual channels, make sure the SSID's for both are different.
A wifi analyser app would enable you to see which channels are most used; then
manually adjust router channels least, or not in use.

[#3]

I belive its just the 2.4 channel. I dont know what said means sorry. Im not great at all this. I have an analyser app to see what other channels nearby places are using and have tried using the least used ones to not much difference really. Still seems to be one device at a time thay I can use. Thanks though

[#4]

*ssid not said

[#5]

Hi @Bp25, thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear you've been having speed issues as of recent. Checking over your connection from this side currently I can see we're getting 4.9Mbps download and 0.56Mbps upload to your router with no signs of underlying issues. The 4.9Mbps download falls towards the higher end of your 1.5 - 5.5MBps estimates for your line. This then points towards either a wireless interference issue or a bandwidth issue that's behind the lack of speed you've been seeing your side.
 

Firstly, if you check a wired connection and run a speed test whilst there's no other devices or applications using the connection a the time then this will give you an accurate reading of what's reaching the router. If someone is heavily using the connection at times such as downloading or uploading large files or updating large applications/games then this can effect the performance on other devices on line at the time. In which case, I'd advise whenever running speed tests whether wired or wireless to make sure there's nothing heavily using the connection at the time that would skew the results and create potential red herrings.
 

The other potential cause of your impacted speeds and performance is that wireless interference is present. This can be checked by running a wired speed test and seeing how it matches up to a wireless one. If a wired speed test shows the speeds very close to what we're seeing reach the router this side then I'd advise giving the router settings another change and seeing if any of the other 1-13 channels available provide a better wireless performance for you.
Let us know how it goes and I hope this helps.

[#6]

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@BD wrote:

I'd advise giving the router settings another change and seeing if any of the other 1-13 channels available provide a better wireless performance for you.

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Best practice dictates that only channels 1, 6 or 11 should be used.  WiFi signals "bleed over" into the adjacent channels.  Working with other SSIDs co-channel is less of an issue than SSIDs having overlapping channels.  Some routers helpfully only allow the manual selection of these preferred channels.

[#7]

Thanks for your reply. I'm struggling because my new laptop does not have the possibility for a wired connection. I did try on an old laptop and the results were a little hit and miss but were similar to what you say. I made sure all other devices were out of use. It's a very slow and old laptop so cant imagine the results were too accurate but it seems okay.

I have tried the different channels (primarily 1, 6 and 11) and no real difference seems to be made. I still have the issue of one thing running at a time. Or even just one app on a phone - for instance spotify might work, but only if absolutely nothing else is running on my phone.

Other than the different channels, what else could cause an issue with the wifi interference?
I am willing to try a 3rd party router if it could be this?

Thanks again

[#8]

Thanks for getting back to us @Bp25 

Looking into this, given the age of the router I've arranged to send you a new router and as your line's fairly long, the router's I'm sending will be a bit more powerful, a router we'd generally only send for a fibre connection.

Also on the note of fibre, that actually is available in your area. It's FTTP though, which is fibre straight to your property so you can get some mega fast speeds, but we aren't currently offering this service. 

While we wouldn't want you to leave us, we'd be happy to waive any termination fees if you move to BT or EE. We'd just ask that you'd call our customer options team on 0800 013 2632 to arrange this if you'd like to go ahead.

I hope this helps.

[#9]

Oh wow thank you so much! This has been very helpful and more success than I had on the phone the other day!
Let's hope this router will work.

Thanks also for the option to terminate though. I had previously thought I could only get fibre with virgin who I wanted to avoid. Let's hope it wont come to it, but it's good to know BT is an option too.

Thanks again and fingers crossed this new router helps!

[#10]

Thanks for getting back to me @Bp25 

No problem at all! Fingers crossed indeed it helps. Let us know how you get on when the router arrives

[#11]

If not already done, it would be wise to check the basics...

Broadband is not going to work well if the "phone" line is not working properly.

Please perform a quiet line test - dial 17070 select option 2 using a corded phone plugged into the test socket behind the face plate of the master socket. It should be silent. A noisy phone line (or no dial tone) will have a marked adverse impact on the performance of broadband.

If the line is noisy or there is no dial tone, then a PHONE LINE fault needs to be raised with your phone provider. If this is PlusNet, you can report a fault on line using the button below.  From the Q&A list, choose the one which matches the problem, 'open' the 'section' and click the trouble-shooter link.  NB: If you receive a failure message (rather than a log-in prompt) then log-in to the user portal in a different browser tab and attempt to use the trouble-shooter again.

• Phone Faults

Can you please post the xDSL stats from your router?