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BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

nwlondon — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 19:31:07 GMT

I have a BT hub which today has been suffering a lot of lost connections. These typically last for a minute or two during which the hub light goes from blue to pink/orange or flashing pink/orange. The event log filtered by WAN says :VLAN VLAN_DATA disconnected when the connection drops.

I talked to the support folks who claim the problem is wifi congestion and changed the auto channel settings on the hub. But I'm puzzled because every connected device lost internet access, even a couple that were connected by hard wired ethernet cables. They assured me that hard wired connections would be dropped because of wifi channel congestion which sounds dumb. And the flashing orangs light means the hub is reconnecting to broadband, which means it must have lost the connection. And I struggle to believe wifi channel congestion wouldn't cause a :VLAN VLAN_DATA disconnected log entry would it?

So I think the support team are bull**bleep**ting me. Not to mention the fact that the disconnections have continued after they reset the wifi channel settings.

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

licquorice — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 19:48:17 GMT

I sometimes think the call centre staff have a competition to see who can come up with the most outrageous BS!!

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

Les-Gibson — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 20:18:00 GMT

🤣That's a corker, no ethernet because of wi-fi congestion 🤣

This link explains the meaning of the lights What do the lights on my BT Hub mean? | BT Help

What type of connection do you have ?

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

old_email — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 20:23:31 GMT

Read my experience under The Good The Bad and The Ugly.
Then send an SMS to 61998 containing the text:
HELP
<your BT line phone number>

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

nwlondon — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 20:46:34 GMT

I have a standard broadband over a good old fashioned phone line connected to a BT smart hub type A (according to the label). Interestingly this isn't the first time BT support have told me the problem was wifi congestion when it was something else. I guess it's part of the script; if in doubt blame wifi.

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

imjolly — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 21:18:40 GMT

please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information .

Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

enter your phone number and post results remember to delete number https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

DavidM — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 12:50:38 GMT

Hi @nwlondon and thanks for posting.

I'm sorry you've been having problems with the connection. I'm not sure why you would be told it's a WiFi issue when it plainly isn't. Can you post the stats requested by @imjolly and we'll take a look at this for you.

Cheers

David

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

nwlondon — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 13:17:14 GMT

Seems to have been fixed, probably by something BT did at the network end because when I listened to the line yesterday I could hear some crackles, even without doing the quiet line test, plus the broadband speed was lower than expected. But today the line has stayed connected (so far) and I just did a quiet line test which was fine, and broadband speed is back to normal. So I think everything is OK again (no thanks to the support lady who told me it was a wifi congestion issue). But thanks for taking an interest. If the problems recur I'll post some logs.

Regards,

Nick

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 13:23:10 GMT

Noise on the line can often be associated with environmental issues like wind & rain, so entirely possible that yours has "fixed" itself for now. Far more likely that BT having reported a fault they didn't believe existed to Openreach. Have a look on MyBT & see if there's any recent fault activity. If not I suspect your respite is only temporary.

If it happens again & you can hear noise on the line, report it as a phone fault rather than broadband.

Re: BT support claims my (wired) dropouts are caused by wifi congestion???

MP99 — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:17:14 GMT

I had a friend who would lose his internet connection every time it rained hard because there was an underground chamber somewhere in his connection that flooded.