This topic

BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:40:55 GMT

Hi - Im a long time reader of these posts first time poster!

We have had BT Fibre for two years and moved to a new contract (with a new BT ID / New contract from scratch) in early December 2025. We moved from 150 full fibre to 500 full fibre. Prior to moving had 0 issues (wifi signal supplemented with TP extenders RE705X x2 with no issue). Of note we live completely rural - none/minimal phone signal at all. Husband works from home with laptop via ethernet connection.

Since we have swapped to the new contract we have had endless connectivity issues - the ethernet and wifi speeds are fine but the connection randomly drops in both limiting ability to do any work. My work laptop wont connect at all. Husbands work laptop will connect via ethernet only but again repeatedly dropping. My personal apple mac laptop tells me repeatedly someone else on network is using my IP address. Our iphones only remain connected to wifi if switch off data as presumably they are considering the connection weak and keep trying to revert to my (non existant) data.

We have had endless calls with BT and i have tried everything. I have updated all the TP firmware - tried removing, tried adding extra. I have done power cycles of the openreach modem and factory resets of the smart hub (clearing cache). I have changed the smart channels. I sat through a long laborious bt customer service chat where i switched off every device, factory reset and gradually reconnected. I have switched the new smart hub router (that i was told by BT i absolutely had to install) back to the old one we had for two years with no improvement. We have replaced the power cables, and all the ethernet cables. I have had a (totally useless) bt smart tech engineer, and an openreach engineer who tested the line and replaced the openreach modem. Despite that the ethernet connection is still dropping (witnessed by openreach) and the work laptops wont connect and the wifi is intermittent.

All the lights are always fine. Running checks initially said there was no issue and then a 'network instability' issue popped up prompting me to do a power cycle. 'Your Hub could be in sync with the exchange or cabinet, but not connecting to the gateway. If there is no PPP session, it's likely to be a problem with our network"

Then it changed to a network fault but BT always says they have no faults and they feel everything is working fine.

The openreach engineer was great and did so many checks and the speed matches the backend checks/graphs so he is very confident its not the line. He said to go back to BT because its likely an issue with the BT profile when the new contract was set up. But the BT customer service (x2) since have no idea what that is. They say theyll 'investigate' but they dont know who investigates is.

The most recent update is that BT are 'investigating' and will get back to me in 48 hours for an update on the next steps. However they have confirmed that their checks show that 'the customer has regular drop outs on the line'.

Im fairly tech savvy and understand a decent amount but im way past my technical understanding here. Can anyone identify anything wrong or recommend next steps. We had purchased a TP openmesh system with the plan to replace the router once the issue is fixed but reluctant to add another layer of complexity until the issue is sorted.

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:17:45 GMT

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:21:17 GMT

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

Alex_H — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 11:54:54 GMT

Hi @universalrainbow1,

Welcome to the BT Community

I am sorry to hear of the issues you have been having with your connection, that does sound frustrating. Some of our knowledgeable community users may be able to share some insight based on your connection logs, but if the issue is on the BT side as the engineer suggested it may be something only our technical team can resolve.

From what you say it seems they can see an issue is happening with the connection dropping, so hopefully they are able to figure it out after further investigation.

Alex

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

licquorice — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:17:21 GMT

The problem appears to be with the Hub's DHCP server.

Are you using a VPN, if so try disabling it.

Also, turn off MAC randomisation on your devices and then factory reset the hub via the button rather than via the hub manager.

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:59:13 GMT

thanks for your responses - could you explain the DHCP issue you mentioned in layman’s terms and why you think it might be?

we dont have a VPN in operation- however my work laptop (which does connect to my work internal servers via a VPN) will not connect at all to the home internet either via VPN or ethernet. It will on other WiFi or via hot spotting although our signal is very patchy at our house so it’s not that consistent. My work IT department gave me a totally new laptop as a trial and it’s still not working so it’s not the laptop at fault.

i have turned off the Mac randomisation on the two Apple devices we have early in December and did a button factory reset and no improvement. BT actually told me to turn it back on because they said it was detrimental to the hub.

we have also had a replacement BT smart hub 2 again with no improvement

i have escalated it to BT via a complaint and was escalated to the executive complaints team. She can see that there are regular drop outs but can’t see any reason why- she has apparently looked at our BT profile and can’t see any issue. She is suggesting again it’s an openreach issue

i have rechatted to openreach engineer who is adamant the line is fine and that there’s no problems at the openreach end. He’s spoken to colleagues who have all suggested it’s an issue with the profile or the way the line was taken over when we switched from our 150 contract to 500 contract.

The drop outs have improved since openreach and exec complaints person but are still happening and both work laptops are not connecting reliably or in my case at all. My Apple Mac also repeatedly tells me that another device is using my IP address. The exec complaints person couldn’t explain this at all.

at the moment we have been escalated to the ?marvel department in BT. And on the advise of the exec complaints person we are starting a new contract at 300mb tomorrow as she said it would reset some areas of our profile and could fix the issue (but she still doesn’t know what the issue is).

any one else any suggestions to why work laptops won’t connect or if they think this solution tomorrow will help (I hope it does)!

if not I’m seriously considering switching to another provider but would be concerned if BT is correct and it is an Openreach issue it would carry over to a new provider?

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

licquorice — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 13:41:46 GMT

There just seemed to be a lot of DHCP requests in the logs, but looking closer they are probably as a result of the device disconnecting. Is it just WiFi connected devices that are affected or Ethernet connected devices also?

The problem appears to be local rather than a line problem.

The comment from BT that disabling MAC randomisation is detrimental to the hub is totally unbelievable. The opposite is true as the hub runs out of internal connections.

You could try eliminating the hub by making a direct PPPoE connection to the ONT from your laptop.

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 13:55:28 GMT

I have bought a TP third party hub to replace smart hub and our TP wifi extenders but haven’t set it up yet as Openreach and BT both said would do nothing as the issue would persist as both blamed it on line or BT profile

wifi and Ethernet connected devices both dropping out randomly at different intervals. since the openreach person changed the ONT modem the WiFi connection has broadly improved but we have to have data switched off on iPhones and as I said neither work laptops will connect (both dell/windows). My apple mac connects but continously tells me I’ve got network changes and other devices using my IP address. Ethernet connection has also improved in that it drops two or three times a day rather than two or three times an hour. We intermittently loose connection on laptop to bbc news etc while other websites work. If the work laptops would connect we could manage but BT seems to have no idea why they aren’t connecting. They suggested my work could have blocked my IP address specifically which is ridiculous.

I have already factory reset hub to clear all the backlog of internal communications but no improvement

Of note we are the only people on this line as it was installed from the main road out to our home when we moved in two years ago and like I said no issues since and nothing changed until December when got a brand new contract with new BT ID. It was processed as a line take over. There are no new devices in home since.

When you say local do you mean a device or something in my home is causing the issues?

any suggestions on how to resolve that I’ve not already tried

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

licquorice — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:06:35 GMT

By local I mean that the problem is within your home network, not a line problem.

The DHCP requests wouldn't occur with a line problem as your home network would still be operating.

I notice the hub uptime in your screenshot is only 4 hours, is that due to you resetting it?

It does seem rather odd that the problem only started with the change in contract though.

I would seriously consider trying out the third party router.

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:36:22 GMT

Yeah the 4 hours at that time because of a recent factory reset.

We had been sent a new router, then told to switch back to our original router (which we had for two years without issue) and then sent a third router from BT. Nothing changed/improved.

I dont really want to waste another two hours (and several hundred pounds) setting up yet another router system. Why would this be any different that the three routers ive already installed and reconnected everything too?

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

licquorice — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:03:11 GMT

Sorry, I thought you said you already had a third party router.

When you changed hubs did you also change the PSU?

Alternatively, try my suggestion of a direct PPPoE connection to the ONT to eliminate the hub.

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

universalrainbow1 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:07:38 GMT

Yeah we’ve changed the power supply,

Openreach also changed their modem and changed the power supply to that and we’ve replaced all the Ethernet connection wires between the modem/router- still ongoing

How do I do a direct PPPoE?

Re: BT Fibre 500 - Connection unstable / connection drops

licquorice — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 15:14:38 GMT

I think you said you have a Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp27142/mac

Or just Google direct PPPoE connection

Username is bthomehub@btbroadband.com and password BT