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Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:16:49 GMT

We have been having this same issue that no one seems to be able to work out what's wrong. I have searched so many pages to find the answer.

We are on FTTC, full fibre is not available yet. We have a smart hub 2. Our speeds are pretty decent. We have already been given a new hub to see if that solved the issues. We have had 2 BT people out already.

About 1.5 years ago we were swapped over to digital voice and got given a smart hub 2. It seems to be around then the problems started. Every day or so at some random time, our laptops, phones etc all say 'connected no internet' but the blue lights on the hub are still on, not flashing etc. Strangely our Ring indoor camera and outdoor cameras both continue recording and they are connected wirelesly to the same hub. We can see from the video footage that the blue lights stays on the whole time. It seems the only way to get the laptops and phones back on the internet is to turn the router on and off, it then works ok again for another day or so. We have tried waiting without turning off but it stays the same. Inbetween these episodes I have noticed a lot of times my laptop will say 'your internet connection was restored' it looks like I have been disconnected for a very small fraction of time when it happens but I don't notice apart from that message. Sometimes it happens a lot, like every few minutes, other times I don't notice anything.

Rough timeline of contact with BT. We got our old phoneline switched off and changed to digital voice around june 2024.

1.End 2024 When we realised this was ongoing we got help on bt chat. The person I spoke to did the usual but also said something about us wrongly being put down as being full fibre when we are still part copper. He said he would switch something. I don't know what he did. But the problem reoccured.

2.I did research tried switching settings etc (I can't remember exactly what).

3.We put up with the issue but in 2025 we got someone from BT to come out. He said our speeds were very good, line very quiet etc. He said he had heard of this problem once before and I think he mentioned internet protocol or something like that. He thought we needed an open reach engineer. He changed the hub for us just in case but didn't think that would solve it. He said to insist on an open reach engineer if it wasn't solved. The new hub did not solve the issue so again we just put up with it for a while.

4. I contacted BT again and the lady tried to book open reach but it wouldn't let her, she said she needed to send a BT engineer first then they can ask for the open reach. The BT engineer came and again said we were getting very good speeds etc. He was going to replace the master socket but it's already been replaced. He saw that the socket was not pushed in properly so he did that. He didn't think that was the answer but said if we still get the same problem ask for the open reach engineer. It has been ok for about 3 days and then exactly the same happened again today. Phones and laptops connected no internet but the cameras were still connected. I also noticed on my laptop I could connect to the hub via the number you type in the browser. As soon as we turned the hub off it said I wasn't connected. Suggesting my laptop could still communicate with the hub but not get internet. I don't know if that is important. I also noticed the other day that FTTP was marked 'on' when I logged into the hub. I switched this off in case that was causing issues as we are not on FTTP. But I checked again today after todays issues and that setting is still off so that can't be the problem.

5. I am currently onto BT again to see about getting open reach out but wondered if anyone has heard of this issue and anything else I can try. The BT chat people all seem to want me to do the same thing, restart hub, reset etc. Clearly none of that is helping. It needs to be someone with deeper knowledge of this issue. ***I have just been given an appointment today! Fingers crossed. (I am just across the road from BT so that's maybe how they are getting someone so quickly). Even if they find something I likely won't know until a few days if it has stopped the problem so I still welcome any ideas and input.

Thankyou

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

gg30340 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:36:35 GMT

This might not be the cause of your problem but it is worth considering.

Can you check in all your devices settings to see if they have "MAC Randomisation" and if they do, if it is turned on try turning it off.

This is a "privacy" feature on some devices that generates a "random" MAC address for the device every time that it connects to a wireless network. This is helpful on public wifi but not really necessary on your home network.

This can cause a problem with the BT hub and other routers which do not clear down MAC addresses when the device leaves the network. The allocation table eventually can not allocate a new MAC address and as such the device can not get onto that network.

Once you have turned MAC Randomisation off carry out a factory reset of the Smarthub in order to clear out any settings.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

iniltous — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:39:39 GMT

This does seem to crop up frequently, as far as your point 1 about BT noticing something set as full fibre when you are not on full fibre , I suspect that was pretty trivial, the hub 4th Ethernet port needs to be set as ‘full fibre on ’ when on FTTP , the cable from the ONT connects to the 4th socket , on FTTC it’s irrelevant if it’s set to on or off unless you have a wired device in that 4th slot , I suspect they noticed your hub set to full fibre ON , but it’s irrelevant, but turn it to off if it hasn’t already been done .
The rest of the points around Openreach needing to visit , in truth there isn’t really any point , search Mac Randomisation , this has been suggested as the possible cause of your issue , it seems the hub doesn’t necessarily play nice with devices that have Mac randomisation set , try looking at your devices and see if they are set for Mac randomisation and if they are , turn it off .

Edit , beaten to it by @gg30340 with message 2

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:50:03 GMT

Hi, thankyou for the suggestion, I checked and 'Random Hardware Addresses' is already switched to off on the laptops. I just switched my mobile to off as it was on but the problem happens on our laptops too so that can't be the reason for it happening on them if that makes sense!

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

iniltous — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:01:24 GMT

I’d give it a try , the problem seems (in basic terms) that each random ( made up ) MAC address created by a device is remembered by the hub , it eventually runs out of space for these random MAC numbers and hangs until it’s powered off, that affects all devices not just the ones set to randomisation , so even if the PC’s were not set for randomisation, a mobile with that setting may be causing the issue …if you turn it off on the mobile and it still happens at least you have removed that as a possibility.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:35:59 GMT

thankyou for explaining, I will give it a try and see if that solves it. Do I need to check devices like tv, ps5, switch, cameras etc or would they not have that feature? Also is a restart of hub enough or does it need to be a factory reset? I only ask so when we were given a replacement hub the engineer told me how to give the new hub the same name or whatever as my old one so I didn't need to set everything up again but I can't remember how he told me to do that! I really appreciate your help today. (p.s if I need to I will of course do it, I just wanted to double check)

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

iniltous — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:31:02 GMT

As far as I know , because the idea behind this is to stop others tracking your mobile devices as they connect across multiple networks, so it’s mainly on portable devices that are likely to have this feature , something like a TV that isn’t really a portable device isn’t likely to have a need for this type of feature as it will only really ever connect to its home network …I’d start with laptops , mobiles etc that are likely to connect to networks other than your ‘home’ network, like coffee shops , airports , WiFi hotspots etc.

As far as I know , switching off and on is sufficient to clear this data , although a factory reset may ultimately be the better option , but as you have changed the WiFi SSID /password to the previous router settings a factory reset isn’t the easy option as you would need to do that again , or use factory settings , and pair all your mobile devices again , so any future factory reset won’t be an issue .

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

gg30340 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:30:01 GMT

I doubt that the TV and camera will have it however I would check the PS5.

A restart of the hub may be enough but a factory reset would be better.

If you are using a wireless device you will first need to use the Smarthub's SSid and Password that is on the hub's label in order to do the following after a factory reset.

If you are using an Ethernet connected device you will not need to use the hubs labels name etc.

To change the SSiD (name) of the Smarthub you need to go to the hubs management pages. Open a new web browser on a device connected to your Hub and type 192.168.1.254 in the address bar. This will open the Hub manager.

Click Advanced Settings then Click Wireless. Enter the admin password found on the label.

Once in the wireless settings click on "Change Settings". You can now change the "Network Name" and the Security Password" to your "old" hubs name and password. Click "Save" then close the browser.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:07:03 GMT

Thankyou both so much for your help. We have 2 mobiles and 2 laptops which are now all set to off. I have then restarted the hub. I am going to wait and see if the problem continues and if it does I will then try resetting the hub (thankyou for the instructions for setting it to the old details). When I was logged into the hub I noticed quite a few items that had been connected previously that I dont' recognise so I am going to work through the list and delete ones we don't need. It could well be family connected at christmas but they can just reconnect if it is.

Openreach phoned a while ago and thought they were coming to sort a dangerous hanging wire! That was embarressing, I told them the chat person did say they put it as a priority and I hadn't asked them too, I guess they pretended it was an emergency. The guy said they do that sometimes so he knew it wasn't my fault. He said I need to go back on chat and say they need to raise a fault as he didn't have any of our details other than phone number. But for now I think I'll wait and see if this solves the issue and get back to them if it doesn't.

I haven't been on this chat community before so I'm not sure of the correct protocol. Do I mark this as solved or wait and see if it resolves it first? Thanks

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

gg30340 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:12:32 GMT

@Caz321wrote:
I haven't been on this chat community before so I'm not sure of the correct protocol. Do I mark this as solved or wait and see if it resolves it first? Thanks

Your choice but I would just wait and see if it has solved the issue.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 17:38:07 GMT

Hi again, sorry to say we have had the same problem again today, around 3pm. Since my last message one of the days we had a lot of lag and I noticed on the hub manager it said Active for public wifi even though we had opted out for the hotspot. I noticed EEwifi and EEwifiX with full signal on the list of available connections so I turned off the hub, only a low signal one remained. I turned it back on and they were back. I tried to look to opt out but it just gave me the option to sign up. BT suggested I sign up and then opt out and then reset the hub. I did that and it is now correctly inactive.

This means the hub has now been fully reset. Everything seemed ok then today I was on zoom chatting on my laptop and suddenly my internet page wouldn't load but zoom was fine. I tried other browsers and phone and it then did the usual, connected no internet. My husband was playing fortnite on the PS5. He was able to carry on for a while but after he died he couldn't connect. Somehow I was able to continue chatting live on zoom on my laptop for at least another 10 minutes before my sister had to go anyway so I don't know if it would have continued. The connection via zoom was good, no stuttering or lag or anything. I don't know how but it was using the wifi even though my browsers and phone wouldn't load pages. As usual the 2 Ring cameras continued to record and the blue lights on the hub were still solid. Also I could get onto the Hub Manager and it was showing that my items were connected (other than a couple of items that were meant to be off). I tried typing in ipconfig/release and then renew on my laptop to see if that would allow me back on. It didn't (although I only tried closing my browser and reopening, I didn't restart my laptop). Just to add that playing fortnite and zooming at the same time or streaming is normally no problem. We do have good enough speeds. This problem is very random and can be when one of us is on something alone, just simple browsing or like today more intensive use. Also it can be any day of the week or time, I haven't found any link to what we are doing at the time, the day or time of day etc. Since resetting the hub I have identified everything now connected to it and there is nothing showing that shouldn't be there. Some of our items alternate between the main hub and the disc but mainly it is only the ring doorbell that connects to the disc. If it's helpful for me to screenshot anything please let me know (and let me know what information to cover up please).

I don't really know much about the technical log but I have noted a few things around the time the problem happened today. I don't know exactly when the problem happened as the zoom continued to work but definitely around 3pm I noticed it.

2.05pm - it looks like I turned my Nintendo Switch.

2.18pm - SIP registration success (I don't know what that is).

2.31pm the Nintendo again.

2.33pm - DoS(UDP Loopback) (I don't know this either but it doesn't sound good)

2.39pm Nintendo again.

2.41pm - SIP send subscribe, then SIP recv 200 subscribe (I left out the numbers). I read this could be to do with the phone? We are on digital voice and have an old landline (not digital) plugged into the hub that we were told is ok still to use and it works. We also had an old BT one plugged in before, but swapped to this one so that's 2 different phones plugged in and working over the period of the problems. No one touched the phone so I don't know why this entry is there.

Before restarting the router but after the problem, there are quite a few deauth, dissassociate etc entries as well as connected and associate even though our devices would still not allow us on the internet. Some is my mobile which I did turn off the connection but we didn't turn anything else off. There are also quite a few LAN add arp and del arp as well as LAN IPV6 neighbour dicovery neighbor solic etc. I have seen these before but there are quite a few of them.

I restarted the hub at around 3.38pm. There is a lot there on the log and I don't know what's normal but I note the following:

3.39pm - Has a problem to connect to SAAF framework (4 times).

4.12pm - port forwarding rules.

I would really appreciate any more advice, this is driving me and my husband crazy!

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Leanne_T — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:01:17 GMT

Hi there @Caz321

Thanks for coming back to the community.

I'm sorry you've had the same problem again, if this is ongoing since you posted over the weekend, please get back in touch with our broadband tech guides. They can get the connection looked into and see what may be causing this to help you get this sorted.

Let us know how you get on 🙂

Leanne.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:05:36 GMT

Thankyou for your suggestion but I have been on numerous chats, phone call and had 2 BT engineers out already and no one can solve the problem. I am looking for help on here as there seems to be a wide knowledge, hopefully someone can work out the problem.

@gg30340 @iniltous would either of you have any other suggestions please? It would be appreciated. Thanks, Carolyn

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

iniltous — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:57:01 GMT

As you have had the hub replaced that should eliminate that as the potential issue , but if it’s not Mac randomisation it’s difficult to image what the problem can be , especially when some things already connected continue to work while others devices report connected but no internet access , and the hub itself stays connected through out , not just to the Openreach equipment but to BT (as witnessed by the blue light on the hub )
Something to possibly request ( but not particularly hopeful it’s that ) ask for a ‘lift and shift’ , basically move your connection within the FTTC ‘cabinet’ , so you in effect change your Openreach ‘path’ into BT , but that’s really only something like the router being changed , it’s eliminated from the list of things to it possible to change until sufficient things are replaced that the issue goes away ,.

I suppose a single action that may simultaneous replace /reset most things is ask if a change to EE is possible (without any early leaving penalty etc ), if that suits your situation.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

gg30340 — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:56:23 GMT

When the drop out happens, if you have any Ethernet connected devices do they also drop out or is it only with wireless devices?

If it is only wireless devices it may be that too many users are on the same channel so you could try selecting a wireless channel instead of letting the Smarthub use the "smart wireless" channel selection.

To do that you should download a Wifi Analyser app onto your phone and use the scanner. It should show all the wifi signals and what channels they are using.

Take a note of the channel that has the least number of users then go into the hub's settings and click on the Wireless section and then enter your "admin password" which will open a new page. Select 2.4Ghz and click on "Change Settings" and at the channel section click on the Channel that is showing and change it to the channel that your scanner was showing with the least users.

You can also change the 5Ghz but because its range is so short it does not become too congested with other users so I would not bother about that one.

Click "Save" then come out of the hub's settings.

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:03:54 GMT

Thankyou both for the suggestions. We have open reach coming on thursday, I'm going to mention the lift and shift to them. If we don't get anywhere after their visit and it still reoccurs, I will then try the channel scanner suggestion. Then if all else fails I may well suggest swapping to EE, I know they wanted to swap us before but at the time it was easier to just stay with the same account. They also had said we would all get swapped eventually so I don't see that it could hurt! Thanks again to both of you for your help. It really is appreciated. @gg30340 @iniltous

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

Caz321 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:09:59 GMT

@gg30340 @iniltous It seems Openreach came today, we didn't get any contact from them so went on BT chat and they said the person had been already and fixed something, apparantly an issue with the nodes? I don't know if they got told the full problem we've been having, I thought we would get to speak to the person but maybe this is normal. The BT person also said there was a network fault and high radius count which is no longer visible. I don't know if that was the openreach person saying that or if it was the BT person seeing that, and if that was just showing today which could have been the openreach person doing whatever they were doing, or if it's something that's been showing for a while but no one has mentioned that previously. So we've had another reboot of the hub and we'll see what happens! Fingers crossed!

Re: Intermittant 'Connected no internet' issue for over 1.5 years! Blue lights stay on.

allofthecornishes — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 07:14:56 GMT

Maybe try setting all devices to use fixed ip addresses?