This topic

Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 22:27:45 GMT

Hello

We have FTTC and are due to be switched to FTTP as of next week. However, we have been experiencing regular connection issues over the past month and, with our family of five being off on holiday this week, next week feels like a long way away. The two affected devices are:

Living room - Firestick is connected to BT router via ugreen ethernet adaptor.

10-year-old son's room - PS4 is connected to router via WiFi.

I have not noticed any change in the colour on the router when the connections are lost. I am now restarting the router and Firestick at least ten times per day and have also gone through the check/restart router process via BT app. I can tolerate the inconvenience for another week, but keeping the 10-year-old gamer calm when he has just lost whatever progress he has just achieved is not a task I would wish on anyone.

Any suggestions would be welcome. Many thanks in advance.

Vince

Re: Connection cutting out

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 05:38:38 GMT

@VINC3

These issues are more likely to be down to you own home network, as the home hub is not showing any issues.

Gaming devices will perform poorly if connected using wireless, and really need to be connected using an Ethernet cable, direct to the home hub.

As for the Firestick, I assume that the adapter is connected directly to the home hub using a short Ethernet cable.

I would not guarantee you would see any changes when connected to FTTP.

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 08:45:08 GMT

What are the two devices in question doing, just timing out of qame server with the PS4 reporting connection lost for example? Also what is the firestick reporting?

Supporting @Keith_Beddoe for any gaming (online) connect via ethernet, latency is a big deal which will always suffer over WIFI.

As a side point, those ethernet adapters for Firesticks are usually worse than using the WIFI, they can be beneficial if your firestick is miles away from the router but if you are using ethernet for yours Ill take a stab and say its near by? If so use wireless. The firestick ethernet adapters are misleading. The 4K Amazon Fire Stick indeed has a USB 2.0 micro USB port capable of 480Mbps but the ethernet adapters are often 100Mbps, the first UGREEN one I found on Amazon is. I think you can get Gigabit ones then use an OTG connector and squeeze more out of the USB 2.0 port but if its near to the WIFI access then just use WIFI. I had the official Amazon ethernet adapter for a while which would just top out at 100Mbps whilst WIFI, I forget exactly would be at least double that, latency will be better on the Ethernet adapter but its not a concern on Firesticks like it is gaming.

Now with that said, you have FTTC at the moment which is likely to be less than 100Mbps anyway but your new FTTP connection hopefully will be more so WIFI will open the taps on the firestick depending on its model.

Point is, the Firestick if it is close to the BT Hub will see no real benefit from using the adapter, if it is miles away you can ignore everything I said.

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 10:41:52 GMT

Thank you (and @Keith_Beddoe)

My 10-year-old says when playing FIFA on PS4 a message comes up saying "you have lost connection, please reconnect" - which is via wifi via a Deco mesh satellite unit upstairs in the property, around 12ft from his PS4. The Firestick randomly starts buffering (circle of death) at least once per hour and it is connected to the router via the ugreen ethernet adaptor on a short lead, with router being only around a foot away from the Firestick. The reason I installed the ugreen adaptor in the first place, instead of using WiFi, was because I read that a wired connection for the Firestick would take priority when many devices are battling for the same connection. Is this not the case? Please note, the issues we are experiencing on both the PS4 and the Firestick have only started to increase in frequency over the past few weeks - especially with the Firestick, which we now know will buffer with an hour of viewing anything.

With regards to speed, the Firestick (via ethernet) scores around 67mbps - testing on Analiti. The PS4 was hitting around 35mbps when my son checked it yesterday. We are on the Essentials 2, so these speeds are what I would expect. The Firestick is a Firestick 4k.

Many thanks

Vince

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:00:37 GMT

If you have DECO Mesh unit near his PS4 do you have another one connected to the Hub yeah?

Doesnt matter how close the Mesh unit is to his PS4 is, that connection could be rock solid but it will be the backhaul from the Mesh device to its nearest Mesh friend and then in addition the actual internet itself. Fact that the PS4 gets around half is what I would expect as each Mesh hop generally kills half the bandwidth.

Your 10 year olds FIFA is probably timing out due to latency issues, FIFA will do this or FC24 if he has that now. It doesnt require much bandwidth to play that game, just good latency which will be effected over WIFI particularly if someone is using more of your upload bandwidth lately which is around 10Mbps or similar? The games ability to be able to send traffic to the remote peer is really important.

I'm not sure you have enough devices to worry about devices battling for connectivity even if that theory is true.

Given the firestick is wired and buffering this would relate to throughput, potentially something is using more than usual, you could probably test this by switching off WIFI for a bit and just running the firestick only and see if it is okay, in addition the next time it buffers quickly then run a speed test. I assume you BT WIFI is switched off right if you are using DECO's? You dont want the two wifi networks running together otherwise youre going to get interference which could cause more issues or even the issues you already have, at least for gaming for your 10YO.

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:08:51 GMT

This is very, very interesting!!! No, the BT WiFi is NOT switched off. Can you tell me how to do this and it I will give it a try?

Thank you

Vince

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:09:58 GMT

And yes, the main Deco unit is connected to the router via ethernet - cable is approximately 6ft.

Re: Connection cutting out

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:20:26 GMT

@VINC3

Have you run the network optimisation option on the Deco app?

Can you connect the PS4 to an Ethernet port on the nearby Deco?

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:14:57 GMT

Yes, if you are running DECO and using DECO WIFI definitely turn off the WIFI on the BT Hub. I used my own Router and WIFI so actually dont know but I found this:

How do I turn wi-fi on and off on the BT Hub? | BT Help

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:23:46 GMT

Thank you (and @naylor2006)

I have just run the optimisation, following your post.

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:24:56 GMT

And turn off the BT WIFI also......

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:25:28 GMT

Thank you (and @Keith_Beddoe)

I will do this now.

Re: Connection cutting out

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:33:32 GMT

@VINC3

Run the optimisation after you have disabled wireless on the home hub.

The app scans all wireless channels for interference, and will suggest a better channel, which you can then tell it to use. It can choose any channel, not just 1,6 or 11.

Mine is using channel 9, and has stayed on there for a long time. The main Deco is on a UPS, so it never changes if there is a power interruption.

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:34:51 GMT

Fingers cross the FTTP install goes without a hitch, Openreach often remove the existing copper in the process and the install will leave you without FTTC, if the FTTP install goes wrong I dont want to be around with FIFA is completely down!

I feel for you, althought im a grown man I play FIFA/FC24 and if my connection dropped in a division 1 game that caused me to miss the title or get relegated...well, id be upset.

Try and get ethernet to his room if you can as well, get a cheap unmanaged switch, plug the ethernet into that then connect two more links from the switch to his PS4 and the Deco, thatll improve things alot for those WIFI clients connected to that Deco and also his latency should be less that 1ms internally then.

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:37:06 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe the PS4 will be on 5Ghz band though so I assume the analyzer will check the 5Ghz band also 36 and up etc?

Re: Connection cutting out

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:39:26 GMT

@naylor2006

The Deco checks both bands for interference.

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:48:39 GMT

@naylor2006

Thank you both so much - a lot to read back over there.

This is where I am at. It allows me to disable both widths separately, but should I click on 'Disabled all wireless'. I was wary about doing this because it states I would need to attach a laptop via ethernet to change this back (lf I needed to) after clicking on 'save'.

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:50:41 GMT

Disabling all wireless will be the same as switching off each band.....just turn it all off to be sure.

If you dont have a laptop to connect to switch it back on you can just factory reset the hub and you will be able to set it up again that way. You are using DECO for wireless, you dont want any other wireless broadcasting interfering....so yeah, kill it.

Re: Connection cutting out

VINC3 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:53:15 GMT

Thank you. Done!

So, now do an optimisation again on Deco?

Re: Connection cutting out

naylor2006 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:56:34 GMT

Yeah, as per @Keith_Beddoe recommendation, you dont want to optimize whilst the BT Hub was using up MHz on the WIFI bands.

You may find out now if anyone else was still using the BT Hub's WIFI when they cannot connect, just direct them to the DECO SSID.

I doubt this will solve the Firestick issues though, they might just be solved once you get FTTP with the additional bandwidth, do you know which package you are getting?