Fed up: Poor and unreliable WiFi, and wired.

[Chris6316]

Hi there, 

I'm becoming more and more frustrated with poor performance from my home network. 

Test results are showing that my hub (Home Hub 2 - now a few years old) is receiving DL: 149mb UL: 30mb. 

The problem is that it doesn't seem to want to share these speeds with anything else in the home. 

I stopped any online gaming attempts months ago due to severe lag. This issues remains across a PS5, PS4 and Xbox. I have tried multiple direct ethernet connections, and ethernet over power adaptors. These work for around 20 minutes at a time before their connection speed is throttled down to something unusable. WiFi is normally bouncing around between 2 and 20mb. 

The TV usually works to stream Netflix - but not always. I haven't tried the TV via ethernet and rely on WiFi only. The Home Hub is on the other side of the room from the TV. No, it isn't a grand hall. 

I'm not working from home and this becoming a real problem. The WiFi will drop out. Even a blip of no connectivity causes mayhem with my access on my work laptop. If the WiFi signal is bouncing around then I usually can't get back on until the hub is reset. Resetting the hub sometimes works for the rest of the day, or may only give me another 5 minutes of access. 

I'm not really sure how to proceed. BT are the only provider offering Fibre to me (and their derivatives). The hub is reporting correct speeds as per their speed guarantee.  

Are the hubs simply poor, and it would be worth buying a third party device? (I don't use the digital voice service, although it is activated).

Any help, guidance or reports of similar experience is welcome. 

Many thanks, 
Chris

[Crimliar]

I'll assume you are on the "Full Fibre 100" package.  While the BT routers have some "oddities", they're not broken, so I'd try to get the BT router (or a replacement) working before splashing out money on a router that BT will point-blank refuse to provide support for.  On the WiFi you might want to see try a WiFi analyser app on your phone to check it is the WiFi going down, and that both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands are there even when your devices disconnect (and does the light on the router change).

I've seen just one other thing cause some odd issues: a failing router power brick or one where the cable has been "played with" by pets.