Intermittent wifi from certain devices and variable speeds all over the place - Full fibre 900

[Mickyboy06]

Hi, I am at my tether's end with this now and am not convinced a BT engineer call out will have a solution, so I find myself here. I read lots of technical responses so have better confidence from this forum. 

Please bear with me as there is a lot to mention....setting the scene and our trouble began a few months ago.

So, around October 2023 we were still on older  broadband, our package was Fibre Halo 3 complete Wifi with Smart Hub 2 and only getting max 45Mbps, which was representative of our contract services, have had this service for years and never ever been a problem, so no issues there, then we started having problems.

Multiple devices not connecting, varying speeds....generally crappy wifi. BT engineer came and played with some wires, fitted a new wall box., no change, next a new router was sent (Smart Hub 2), no change.

Another enquiry to BT resulted in me being told that maintenance on old copper networks are not being prioritised and I should upgrade to full fibre, seemed appropriate as we lots of data hungry use in the house....so I did.

The upgrade process was a sham and failure big time by EE, moving forward several weeks I now have Full Fibre 900 w/Halo 3 (sold via BT staff, not EE). 

Openreach installed the fibre and we couldn't achieve more than 95Mbps wired in to laptop and other devices maxxing out at 0-60Mbps, Openreach logged a follow on fault to BT, eventually a new router and disc were sent.......no change. Eventually, something changed and we were getting 8-900 wired in to a laptop which proved we were getting the full speeds to the router, which is one elimination and I learned that devices routers can't achieve full speed if they are restricted or older tech. Now comes the problem still.

It appears that the network is not syncing with all devices well and some devices are intermittently not connecting or <5Mbps, then they'll rocket up or back down again to nothing.

We have the Smart Hub 2 right next to the incoming box with a Cat6 cable

A Cat5e cable runs to a shed with a BT Disc on the end, that cable gets 8-900 wired and gives out 3-600 Mbps to two laptops in there over wifi, my phone will get 1-300 from that disc too if I connect to it. But even though those speeds are good, we sometimes have to turn wifi off on device then reconnect to get a better speed/connection. e.g I was on my phone in the house getting 40Mbps went to the shed and it stayed the same in the shed, I turned wifi off/on and it reconnected at 300Mbps......why does it not recognise a new access point and adjust speeds itself?

I think I am finding too that some devices are connecting to the Smart Hub 2 instead of a disc and the connections to the hub are weak or non existent even when the MY BT app says the device has good or excellent  connection.

The house is a traditional 4 bed 1920's semi with brick walls, set up as follows:

Any device can connect via Cat5/6e cable and achieve the full speed that the modem will allow.

Smart Hub 2 in the lounge straight from the incoming broadband. A lot of smaller devices connect to this, especially the 2.4ghz

BT disc on the first floor landing, extends wifi to upstairs. A couple devices float between this and the hub for wifi.

BT Disc in an outbuilding wired connection, this usually has 2 laptops 2 phones and a tablet on wifi

Total in the household there are 2-4 smart TVs, 1-3 Xbox, 1-2 tablets, 3-5 phones, Ring doorbell, 2 wifi cameras, 2-4 laptops. Not all on at the same time, but any combination of  of them would be.

I don't know if we are getting interference or the system is just **bleep** at networking properly.

Could we network it differently e.g put more discs around the house and stop the Smart Hub from transmitting wifi?

If you made it this far, thanks.

Mike

[Les-Gibson]

There's a number of similar questions on this forum (try searching '900 speed' [without the apostrophes] from the search bar above).

In general it would appear that there is a profile problem which the Mods on here will be able to help you with

[Mickyboy06]

Thanks Lee

[Mickyboy06]

So, thought I'd update where we're at now...…we seem to have a resolution that has stopped everyone complaining at me in the house!

My set up is currently as follows:

• 1920's traditional brick built semi, solid walls throughout, loft extension and rear ground floor extension, garden outhouse (office).
• FTTP (BT900 Halo3), ONT in the front lounge bay.
• SH2 connected to that with a CAT6 cable 1m length.
• Cat 5e cable running about 40m from SH2 to rear of house, feeding the garden office. This is used with PC directly connected more or less all the time and achieves speeds >900mbps.
• BT Disc A connected to SH2 with CAT6 cable in the lounge about 3m from the hub (10m cable) 
• BT Disc B on 1st floor landing connected via Wi-Fi. Signal distance approx. 3m from Disc A and 6m from SH2, through 1 brick wall and wooden floorboards.
• BT Disc C on ground floor at rear of property by patio door connected by Wi-Fi. Signal distance approx. 12m from Disc A and 15m from SH2, through two brick walls and doors.
• Devices connected ~25 (not always all at once): xbox (2), smart TV (4/5), mobiles(4/6), tablet (1), laptop/pc (3), ISP cameras (4), 

By having a Disc A connected by cable to the SH2 and in the same room as it seems to have fixed the concerns, as most of the 5ghz devices are now connecting well to that, instead of the SH2. One of the issues it appears is that 5ghz devices were not connecting to the SH2 and only to the disc. Once we added another disc and put one to cable direct, it seems to have sorted things a lot better and all 5ghz devices are connecting well throughout the house.

Every now and then I might have to turn Wi-Fi on/off on a device to reconnect to a new signal but on the whole things are good enough to do what we need to, and at reasonable speeds. The transitions as we move through the house certainly aren't 100% seamless with the BT set up, I find (similar to others) that a device will stay connected to the original source rather than reconnect to a new one, unless the signal gets really bad or drops off.

My conclusion is that the SH2 is rubbish on it's own and needs the discs to complement it, for my circumstances.

Thanks all for any input.

Note, despite using search facility etc, I find everyone's circumstances are different any there does not appear to be a solution to fit all circumstances. 

Mike 👍