My Wi-Fi keeps dropping….. difficult to know what to do next

[Malvern133]

Hello

I have recently been  having persistent problems with WI-FI dropping and the Engineers don’t seem to be able to fix (problem manifested itself 3 weeks ago).  At the moment, we don’t have many devices attached to the WI-FI but the problem still persists.

When the WI-FI drops the router does not change colour, but the WI-FI drops for a few minutes during the day/night.

1) The 1st engineer thought it might be the number of Ethernet cables attached into the router and we removed all but one.  The problem still persisted.

2) We then asked BT for a new router that we have installed.  The problem is still there.

3) The 2nd engineer thought it might have something to do with the landline/phone set, and installed a double adapter next to the router and we repositioned the landline to the study from the hallway.  The problem is still there.

4) the 3rd engineer couldn’t find anything, but adjusted the router to use different frequencies (i.e. the routers typically switch between the two).  The problem is still there.

5) we then got Openreach to run a line check and inspect the line to the house.  Again.  No fault found.  The problem is still there.

So we are now in a position whereby we don’t know what else to do, and the Engineers are also struggling to determine what to do next?  Any thoughts on how we restore the WI-FI performance as this is literally something that cropped up a few weeks ago.  Up until then the service was faultless.

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[imjolly]

does the wifi drop out on all devices at same time or just certain ones?.  does the drop happen round about the same time? daily?

did you try using a wifi analyser on your phone and check for networks near you and the wifi channels in use then select your channels in hub manually to a free or less congested channel

have you tried changing the wifi mode from preset 1 to either 2 or 3?

[johnsonekane]

Hi

We have full fibre and like you developed the same problem about the same time but affects our hardwire ethernet directly plugged into the router. It's not a wifi problem.

A BT engineer tested the fibre line back to the exchange and replaced the ONT fibre modem and the router and we're using new cables but the outages still persist - we get outages every few minutes and we're waiting for another engineer to arrive on 7th Nov.

We started tracking the outages with Network Logger Pro and the problem is mainly to do with DNS server problems.

We constantly get this message - "DNS Outage Detected - URL Domain Names are not being resolved to IP addresses by the DNS Server your Internet connection is using, but IP address based traffic is still flowing over the connection.  Check your local DNS settings or the DNS server they point to."

This maybe the same problem you are having and the problem lies with the BT servers and not at the consumer end.

Our problem continues to get worse with outages every few minutes and severely affecting our business so we'll be considering moving to another internet provider if our problem is not fixed after the next engineer has visited us.

[Malvern133]

Hello. Thank you for your reply. To answer your question:

- it seems to drop on all devices as far as I can tell at the same time
- it is daily (although today it seemed fine until late afternoon)
- Not considered a wifi analyser (Amazon) and they seemed to be very pricey, and I am not sure I would know how to interpret any response.
- I will look at changing Wi-fi mode and see if that works.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Always hopeful that we can solve the problem.

[Malvern133]

Thank you for that. I had considered plugging the ethernet directly into the router, but you seem to suggest you are still experiencing the same issue.

I am sure you will agree the intermittent availability is incredibly frustrating especially when trying to have video conference.

I did look at Network Logger Pro, but it will not support a Home versions of Operating System (i.e. it seems more geared to enterprise solutions). I am going to look at other equivalents.
Re an alternative to the bt WIFI, I guess i want to make sure that solves the problem. Let me know if you find the solution.

[imjolly]

WiFi analysers are free apps for your phone.  Once installed and then accessed they will show the networks near you and also the channels which they are using.  You will also see your network SSID so you can see your own.  Once you can decide which channel is bets for you just go to hub manager and then wireless and make the channel change and save