New hub keeps losing wifi connections, even though blue lights lit

[Groo]

@pddco 

Funny you should say that. Firstly, yes BT (at least sometimes when I contacted them) were aware the DV was also affected. Apparently if you have a medical alarm, etc., (which I don't) they give you a backup battery. And yes it's taking forever to get to the bottom of it! It seems that whenever an engineer or a Guide fiddle about with it in the background, it works for a bit (anything from 45 mins to a couple of days) before getting up to mischief again.

However, as I don't use that phone, either for outgoing or incoming (I only had it for power cuts) I unplugged the phone from the back of the hub on Saturday evening &, so far, internet hasn't dropped again. I am not counting my chickens yet though 🐤 as I've been hopeful before. It could of course be dropping when I'm not using my laptop & not looking at my mobile. Nor can I think of any logical reason why that should have solved the problem (if it has) - perhaps one of you experts would know?

[Groo]

@pddco 

Well, ignore my previous about disconnecting the phone. Internet just gone off again.  Back to the drawing board.

[pddco]

So has BT  given you a date when they’ll update you on progress? Or has it all gone quiet? If so it may be best to give them another call. Perhaps the moderator may help. 

BTW, a backup battery (to keep the DV service going during a power cut) would  not help with the loss of DV service you’re having. 

I was just curious as to how BT would respond If you’d had a medical alarm or whatever  and the DV service was failing like it is. 

You’d hope wouldn’t you, that they wouldn’t leave such a person with an unreliable phone service - that they and the alarm depends  on - for so long. 

[arwen]

Up-date since 3rd new hub on Friday, only 1 loss of connection that happened within 36 hours. None since but I am not holding my breath.

I was mistaken earlier DV did go off too. We only retain  a landline for calls from my frail 95 yr old mother's care home. Which can happen during the night. So as a precaution we now putting a mobile on bedside table.  ( not ideal)

If we have anymore problems with this 3rd hub I will post. 

[Groo]

@pddco 

No, BT never give me a progress report - as far as I can tell, every time I contact them they tweak something on my hub & then assume it's fixed. As it has now failed another 3 times since my last session with a Guide, I'm going to have to contact them again. This is wasting far too much of my time, what with about 20+ hours spent on webchats, plus having to stay at home on 5 separate occasions for engineers. There is supposedly an open complaint but as far as I can tell it's just sitting there & not being monitored or escalated.  I really don't know what to do to get this sorted; I just seem to be going round in ever-decreasing circles.

I also noticed last night when I looked at hub manager, that there are a few unidentified devices listed, although not connected. I suspect they may be the ghosts of the Openreach guys' equipment, especially as one of them says it's a pc/laptop which isn't mine. 

As for the DV for medical alarms, don't you get the feeling that BT assume everyone has a mobile (& also a signal!) nowadays? It'll backfire on them one day in a big way.

[Groo]

@arwen 

Thanks for the update. If I was you I wouldn't relax yet; mine often lasts for about 48 hours before dying again.

Like you, I am loathe to depend on my mobile, especially as I can only guarantee a good signal if WiFi is on.

You'd think BT would have noticed by now that there's a pattern of an awful lot of people with the same recurring problem & done something about it.

You'd also think that perhaps the moderators would maybe come up with some ideas as to how to get BT to provide the service we are paying for. No point in telling us to phone - all that happens when you try is that you get a bot & no real people.

[licquorice]

BT have several million customers and just a handful are having problems, not 'an awful lot of people'.

It's obviously of no consolation but I very much doubt there is a systemic  problem but rather simply a case of a number of individual problems each with a unique cause.

Intermittent faults are extremely difficult and costly to diagnose. Rarely can they be diagnosed remotely and rely on experienced and diligent engineers to resolve. Unfortunately, they are a dying breed.

[bobpullen]

@Groo - it would be helpful to know exactly where the communication is breaking down when your Wi-Fi devices lose connectivity. Those 'network changed' messages are mighty suspicious of something happening that's local to your environment.

This isn't going to fix anything but might halp narrow the cause of the problem. When your devices lose Internet connectivity (but presumably are still 'connected' to the Wi-Fi)...

1. Can you access the Hub Manager at http://192.168.1.254 from an affected device?

2. If you have a Windows machine, then when it's affected, try opening a command line window (right-click start button, left-click Terminal) and type this command: -

ipconfig /all

This should return a list of your network adapters, one of which will be the Wi-Fi card on the laptop. The information similar to below would be useful to see: -

Wireless LAN adapter WiFi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : A0-29-42-A7-XX-XX
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2a00:23c8:a887:ac01::bb4(Preferred)
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 25 March 2025 10:52:29
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 26 March 2025 10:52:29
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2a00:23c8:a887:ac01:2e81:3877:1800:5dfb(Preferred)
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2a00:23c8:a887:ac01:91d7:7628:6777:b21b(Preferred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::9d15:4cf3:d2c4:4583%10(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.67(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 25 March 2025 10:52:31
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 26 March 2025 10:52:31
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::5a96:71ff:fe21:d420%10
                                       192.168.1.254
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 77605186
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-2B-40-A8-3D-E8-80-88-30-10-3C
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Also: do you have any powerline adapters/plugs on the network, or Wi-Fi extenders, or anything like that?

[Groo]

@bobpullen 

Unfortunately when internet goes down, so does WiFi. 

Not entirely sure what you mean about powerline adaptors/plugs on the network. Yes the hub (which obviously has an adaptor) is plugged into an extension cable. The only other things plugged in to that extension cable are my laptop & a printer. I doubt that's the problem as, like I've said before, I never had any problems with my old hub.

One thing I noticed last night is that on hub manager it has FTTP on. However, I do not have full fibre to the house - it only goes to the cabinet which is about 1.2km away & then it's copper. Should I therefore switch off FTTP, as surely it should be FTTC?  Could that possibly be the problem? The Openreach engineer(s) all tested the line to my house & it's fine.

[licquorice]

You can turn it off but I doubt it is causing the problem. It just changes port 4 from a LAN port to a WAN port.