Unstable connection - speed appears to be OK, but does not appear to be able to sustain a connection

[#1]

Hi,

I'm sure this may be a common issue that may have already been covered off many times, but I couldn't see anything relating to this.

We moved from John Lewis broadband (provided by Plusnet) over to directly with Plusnet in late March, as John Lewis were ceasing their service over the next month.

The service actually moved over a month earlier than asked for, but we went with it nevertheless.

What did seem curious was we received a message that the service had switched over to Plusnet, then a day or two later, another message that a new router was being posted out to us. I am a bit confused if new equipment was needed, why was this not sent prior to the service being switched over. Initially it seemed to be working fine with our existing John Lewis equipment but 3 days later we had a massive power cut during a storm and the old router never came back online, so we then switched over to the new one that had just arrived in the post.

We are now around 7 weeks in and am not entirely sure what is happening with it. Speed tests seem to show on average 56-61 Mbps download speed so does not indicate a problem, however when streaming content through the TV, everything takes a lot longer to load, quite often won't load at all and if streaming movies or content will usually buffer and pause periodically. 

The biggest problem I notice as I am working from home, at times I need to use VPN which is very hit and miss if it will connect. Prior to switching to Plusnet, I had no issue. Now it is 50/50 i'm guessing due to the latency- quite often I may need to try 3 or 4 times to connect - there are around 20 different VPN servers I can connect to and invariably will try all of them, so it is not a problem with any one server not responding at the other end. The later in day - around 5 or 6pm uk time, it maybe 1 in 10 chance of successfully connecting as I'm guessing the demand is getting higher with people getting home,

I'm not an expert but as the speed appears to be OK, does it seem that somehow it is being throttled or is just not sustaining a connection which some services seem to be more susceptible to than others.

My son who has used his pc on wireless for 2 years with no problem now says it is completely unusable. We have cables snaking around the house so he can be hard wired in the next room which just about sustains a connection but barely. 

Has anyone seen this and know how to resolve?

[#2]

Hi @ebrookes76, I've ran a line test and everything is coming back ok and I'm not able to see a connection drop so it sounds like you're experiencing a wireless issue. First thing to do would be to make sure that your router set up is in the most optimal position possible. You can check out - Getting the best WiFi (wireless) signal | Help | Plusnet. 

I'd also advise to make sure your router is on the best wireless channels which can impact your connection if it's not as your devices uses the channels to communicate with your router. 

To do this - 

Type in 192.168.1.254 into your URL address bar. You will then be taken to the router homepage.

From the Router Homepage, click on Wireless (you will then need to log into the router with the admin password if this has not already been done which is located on the back of the router or on the card)

Click the Change settings button

You will then have an option to rescan the channel on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Rescan both of the channels to make sure they're on the best channel for your router and environment. 

You will then need to click save for the changes to take effect. 

If you still don't see an improvement, I would advise to factory reset the router and monitor for any improvements. 

Let us know how you get on and if this resolves your issue.