Hub One - 5GHz WiFi issue
FIXED
I'm glad I've found this thread. Having been going slightly mad from the 5Ghz wifi issue...
- Brief description of the problem, and how is masquerades itself. What are the symptoms? How frequently does it happen? from time to time, the 5Ghz channel will drop out - my devices will report that no internet is available, although the blue light remains on the hub router, and devices plugged into the ethernet LAN ports continue to have internet connected. It won't resolve until I reboot the router.
- Do the devices having problems appear to be connected or associated with the hub? Is the hub status indicator normal/blue when the problem occurs? The connection from the hub router to the internet seems to remain, but the fault seems to lie with the 5Ghz wifi transmitter. Hub light stays blue but devices can't connect. With my iPad, if I try to reconnect to the 5Ghz channel, it whirrs and eventually says that there is an incorrect password but this is not true as the password hasn't changed. My mobile and laptop will connect but report that internet is not available. Other devices like my TV and SkyQ box that are plugged directly into the ethernet LAN ports have no issues and continue to remain connected to the internet.
- Do you have the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels merged (default setting) or split (different wireless network names)? If the networks are named differently, does the problem only affect the 5GHz network? I have split the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz and given the 5 a different name. Prior to this, I would notice that the connection was randomly flipping between 2.4 and 5, and noticed that my speed would drop from around 70Mbps sometimes to around 40, or 20, or even lower. I am very close to my fibre cabinet (about 100 metres) so 70 should be easy to achieve. Now that I've split the 2.4 from the 5 I have noticed that the error is clearly with the 5Ghz transmitter.
- Once the problem occurs is it persistent? Do you have any devices wired to the router and does the problem affect them at the same time? When it drops out, it affects all devices that are connected to the wifi. Device that are directly plugged in such as TV, SkyQ, don't have issues.
- Are you able to reproduce the problem reliably? Do you think you have a way of triggering it? [for example waking a specific device from power save mode] No - it just happens from time to time with no apparent cause.
- Is the problem always resolved by rebooting the hub? If so, how long does it take before problems recur? Rebooting the hub does always fix the problem but obviously I don't want to be doing that often. There is no noticeable pattern betwwen the intervals when the 5Ghz drops out.
- If specific devices are always impacted when problems occur, please provide details of which devices are impacted and which aren't i.e. manufacturer, model, variant and operating system version. It affects all devices on wifi
- Have the devices experiencing problems recently received any patches that might correspond with the time the issue first occurred? Don't think so?
- Please provide a description of your home network setup and all devices in use including whether or not you're using any additional switches, Powerline adapters or wireless access points. My hub router is in the same room as everything else. TV, SkyQ box and Three mobile home signal box are all plugged into hub router LAN. My laptop, iPad and mobile phones (both Samsung) connect to the wifi. My hub router reports the following: "Plusnet Hub One | Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.263 | Last updated Unknown" so perhaps could benefit from the firmware update?
Following advice from Plusnet tech support, I split the 2.4 and 5 Ghz channels which is how I can identify that the issue is only with the 5Ghz. Was advised to use wifi analyser app to look at channel congestion (I live in a block of flats) and can see that there are lots of other wifi transmitters mostly around the same channels. As advised, I tried to stop both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz transmitters from choosing auto channels, to set them to channels that had less traffic from other people's wifi, but the hub router repeatedly reverts to auto channel every time I've tried to do this. Plusnet support sent me a replacement hub router as my previous one was a few years old. I replaced it and all the cables but the issue remains just as it did before so it does seem to be a major issue with the hub one routers, judging by how many others are reporting exactly the same issues as me. Update - someone from plusnet has just offered me £30 goodwill gesture to buy a third-party router to plug into the plusnet one... It just doesn't seem right that they are sending out these hub one routers that all seem to have issues with the 5Ghz transmitter.