topic Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets in Full Fibre

Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:15:01 GMT

I was upgraded to Full Fibre 65 last month and received a Hub2 to use with my landline. It's a Sagemcom FAST 5464-2T4 running SG4K100174 firmware. Ethernet outputs deliver a rock steady 75mb/s down and 19mb/s up, but WiFi speeds on all my devices are much slower, typically 20-30mb/s down on both wireless n 5GHz and wireless ac connections. Resetting the router raises my wireless speeds back to 70+ mb/s for a day or two, but then wireless speeds drop down again and the router needs to be reset again to restore performance. On Ookla speed tests the wireless speed starts initially at 70+, but very rapidly drops off as if a buffer is filling up in the router or the router can't maintain the throughput. This didn't happen with my previous Sagemcom Hub which gave a very steady 65mb/s on ethernet and WiFi with all my devices & hub in exactly the same locations. I am thinking the router is faulty or there is a bug in the firmware. Any thoughts?

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Karl-TalkTalk — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:24:08 GMT

I'll get a replacement Hub out to you and see if this helps.

Karl.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:26:04 GMT

Very many thanks. I'll swap routers and report the outcome after a few days of monitoring.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Karl-TalkTalk — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:26:38 GMT

No Problem 🙂

Karl

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

KeithFrench — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:01:32 GMT

Hi @rgbargey

If the new router does not resolve this, then the issue is probably Wi-Fi interference.

Slow speed, intermittent dropouts, breaks in the signal or no signal on some or all devices or no internet access might be caused by Wi-Fi interference from other local networks, which can also lead to a permanent reduction in speed. No ISP can be responsible for your local environment, this is mainly a byproduct of the popularity of Wi-Fi.

Generally speaking, the 2.4GHz band suffers much more from interference than the 5GHz band, but the 2.4GHz one can sometimes have a better range, but this all depends on your local area.

Have you had TalkTalk’s Wi-Fi optimisation disabled on your Sagemcom FAST5464 router? When this is enabled, as it is by default, it has the power to override any Wi-Fi configuration changes that I might suggest that you need to make. This will not help rectify this type of problem if Wi-Fi Optimisation is allowed to change my suggested settings. Only TalkTalk can do this for you, you cannot do it yourself. If not, just request they disable this for you in your reply.

The next stage involves sending out a guide to you to help you get me some important diagnostic results so that I can analyse them for you and recommend changes to your router configuration to solve them.

I only send this out to people who request it.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:57:59 GMT

Hello,

Great, thank you 🙂

Michelle

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:14:14 GMT

Hi Karl and Keith,

Hi Karl/Keith/Michelle,

I've received the replacement HUB2 router and observed its behaviour over 3 days. It is behaving like the the original HUB2, i.e. ethernet outputs are always at the expected speed for Full Fibre 65 (75Mbs down, 19MBs up), but WiFi download speeds seem to be very capricious on both wireless n and ac, being either 75 OR more often 17-20 on ALL my WiFi devices. Upload speeds are consistent at 19Mbs. I have set my 5GHz band to Channel 44 as some of my devices don't recognise Channel 155. My 2.4 GHZ wireless channel is jumping between 6 (on normal bandwidth) and 8 (on double bandwidth). I live in a detached house with very low to zero levels of interference from neighbouring properties visible on my WiFi Analyzer App, so am discounting that as a contributing factor. I am thinking that maybe it is a design issue with that particular model of HUB2 (FAST5464-2.T4/AV6/C3) or an as yet unrecognised firmware issue. The WiFi is still usable for my level of use, so I don't require any further help. If it worsens I'll use my original TT Sagemcom router or anothe router as a subnet for stable WiFi. and the HUB2 for digital voice and wired connections. Many thanks for your help.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Debbie-TalkTalk — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:22:27 GMT

Hi rgbargey

Thanks for your reply.

If you do need any further help with this on the Community then please let us know.

Debbie

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:23:29 GMT

PS If you can disable WiFi Optimisation remotely, please do this. It sounds worth trying.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Debbie-TalkTalk — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:31:05 GMT

Hi rgbargey

Is the router all switched on at the moment? I can't connect to it.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

KeithFrench — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:22:50 GMT

Make sure that the 2.4GHz band is set to use 20Mz channel bandwidth only. Allowing it to use 40MHz as it would seem that you are, will use up 9 out of the 11 channels & give you a worse performance. It is not a router design issue as you suggest, but may well be a signal strength issue. What electrical equipment, mirrors, and brick walls are near the router as all of these can affect WiFi signals detrimentally?

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:41:35 GMT

Hi Keith,

My router is not near walls or mirrors. Its on a table in the lounge. I didn't have any problems with my HUB 1 in this position. It was the router out of the box that was using 40MZ bandwidth & chosing Channel 8. The TT router in the flat above my gilfriend's house also does this interchannel double bandwidth stuff automatically as the occupants haven't changed its default settings. I think its best to stay on 1, 6 or 11 to avoid inter-channel interference on 2.4GHz. A few minutes ago I manually set my router to Channel 6 & 20MHz so will see if that helps. But my phone & laptops are connecting on 5GHz & still have this weird 20Mbps or 75Mbps speed randomly, but 20MHz more often than 75Mbps. My previous TT router (FAST 5364) was great and always connected at full speed. I took it to my girlfiends house & connected to her Virgin Hub 3 in Modem Mode we get a super steady 280Mbs from it!

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

KeithFrench — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:46:55 GMT

That's strange, it does not support modem mode.

Without seeing screenshots from your WiFi analyser, it is diagnostics by guesswork. If you want further help, please PM all available screenshots (AP View, channel graphs & signal strength graphs (over a 5 min period) to me. I don't know which analyser you have, so cannot be more specific, I will also need to identify your SSIDs out of the other graph lines, plus I need to know the name of your SSID.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:51:20 GMT

Debbie, I was logged in to my router, changing the Channel to 6 & 20MHz. Sorry I locked you out, but I'm logged out now. Thanks

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Debbie-TalkTalk — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:59:23 GMT

Hi rgbargey

Thank you. WIFI optimisation has now been switched off.

Debbie 🙂

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:01:30 GMT

Thanks Debbie. I'll monitor for a couple of days & report whether it makes a difference or not. And thanks Keith for your advice.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:09:22 GMT

Keith, in response to your earlier questions, the signal strength on my SSID (SkyNet) is typically 25-40 dB above other SSIDs, which makes me discount interference as a possible cause of what I'm experiencing.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Debbie-TalkTalk — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:10:03 GMT

Hi rgbargey

Thank you 🙂

Debbie

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

rgbargey — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:34:07 GMT

Hi Debbie & Keith,

I'll report again in 2 days, but since WiFi Optimisation was switched off on my Hub2, I'm getting a consistent 75Mbps on WiFi. So hopefully that was the root cause of my problem. For Keith, I should have made it clearer that in my GF's flat I put her Virgin Hub 3 into modem mode and used it with my old TT router. The FAST 5364 with SG4K 100136 firmware is actually a very decent piece of kit (& vastly superior to the Virgin Hub 3). Again, thanks for the team effort to help me.

Re: Slowing WiFi on HUB2, requiring frequent resets

Debbie-TalkTalk — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:39:21 GMT

Hi rgbargey

That's great, I'm glad to hear that the wireless speed has improved.

Debbie 🙂