Disable Wi-Fi Optimisation on my Sagecom router please

[mshaun55]

Please can someone disable Wi-Fi Optimisation on my Sagecom router?

[KeithFrench]

The customer is only using the 2.4GHz band for some reason. I have advised him to re-enable the 5GHz band to achieve significantly improved Wi-Fi performance. However, I have pointed out that due to a bug in the firmware, the router must first be factory reset; otherwise, the 5GHz band will not work correctly.

[KeithFrench]

No problem, @nambuso-TT, always glad to help.

[nambuso-TT]

Hi there 

@KeithFrench Thanks for all your help.

[KeithFrench]

That is because none of the channels are very good. What WiFi Optimisation is doing is trying to get you a better channel. It is doing its job in your case, but is hampered by far too much interference. Using the 5GHz band would be my recommendation & get as many devices that support this band to be connected to it. You should get a faster network like that. See my PM, though I am about to send you.

[mshaun55]

Yes, I'm only broadcasting on the 2.4Ghz band. Unfortunately I do not know who the Deco network belongs to. All I know is setting it to Channel 6 works well for me, other channels do not. The WiFi optimisation does not seem to perform well when there are a lot of conflicting networks nearby.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @mshaun55 

I should have said in my previous post, Wi-Fi Optimisation is not the cause of your problems in the 2.4GHz band. It is this poorly configured Deco mesh network, which is basically interfering with every channel in the band. Wi-Fi optimisation is just doing its job, by trying to find a slightly better channel on this band.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @mshaun55 

It would appear that your router is only broadcasting on the 2.4GHz band, or have you set the name of the 5GHz band to something else?

The 2.4GHz band is very congested; channel 1 would be better. However, the problem with both 1 & 11 is that there is a Deco mesh network on channel 6 that is using 40MHz wide channels. This means that it will interfere with both of these channels. The recommendation in the 2.4GHz band is always to use 20MHz wide channels to avoid this sort of problem. Do you know whose network this is? Can you ask them to change it from 40 to 20MHz? This in turn, might even speed their network up as well as everyone else in this band.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @mshaun55 

Do not worry about interpreting the results; I will do that for you. I will send a PM to that contains a link for a guide of mine on Wi-Fi interference. It is quite long (about 30 pages), but you will probably only need to look at three or four pages in total. Initially, look at the section called "Are you suffering from interference – prove it first". This is the first link in the table of contents. This section includes full details of free Wi-Fi analysers that I recommend for Windows, Windows phone, Android and Apple operating systems. However, I have no way of testing the Apple product. Select the analyser of your choice & my guide explains how to use it.

If you are using Wi-Fi Scanner, then please attach the zip file to this thread. As soon as I have downloaded it, I will remove the attachment from your post to preserve your privacy.

With all other analysers, please follow my instructions below.

Collect the screenshots that I require and include them in your reply.

Please post the screenshots to me in a PM (to protect your privacy), which I have requested in my guide. No photos, please, as they can be difficult to read, because the text can get out of focus when zoomed in. Please ensure that the analyser window is maximised (if Windows) before taking the screenshots & upload them via the "Insert Photos" button (in a mobile browser it's the picture icon) on the post editor's toolbar with the Size parameter set to Large.

[mshaun55]

Happy to give this a try. Please advise of the next steps.

[KeithFrench]

Hi @mshaun55 

I have conducted investigations into numerous cases where people have reasonably complained that WiFi Optimisation was causing their problems. What I have found in quite a few of these now is that other factors are forcing WiFi Optimisation to maybe over-correct things. Sort those out & WiFi Opt tends to behave itself. I would add that while I was no fan of WiFi Opt in the early days, it does seem better now, even allowing use of the DFS channels.

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 a lot more from interference than the much faster 5GHz band, but the 2.4GHz band can sometimes have a better range; however, this all depends on your local area.

In other words, I offer a free, impartial analysis of your Wi-Fi network and will try to help you optimise your Wi-Fi connection. The next stage involves sending out a guide 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.

The information below is provided by TalkTalk. For confirmation, please contact @Lorrainef, the manager of the TalkTalk support staff on this forum.

KeithFrench is one of our valued Community Stars and can help with a range of issues related to wireless and networking. At times, he may ask you to send him test results via a Private Message to help analyse/diagnose an issue. Although Keith does not work for TalkTalk, he very kindly shares his time and knowledge to help others.

If you need further help or if we need to take any details such as personal information about your account, like phone numbers, account numbers, etc, one of the TalkTalk team will jump in and help out.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@mshaun55, customers who don't find the Talktalk provided routers satisfactory don't get alternatives subsidised by the company. 

The point of having particular routers is to be able to support your service better, and they decided that on balance switching OFF optimisation caused more issues for support than otherwise. 

The old OCE team no longer work here.

@KeithFrench may be able to help over the weekend.

[mshaun55]

@Karl-TalkTalkI have begun experiencing more severe issues again with the Wi-Fi. I do not see why I have to purchase my own router in order to have a good wireless internet connection. Who would be the best contact to escalate this to, please? If the settings in the router supplied by TalkTalk cannot be changed anymore, then I would expect TalkTalk to supply/fund a router on behalf of me thanks.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

There is nothing further we can do, we do not have access to turn optimisation off.

Personally, I use my own router to avoid this.

Karl.

[mshaun55]

@Karl-TalkTalkThanks but the Wi-fi Channel reverted back to 1 today, it is still not staying on 6. Any other ideas please?

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

The channels will be managed by Wi-Fi Optimisation. 

We cannot disable this but I do have a little scope to make some changes in the settings, I've ade a small change, see if this helps.

Thanks  

Karl. 

[mshaun55]

@Anonymous Thanks, but an extender would not be beneficial as the channel would remain the same. Even next to the router there is zero Wi-Fi signal unless it is set to Channel 6.

Is there any reason why manual channel option is available in the router settings page, but it still changes by itself? I feel if you manually set a channel it should stay fixed.

[Anonymous]

Morning,

Would you like us to send a wifi extender to see how the wireless connection compares?

Michelle

[mshaun55]

@Anonymous The issue is the Wi-Fi channel won't stay on the manual one I select (Channel 6), it reverts to Channel 1 or 11 after a period of time which causes me to lose my wireless connection and then I have to use my desktop computer that is connected by Ethernet to change the channel again back to 6. This is quite inconvenient.

Is there anything that could be done to resolve this issue please?

[Anonymous]

Morning,

Unfortunately we are no longer able to switch off the wifi optimisation. This was a business decision made around 1 year ago. What issues are you experiencing with your wifi connection please?

Thanks

Michelle

[Gliwmaeden2]

It was a business decision, @mshaun55.

Have not seen optimisation disabled for around 6 months or so.

We'll see what happens, but, as Divsec says, don't get your hopes up too high.