Internet Down & Router White Light Still On. Have to Reboot Frequently but Connection Doesn't Last.

[Choke]

The last 2 days my internet connection now keeps going off but my router light stays white. Only solution so far to get it back is to reboot the router each time but the internet connection is only lasting on average about 30/40 minutes before it goes down again, even though the router light still stays white.

I've got a direct cable into my router from hub and same setup I've had for years with no changes.

Convinced it's another outside issue (of which there have been many over the years) although I've run an online test when it was up & running and it came back with no obvious issues.

It may not be anything but one of the roadside boxes a few streets away from me has been wide open for months as the lock on it appears to have broken. I see today that it's now just loosely taped shut with 'Virgin Media' tape around it but the door lock has not actually been fixed.

May also be irrelevant but I had another issue several months ago and when that got fixed it transpired that other internet engineers were putting in new customer wiring connections in that roadside box and in doing so they had messed with my connection.  I would therefore appreciate it if someone could at least check for any external faults in my area that may well be causing the recent problems I've been having.

Thanks in advance.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Our engineers have now identified the potential issue and have advised - Update 8:40PM  December 17th 2024 - Our team are in the process of applying a solution to all impacted Wi-Fi Hubs and aim to resolve this by tomorrow morning.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Hopefully the connection will remain stable but if not then please let us know. Our Engineers are still investigating this too.

Thanks

Michelle

[Choke]

Okay thanks. I've just this minute changed the settings back on the new 5464 router to the TalkTalk DNS settings as outlined by Karl yesterday, so here's hoping that won't have an adverse effect on the stability that I'm once again currently experiencing.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

Ok thanks for letting me know. We'll check back in with you in a few days just to ensure that everything is still working ok.

Thanks

Michelle

[Choke]

Hi.

It definiitely wasn't changing the router that helped. I had a similar model (5364) I'd been using for 18 months before the fault started happening a week ago to the one you sent me last Friday (a 5464 model) and when I connected the new one on Friday I still had exactly the same fault happening all the time with constant cut offs and white light still on.

In desperation I then dug out my very old router (HG635) and connected that and whilst not perfect, that one seemed a lot more stable & reliable than the 2 newer models (5364 & 5464) with less cut offs, so I kept that in until yesterday. I then talked to Karl and in switching back in the 5464 again it appeared to be more stable even before I changed the DNS settings. So I'm not convinced the DNS setting changes actually fixed anything or more likely the fault had already been fixed already for me.

I can however categorically say that the new router sent made no difference at all with rectifying the problem at that time.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Good afternoon,

Thanks for the update. We would advise changing the settings back to the TalkTalk DNS settings. Do you know if it was change of router or changing the settings which helped?

Michelle

[Choke]

I'm now glad to report (crosses everything) that since I plugged the new 5464 router back in yesterday after previously having to default to my old 635 router I've had no noticable cut offs.

As Karl advised at the time, I changed the routers DNS settings, but to be honest it was looking pretty stable (only since yesterday though) before I changed the settings so I'm not entirely sure whether that made a difference to the new routers stability or whether the fault had in fact been rectified already by your engineers prior to that (as we know they've been working on a solution).

Anyway, all seems fine at the moment at least but the obvious question from me now is what do I do about the DNS settings that I changed? Do I leave them as the Google settings or change them back to default settings? Is it best to leave the changes as they are for the moment until we all know it's definitely all been sorted or indeed, do I even need to change them back at all?

[Choke]

Yes hopefully. Will report back but to be honest (hope I'm not jinxing anything) even before I've just changed those DNS settings, this new router hasn't died so far today since I plugged it back in (?). Prior to today over the weekend it was only lasting about 30/40 minutes before it froze and disconnected.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Excellent, see if this helps this evening.

Karl 

[Choke]

Okay. Done it. Sussed that my computer was still believing my old router 635 was attached. Rebooted pc so that it could then recognise it's now the new 5464 plugged in and so was then able to log in successfully to hub page and then change those DNS settings.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

Make sure you are not entering the Wi-Fi password.  It's the one under the card, if you slide this out.

Karl.

[Choke]

Trying this now. Must be doing something wrong. Using 'admin' and the 8 digit password but keeps telling me 'Wrong login information'??

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

this will not affect browsing etc.

You can put things back by repeating the steps and using the TalkTalk DNS settings

79.79.79.79   and  79.79.79.80

Thanks  

Karl. 

[Choke]

Hi Karl.

Thanks for your reply. I can do this now but how do I put it back to the current settings if I have to afterwards? Does changing these settings affect my current browsing and phone usage today?

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

Can you change the DNS Settings in your router to use Google DNS, and test this over the course of the day to see if this resolves the connectivity issue where the router light remains white.

Please report back if this does help as this will aid our investigation.

Change your router DNS settings to use Google DNS.

• Open your web browser, type http://192.168.1.1 into the address bar and press Enter
• Enter the username admin (in lowercase) and password (you'll find this on the removable settings card on the back of the Hub, and select OK
• Select See internet settings
• Select Manage advanced settings
• Select TalkTalk WiFi Hub
• Select DNS Tab
• Make sure ON is enabled 
• Add Primary and Secondary DNS Servers ( Primary = 8.8.8.8  Secondary = 8.8.4.4 )
• Select Apply

Please note ;  If you currently use any Homesafe services such as Homework Time etc.  This will not work whilst you have the DNS set to Google.

Thanks 

Karl. 

[Choke]

Thought I'd get this up here now as I'm not around first thing Monday morning. Please bear with me on this long post but I've done some testing....

Received new router last Friday - thank you. The same design model (5464) as my current one (5364) that I've been using for the last 18 months. Unfortunately the same problem exists with this new one too as it disconnects roughly every 30 minutes but the white light stays on and only a complete reboot will get it going for a short while. This problem only occurred within the last week.

Weird that this same problem seems to be very prevalent at the moment with a lot of other posters on this forum. What has changed over the last week? These models worked fine before.

Anyway, if it somehow helps to get to the bottom of this and maybe give a tech on here some ideas as to the possible problem, in desperation with the current model disconnects, I managed to find my old TalkTalk router (HG635 model) and with nothing to lose I connected it up.

Now although it has dropped out occasionally this older model has the five green lights on it and when I've witnessed it going out, it does flash red and then appears to search for a reconnect and achieves it successfully after about a minute. Therefore at the moment it is actually more usable to me than the newer models and I'm trying to figure out why that would be the case.

It's not perfect you understand and there definitely still seems to be an issue that started happening for me last Tuesday but the old router seems to at least recognise it's offline and then seeks to reconnect. The new model just sits there with a white light as if nothing's gone wrong and it doesn't attempt to reconnect. Seems to happen more often with the new model too.

So since last week an external fault appears to have affected my service and now my old HG635 router is somehow more stable and reliable than the 5364/5464 newer models.

Hopefully some tech guru can make sense of this situation for me.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

I'm sorry to hear this and hopefully the replacement router will resolve the connection issue for you. We'll check back in with you again on Monday.

Thanks

Michelle

[Choke]

Thanks Karl. Just got home from my son's birthday meal to find the internet off again. Had to reboot router yet again to get on here to see your comment. Hopefully a new router will sort this problem out. Will of course report back here when I receive it and have had a chance to test it out. Crosses fingers.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

A router is on the way for testing.

Regards,

Karl. 

[Choke]

Yes. Please do. This is stressing me out big time around Xmas so it's the next obvious thing to try. Much appreciated.