Internet slows to crawl every evening

[JWilson56]

Hello.

I have had a recurring problem where every evening my internet speed slows to ~1Mbps. Restarting the router sometimes fixes it, sometimes partially. It has gone back up to 17Mbps before, but today only 7. 

The Wifi Hub Black router is plugged into the master socket. At any one time it has a phone and a laptop connected (just web browsing). In the evenings I like to watch Netflix but have recently been unable to because the speed slows down too much.

I have had trouble before with slow downs and cutouts and would really like this to be resolved. Granted, we are probably a good distance to the exchange, but my next door neighbours don't have this problem.

I have tried traditional troubleshooting steps, including changing the wifi band channel etc as recommended by the automatic troubleshooter thing. I have only taken screenshots of the speed test in the last few days which are attached.

Looking forward to any assistance. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi JWilson56

The replacement router is on its way, please allow 24-48hrs for this to arrive.

Let us know how the connection compares with this router.

Thanks

Debbie

[JWilson56]

Hello,

I do not have another router unfortunately, if you think that would be the problem I would appreciate a replacement to see if that fixes the issue.

Thanks

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for the update. If the speeds do improve after the router has been rebooted then this can sometimes indicate a possible issue with the router. Do you have an alternative router that you can test with? If not then we can send a replacement router for testing purposes to rule this out.

Thanks

[JWilson56]

Another update, about an hour after that last speedtest it had dropped to 17Mbps.

[JWilson56]

Hello,

Sorry for the delayed reply, I've been at work and out all day.

When I got home from work at around 5pm it was down at 1.48Mbps, a restart a moment ago has taken it up to 40Mbps for now.

Just to keep you in the loop, I understand my neighbour has contacted Openreach and they are inspecting the exchange on Thursday.

Thanks

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

Thanks for confirming. If the speeds are still slow at the moment then could you try re-booting the router now just to see if the speed does then increase again please?

Thanks

[JWilson56]

Hi Michelle,

Thank you for running the test. Unfortunately I expected the line test to be fine because that's how it's been in the past whenever we have a problem.

I have not restarted the router this morning, a speedtest on my phone a moment ago returned 4.4Mbps download and 7.48Mbps upload, so significantly slower than it should be.

As for when it started it's hard to say. We first noticed intermittent slowdowns a couple of months ago but nothing too significant or frequent. In the last two weeks it has been daily and much much slower. I mentioned in a previous post that restarting the router sometimes fixes it fully, sometimes partially. Last night it didn't affect the speed at all. I am actually losing money at this stage because I was unable to do some work due to poor speed last night.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated at this stage.

Judith.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

I've run a test on the line now which hasn't detected a fault. Can I just confirm, do the speeds automatically increase in the morning/day time without the router being rebooted? When did this start happening?

Thanks

[Skynet_TX]

Ok, if the speed does increase again by itself if you leave it until the next day then it is more likely an issue out on the external network. Each street cabinet (that your phones lines are connected to) will only have a certain amount of capacity, so new housing development will add load to the local network infrastructure, this can potentially have an impact if it is not managed properly. Any fault out on the external network will be the responsibility of Openreach or TalkTalk (depending on where the problem is), the support team here on the community will be able to help when they return tomorrow, if they think the problem is Openreach related they will arrange for Openreach to investigate.

If the speed never increases without you rebooting the router, then this may indicate an issue with the router itself, again the support team here would be able to help with that too.

Can you just clarify, if you leave the router until the next day, does the speed increase again by itself without you having to reboot the router ?

[JWilson56]

Hi Skynet_TX,

Thank you so much for such a quick response. I have added that information to my profile as you suggested. If we don't restart the router the speed will stay slow until the next day. The only way to recover any speed there and then seems to be a router restart. All devices experience the same slowdown, whether it's wired or wifi.

Update: I have conducted a different speedtest which shows the speed to the router is fine (40+Mbps), but speed to device is heavily throttled. I am in the next room, no more than 3m from the router so distance isn't a problem, and speed doesn't increase if I stand directly next to the router.

Another update: My neighbours now report also having the same issues. One suggests it seems to have been since a recent development at the end of our shared drive... I'm a bit confused how that might cause this repeating but intermittent problem - if they'd damaged a cable or something we'd surely just have a complete loss of service. I'm inclined to say the recent development isn't the cause, but would be interested in anyone else's thoughts. If the problem is with the cable out in the road somewhere, would that be an Openreach problem? Who would we contact to get this looked into?

Looking forward to hearing from the support team with any suggestions or potential solutions.

Judith.

[Skynet_TX]

Hi @JWilson56,

If you don't restart the router does the speed recover by itself (i.e. by later in the night, or the next morning), or is the only way you can get the speed back to restart your router.

Do you have any devices connected 'wired', if so do they also experience the same slowdowns.

For one of the TalkTalk Support Team on this community to be able to look into this you will need to update your community profile to include your name, landline telephone number that your TalkTalk service is provided on & an alternative contact number. This will allow them to identify you, and they will then be able to help.

Don't post any personal details in this thread, just add them to your community profile (only you and the TalkTalk Support Team on this community can see your profile details).

The Support Team here won't be around now until Monday, but they should be able to respond to this post early next week to help.