WIFI OPTIMISATION

[Chris1012]

I recently switched to Talktalk broadband and I'm having issues with WIFI optimisation and channel hopping causing certain devices to disconnect from the WIFI network. From reading these pages I understand that a Talktalk employee can disable this feature on my router? Please can this be actioned?

[Chris1012]

Hi Chris,

Since we last spoke on Friday I had 8 dropouts on Friday afternoon/evening and 2 dropouts on Saturday afternoon just before the engineer arrived at ~2pm. He found more corroded connections on the line further away from the property, which he replaced. He also reset the line and put it on a ‘permanent profile’. He left around 3.30pm. Since then I had 2 dropouts on Saturday evening at ~9.30pm and 2 on Sunday morning at ~6 to 7am. I have had no further dropouts since Sunday morning, but that’s only 24 hours and my speeds are much lower than they have been. Since there were 4 dropouts after the engineer visit on Saturday I think there must still be a fault somewhere.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Chris, how did you get on?

Chris

[Chris1012]

Hi Chris,

I've had a text from Openreach so I can see the engineer will visit between 1pm to 6pm tomorrow. Since we last spoke I've had a further 4 VDSL dropouts, so that makes 6 so far since 3pm (~90 mins). I will let you know what the engineer says tomorrow.

[Chris1012]

Thanks Chris, will that be 'any time from 1PM'? It was with the last Openreach engineer visit.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

I've booked the engineer appointment for tomorrow afternoon - June 01 2024, PM - please let us know how you get on

Chris

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK, I'll book it for the first available slot (except for the two you've mentioned) - I'll let you know when I've booked it

Chris

[Chris1012]

Anytime apart from tomorrow morning or Sunday afternoon

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK, when can you be available for the engineer visit?

Chris

[Chris1012]

Hi Chris

I've just had another two VDSL dropouts in the past 10-15mins. I think you need to arrange another engineer visit to get this fault fixed.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Chris,

Yes, there was a profile change last night which will be the cause of the disconnection. It's possible that there have been two separate issues, the first one fixed by the engineer and this a separate issue, but as I've said, if the disconnections continue we can arrange another engineer visit

Chris

[Chris1012]

Hi Chris,

I have had one further VDSL dropout overnight at ~1am. I assume this is the DLM trying to sort out the connection after the numerous dropouts on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Yesterday I spoke to one of my neighbours who is with BT. He said that they had '1-2 dropouts for a few minutes at ~9pm on Wednesday'. This agrees with when my dropouts started on Wednesday evening, however, I then had ~24 dropouts over the next 9 hours! Surely, 'mass event' or no 'mass event' my experience cannot be 'normal' and indicates a fault somewhere? If my experience is 'normal' then you would be inundated with complaints every time a 'mass event' happened! The recent dropouts are just one of many that have happened over the past month, they all can't be caused by 'mass events'.

[Chris1012]

Although as the Openreach engineer told me, unless a dropout happened whilst a test was being performed they would be very unlikely to detect the fault. Since the ONLY thing connected to my master socket is the Talktalk router, the cause of the dropouts can only be the router/Openreach phone line/Openreach or Talktalk equipment in the cabinet/exchange. We tried a second Talktalk router (which I have since returned) and that didn't solve the dropouts. This only leaves the Openreach phone line and Openreach or Talktalk equipment in the cabinet/exchange.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Yes I agree that something must be causing the disconnections, the line test is just showing that there are no faults detected on the Openreach network.

Chris

[Chris1012]

Hi Chris,

I can't understand how there can be 'no problems' when the connection dropped ~24 times in a 12 hour period, surely that in itself means there is a problem somewhere? I have no idea what a 'mass event' is and whether that would cause the issue. Although I have been told this before, but it can't be responsible for 60+ dropouts I've had over several weeks. I have had no more dropouts since ~6am. I will give it another 24 hours, but if I get anymore dropouts I will immediately report back so that you can arrange another engineer visit.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks. The line test does show that there are no problems found on the Openreach network but the performance of the service may be impacted by a recent mass event. We can arrange another engineer visit but I think it's probably worth giving it another 24 hours to see if the connection stabilises before doing this

Chris

[Chris1012]

Hi Chris,

Yes, the router has been reconnecting (flashing orange/white light) many many times over the past ~12 hours (well over 20 at the last count from the log). The only thing connected to the master socket is your router, I don't use the phone connection so can't comment on that.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Chris,

I'm sorry to hear that the problem has got worse, Line test is showing a lot of reconnections over the last few days, are you experiencing any problems with your telephone service, any noise on the line?

Chris

[Chris1012]

Hi Michelle,

It's been just over a week since the engineer visit. I had a couple of VDSL dropouts over a few nights, but I put those down to the stabilisation period and the DLM. However, from last evening until this morning (5am) I have had 22 VDSL dropouts! The internet was unusable for ~ 2 hours yesterday evening and has been virtually unusable this morning! Obviously the engineer has not fixed the problem of the VDSL dropouts and they are now getting significantly worse. This issue has been ongoing for nearly a month and my patience is wearing thin. Please could you escalate this to a formal complaint so that it can be resolved once and for all.

29.05.2024 20:45:42	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 21:05:07	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 21:09:09	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 21:10:01	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 21:11:12	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 21:13:57	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 21:59:25	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
29.05.2024 22:17:51	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 01:11:00	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 02:23:41	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 02:52:40	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 02:53:31	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 03:24:51	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 03:40:10	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 04:28:18	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 04:29:57	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 04:46:33	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 04:50:54	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 04:51:50	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 05:35:54	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 05:36:51	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1
30.05.2024 05:38:50	Info	XDSL	VDSL connectivity is down port 1

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi Chris,

I understand. It was decided in the last month and we have been feeding back to the team on this. Please let us know how the alternative router compares. If it is still happening then we can pass the dates and times to the team to see if they can see a specific issue causing issue and ask what the solution will be.

Thanks

Michelle

[Chris1012]

Hi Michelle,

So this is a recent decision since you were able to turn off wifi optimisation for me on the 19 April? I will try the previous router to see if wifi optimisation is still disabled. I disagree with the team - for my setup, which is pretty basic, we proved 100% that disabling wifi optimisation completely fixed the problem with my 3D printer becoming unresponsive on the wifi and needing a restart (something I never had with my previous ISP's router). I will look at collecting dates/times when this happens, but this and documenting all of VDSL dropouts are taking way more of my time than they should! Surely the broadband and wifi should just work, it always has with previous ISPs!