Broken 5GHz Wifi and other router faults

[kevinr1]

I spent nearly 2 hours on online support chats and then an escalation call (CMP-473408 on 18/07/2023) and came away expecting to receive a replacement FAST5364 router in a couple of days. Unfortunately the delivery was a WiFi booster thatI returned the same day (20th) with a letter explaining yet again the nature of my router problems and why a  booster was of no use.

In summary the router only works on 2.4 GHz. The interface usually shows that everything is working but my devices can't detect a 5GHz wifi output. In fact TalkTalk's booster didn't find the signal either!

Having been through the forum posts my router has some of the other problems found with the 1.74 firmware: Unreponsive web pages, the need to frequently reboot the device and the router crashes when trying to enable WiFi.

I can't face starting this process again, battling the AI bot and carrying out myriad tests that will fail to correct the fault.

I hope that by coming through this forum I might get a resolution to my problem. All I need is that replacement router.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for the update. As soon as there is a new FW available for the router then this will be automatically rolled out.

Thanks

[kevinr1]

I think Keith explained the situation very well. I will wait for a future firmware update that I hope isn't too far away.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

HI kevinr1

I can see that Keith had replied to your post with some advice. Do you still need help with this?

[KeithFrench]

I doubt that your router is faulty, but let me explain why.

The most likely reason for a Sagemcom running V174 for the 5GHz band to be undetectable is not a router fault at all, but that it is using a WiFi channel that none of your devices support. In most cases, devices rarely support above channel 120 and some no higher than channel 48. Even if they support higher channels than 120, where channels 120 to 128 inclusively are used, the router will not start sending out a Wi-Fi signal on one of these channels for at least 10 minutes. This is not a fault of the router, but regulations that all routers have to follow in the UK. The only way to resolve this is to connect via an Ethernet connection to the router & manually reduce the channel number, or wait until Wi-Fi Optimisation reduces it for you.

V1.74 and V1.58 before it has a bug where, if you disable one of the Wi-Fi bands (broadly similar problem irrespective of the band that you disable), re-enabling that band will not work correctly. The only way to resolve this is to do a factory default, as it sounds like you have discovered. This is not a faulty router, but a bug in the firmware. If you get a replacement router from TalkTalk, until this is fixed in a future version of firmware, you will be in the same position again.

To find out if anything else is causing your problem though, is to do one further factory default and then do not try disabling either Wi-Fi band again. At this point, if you still have problems, please reply back with the nature of those problems, so that they can be correctly investigated.