Frequent and increasing drops in connection

[Frances-]

Hi

I’m looking for some help with wifi issues that have been ongoing for a few months but are getting increasingly worse.

Issue: My connection seems to keep dropping randomly it started late last year but as it was only for a a few seconds before re-establishing I stupidly ignored it over the past month or two if has been getting much worse while there are periods it is stable for an hour or more there are also periods when I can lose the connection for 5-10 mins at a time multiple times an hour. This is now causing me issues as it drops the connection for online classes, zoom meetings etc.
It is not just with one device this affects my laptop, my desktop my mobile, the PS4 and the TV.

Setup: I have a Sagemcom FAST 5464 router sitting in the hall under the office and less that 15ft away from the TV with no wall in-between

What has been tried:
I have reset the router multiple times (both restarted and factory reset) which seems to improve it a little for a time before starting to drop again.
I have changed the channels for 2.4 and 5GHz in case that helps though the factory resets undoes those. So far it does not prevent the signal dropping out.
I have does line tests, it says it’s fine though the last one, done on Thursday night said in the following up text that there may be an issue with the set up and to contact the tech chat which I did spending an hour on with them on Friday as they talked me through testing the line and resetting the router etc then they sent me a link to work read though the Optimisation guide on the community page though teaching for optimisation only seems to bring up a lot of posts about turning it off. At which point I lost connection for the 4th time in an hour and this time for over 10 minutes. The router itself says it's been fully connected for over 3 days so since the last reset despite my constant "you are no connected to the internet" pages.

Any suggestions of what else I can try?

F

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

How are you getting on?

Thanks

Michelle

[Frances-]

Thanks Keith

I'll get a look at that later tonight hopefully and report back asap.

F

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Thanks for your help @KeithFrench 

[KeithFrench]

Do not worry about interpreting the results, I will do that for you. I will send a PM to you 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.

[KeithFrench]

OK thanks I'll send it to you later tomorrow morning.

[Frances-]

Yes please Keith. I've tried everyting within my own understanding.

F

[KeithFrench]

Let me know then if you want my help with this. The next stage involves sending out a guide to you 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.

[Frances-]

No wired connections as neither computer has a ethernet connection to use.

The only light on the router is always white and stable, the lights on the openreach socket are stable for Power and PON with the LAN flickering slightly with no changes when from connection up to connection down.

Checking for other networks show 2/3 Sky networks in range but with poor strength which was why I tried out changing the channels used with no success.

Computers, TV and current mobile use the 5GHz connection.

Normally only my camera and my old mobile used as a tablet used the 2.4 band

F

[KeithFrench]

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.

However, other factors should be investigated first. When this happens, what are the lights showing on the front of the router? Do you have any wired connections & if so, how do they perform?

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

In other words, I try to help you optimise your Wi-Fi connection. The next stage involves sending out a guide to you 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 @Debbie-TalkTalk or@Michelle-TalkTalk.

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 with 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.