to expect wifi not to drop out / disappear multiple times a day?

[GatherlyGal]

We have Virgin superspeed super-great amazing broadband. Although it isn't. Admittedly 3 DCs and me and often DH working at home means a lot of devices but is it reasonable to expect a steady consistent connection??

I don't want the ballache of changing providers if it will be the same old story. Some devices are better than others but some (my laptop, DDs phone) seem to need the router to be reset almost daily and sometimes 3 or 4 times a day in order to pick up the network.

I have rung them many times and the standard ping test always shows good speed and good service etc and the standard response when I complain is "reset the router". I don't mind resetting but it's a huge pain the in arse when it's all the time! Goes down well with DCs too of course when they are in the middle of something.

Our house is old and walls are very thick if that's a factor?

So, should I change providers or is it just life in an old house with lots of devices in use?

We also have virgin super fast and the same problem from time to time

I know you've probably done this already but have you thought about where your router is positioned in the house, made sure it's got nothing surrounding it?

Are the items having the most trouble furthest from the router or have lots of walls or electrical items in the way?

One of my youngsters has Skype open in the background when working and we've been told this could be using up band width unnecessarily

If you've got an old house with thick walls, they will contribute to the wifi strength. If it's getting through to your home fine, you may need to play with router placement or signal boosters.

Do you have neighbours? You might have some channel interference with the router (too many people in close vicinity trying to use same router channel), you may need to look into changing the channel your router uses. Don't ask me how to do this...I was just told this might be the issue with my internet as I am having the same problems! I think it involves logging in to your router settings somehow.

Same problem here with Virgin wifi. I've noticed the service deteriorating more recently.

We had it an live v close to the exchange and it got progressively worse over time. We ditched a few months ago and moved to Vodafone. Although the strength isn't as strong as what VM said we should be getting on their service, it is much more reliable.

BT Infinity.
The UK's most powerful Wi-Fi

Same problem. Also with Virgin. I thought it was just us! It's shite. We are in Central London and no probs with thick walls.

This is why I am with BT.

Companies like Virgin and Talk Talk rent out cabinet space at the exchange from BT. Openreach dictate the capacities that external companies have depending on how much they pay.
So often cheaper companines will "profile" at busy times for instance, or not realise the full actual speed that exhange is capable of

I had lots of problems with my internet, and was sick of BT and the provider blaming each other.

Now I am with BT, it's their problem if my internet has a problem, although it has been great now with BT infinity, very fast and very robust.

Is your router actually stopping working or could it be the thickness of your walls?
DS cant get a good signal in his room so we now have ethernet cables running from the router to his room. He doesn't loose signal and has no lag time gaming. Ironically I get a great connection out in the street.

We have thought about getting the router location moved but Virgin said it would be £££ to do it. The ethernet cable is much cheaper.

My virgin Internet is crap too. Forever dropping signal. I always manage to get myself tied into new contracts with them so I'm stuck with them for months yet too.

Maybe need a new router or a signal booster, I live in old house with thick walls and need booster in living room as telephone line/ router comes in at opp end of house
Also dependant on how many people in locality ( not just our house- ie in village) seem to be in Internet at same time....wet weekends seem to slow down internet speed as everyone's on their devices!
We're with BT as have no cable providers in our area and were promised superfast broadband by Welsh government , although still hasn't happened and our download speed is about 2mb!...have just got amazonfirestick for streaming and Netflix and it works surprisingly well at the moment

Insteadcables you may wish to consider a Powerline ethernet connection, very cheap and robust.
So you use the existing mains cable to carry internet signal around the house, with little drop in quality.
I live in a large house so the wifi would otherwise have to carry signal through seven or eight walls, we use the powreline so connection is robust throughout the house.
Easy to install, Maplins sell a kit.

You can get a wifi extender, DSis has one in the big Victorian house she lives in - otherwise half the property had no connection!

We had this issue with Virgin internet too, but they admitted there was a problem for us and did fix it - there's apparently a 'tolerance' for the internet dropping out and ours was doing it 10x as frequently as it should (which was unbelievably annoying when I was trying to work from home!)

Do push them, there is a test they can do.

We had a problem with Virgin in our old flat- same thing. Called them and they sent an engineer who re attached the wire to our flat- said it was because it was done a long time ago and connection just a bit worn.

Even though it appeared to be a problem with the wifi (rather than the signal coming into the house) it worked brilliantly after that.

We have the same problem with TalkTalk. It drives me mad.

Am going to show this thread to DH. It drives him mad. We have virgin, same problem. We bought a signal booster to put up stairs. This has helped but it's still not as good as I was expecting

What signal strength shows on your devices?

Continual resetting os not normal. It could be down to your thick walls me and PIL both have virgin. Is fine across my house (shitty plasterboard walls), lots of deadspots in PILs house (old think walls).

As a PP suggested look wondering up power line connection if your signal strength is poor.

What sort of router is it? You can have a router that starts to overheat and need resetting or one that's using an overused channel etc. We use a third party router as I prefer the choice and control.

I used to be virgin and had to change channels frequently as so many of the neighbours also had virgin doing the same channel hopping.

Thanks all. We are not alone it seems.
What I don't get is why some devices are fine and some just don't seem to pick up the wifi at all without a reset. It's nothing to do with closeness to router.

Maybe we should give BT a go. We've had them before in a previous house and the setup was so painful and took so long it put us off. Shame as the actual service was good as far as I remember.

Might try a booster.

Thanks again very helpful.

Same problem with Virgin

We had problems with Virgin recently, turned out the router was on its way out. Got a new one and no issues since.

We've just nagged Virgin into sending us a new router, but they wouldn't do it until we had numerous complaining phone calls logged with them and my DH finally threatening them to go with another ISP!
So the router came last week and we've gone from intermittent signals ranging from 0.6mb - 25mb to now the all singing all dancing 30mb - 75mb!! And the Amazon Firestick is now usable instead of it running for 2 minutes and then buffering!
We have mega thick stone walls on our cottage and have always needed a booster for the wifi to reach the other end of the house, but this is a lot better now too.
I agree that it depends where the router is placed, and we did have to move it a couple of years ago to a place where the signal could basically try and bounce through doorways instead of getting stuck by the walls.

We were on BT originally and they were shite. Even they admitted that a signal of 0.01mb wasn't acceptable

We have the same problem. the router is places where our IP provider suggested it should be, and this is a recent problem.

That sounds promising girlandboy. I feel very fobbed off when I call them but maybe I need to threaten to leave.