Vodafone Broadband not working in entire house

Goesmi

We have been paying for Vodafone for broadband for an entire year... but the service is not up to any even minimal standard. We have a normal 3 bedroom home and the modem does not cover even 10m from it's positioning. No matter how many times we have tried to engage with Vodafone to get this fixed, they are unable to help. I am being trying to cancel the service to get another provider and of course they don't let me go without a crazy fine. This is just CRAZY!!

TheChizler

10m would be decent range for an ISP issued gateway in a house if there's walls and things blocking the signal. Does it work properly in the same room?

Irish Steve

Some of the issues will vary depending on the age of the house, or even if remedial work has been carried out on a room, more recent plasterboard may well have an internal foil lining, and that is a very good barrier to some WiFi signals. A friend of mine had his router in a garage that had been converted into an office, and dry lined, with the result that the WiFi was almost non existent on the ground floor of the rest of the house, and slightly better upstairs, turned out that the walls had been dry lined with foil backed plasterboard sheets, but the ceilings had been done with smaller lathe size slabs, which were not foil backed. We moved the router out of the office into another part of the house, and that solved the problems.

Another possible issue is that if you are very close to your neighbours, there may be significant channel contention, some routers are not good at looking for suitable alternatives on less heavily used channels. You will need to find a program that can scan the WiFi spectrum to check what is happening in your locality, and see who may be conflicting.

And yes, some of the "standard" routers provided by the ISP's are not the most wonderful devices out there, it may be worth exploring what alternatives may be available from other sources, depending on what service providers are active in your area.

Another issue could be that some of the devices in the home are only capable of running on the 2.4 Ghz band, yet some routers offer service at 2.4 and 5 Ghz, so some checking of the devices you are using may be appropriate.


There is no one size fits all solution to WiFi issues, the issues I've outlined here are some of the most common ones, but there are others that may also be a factor in the issues you are having problems with.

TheDriver

have you tried hardwired connection to identify connection vs signal?

DeconSheridan

Are you using Vodafone 4G or Vodafone / Eir landline Broadband?

The comments above are good I had issues with:

- Wifi Crosstalk (Neighbours access points on same wifi channel)
Remedy: Set to auto channel selection turn off/on router so it can select a channel further away from neighbours).

- Devices too far away from access point signal weak due to walls in house 10 - 15m from access point.
Remedy: Move access point to more central location in house at-least 8 feet off the ground.

Try 5Ghz band only if client devices support it will show up if not you will not see the wifi network on the device and have to use 2.4Ghz. You can have both on some devices.

Also if you have TVs, Desktops, Other devices that never really move consider direct connection with Ethernet to free up the access point / routers wifi. The benefits are huge especially for hd video playback. If you have a load of devices add a small 8 channel switch.

If there are still issues most likely outside contention issues or environmental / weather related interference if Mobile Broadband but Vodafone CS will still try blame your internal network as usual. best test is direct connection with laptop to router speedtest.net it dont lie.

brownej

Just on the 2.4GHz vs 5Ghz WiFi bands, the data throughput on the 5GHz will be higher but due to the higher frequency, the signal propagation will be lower so you wont get the same range. If you don't use bandwidth intensive services I would recommend only using the 2.4GHz band.
As above the positioning of the router is not always optimal and if the house is older it could have thicker walls which will affect the signal or as mentioned above foil backed insulation will cause alot of problems for WiFi signal propagation.

The wireline, wireless repeaters can work really well. I have a 1950s 3 bed house and I have 1 main router and 1 repeater upstairs and 1 in the kitchen. Gives me complete coverage. The standard box from the cable company does not cover the whole house.

DeconSheridan

brownej wrote: »

The wireline, wireless repeaters can work really well. I have a 1950s 3 bed house and I have 1 main router and 1 repeater upstairs and 1 in the kitchen. Gives me complete coverage. The standard box from the cable company does not cover the whole house.

yeah a family member is having similar issue just outside the signal zone and I mentioned a repeater but didn't recommend yet could you recommend a vendor and type and is what you have solid and issues?

Getting your internal network solid is key to achieving reliable connectivity.

Speed tests are key to determining if the issue is with ISP.

The only ISP that I have never had issues with at all were UPC / Virgin Media (1 outage in 10 years for 1 hour). That's not to say I never had internal issues as described above and that's what people get annoyed about calling the ISP for internal issues.

martinhannon

Goesmi, the answer is simple. Stop your direct debit with vodafone (dont worry about being in contract, its not worth the paper it written on). The change to a good ISP. I done this 2 months ago while still in contract. make sure to record all calls with vodafone and tell them your doing it. It drives them nuts..Good Luck.

M

Gooser14

Goesmi wrote:

We have been paying for Vodafone for broadband for an entire year... but the service is not up to any even minimal standard. We have a normal 3 bedroom home and the modem does not cover even 10m from it's positioning. No matter how many times we have tried to engage with Vodafone to get this fixed, they are unable to help. I am being trying to cancel the service to get another provider and of course they don't let me go without a crazy fine. This is just CRAZY!!

The ISP is not responsible for data distribution within your property. Internal distribution is your responsibility.

degsie

martinhannon wrote: »

Goesmi, the answer is simple. Stop your direct debit with vodafone (dont worry about being in contract, its not worth the paper it written on). The change to a good ISP. I done this 2 months ago while still in contract. make sure to record all calls with vodafone and tell them your doing it. It drives them nuts..Good Luck.

M

Interesting that you waited 4 years to post your first comment

Anyhoo, no other provider will touch you if you are found to have left your current provider without paying 'exit' fees while in contract. Bad advice all round.

Marlow

martinhannon wrote: »

Goesmi, the answer is simple. Stop your direct debit with vodafone (dont worry about being in contract, its not worth the paper it written on). The change to a good ISP. I done this 2 months ago while still in contract. make sure to record all calls with vodafone and tell them your doing it. It drives them nuts..Good Luck.

M

Bad advise. Because there is nothing wrong with his service. The provider is not responsible for the distribution of his internet inside his house/appartement.

Wifi and network cabling after the router is the responsibility of the end user.

So by doing, what you suggest, he will still be in contract and will be liable for the entire contract periods worth of charges.

You don't stop your payments to the ESB either, just because your washing machine isn't cleaning your clothes right ? That's about the same as what's going on here.

/M