My  phone is so slow at connecting to the (Plusnet) router, it’s like using a dial-up connection. Has only been like this in the last month and can’t associate it to any event. It also tries to connect to the neighbour’s wifi before mine.

Laptop is fine though.

Speedtest from laptop shows everything is ok.

And the weird bit is:

My Bluetooth speakers are also gash now using laptop. I’ve tried two different ones (same model) but both are just intermittent and unable to maintain a constant connection – sound is in and out every second (this may be unrelated but the timing matches up with the wifi issue)

Wifi from phone works ok on other routers.

I’ve reset the router, phone, and removed a load of apps from the phone.

I’m really confused – is the router just knackered and if so, why is my phone the only thing affected?!

Ta 🙂

Could be the router is an older standard and one of your neighbours has fired up a new wifi router that doesn’t play nicely with yours and is either on exactly the same channel or an overlapping one.  I would normally try changing the channel the router is on to see if that helps

There used to be a nice piece of software called inssider that was great for seeing which channels all the local wifi was on but it is not longer free :(.  The last free version is still around but I haven’t tried it as I’ve got one of the paid versions

Software to check WiFi channels (I think)

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

But just changing the channel rather than using the ‘auto’ setting would also do it

WiFi analyser (Android) is great for seeing which channels are busy.

Got a baby monitor? Ours kills the 2.4 GHz WiFi band and when we first moved in triggered the wireless heating thermostat.

WiFi analysers are good but they won’t tell you about any other interference.

WiFi analysers are good but they won’t tell you about any other interference

troo dat.  thats why in the end I would just move the channel a few along to see if it helps at all

I’m really confused – is the router just knackered and if so, why is my phone the only thing affected?!

Ta 🙂

We have switched to a BT router and now I have to turn the Bluetooth off on my phone or the WiFi is really slow. Was not a problem with sky. All other devices and my wife’s phone don’t seem to have this problem.

We had no end of problems with our Plusnet router. They sent us new ones and all would be good for a little bit, then back to square one.

We just dropped Plusnet.

Watching this thread with interest , same problem but with virgin here.
I’m not sure when my phone slowed but only get 5-6 mb all other devices 50+ (used to get that on phone too)
Just got one of the new modem out of virgin same problem with phone but other devices 100+ now

Which model of router is it?,is your connection fibre or adsl?,have you asked on here
https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Wifi-Issues/td-p/1597283 ?

Get a decent aftermarket router. I had no end of problems until I swapped my HomeHub for an Apple Airport

I was never able to use the 5k channel on my plusnet router for the same reasons you describe. So I separated the 2.4k and 5k channels (gave them a different ssid) and only used 2.4.

TBH a new router may well be the answer,as per previous posters,I’ve got virgin broadband,which was rubbish,until I put the router into modem mode,and added a good router.

As superficial says try giving the 5GHz network a different SSID. We had some similar issues especially on the iPhones and iPads in the house. Since doing this all works fine. You just have to remember if you ever do a hard reset of the router at a later date it reverts these changes back to factory defaults

Ours was fine (ee) till I started zwifiting in the loft conversion. The 5ghz wasn’t strong enough and even the 2.4ghz was flakey ( had to move router into hall before using it). Now have a two mode Google WiFi system with node one hardwired into the ee router. The ee router didn’t want to play in modem mode so in the end just turned the WiFi on it off (yeah I have double NAT but makes sod all difference). WiFi signal now much better in the whole house. The baby monitor can still cause issues if your right by it but we have stopped using that mostly now.

Have you looked into Lyme disease?

.

OOh! Useful thread.

With Plusnet and my son has been moaning about connectivity with his PS4.

Gave the 5Ghz band a different name (AirForceOne) and so everything is now connected on 2.4Ghz.

Connection speed via the phone is now double what it was and a lot more stable – just like that.

We just dropped Plusnet.

Plusnet are good, it’s just they don’t have amazing routers in terms of WiFi signal, although it’s hard to blame that when there are so many other issues with house layout, location of router, walls, neighbours, other interfering devices.

I’d have just got a good Wireless Access Point and turn off the WiFi in the router. No need to change ISP.

Anyway, as for the original problem, does the issue happen when far from the router or in another room with a brick wall between you and router?

I’ve noticed latest Android phones getting really fussy on low signal strength. Still enough signal but they decide they can’t do anything yet a laptop can. Similar with mobile signal. 4G and good signal, fine. Poor signal and struggles. Happy with slow but it just thinks it can’t do anything. Drops to 3G or E, and no data at all which is daft as we used to live with non 4G for years and have data. Not fast sure, but at least it will load a web page. Now it just sits there like there’s no signal at all.

P.s. Those with 5ghz issues. 5ghz has a shorter range. It’s okay if you’re close to the router and had advantage of probably less interference, but 2.4ghz still cover the house better. Still though in some cases you’ll need additional access points.

Thanks for all of the advice (most of which I’m having to google; i.e no idea what all this different frequency business is about 🙂 ) – I’m working through it all now.

Don’t know if relevant, but I’ve logged into the router there’s an unknown device connected and I have no idea what it could be – phone, laptop and chromecast are all accounted for.

To answer above, it’s normal broadband (not fibre), this router https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/plusnet/1403635/plusnet-hub-zero-2704n-review

(which actually answer the frequency question, it’s only got one!) and yes it’s worse when further away from router and is a newer android phone.

Ta again.

Have you looked into Lyme disease?

Its far more likely to be a baby Robin.

Don’t know if relevant, but I’ve logged into the router there’s an unknown device connected and I have no idea what it could b

If you’ve managed to log in then you can just change the WiFi password – that will sort out the unknown device if it is someone on your wifi.  On our router though (which is different) it also lists anything that has ever connected unless we remove it so that the phones of guests we have had are all still there

While you are there try changing the channel as well 🙂

Your router looks as though it has network ports though so you could just switch off the internal WiFi and plug in something like a Netgear Orbi, get great WiFi and go and do something else more fun instead.  That’s the solution I went for after faffing with this stuff for too long

I think this is time to consult an old thread….
Improving wife signal in house
….sound advice never goes out of fashion.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I’m happy to say that changing the Wife (or wifi) channel has sorted both the phone and bluetooth issues; using the apps suggested also helped. Much appreciated 🙂

cheapest option wins – top choice

Yup, and your advice was consistent! Thanks.

Disappointed you didn’t try to rule out Lyme disease though.