Connection Dropping / Packet Loss

[EddieBoyyo]

I was recently 'advised' by BT to switch from my BT SH2 to the EE Smart Hub Plus. I think it's fair to say that since switching, there's been nothing but issues with it.
The most impactful issue has been that I am getting complete connection dropouts / packet loss when gaming. This is happening every 30-45 seconds and lasts for at least 3-5 seconds. Spoke to tech support on the phone and they said they'd get an engineer to call back - it comes as no surprise that no one has reached out since this call 4 days ago...

I am on cable as I live in a remote area, so no fibre is available. The connection to my PC is wireless due to the logistics of running an ethernet cable from the router to my PC.

I have read through other forums and tried common solutions such as restarting (fixes the issue for 15 mins max), switching to WiFi 5 from WiFi 6, and checking that the router IP isn't clashing with any connected device IPs. I switched back to the BT SH2 and it worked fine; however, to avoid the fine I had to send it back, so now back on the SH+.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem and has managed to find a fix?
Any help is appreciated.

[viktorsmart]

well, what worked for me was wavlink AX5400. during all of these tests i was using tp link devices and all of them were providing the same results with packet loss. now having wavlink i no longer have packet loss. been all evening worked like a charm and all works as expected. 

[JimM11]

@viktorsmart Good you got to the bottom off what looks to be your wireless delay issue, would also be helpful to know what Tp-Link extenders models that you had on the system that were possibly causing the wireless wi-fi to get busy!

[viktorsmart]

I was gonna do it anyway but before i explain what devices i used for this test i just wanted to say it did not impact my ability to stream anything. TV, streaming, netflix all worked well despite packet drops. it did affect gaming and especially dynamic gaming like CoD or CS2 or WOW.

my setup originally was TP-Link AC1300 (T3U Archer older version) mini (BT smart hub). original speed i used to have was 50-75mbps. for some reason i always had problem with the speed with it when i used BT. any speed test was showing 75mbps but in reality when it comes to downloading it was 10 times less showing 5-6mbps only. it did not affect my streaming or gaming at all. 

because BT could not find what affect my speed they suggested to upgrade me to fibre. i decided to go with full package and took 910mbps which also would mean to replace existing BT smart hub with EE smart hub plus. Once hub was replace the fun began. 

Using my existing AC1300 (older version of T3U) became impossible due to packet loss and impossible gaming. I decided to buy TP-LINK AC1300 newer version and TP-LINK AX1800 (TX20U). While testing new AC1300 and AX1800 it became evident they both acting exactly the same. Streaming services were not affected but 30-40 packet loss during gaming made it impossible to play.

Yesterday sh+ was replaced with new sh+ but the results contniued to be the same until i installed wavlink AX5400 and tried it out using ping 8.8.8.8. monitoring using pingplotter and cmd showed no packet loss at all and latency is continuously stable throughout the test.

i also bought TP-LINK AX3000 as a last resort knowing via ethernet i will have stable connection but thankfully i dont need to go that way anymore. 

i hope this post helps someone who struggle with every 30-40 spike packet loss

oh and yes, this is beautiful speed

[viktorsmart]

on the other hand i was talking to one of my mates. main difference between TP-LINKs and WAVLINK is WAVLINK support 6E whereas TP-LINKs just 6. Could this be solution to the problem?

I tried TP-LINKs to run on wifi 5 and i still had spikes every 30 seconds...

[JimM11]

@viktorsmart The main problem that you have is the style of the Tp-Link devices, anything mini like that is for being fairly close to the router, if you need to test with those devices then would advise to be within about 10 foot of the router, they virtually have no power to send any reasonable signal about and very easily blocked. the EE router is not wi-fi 6e so is irrelevant with respect to the wavelink, it's feature is the antenna that it has. All to do with the unit, and how good the usb is also on it.

The EE Smarthub+ is a reasonable router but it is a ISP supplied, and very locked down feature wise. Streaming is different in operation as plenty of buffer activity, gaming is way different as you need the response back and forth.

[viktorsmart]

the thing is my current adaptor (wavlink) is taking exact same place as AX1800 used to take. so in that sense nothing changed.

[JimM11]

@viktorsmart The AX1800 is a device manufacturer specification, it means absolutely nothing in the grand stream of anything, and NO two devices are the same in how they work or in operation, your AX5400, is more streams because of more antenna in the device, or wider channel operation support. Not even sure which one you have so linked this for you.

‎【New message】WiFi6E AX5400 USB3.0 Adapter-wavlink.com‎‎

[viktorsmart]

that is the one i have now yes

[JimM11]

@viktorsmart So this is the good bit, the rest is waffle.

- Supports OFDMA and MU-MIMO technologies.

- Antenna: 4 x 5dBi High-performance antennas.

[viktorsmart]

not everyone would like the look 🙂

but yeah im happy now all works