25-10-2024 11:33 AM
Has anyone else had this problem?
I moved to full fibre a year or two ago and it was fine (white rectangle router, modem box on wall). I was getting 100MPS download, as promised. I mostly work from home during the day, so I'm completely reliant on my broadband connection working properly.
Then, in about March or April this year, something started to happen which has been bugging me ever since, and EE don't seem to know what the problem is. Which of course means they can't fix it.
The broadband drops intermittently for a few seconds multiple times a day. And sometimes the speed drops. In order to fix this, I was given a replacement white router, then someone came and replaced the modem. It was sort of ok, but then it kept happening. My contract came to an end in a September, and early this month I upgraded to the black router, promising 150MPS.
When it's behaving, it's great, and I get the promised speed (I even get over 160MPS if I run a speed test sitting right next to the router). But.... I'm still getting the intermittent dropping. Webpages won't load, my email logs itself out, and when it comes back up, I get a message saying "your broadband connection has reconnected."
Here's some recent issues, since "upgrading".
Last Friday, I was in an online video call at 10am, and my square on the screen was very pixellated. At 1pm, I had a voice-only call (with captions, because I'm deaf), and apparently my voice "sounded metallic, like a dalek". I ran a speed test and instead of getting 145MPS (usual speed from my desk), I was getting 30MPS!
I complained again, so someone came out, decided it wasn't caused by anything inside the house, and promised an engineer would come. So they came two days later and... replaced the modem. Someone already did that, so how was that supposed to help? I was told to check the lights when the drops happen. But my desk is upstairs. I'm not Ussain Bolt, I can't run downstairs to check the lights whenever the drops happen - sometimes they're only 10 seconds.
Someone from EE or BT tried to call me yesterday but as I wasn't at my desk, I couldn't take the call (I need my mobile to connect to my PC to take the call and use captions, plus my PC's very good speakers, because... deaf). They texted me to say the engineer said there weren't any issues and their data shows it's all working ok. But they never test it or have someone in the house when these issues are happening!
This morning, I've set up my Ring cam (which usually points into the garden) in my front room, parked in front of the modem. As usual, the connection has been up and down. I had a meeting at 10am, and at the start, apparently my connection was flaky. Three times in an hour, Teams told me I had "poor network quality" but my colleagues said they didn't notice anything. And every time it happened, I checked my Ring cam. The lights were all behaving (although Ring uses my broadband, so when it's out I won't see the lights anyway!).
I just don't know what to do. I can't live with a broadband connection that's so unreliable and drops regularly during the day. But EE won't do anything. I've suggested they check the cabling outside my house - this is based on the time pre-fibre when I had a problem, and they found my wire into the junction box had frayed and was flapping in the breeze! Just bring a ladder and go up the pole and look at the cabling. But they won't check. They just turn up in my house, change the router (I'm now on router #3), change the modem (now on modem #2), tell me they can't see a problem, then I'm at home with rubbish connectivity very aware that there *is* a problem!
Why did I upgrade??? But then again, if it's an external problem, I assume it's likely I would've had the same problem with whoever I went with.
27-10-2024 02:07 PM
I owe you an apology. Thinking back, I'm telescoping two things. It was in our FTTC days there was an issue with the then router suddenly cycling. At that point Openreach by-passed the house socketry and ran a copper cable along the front of the house and in at the back of the socket we had then.
Then when we went FTTP they did the same thing with the fibre run and into the back of the new socket.
So, apologies. You were quite right.
Best, Mike
27-10-2024 02:16 PM
Thanks, @Minkey1 , no problem!
28-10-2024 12:06 PM
@stesteste Oh thank goodness, someone else having the same issue! I'm sorry you are, but I've been feeling like I've been going mad! Am I unreasonable for not tolerating a broadband connection that goes up and down all the time?
It must be so frustrating for you that it gets in the way of your work like that.
I wonder what we can do if we club together and approach them about it? I'm in the West Midlands (I don't want to be more specific on an open forum) - are you as well, or are you further afield? It'd be useful to know if it's a local thing or something the full fibre network struggles with nationally. In which case, why they can't they sort it out?
It's supposed to be better than copper wire internet, and yes, it's faster - when it can be bothered!
28-10-2024 12:14 PM
I've contacted Watchdog.
28-10-2024 12:36 PM
Hi Helen
FWIW, I don't think there's any national Fibre problem. I've had plenty of issues with the transfer of BB, TV, and SIM's from BT to EE, but the internet connection itself isn't one of them.
We're in West Yorks, on Fibre 900, and the connection is rock solid.
I don't know whether a faulty router can cause the intermittent issue you describe; personally, I'd look to the external wiring.
Good luck.
31-10-2024 06:51 PM
Hi Helen
You aren't alone, I have raised this issue months ago. Connectivity issues on zoom and teams impacted several devices. I ended up having to switch back to BT as there was no immediate resolution and a bunch of people pointing at zoom or teams... Apps that work fine with everyone and everything else.
My guess and the guesses of my IT department is this is an issue with EE or more specifically, their hardware (although some others have tried other hardware and the issue seems to persist). I'm revisiting this now as my father recently switched to EE (against my advice) and is now experiencing the exact same problems. Given our jobs both involve the need for zoom and teams, such an issue is a major deal breaker for home working.
Others have said using a VPN such as NORD did resolve the issue, so might be worth seeing if you can get a trial of that and see if it improves your connection issues. It may only be a bandaid but could be worth a try.
Let us know how you get on with watch dog.