You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
We're on the Vodafone (Spain) network and accessing the internet via a sim card in our Huawei-B310-4989 router using the Vodafone mobile phone network. Our package includes several sim cards on one contract. The Router, my phone, the house phone - all use data from one 50Gb per month package.
Everything has worked fine for the last 4 years but a couple of weeks ago it started "playing up" and we can't work out what's going on.
During the night and first thing in the morning we have great internet access. Fast and stable. But at some point during the day, every day, the router gives us a "no internet access" message - the little yellow triangle covering half our "internet strength" icon. Times vary but it generally fails around midday'ish.
At the same time that this is happening, I can use my mobile phone, with it's own Vodafone sim card, to create a Mobile Hotspot which is accessing the internet using the same Vodafone signal the router can't seem to find. We can download on our laptops via my phone and it comes out of, as I mentioned above, exactly the same 50Gb block of data....
When it stops working we've tried unplugging/plugging in the router, factory Reset button on the back of the router, factory reset option and restore defaults option on the routers home webpage ( http://192.168.8.1/html/home.html) . . . . all with no success.
There doesn't seem to be a "WIFI settings" sub-section on http://192.168.8.1/html/home.html, which several online tutorials refer to when trying to change the router frequency - which we thought might help but can seem to access to try.
What on earth could be knocking out our router everday, whilst not touching my phones ability to connect to the web?
If you're looking for ways to change the router frequency, the frequency bands are known as channels.
I would install an app such as WiFi Analyser and see which channels your router and phone are using, and whether there are any other WiFi systems nearby using the same ones. It could also be that there's some (non-WiFi) interference on the channels your router is using, and your phone is using a different channel which is avoiding the frequency that the interference is on.
Have you ruled out WiFi interference by connecting to the router with a LAN cable?
Could be interference in your WiFi, either from something in your house or a neighbour.
Have your next-door neighbours bought a new microwave oven to make their lunch?
When it craps out see what you can ping:
192.168.8.1
8.8.8.8
www.google.comIf data works on your phone and also as a Wi-Fi hotspot but not on the router then I think I'd be asking Voda for a replacement router.
Is the connection dropping on the outside, router side, so the 4g connection coming into the router?
Or is the Internet connection to the router fine and the connection drop is your side of the router, so WiFi connection?
If it's on your side, test if another device also loses connection at the same time, which rules out a dodgy laptop.
Have your next-door neighbours bought a new microwave oven to make their lunch?
Yeah, if you're on 2.4ghz a microwave will interfere with the signal, worth checking.
We can all connect to the router - phones, iPad & Laptops. The problem is that the router can't see " the Internet". We used to get this sometimes when there was a thunderstorm - which is understandable because it's a cell phone signal.
Now we're getting it everyday, starting from anytime from midday onwards and lasting until some point in the middle of the night where the problem goes away and we get our hi speed internet back, through exactly the same router....until lunchtime the next day......
Its as if something blocks the router from seeing the Vodafone signal from lunchtime onwards, but doesn't stop my phone from seeing exactly the same signal at the same time.
OK, so it's not a WiFi problem - it's an issue with the 4g signal/router picking up the signal.
Have you tested the sim card in another device to see if that also loses connection at the same time? If it does, something is happening connected to the sim card. If the router continues to drop you know its that.
Troubleshooting IT stuff is mainly just eliminating things so you can work out what /where the problem lies.
If the Internet comes back at midnight, is there some sort of block/limit on that sim card that is then resetting at midnight?
Interesting suggestion.
There might be some kind of "fair usage" policy being enforced that throttles the speed/disconnects once a daily limit has been hit on a certain SIM card. Could be a feature introduced to stop one SIM on a shared plan burning all the data.
Have you spoken to Vodafone?
I’m going with some sort of SIM card-specific prioritisation / throttling.
That's easily tested. Swap two SIMs over, what happens? Does the fault follow the SIM or stay with the router?
Is there any way you can review the data used so far this period?
I'd try testing with Wifi/router turned off (or unused) until well after the time of day it normally stops working. If it works fine for a few hours after that it would point to a usage limit.
Swapping SIMs - if all the SIMs have the same daily cap the router issue will persist.
Can you look at the router logs to see how much data per day is going through it? Is it the same every day and a suspiciously round number?
if all the SIMs have the same daily cap the router issue will persist.
If all the SIMs have a shared limit then they'd all be affected.
If there's a soft cap per sim - 50GB per day split over 4 sim cards - but with a cap at, say 30GB usage for a single card to stop one card draining the whole allowance. If there's 'phones, iPads and laptops' - i.e. multiple devices all connecting through one of the sim cards in the router, then it wouldn't be hard to hit that limit. However swapping the sim would just move the issue to the other sim card.
A router with 4x devices connected is going to use more data than a phone with it's own sim, especially if that phone connects to the wifi via the router when in the house.
He should be able to check on the vodafone account to see how much data is being used by each sim card. I bet there's either a soft cap on the sim card, or a threshold set on the router to cut data once a certain amount is used.
Going to go through these suggestions today, which also happens to be the last day of the current months allocation - so maybe it'll be a different story tomorrow?
I'm currently accssing the net through the router and it's perfect, same as every mornning.
I do monitor the usage everday and log it in a spreadsheet. Might sound a bit anal but after getting caught out and using it all up early one month and seeing it then drop down to "dial up speed" for the rest of the month, I've learned to be careful.
Taking the router to work to try it out there before I leave this afternoon. I'll see if it works there - 8km away. Then I'll drive home and try it here.....
The mobile/SIM portion will have a timeout associated with holding the internet connection up when it is idle. Maybe that side of things is not working correctly? It will be an operator side setting (ie if nothing is going on, drop the 4g data side), it should then bring this back up on demand (helps with battery life on mobiles - so possibly should be turned off on a data only SIM). Try simulating it? Turn off your your wired/wireless devices - see if it drops the connection, then turn one on and see if it brings the connection back up on demand.