IoT and Virgin Media Hub 3

iba

Guys/Girls,

I really need some help.

I have loads of IoT stuff but everytime my internet goes down four things do not automatically reconnect and I have to go through the rigmarole of doing factory resets.

I'm using Virgin Media 3 Hub for internet and four devices are:

Echo Dot 2nd and 3rd generations
Nest Thermastat
Logitech Harmony Hub

Everything else reconnects inclduing inter alia Xiaomi sensors, Mi Light strips, Yilights, Yi Cameras, TP Link Plugs and Echo Show etc

I'm at my wits end trying to figure out what the problem is. All I know is that it is always the same four things.

My guess is tha it is something to do with the router but thats only a guess. Please anyone got any ideas? Is there some setting in the router that needs changing, its just at factory settings?

Thanks

Irish_peppa

Random shot in the dark here but could your virgin router have met its max concurrent user capacity? You say lots of IOT. Count up every device you have connected to your wifi and on which band its connected too. A quick google says the Virgin Hub 3 can have up to 20 concurrent connected devices. Now the question is that per channel or in total. I see its dual band so can you connect 20 devices to each radio both 2.4 and 5ghz or is it 20 total across both bands.

The Virgin Media Super Hub lets you connect more than 20 different devices so you can play games, download files and stream music simultaneously – and all at rapid speeds.

It's also 5GHz compatible (unlike BT's Home Hub 3 and routers from other providers). 5GHz is a less congested frequency, so you get faster wireless performance for all your gadgets.

https://my.virginmedia.com/discover/broadband/your-broadband/connecting/hubs

towger

Many IOT devices work on 2.4GHz only. If your 5 and 2.4 are combined into one SSID those devices may be attempting to connect to the 5GHz band. Try splitting your SSID into the two bands and connect the devices to the 2.4 band only.

Irish_peppa

towger wrote: »

Many IOT devices work on 2.4GHz only. If your 5 and 2.4 are combined into one SSID those devices may be attempting to connect to the 5GHz band. Try splitting your SSID into the two bands and connect the devices to the 2.4 band only.

Had a similar problem, I spread the load as much as I could between the bands,
Always find its best to use seperate SSID;s for a home network.
I had 32 devices connected to my 2.4ghz and at that point the router would simply not allow any more devices to connect to the router. If a device would try to rejoin it would simply kick it off or wouldnt even let it connect at all, I rarely used the 5ghz as you know the distance isnt great. So what I did was I put my nearest 5ghz compatable devices to the router to connect to 5ghz. So was able to put 2 x Google chromes and 2 x Chromecasts on 5ghz
Also had to get rid of some of my Tp Link Smart plugs that were powering my lamps x 8 of them and invested in Hue lights. Despite the smart plugs not downloading or uploading much information they were clogging the system I couldnt get anymore devices onto my wifi.
So the hue lights took 8 users off my wifi and replaced with just 1 user (the hub) and the 4 x 5ghz swapped to the 5ghz gave me lots more capacity on my 2.4ghz.

Diggerdunne

I had a similar issue with my virgin WiFi dropping everyday and most of my devices not reconnecting, a mixture of sonoff and Alexa all on 2.4. I had about 30 wireless devices connected on 2.4. I rang VM and the fella basically told me to put it in bridge mode and buy a good router. I went and bought an Asus router and have not looked back since. It works great with all devices connected. It was a bit expensive at €140 but it’s stable and reliable last 3 months

L1011

towger wrote: »

Many IOT devices work on 2.4GHz only. If your 5 and 2.4 are combined into one SSID those devices may be attempting to connect to the 5GHz band. Try splitting your SSID into the two bands and connect the devices to the 2.4 band only.

A fully 2.4ghz device cannot even try connect to a 5ghz network because it hasn't got the radios to do so

iba

Irish_peppa wrote: »

Random shot in the dark here but could your virgin router have met its max concurrent user capacity? You say lots of IOT. Count up every device you have connected to your wifi and on which band its connected too. A quick google says the Virgin Hub 3 can have up to 20 concurrent connected devices. Now the question is that per channel or in total. I see its dual band so can you connect 20 devices to each radio both 2.4 and 5ghz or is it 20 total across both bands.

The Virgin Media Super Hub lets you connect more than 20 different devices so you can play games, download files and stream music simultaneously – and all at rapid speeds.

It's also 5GHz compatible (unlike BT's Home Hub 3 and routers from other providers). 5GHz is a less congested frequency, so you get faster wireless performance for all your gadgets.

https://my.virginmedia.com/discover/broadband/your-broadband/connecting/hubs

Hi,

Thanks for your reply and sorry about my late reply.

Yeah, I did say I had lots but according to my router when I checked I had 33 connected and I don't have 33. Then when I checked the next day, it had 16 or something like that connecetd. So I've no idea whats going on.

Cheers

iba

Diggerdunne wrote: »

I had a similar issue with my virgin WiFi dropping everyday and most of my devices not reconnecting, a mixture of sonoff and Alexa all on 2.4. I had about 30 wireless devices connected on 2.4. I rang VM and the fella basically told me to put it in bridge mode and buy a good router. I went and bought an Asus router and have not looked back since. It works great with all devices connected. It was a bit expensive at €140 but it’s stable and reliable last 3 months

Hi,

Yeah I was thinking about doing the same thing, well two things actually. On one hand I was thinking of getting anoter router and it seems that a tri-band router is a good idea. But then teh Xiaomi AX3600 router caught my eye because it is cheap compared to others and can have 248 devices connecetd to it. But it is dual band rather than tri-band.

Then I got to thinking about a mesh system and looked at teh Amazon eero which is on sale at the moment for 187 pounds for three. But on Amazon.com, there was some very bad reviews about it, especially how much data Amazon were collecting about you. And also I'm not sure if I need it (or am I better off going with another router).

I guess my choice comes down to a mesh system, or a dual band or tri band router - but I just cant decide.

Cheers

iba

towger wrote: »

Many IOT devices work on 2.4GHz only. If your 5 and 2.4 are combined into one SSID those devices may be attempting to connect to the 5GHz band. Try splitting your SSID into the two bands and connect the devices to the 2.4 band only.

Hi,

Yes they were connected into one SSID and I actually did what you have mentioned last weekend. So I went into the router and put a 2 after the name of the 2.4 band and a 5 after the name of the 5 band. I think it has improved things somewhat although I have trouble connecting to the 2.4 band with my Huawaei tablet (maybe it can only connect to 5 band). Downside obviously was Ive had to reconnect all my devices.

Cheers

iba

Irish_peppa wrote: »

Had a similar problem, I spread the load as much as I could between the bands,
Always find its best to use seperate SSID;s for a home network.
I had 32 devices connected to my 2.4ghz and at that point the router would simply not allow any more devices to connect to the router. If a device would try to rejoin it would simply kick it off or wouldnt even let it connect at all, I rarely used the 5ghz as you know the distance isnt great. So what I did was I put my nearest 5ghz compatable devices to the router to connect to 5ghz. So was able to put 2 x Google chromes and 2 x Chromecasts on 5ghz
Also had to get rid of some of my Tp Link Smart plugs that were powering my lamps x 8 of them and invested in Hue lights. Despite the smart plugs not downloading or uploading much information they were clogging the system I couldnt get anymore devices onto my wifi.
So the hue lights took 8 users off my wifi and replaced with just 1 user (the hub) and the 4 x 5ghz swapped to the 5ghz gave me lots more capacity on my 2.4ghz.

Hi,

Thanks for your input and all that info. I actually have 5 TP Link plugs.

Cheers

Irish_peppa

iba wrote: »

Hi,

Yeah I was thinking about doing the same thing, well two things actually. On one hand I was thinking of getting anoter router and it seems that a tri-band router is a good idea. But then teh Xiaomi AX3600 router caught my eye because it is cheap compared to others and can have 248 devices connecetd to it. But it is dual band rather than tri-band.

It may be able to give out 248 connections but that would not be concurrent connected devices. I have not seem a home router that can allow more then 32 concurrent connections at once PER RADIO CHANNEL. My router was nearly 400 euro and max concurrent users would be 32 devices per radio channel. Ring or chat to virgin today and ask them how many concurrent users can you connect to your 2.4 and 5ghz simultaneoult. It sounds to me like you had all your devices on the 2.4 and you have now spread the load over the 2 channels. Ultimately If you have 60 plus devices you might need to go up to enterprise level home network equipment.

Irish_peppa

iba wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for your input and all that info. I actually have 5 TP Link plugs.

Cheers

Funny thing about these smart wifi plugs although you might use them twice per day and they transfer little to no data they constantly chatter to your router. I bought 30 of them and plugged them all into devices around house. When we tried connecting our phones etc to the network we couldnt. :eek: I am going to sell mine and switch to Zigbee plugs that dont use wifi but use a similar protocol called ZIGBEE this will free up your router a bit more for phones laptops etc

ted1

Irish_peppa wrote: »

Funny thing about these smart wifi plugs although you might use them twice per day and they transfer little to no data they constantly chatter to your router. I bought 30 of them and plugged them all into devices around house. When we tried connecting our phones etc to the network we couldnt. :eek: I am going to sell mine and switch to Zigbee plugs that dont use wifi but use a similar protocol called ZIGBEE this will free up your router a bit more for phones laptops etc

an easier and cheaper fix is to just get a wireless router and create a new SSID just for your home automation. connect it to the main router in bridge mode.

Irish_peppa

ted1 wrote: »

an easier and cheaper fix is to just get a wireless router and create a new SSID just for your home automation. connect it to the main router in bridge mode.

Interesting Ted, so you would be making an access point effectively? I actually bought an Access point for this purpose but it didnt work as I had hoped. If your main router had say 25 devices on your main ssid on 2.4ghz connected then the AP would only allow an extra 7 devices connect (even on the different ssid). I queried this with the manufacturer and they told me the AP was effectively "dumb" and was a slave to the main router. I think your main router is the bottle neck I have not seen a way around it unless upgrading to ubiquity type equipment. I asked them what if I connect another exact same router and make it a second network they told me it would be the same outcome as the number of concurrent devices comes back to the max output of the main router
2.4ghz x 32 simultaneous connections
5ghz x 32 simultaneous connections
Wired (i think wireless you can have 80 plus concurrent)