TPG Exclusive offer: Home Wireless Broadband trial

[drbob]

Hi Shane,

Thank you for your offer of help.

As I wrote in my last post, the WiFi link has been behaving well since yesterday. I'll keep monitoring and PM you should I need assistance. By the way, the internet link is working very well; it is only the WiFi part of the Hub that I am experiencing problems with. I have determined that there is no problem with the phone by verifying that it works with the HG659 and nbn (and the Hub powered off). Note that I have been using the the HG659 configured for its  lowest RF settings (25%).

Regards,

Robert

[drbob]

Today at around 12:00 my wife lost WiFi connectivity to her phone - both 2.4 and 5G LEDs on. As I had renamed the 2.4 SSID to something different to that used by the 5G channel, I asked her to connect to the 2.4G channel and  lo and behold, she connected successfully. So, I guess that means that it was possibly the 5G channel that keeps dropping out (and to which she connects to by default). The 5G SSID does not appear on her phone. On the other hand, I do remember having disabled the 5G channel before and she lost WiFi connectivity while on 2.4G. Hmm. Not sure what to make out of all this.

WiFi problems aside, although I still have one day of free trial to go, and seeing how TPG has been ready to help resolve issues, I believe I'll keep the new Home Wireless Broadband service and let TPG disconnect me from NBN tomorrow.

[drbob]

By the way, today I have two LED signals on, corresponding to better signal levels between the Hub and the mobile tower:

Signal Intensity: - 69dBm

RSSI: -88dBm

RSRP: - 105dBm

TPG speed test: 18.5/2.0/28ms

speedtest.net: 19.32/1.95/20

As can be seen, signal strength (alone) does not seem to impact download/upload speed.

[drbob]

TPG has now cancelled my NBN12 plan and refunded me leftover money from the prepaid landline phone funds. So, I am now officially on the Home Wireless Broadband service. There is still an important question that has not been answered yet: Who pays for mobile phone charges when someone calls me on my landline number which is now forwarded to a mobile phone number?? I am wondering if in this special case of a "virtual phone" (I don't really have a landline phone anymore, just the number associated with the line which TPG is recommending to keep in case I should ever decide to go back to NBN), the caller pays the mobile charges? If anybody knows, do tell!

An  interesting thing happened a couple of days ago: I answered a call on a mobile phone (the one to which calls to my landline number are forwarded) from someone who claims to be from Telstra(my thoughts at the time, another scammer as I have no business with Telstra). Curiously, after I said, "hello", he repeated that he was from Telstra and dropped the call before he had a chance to explain he called "to help me with my low internet speed". I have been wondering if he found out he was paying mobile charges and ended the call? Is it possible to know if you are on a toll call?? In the old days there was a beep to remind you that you were on a toll call. If caller pays, I'll be sure to keep the next scammer that calls for as long as he can handle it! And that would be a great benefit of using the Home Wireless Broadband service (besides getting higher download speeds and cheaper montly fees)!

[drbob]

I have just received an email from mobile support with the following message, "Call forwarding within Australia is unlimited on your mobile plan." Since the only mobile plan I have with TPG is the Home Wireless Broadband, I take this to mean that I won't be billed mobile call charges when someone calls my landline number and the call gets forwarded to my mobile phone as per the "Virtual phone" scheme.

This post concludes this thread which I created to share my experience with the TPG "Home Wireless Broadband" service.

To cut a long store short: I am happy with the Home Wireless Broadband service and I would recommend it to anyone who is on NBN12 and is in the service area where this alternative to NBN12 is offered and who does not need a landline phone.

[drbob]

Today, after more than a week of service, the Vodafone Hub 2.0 appeared to misbehave - no internet connection although the Hub was still alive and one could log in via its web interface and look at such things as mobile signal levels.

The first thing I noticed once the internet connection was lost was that for the first time since I have had the Hub, all signal LEDs were on and the Hub reported very high signal levels! Thinking that maybe the device was being swamped by too strong a signal from the mobile tower, I proceeded to remove one, then the second antenna, at which point all signal LEDs went off. So I re-attached one antenna and was rewarded with one signal LED turning on. I then proceeded to my PC to check internet connectivity. Still no go.

I navigated to Advanced Settings/WWAN and clicked on Disconnect and then on Connect. When the Hub reported that it was connected I checked internet connectivity without any luck. I then re-attached the second antenna and power-cycled the Hub which then displayed only one signal LED and we again had internet connectivity.

It is possible that there was a fault in the mobile system/internet and that while I was messing around, things were sorted out and internet restored. Another possibility is that there is a bug with the Hub 2.0.

[drbob]

While waiting for TPG to  help me diagnose and fix my problems with WiFi, I have been able to use an old wireless router to provide WiFi when the WiFi in Hub 2.0 fails.

As I couldn't figure out how to change the wireless router address from 192.168.0.1 to be on the same network as the Hub, I configured the wireless router as a gateway, configured its WAN port for PPoE with static address on net 192.168.1, ensured that the routing table had entries to transfer packets between the wireless router LAN ports and WiFi and its WAN port(that's the job of a router afterall!), configured the WiFi interface  of the wireless router, disabled DHCP server in the wireless router and finally used a CAT5 cable to connect the WAN port of the wireless router to a LAN port on the Hub. I was also successful in using an  old ADSL modem (TP-Link W8950ND) with WiFi instead of the old Wireless Router to enable WiFi phones to access the internet without the built-in WiFi in the Hub.

[Anonymous]

Hi @drbob,

Are you still having issues with TPG home broadband? If so, I would like to have one of our Technicians to contact you for real-time test and investigation. Feel free to shoot me a private message with your best contact number and preferred time.

Regards,

While waiting for TPG to  help me diagnose and fix my problems with WiFi, I have been able to use an old wireless router to provide WiFi when the WiFi in Hub 2.0 fails.

As I couldn't figure out how to change the wireless router address from 192.168.0.1 to be on the same network as the Hub, I configured the wireless router as a gateway, configured its WAN port for PPoE with static address on net 192.168.1, ensured that the routing table had entries to transfer packets between the wireless router LAN ports and WiFi and its WAN port(that's the job of a router afterall!), configured the WiFi interface  of the wireless router, disabled DHCP server in the wireless router and finally used a CAT5 cable to connect the WAN port of the wireless router to a LAN port on the Hub. I was also successful in using an  old ADSL modem (TP-Link W8950ND) with WiFi instead of the old Wireless Router to enable WiFi phones to access the internet without the built-in WiFi in the Hub.

[drbob]

Hi Shane,

Thanks again for following up. Internet is great, and at the moment the issues I have seems to be with the Vodafone 2.0 Hub itself rather than with TPG services per se. I am still seeing occasional WiFi drop-outs with uncertain WiFi recovery. Having done a search on the net for reviews of the Vodafone Hub, I have found a number of comments decrying the quality of the Vodfone Hub (version 1) but it would appear that similar problems exist in Hub 2.0. It is just too bad that your hardware vendor is letting you down, so shame on netcomm!

I'll PM you and let us find out if anything can be done, although if the trouble is with the hardware ...

Regards,

Robert

[drbob]

As promised by Shane, someone from TPG called me during the specified time-window and we went through the usual steps:

1. checking current WiFi settings

2. factory reset (not just power-cycle), which was a nuisance as the default passwords are so hard to remember! But then this is necessary to establish a baseline from which troubleshooting can be made

3. Changing parameters on one of the WiFi bands at a time and observing the result

One of the things that was changed was to disable "Band Steering"; I was not aware of this technology and in view of the different ranges of 2.4G and 5G, perhaps this will help. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, I had a pleasant chat with the support staff and I wonder at the patience of these people who often face customers when they are frustrated and angry. I am sure there are more enjoyable jobs than tech support! On the other hand, it can be fulflling to be able to help people with their problems.

I'll update this post when more data is available.