TPG Exclusive offer: Home Wireless Broadband trial

[Shane]

Hi @drbob,

Thanks for sharing your experience with our new Home Wireless Broadband. Update this thread in the event you will require technical assistance.

Cheers!

I was about to "call it a day" and powered down my  laptop and switched off power at the wall - and realised that I had powered off the Hub instead! So, I turned power back on the Hub and waited for the LEDs on the Hub to turn back on: first power LED turn on RED, some time later this turned GREEN. Then the green LED for 5G turned on, followed by the green LED for 2.4G. Still, no luck for 3G/4G, nor the signal strength LEDs.

I moved the Hub around a bit (limited by the length of the DC power cord from the adapter), no change. I then decided to remove one of the antennae with no change; it was when I was unscrewing the second antenna that I saw the 3G/4G LED turn on, followed by two of the signal LEDs! A wonderful sight! Complete removal of the two antenna left the 3G/4G LED on, together with one of the signal LEDs. Re-attaching the two antennae left the LEDs on but with only one signal LED. The Hub reports:

Signal Intensity: -79dBm (weaker signal!)

Network Status: Connected

Access Technology: LTE

RSSI: -90dBm (stronger signal)

RSRP: -111dBm(weaker signal)

A complete mystery as to why the signal LEDs turned on with lower signal from the mobile tower! Unless of course, engineers at TPG had turned on something while I was playing with the hardware?!

Anyway, long story short: I am now online using the TPG Home Wireless Broadband service (to make sure I have turned off the NBN modems).

As promised, the service was delivered within 2-5 business days in metro areas!

With only one signal LED on(weak signal) I'll test the service over the following seven days and decide whether to keep it or switch back to NBN.

I am grateful to TPG for reaching out to me and making this offer to save me $10/month over my current NBN service!

[drbob]

Today, Monday at 07:20, there is some very light drizzle and the wireless hub reports:

Signal Intensity: -75dBm

RSSI: -91dBm

RSRP: -108dBm

These values are similar to what was reported on Friday when the weather was fine, indicating that the  very light drizzle did not impact the signal from the tower. It will be interesting to see if this changes when it rains..

www.speedcheck.org: upload download ping

                                    8.14    1.73          232
                                    8.36    1.27           82
                                    8.71    1.69           87

www.speedtest.net
                                   10.03   1.97           17
                                    7.90    2.01           19
                                    9.74    2.00           20
 Download sppeds have halved from the previous test whereas upload speeds are same for speedtest but about a third of what it was at speedcheck.

I am wondering why the download speed drop? Is 7:20 a "busy" time for communications?

[drbob]

I was just advised that we have lost WiFi connectivity. I tried to Disable/Enable WiFi to fix it but that did not work. So, I power-cycled the Hub and the Lights for 2.4G turned on (I have disabled 5G). That did not seem to work either.

Interestingly though, instead of 3G/4G LED turning on followed by one signal LED, this time I had two signal LEDs on, with the following signal strengths:

Signal Intensitry: -73dBm

RSSI: -90dBm

RSRP: -105dBm

So, a slight improvement

Speedcheck: 19.95/5.04/83

speedtest: 19.32/1.99/21

Note that we are back to full speed, even on the test that before gave only about 15Mbps.

[drbob]

On the WiFi front, I noticed that the 2.4G LED has turned off although it is enabled and the WiFi-Analyser in the Hub can see neighbouring WiFi networks.

To make sure that my ignorance of the hardware is not the cause, I turned on 5G WiFi and changed 2.4G channel back to 6(from my change to 8 where the analyser reported there was nobody)  and a few moments later I am told that WiFi is back on! Note that none of the WiFi LEDS is on. It may  be a coincidence that turning on 5G resulted in WiFi working, perhaps someone who knows the Vodafone Hub2.0 hardware can comment? By the way, the hardware sent by TPG for the Home Wireless Broadband service is a Netcomm modem, NL1902.

[drbob]

We just lost WiFi again.

The name does not appear on the phone but the WiFi-Analyser can see neighbour WiFi networks. If I can not fix this issue, there is no way I'll be able to stay with this service - my wife is absolutely addicted to social media over her phone (via WiFi).

[drbob]

Power-cycled the Hub again and again while the WiFi LED initially turned on, it turned off after a while. Signal LEDs now back to one only, with the following signal strengths as follows: -71/-90/-112 (not as good as before). More importantly WiFi is back on. By the way, For this new testI am again using  only 2.4GHz WiFi.

Let's see how long it stays on.

[drbob]

Lost WiFi overnight. I have just rebooted the Hub and although the 2.4G LED is on, the SSID does not appear on my smart phone. So, I power-cycled it by switching it off, wait about 10s and then turning it back on. The 2.4G LED turned on, but the SSID still did not appear on my smart phone.

Can a moderator please check if my Hub 2.0 has the  latest firmware? The following are the details of my device:

Manufacturer:	NetComm Wireless
Product Class:	NL1902
Serial Number:	395925210604569
Board ID:	963167GWV_004R
Symmetric CPU Threads:	2
Build Timestamp:	20201210_1948
Firmware Version:	NL1902.NC.VHA-R6B041.EN
Hardware Version:	VDSLGAW-BCM016-0009
Bootloader (CFE) Version:	1.0.38-163.243
DSL PHY and Driver Version:	A2pv6F039y4.d27h
VDSL PROFILE:	No profile
Wireless Driver Version:	7.97.1

[drbob]

I have re-enabled 5G WiFi and noted that the 5G LED turns on but still no SSID on my smart phone. I move close(about 2 m) to the Hub (I was about 6m  from the Hub) and the SSID appears on the phone and I notice that the Hub lists my phone as connected at 5G and a few seconds later, I am again not connected. Looks like I have a range issue with WiFi signals. It seems that WiFi signal strengh from the Hub 2.0 is not as good as from the Huawei HG659.

[drbob]

Yesterday morning after spending a couple of hours without WiFi (power-cycle did not work to re-enable WiFi), WiFi started working again without any further actions on my part! I am pleased to note that WiFi has been working all  day yesterday and is still working this morning.

I have also done a number of speed tests and on this account TPG is definitely delivering on its promises: most download speeds were around 20Mbps, with some below 10Mbps.

[Shane]

Hi @drbob,

I'd like to confirm if you have tried to follow the troubleshooting steps given below.

• Troubleshooting a Slow Internet Connection

• Easy Steps to Improve Wi-Fi Connection In Your Home

• Wireless Channel on your modem - what is it and why should I change it

If so, shoot me a private message with your best contact number and preferred time.

I will arrange one of our Technicians to contact you for real-time test and investigation.

How do I private message (PM) in the community

Regards,

I have re-enabled 5G WiFi and noted that the 5G LED turns on but still no SSID on my smart phone. I move close(about 2 m) to the Hub (I was about 6m  from the Hub) and the SSID appears on the phone and I notice that the Hub lists my phone as connected at 5G and a few seconds later, I am again not connected. Looks like I have a range issue with WiFi signals. It seems that WiFi signal strengh from the Hub 2.0 is not as good as from the Huawei HG659.