What is happening to our internet connection?

[Shelley99]

At 6 pm every single night - our internet on our iPad keeps cutting out, all night.  At first I thought it was the iPad, but we have 5 iPads and it happens on every one of them. Regardless, I have reset all settings and also reset internet settings and resigned in, on every iPad. No difference. So then I reset the Wifi modem - on 3 different occasions. No difference. We also reset the hubs. Still no difference. It seems to have started when we upgraded to Wifi plus, so I’m wondering if we should dump the Wifi plus.

Yes I know there is a vulnerability around supper time when everyone is home and accessing the web. However a) we live in the small town of Hope…..and b) it never did this before.

I hate calling your help line. It takes forever to get through and then I so often end up talking to a person who I either cannot understand because they speak such broken English (sorry) or they have no idea what they’re doing. Is there anything else I can do to fix this?

[TELUS_Support]

Here are some steps you can try to address this issue before contacting our support team:

- Ensure the Wi-Fi Plus modem and hubs are centrally located and free from obstructions like walls or appliances that could interfere with the signal.

- While your location in Hope might experience less congestion overall, specific devices or activities on your network (like streaming or gaming) could be consuming bandwidth. Try disconnecting non-essential devices during the problematic time to see if the issue improves.

- Ensure your modem and Wi-Fi hubs have the latest firmware. You can check for updates using the My TELUS app or by logging into your modem’s settings.

- In some cases, switching your modem to a less congested channel can improve performance. This is especially helpful if other networks in your area are on the same channel.

- If possible, connect one of your devices (like a laptop) directly to the modem with an Ethernet cable during peak times to determine if the issue is Wi-Fi-related or affects your entire connection.

Let us know how it goes!

[Shelley99]

Thanks for the steps!

1) our hubs are free of obstacles, I guess that’s why the connection is fine throughout the day, up until evening that is

2) we don’t have any other devices we use, like gaming etc.

3) the Telus app doesn’t indicate a firmware update, best I can see. Not sure where in the app it would be, so I’m guessing it would show in the “overview” page? If so, nothing there re; update.

4) I have no idea how to switch to a less congested channel. We were told to only use the one we’re using now. There is another option for our Telus Smarthome Security System but we were told not to use that one.

5) I assume it’s the Wifi only, as our Telus TV service is not affected

Not sure what’s next.

Shelley Soden

[TELUS_Support]

We'll send you a private message to discuss

[xray]

Does the issue occur exactly at 6 pm every night or are you just generalizing the symptoms?

I assume if it's happening every night that means at some point it reconnects. What time does that happen?

[Shelley99]

Sorry, I didn’t answer your first question. Sometimes it goes out at 4:30, other times it’s 6 or so. There doesn’t seem to be an EXACT time it goes out, just generally anytime between around 4:00 and 7:00.

Shelley

[xray]

That's useful info. It sounds like it might be a channel congestion issue. Are you in a house or an apartment/condo?

You mention you don't have other devices other than the iPads. No mobile phones?

At what time do your devices reconnect?

[Shelley99]

Hi there,

We’re in a house, in a small city of 6,500 people.

Yes we do have mobile phones, we don’t use them much in the evening - but best I can recall, they don’t lose their cell connection. It also happens on the desktop iMac PC’s.

As I mentioned, I actually don’t know when they reconnect as I get so frustrated that I lay my iPad down for the night (rather than throw it in the river behind our house lol). It is though, working again next morning. I can run a test tonight and check every hour.

In my trying to figure it out, I read that there can be some “weak connectivity” issues with iPads but…..they work all day until evening without issues.

So…Smart TV okay. Cellphones okay. Best I can figure.

Please forgive my ignorance. I am a 72 year old woman who grew up with PC’s in the 80’s and pretty reliable software, and is now so exhausted with all of the glitches and unreliability and constant changing (for silly upgrades like emojis, other languages, etc) of our current software programs. I spend way too much of my life fixing all these issues; it’s exhausting.

Thank you SO MUCH for your help, I do REALLY appreciate it.

Shelley Soden

[xray]

No need to apologize, you are doing better than most!

Do you know if your mobile phones are set up to connect to your WiFi? If so I'm wondering if they also have the issue.

[Shelley99]

Hi there,

Yes - the cellphones are setup on the same network, Telus6927. I can receive and send texts in the evening, so I don’t think they are affected.

I should mention that the when the service fails, it doesn’t go out completely; it comes and goes. During the day, it stays very reliably.

Shelley

[xray]

Text messaging does not need to use your WiFi so that's not a good indicator as it uses the cellular network. You need to look at the status bar on the phone to see if you are connected to your WiFi.

Is your iMac connected by WiFi or with an Ethernet cable?

[Shelley99]

So 2 things for me to do. Try to read emails on my cell at night to see if it’s using Wifi. And check my iPad every hour to see connectivity levels.

No - both our Macs are not hardwired with an ethernet cable. They use Wifi.

Shelley

[xray]

Don't bother checking emails on your phones as a test because it will just switch to mobile data if it loses WiFi.

A better test is to use the browser on the iMac.

[Shelley99]

Ok. So when the iPads have gone out, we have checked the Macs, and they were also out. We use Safari as a browser.

Shelley

[xray]

If the iMac also has the same issue at the same time as the iPads then it's unlikely due to the devices.

The next step is to work with TELUS support to change to another WiFi channel to see if that helps.

It's likely that your WiFi is set up with Smart Steering turned on. That can also be a source of instability in some cases.

[Shelley99]

Hi there,

Yes thanks. We had it figured it wasn’t the devices…..but because I rebooted the Wifi modem on 3 different occasions to no avail, it was a mystery. Thanks so much for all your help.

However…..does this mean I have to phone Telus? We made one change to our Telus security system and it took me 4 weeks and about 20 hours of phone conversations and Telus messing it up multiple times to get it sorted. They also were screwing up our account, one charge that suddenly appeared was almost $1300 (for nothing). In the end, out of frustration - I sent an email to your CEO Darren Entwistle to get it resolved. I absolutely ABHOR phoning Telus.

Honesty here. If there was another better option, we’d change providers in a flash. We used to LOVE Telus, they were great…once. As it is, we are just now changing our cells over to another provider and we’ve also moved some streaming channels (Crave, etc) to another service. Telus has outsourced their customer service to call centres offshore who often barely speak English, don’t know what they are doing, and lie to you (yes Miss Shelley, all fixed, I’ve taken care of it and I did “this”, however if this happens just give us another call). And they did NOT do what they said they would. I see many Telus customers online saying the same thing.

Sorry, don’t mean to weigh you down with this, your service has been awesome (like the OLD Telus). But if I have to call the call centre one more time, I think I’ll scream lol.

Shelley

[xray]

I'm a customer just like you. I can relate to your frustrations so I try to help if/where/when I can.

[Shelley99]

Thanks. Telus said they escalate it, and they’d call. So far, no call. I just spend way, way too much time messing with glitchy tech. It really is driving me out of my mind.