Giga Hub is dropping SSID/network to devices (brief resolution the reccurs)

[EmergGuy]

An incredibly frustrating problem to troubleshoot.

I am now about a month into the Bell Fibe with Giga Hub. Things had been working very well and now devices are dropping off to 'offline' continuously, however several devices appear unaffected.

Affected

• Brother Printer
• Kasa Smart plugs
• myQ Chamberlain Garage Door openers

Not affected

• laptops/desktops (wireless)
• phones connected to wifi
• Nest Hub
• Arlo Hub
• the TVs

Rather frustratingly,

1. when this happens, there are no error codes anywhere. If I reset the individual devices, they do not see my network listed under available SSIDs (although my network is shown on the other available devices, so I do not see this as 'broadcast SSID problem'). I do see multiple other neighbour networks as well - just not mine.
2. If I factory reset my modem - and re create the same network name/password - then YES - They all connect....for about 20 minutes - then go offline.
3. I have checked all my cables (nothing would move anyway), and have not installed anything new

I had wondered - if it a dual band issue - but I can't seem to fix this by going into the advanced settings, and running the individual bands - it only seems fixed by a reset to factory - and even then it is brief.

The virtual repair tool times out and when near complete says it is temporarily unavailable

Admittedly this is an untenable problem and one that seems new without any recent software/hardware updates (that I am aware of).

Please tell me there is a fix I am missing??

After nearly a day and half of troubleshooting this, I am about ready to pay the cancellation fee and go back to my old provider - that's how beat down I am.

I would be forever grateful if anyone had any ideas.....

[EmergGuy]

As a point of clarification,

REBOOTING the modem (without resetting) has the same effect. About 20 minutes of connectivity and then the select devices no longer see the network and go offline.

Help?

[EmergGuy · Accepted solution]

Follow Up

Tech support agreed that the most likely culprit was a faulty 2.4GHz antenna in the HH4000, as the devices that weren't;t able to connect were most likely single band (I though KASA plugs were dual, but I realize now they are not)

They sent a new Giga promptly within 48h and with a reset everything has connected immediately and so far without issue for 24 hours.

I hope this project helps others with similar issues should they arise.

Thanks - and a thanks to Bell for a quick resolution

[Nick888]

This week the 5ghz band keep dropping after a few hours, even after factory reset or restart.

From the client list, all are connected via 2.4gHz, normally my iphone will connect the 5ghz band but it can't of disappeared.

Anyone can help ?  Thanks.

[GadgetGuru]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a frustrating issue I've been experiencing with my Bell Fibe Internet modem, in the hope that someone might have a solution or some insights. I've already contacted Bell's customer service multiple times, but they seem to be unable to pinpoint the cause of the problem.

Here's the situation: My modem intermittently stops transmitting the 2.4 GHz band while still maintaining the 5 GHz band. As a result, all my smart home devices, which rely on the 2.4 GHz band, go offline, causing a significant inconvenience. Restarting the modem temporarily resolves the issue, but it's frustrating to have to do this every day.

I've tried troubleshooting steps such as splitting the bands and noticed that the 2.4 GHz band disappears when the problem occurs. In my search for a solution, I came across this community post (link: [https://forum.bell.ca/t5/Internet/Giga-Hub-is-dropping-SSID-network-to-devices-brief-resolution/td-p...]) where someone had a similar issue with their Giga Hub. They mentioned that replacing the modem resolved the problem temporarily.

Taking their advice, I reached out to Bell and had my modem replaced twice. However, despite the replacements, the issue persists. I also attempted to connect my personal ASUS router to the Bell HomeHub router, which initially seemed to resolve the problem, but it has since resurfaced.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions from the community on how to resolve this problem. Has anyone encountered a similar issue with their Bell Fibe Internet modem? Are there any specific settings or configurations that I should be aware of? Is there a way to escalate this with Bell's technical support or involve their network engineers for a thorough investigation?

Thank you in advance for your assistance. I look forward to any insights that might help me resolve this frustrating situation.

[snowblower]

I recall a couple of other posts where people talk about intermittent 2.4 GHz problems with their GigaHub specifically having to do with "iot" or "smart home" devices. Personally, if I faced with the same problem, I would setup an old router as a wireless access point dedicated to the 2.4 GHz devices and simply shut off 2.4 GHz on the GigaHub. It will probably be less painful than fighting with the GigaHub.

I can only speculate as to what the root cause might be, but if I had to guess, I'd guess that the 2.4 GHz "smart home" devices use the cheapest, oldest, barely conformant, wifi implementation that the manufacturer could get away with and because of that there is some subtle issue that is upsetting the GigaHub.  The other possibility is the problem is purely a GigaHub bug. Either way, you have almost zero control over GigaHub software updates and configuration, hence rather than beating your head against the wall, just stop using it for what it is apparently not capable of doing reliably.

My last suggestion, as far debugging the situation goes, is to get a wifi monitoring app such as Ubiquity Wifiman. It will show you the signal strength of all the other transmitting 2.4 Ghz access points in your electromaganetic neighborhood.  That might help you pick a less crowded 2.4 GHz channel. But I doubt it will solve the intermittency problem.

[RonnieB]

Hi. Did you ever resolve this issue? Exactly the same thing happened to me today. I recently switched to Bell and got a giga hub modem. I setup all my smart plugs,lights, etc and all worked fine for a while but today every single one could not connect - various brands. I rebooted the modem twice - no luck.

Did you get it working? 

[supertech]

Every now and again, the modem stops broadcasting the 2.4 GHz SSID. Any devices connected to the 2.4 GHz WiFi will of course then be disconnected. I must reset the modem, and then it's OK for a while.
When I look, the SSID is gone. Resetting the modem does fix this, so it's absolutely a modem issue and not a problem with the devices. the 5 GHz and WiFi6 SSIDs remain working when the 2.4GHz SSID disappears.
Most of my devices are wired or 5 GHz, but a couple devices require the 2.4 and disconnect when this happens.
I have seen others with this issue where they use non-separated SSIDs and have had multiple modem replacements to no avail. Does anyone have an actual fix for this without guessing ?
I should have mentioned, this is with the Bell Giga Hub.

[BellPatricia]

Hey there @supertech,

Thank you for reaching out to the Bell Community.

In this case we recommend doing a factory reset on your modem. For a step by step check out our website: How to reset my modem to its factory settings

Please try that out and let the Community know if you continue to have any trouble.

- Patricia

[supertech]

I have done every reset known to man, and it only fixes it for a while (so it's not an antenna issue or a reset would not fix it at all)
if you get a real solution to this problem, let me know.

[randomuser1]

Hi, my 2.4G wifi on the hub 4000 disappeared from a few days ago. I have already replaced a new hub 4000 yesterday and still get the same issue. The customer service has also help me to reset the modem but it still has the same issue. I am pretty sure my setting is correct, and I have use multiple devices to search for this 2.4G signal and even try to input the SSID directly. None of the ways work. By looking at the status I find that the package 2.4G receive is 0. Therefore I suspect it is something wrong within the firmware. Is it a known issue and is there any plan to fix it? 

[BellPatricia]

Good day @randomuser1,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the Bell Community 🙂

Can you please clarify what you mean by 'my 2.4G wifi on the hub 4000 disappeared'? E.g. Was the Wi-Fi network not visible in your modem GUI at all? Do you get an error on your device when trying to connect to the network?

What types of devices are you having trouble connecting? Do you have any third party equipment such as a router with special configurations set up?

If you are still having trouble we recommend that you do a Factory reset on the modem. Check out this post for steps on how to do a factory reset.

Let the Community know how everything goes.

- Patricia

[supertech]

I mean the SSID is no longer brodcast - no device anywhere in the universe can see it, and even if manually added cannot connect to it. Sorry to be replying to your post EmerGuy but this is where I was directed - we are having very similar issues - the 2.4 GHz SSID simply stops broadcasting.

[EmergGuy]

As mentioned - I had a replacement GigaHub sent - and zero issues since that time.

I can empathize with the frustration and am really fortunate that this solved my problem. Appears this is not the case for everyone,...

[supertech]

Thanks, I have not yet had my modem replaced, so maybe I will give this a shot. I also have another issue where if I reboot the modem, I have to physically detatch and re-attach the USB drive before it can be seen again. Maybe replacing the modem will fix this too. Thanks for your reply.