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I'm in the UK where Virgin Media are a major provider of fibre broadband. Speeds are good, but the problem IMHO lies with the router, but they think not. It connects fine to the internet, the Ethernet and 5Ghz WiFi network work fine and are stable, but the 2.4Ghz just keeps dropping out. A week after first reporting, they tell me have done remote diagnostics that show there's nothing wrong (although admit that thay cannot tell remotely if the 2.4Ghz network is working or not). They now suggest I should employ a "local IT person" i.e. not a Virgin Media person, to reconfigure my Port Forwarding, as this is what they believe is causing the issue.

I have never tougched any port forwarding settings, initially (for six months at least) it worked fine. Now my two Nest security cameras regularly simutaneously drop out (I get an email from each one with identical times), and when I'm there I can see the 2.4Ghz network is not listed (whilst the 5Ghz one from the same router is avaiable).

So, could port forwarding be giving this issue? Given it worked fine initially, and now doesn't and I've never changed the PF settings, it seems unlikely to me. But I'm notan IT expert. Anyone out there with knowledge on whether this is likely.

When I offered to buy a new router from them to see if the same issue occured, if it did, then my bad, if notthen they should refund the cost, they refused, and repeated that it was the Port Forwarding issue.

Is it?

Many Thanks for any information.

Stephen

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    If the router's port forwarding settings don't include specifying the 2.4Ghz band, then this is unrelated. If this has worked before and never changed then it's doubly unlikely. Perhaps you should reset the router to factory settings; I don't know their router, but this might require re-entering your Virgin Media user name and password.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 13:08
  • Highly doubtful its a port forward issue. How often do the cameras drop out? There are known issues with the 2.4Ghz band and microwaves. They can interfere significantly.
    – Havegooda
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 13:38
  • It can not be overstated how saturated the 2.4Ghz band is. In my moderately populated sub-division with an apartment complex behind me the 2.4Ghz band is almost completely unusable. When “auto-channel” selection came around they pretty much destroyed the reliability of 2.4Ghz.
    – Appleoddity
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 15:15

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This is not a port forwarding issue - it is incompetence (or pass the buck by making stuff up) on the part of the ISP. In fairness, LAN problems are generally beyond the scope of an ISP, do them suggesting you get an IT pro in is reasonable.

If you have a regular consumer grade router its not a router config issue else the problem would be happening in the 5 gig band as well. (You might be able to get a better router that can handle noise better though)

The problem is congestion/noise/interference in the 2.4 gig band. This is a known issue with the limited amount of spectrum allocated to it.

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