Wi_Fi dropping connection during rides

Yeah, sky mesh network around the house with the mini boxes x 4

They broadcast at 2.4 and 5 HHz

Never been happy with my sky broadband

Mesh networks seem to not work well with Zwift. I don’t understand the technical aspects of this, but try either a wired connection or see if you can connect to the primary router, only.

I use a mesh network with Plusnet as my ISP. Works a dream.

That said i use 3rd party nodes. I remain unconvinced by Sky hardware.

Just a guess: some mesh network devices may interfere with broadcast traffic across the nodes, or something of that nature to reduce the chance of broadcast storms, and some products may do this stupidly.

I think that the only issue with some (not all) mesh setups is the connection from Zwift Companion to the Zwift game app (i.e. to see the Game screen in ZC).

I might have missed something but I’m not aware of any general issues with mesh networks and Zwift app connextivity to the Zwift servers.

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Yes, I mistakenly wandered off topic - my comment would only potentially apply to discovery between Companion and the Zwift app. However, poor wireless connectivity between nodes in the mesh could result in packet loss, and UDP would be most vulnerable to that, since it’s designed as a non-reliable transport.

Nearly everyone I know is having this issue lately. I have stable wifi for every other purpose and tested the speed (fast, sufficient for multiple streaming devices). I suspected there might be a new issue with Bluetooth ON on my phone running Companion app, but it happens even with that off now. I am a ride leader and it has happened several times whilst leading, also happened to my co-leader (who had yellow) today. The Connection Disconnected doesn’t seem to affect my position in the group (like a true dropout would), only why ability to have comments visible. It comes back on, but on a recent ride dropped 4 times in an hour.

Are there any other experiences like this or troubleshooting? @James_Zwift I haven’t seen anything on Event Leaders forum, do you have thoughts (or can you route this)? Thank you.

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Update on my issue.
Was riding again last night and was experiencing dropouts/disconnects again during the Makuri race.
I was on Wi_Fi to the laptop but had prepared an Ethernet cable to plug in if I started experiencing disconnects. So during the ride I connected the wired Ethernet cable to the laptop which is directly wired back to the main router. I never had a disconnect for the remaining 25 minutes.
Seems that my Sky Wi_Fi mesh network isn’t stable for Zwifting. I’ll be using the direct wired Ethernet connection for now
Not sure what is causing the interruptions and disconnects when on Wi_Fi. ?

Tried wired Ethernet connection and no drop outs at all.
Will test again but seems mesh network is not good.

Holly,

This isn’t something I am seeing an increase in reports of.

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I had the same issue in past as my bike is at the opposite side of the apartment than the router. A lot of walls and blockers in between. I had an older Wifi repeater.

Then I replaced the repeater with a newer TPLink repeater which can act as seamless OneMesh device and connects to the main router (it uses priority connection between these two). I have never had issues since then!

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Thanks James. I have asked about it in a few places, and gotten quite a few responses confirming others are having the same issue. (Pic shows what appears). This happened today to our ride lead on a group event, and to many on our team during yesterday’s ZRL race (not even in the same races but across several teams). I’ve posted over on the game update thread today, hopefully some answers soon or maybe it’s a bug fixed in today’s update. It is challenging to lose comms for extended periods whilst leading!

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Disconnections can be local network issues in the home, but the error is non-specific. It could also be a network problem upstream from the user in an ISP network, or downstream from Zwift, or in Zwift’s hosting network, load balancers, etc. The error doesn’t tell us anything about where it happened.

Hi, I am getting really frustrated with this issue. I have super fast Sky broadband and strong wifi signal where my bike is and this issue usually occurs at the most inconvenient moment (mid race) all the riders disappear and I am racing by myself for a few minutes and by that point the race is ruined. Its not that practical for me to run a network cable, but hoping there is a fix to resolve these UDP dropouts with a sky broadband setup. If anyone has the answer I would appreciate the fix as I start each race not knowing if the race will be trashed by this bug and let my team down. Thanks in advance!

I too have been having this problem for about 6 months… when I was on a ride and received the connection failure notification I then logged onto FulGaz… no problem whatsoever!! I have notified Zwift customer support but their suggestions resulted in no change… i can sometimes zwift for 20 min and then despite peddling in real life my avatar is resting on the side of the road.
In contacting zwift support I had the impression I was the only one with this problem… reading this chain says otherwise… I am thinking the issue may be issues with my wifi… I am exploring the idea of getting a wifi extender to service the part of the house where my bike/wahoo kicker live.

If your avatar stops then that’s less likely to be a WiFi issue.

How are you running Zwift and how are you connecting your devices?

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Wifi, ANT+ dongle and Wahoo “pick-up” devices including my wahoo kickersnap.

Edit: Wayfinder removed personal information

don’t share your personal information on the internet

Alan,

Please remove your personal info ASAP

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Have the same, but only on MacOS, iOS works fine without connection hassles….