Home wireless stops working randomly - needs router reboot

[sparkeh]

We have have VM broadband for about 12 years now, but recently have had an issue where devices just lose Internet access and need a router reboot to get going again.

 

Originally we had an old ntl modem and our own TP-Link wlan router (802.11n, 2.4GHz only) which worked fine until about a month ago. As said devices just lost Internet access and needed the router rebooting.

 

Thinking it was the router I replaced it with a Belkin router (802.11n 2.4 and 5 GHz) but a similar thing happened but only the devices on one frequency would lose net access but the other frequency would be fine (eg all the devices on the 2.4 band would stop but the 5Ghz devices would carry on being fine).

 

After talking to VM they sent a SuperHub 2 for us the try but *exactly* the same thing has happened again.

 

With each router the devices in question report that they are connected to the wlan ssid and have an IP but the router dhcp table shows that those devices are not connected. The devices that are working are in the dhcp table.

 

Given that we have tried 3 routers now I am inclined to think that the issue does not lie here, but I am at a loss as to what it could be?

 

Any help/ideas are much appreciated.

[XiJ]

Something giving interference at 2.4ghz? Can you change channel on the router - there are tools to see what is around you and what channels are being used (although I couldn't name one with google!)

 

Failing that anything new - microwave etc?!!!

[round2it]

My ipads drop all the time on vm

[SYNACK]

Try using an external dns server on your devices rather than a router/modem one as dns usually cooks on home routers due to lack of memory and bad optimisation (if you don't already)

[sparkeh]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Using inSSIDer I can see that there are a lot of other 2.4ghz wlans around us with multiple on each channel. However ours is the only 5ghz around and devices on this frequency are also effected.

 

So last night I sat with a few devices and at one point the 2.4 laptop just dropped the connection, when I tried to reconnect it reported that the signal was poor and couldn't get an IP address. Then a 5ghz tablet dropped and said the same thing. Weirdly, my 2.4 phone and 5 laptop were fine with excellent signal strength.

 

Only weird thing I noticed was that when I looked at the router I could see that the dhcp leases for the affected devices had disappeared even though they hadn't expired. Again a reboot fixed it.

 

I am going to try fixed ip and see if that helps (I've read that superhubs can have issues with dhcp)

 

Not tried DNS yet but will have a look at that too.

[techy32]

Microwave , wireless camera or other wifi devices can interfere with the signal.

 

Can you keep an eye when you drop the signal what's new happening at home?? Are you switching on any wifi device etc.

[DMcCoy]

Any older centrino laptops? I expect the receive light on the wireless will flash, but nothing for the send. I have had multiple APs over the years constantly crashed by intel wireless cards.

[mac_shinobi]

Disable the super hubs firewall features / services / increase the dhcp time out , adjust the wifi speed setting to a slower speed ie 150 or 300 mbps, does changing the wifi encryption method help. Also make and save the changes then reboot the superhub for the changes to take effect correctly

 

Any firmware updates ?

 

Only other thing is set the super hub in modem only mode and use a reasonable 3rd party router for wifi and that 3rd party router will also give you a few extra ethernet ports etc

Edited July 29, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[sparkeh]

Ok just a quick update on this.

 

Over the summer we had a lot of building work done, walls knocked down, electrics and pipes rerouted etc and had no connection for about four weeks. Connected it all up again, same stuff in same location and... no problems for a couple of weeks.

 

Weird, but I, tentatively, think that problem seems to have gone away.

 

Thanks all!