Internet connection regularly cutting out

[hb1547]

Lately the computers in my house have been having an issue maintaining a stable Internet connection. Our setup is the typical cable modem -> wireless router -> computers. We can connect to the wireless network no problem (always with the "Internet Access" icon as well), but typically pages cut in and out. This will happen once or twice a day out of nowhere, and last for a while.

The cable modem lights indicate nothing unusual. Resetting the wireless router doesn't seem to make a difference. I've picked an optimal channel. I'll be trying plugging an ethernet cable into the router later today to see if that works.

I'm not sure if it's the router or the cable modem causing the issue, or sure how to determine which it is. I don't mind buying a new one of either, but I'd rather not buy both

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

 

[DMHolt57]

It sounds like you have interference from cordless phones or neighbors. Try the Xirrus gadget to show you whats up with the neighbors, it will show what channels they are using so you can pick a clean channel. Get the router positioned as high and as far from walls or windows as possible, and no phone base close to the router.

 

[hb1547]

I used inSSIDer to pick a good channel already, and the router is well-positioned. It's possible there's other background but I'm not sure how to check for it.

 

[DMHolt57]

Do you have the power saving features of your router turned on? Check both, router and adapter, turn off power saving.

 

[hb1547]

I've already turned off power saving settings on my adapter. The router doesn't have any settings, so far as I can tell.

 

[hb1547]

Any other ideas?

 

[chev65]

Any other ideas?

What type of security and encryption are you using for the wireless connection?

Channel selection is probably more complicated than you think as many of the channels overlap so just choosing one that the neighbors aren't using won't always solve the problem, I'd have to see the insider read out myself.

 

[hb1547]

Wpa2-psk.

I'll add that this has been a recent development. No real settings have been changed on the router in the last two years, aside from when i changed the channel recently to try to fix the dropouts.

 

[chev65]

Wpa2-psk.

I'll add that this has been a recent development. No real settings have been changed on the router in the last two years, aside from when i changed the channel recently to try to fix the dropouts.

Ok WPA2 is good but which encryption, AES or TKIP?

I'd have to see the insider or Xirrus read out in order to help with channel selection.

 

[hb1547]

I'm using AES. Here's the inSSIDer graph of channels:

I'm "YOUR_TEARING_ME_APART_LISA" (I'm not the one who can't spell...).
Our router uses two channels, a primary and secondary as I understand. The primary is the one I set (I picked 8), and the secondary is automatically set to be 4 below or 4 above (so now the secondary is 4).

The signal is weaker than some of the others, but this is because I'm in the back room of the house, farthest from the router. The relatively weaker signal hasn't been much of an issue before.

 

[chev65]

I'm using AES. Here's the inSSIDer graph of channels:

I'm "YOUR_TEARING_ME_APART_LISA" (I'm not the one who can't spell...).
Our router uses two channels, a primary and secondary as I understand. The primary is the one I set (I picked 8), and the secondary is automatically set to be 4 below or 4 above (so now the secondary is 4).

The signal is weaker than some of the others, but this is because I'm in the back room of the house, farthest from the router. The relatively weaker signal hasn't been much of an issue before.

Ok a couple of problems here.

First off unless the signal strength is very strong with minimal overlap you do not want to be using channel bonding "two channels", channel bonding only works well with a very strong signal and minimal overlapping of channels. I see some major overlapping channels there as well.

To turn off channel bonding, there will be a setting in your routers wireless page that says 20-40mhz which is dual channel mode, you need to set that to 20Mhz.

From what insider is showing me the only halfway clear channel appears to be channel 1 so set your channel there and test out for wireless connection drop outs.

 

[hb1547]

I don't think there is a setting to disable channel bonding, after much hunting. The router is a wnr1000v2 from Netgear, it's just one of those generic routers which Comcast lets you borrow for free.

After hunting around online a bit, it seems that Comcast prevents you from easily updating the firmware, and there are no new versions of firmware from Comcast (though there are several from Netgear). I'll look and see if there's a way to upgrade the firmware anyways -- perhaps that'll add a setting to disable the channel bonding.

Do you think that's the definite cause? Interference? Should I just buy a new router and say the hell with Comcast (something I find myself saying more and more all the time...)

 

[chev65]

I don't think there is a setting to disable channel bonding, after much hunting. The router is a wnr1000v2 from Netgear, it's just one of those generic routers which Comcast lets you borrow for free.

After hunting around online a bit, it seems that Comcast prevents you from easily updating the firmware, and there are no new versions of firmware from Comcast (though there are several from Netgear). I'll look and see if there's a way to upgrade the firmware anyways -- perhaps that'll add a setting to disable the channel bonding.

Do you think that's the definite cause? Interference? Should I just buy a new router and say the hell with Comcast (something I find myself saying more and more all the time...)

I'd say that channel overlap combined with a weak connection and using dual band mode is probably to blame.

Most likely the router has a setting for this though it may show up as something other than 20-40Mhz, it's hard to say which setting it might be.

If this is one of those generic modem/router combo's or a Comcast freebie router then I'd consider using a better dual band wireless 802.11n router.

However, the dual band feature won't do you much good unless you have dual band 2.4Ghz/5Ghz wireless adaptors on your machines. You can also purchase USB dual band adaptors.

 

[hb1547]

Sorry to update an older topic, but I've since realized that it may not solely be interference like we'd figured in this topic.

One of my roommates was away for a week or two and I never had any issues with the connection dropping -- in fact I had an SSH window running 3 or 4 days straight and it never dropped.

However, the roommate has since returned and the problems began again. I can only speculate that it's because she seems to watch a lot of Netflix, but I can't confirm that the connection only drops out then -- in fact it may drop out other times as well.

Any ideas?