Wireless internet drop outs

[rpayne88]

Can someone help me here? For some reason, the wireless router in my house will occasionally drop its internet connection. My computer will remain connected to the router, but the router won't connect to the internet. The only way to get it to reconnect is to physically unplug and restart the router. For some reason, it always seems to do this at night. Making matters worse is the fact that I'm kind of a night owl, the rest of my family isn't, and the floors in my house are very squeaky. Reconnecting to the router does not make the router connect to the internet. Any one know whats going on and how I can get it to stop happening?

[Scotius]

Dude, the same thing is happening to me I'm a night owl too, i'm playing online games then and sudden lags and disconnects are sooo annoying. Unfortunately there seems to be no fix for this - numerous complaints to my providers resulted only in helpless shrugs. Apparently in my case distance to transmitter is too big. Cable connection might be the only cure.

[Albert VDS]

There are many things that can cause this, so be prepared to do some investigating.

Wifi uses channels, normally your router has 11 channels, and these can be too busy or overlapping causing a bad signal.

So find out which channel your router uses, you can do this by accessing the control panel of your router. Post your router make and model if you don't know how to do this and I'll find out how to get to it.

To find out if the channel the router is using is too busy you'll need a wifi channel scanner like NetSurveyor: http://nutsaboutnets.com/netsurveyor-wifi-scanner/

It will list all the wifi signals close to you. There are 2 things to look for; how many signals are on the same channel as your router and how many are using a overlapping channel.

This image shows which channels over lap, the best ones are 1, 6 and 11. Pick 1, 6 or 11 if they are not to busy with other signals. That could be a fix for your problem.

The wifi signal could also be block by furniture or other appliances. Make sure the router isn't placed on the ground, but put it on top of something.

It could also be a old/crappy router. I suggest getting something like a Sitecom or Netgear router which can handle 802.11n, but you'll need wifi adapters which can handle that too.

[Nuke]

you know what i did, i just picked the last channel on the list. very few people change the defaults. never have a problem.

[Rickenbacker]

Guys, the OP has no problem staying connected to his WiFi, it's the router that loses connection to the net.

[Nuke]

well then all you can do is.

1. complain to isp, get someone to check signal levels. 9 times out of 10 they will lie to you and say everything is fine, and the tenth time they will try to sell you something.

2. switch isps and hope the new one sucks less.

[Red Iron Crown]

Are you not able to reset the router using its configuration page?

[Albert VDS]

Guys, the OP has no problem staying connected to his WiFi, it's the router that loses connection to the net.

Doh! Well then it is most likely an old or crappy router.

[Rickenbacker]

Yeah, I did have a similar problem. Complained to the ISP, they "measured the signal" and said it was fine, but the problem persisted. I ended up getting a new router at my own expense, and that fixed the problem - as well as allowing more devices than the router the ISP gave me in the first place . That's not the cheapest way, though, so contact the ISP first and see if there's something they can do.

[pxi]

Your router probably has some kind of log. Might be something informative there. Otherwise, first thing I'd do is see if there's an updated firmware package for your router.

[Nuke]

Doh! Well then it is most likely an old or crappy router.

i bought my router in 2006 and it still works fine.

update your firmware.

[MBobrik]

Can someone help me here? For some reason, the wireless router in my house will occasionally drop its internet connection. My computer will remain connected to the router, but the router won't connect to the internet. The only way to get it to reconnect is to physically unplug and restart the router. For some reason, it always seems to do this at night. Making matters worse is the fact that I'm kind of a night owl, the rest of my family isn't, and the floors in my house are very squeaky. Reconnecting to the router does not make the router connect to the internet. Any one know whats going on and how I can get it to stop happening?

Maybe the ISP forces a disconnect once a day, or goes offline for a few minutes and your router, for what ever reason, gives up attempting to reconnect. But when you can still access the router, you can still restart it remotely.

[jwenting]

i bought my router in 2006 and it still works fine.

update your firmware.

If your connection speed has increased since you bought it, you might now have a speed it was never designed for. That can cause disconnects, it simply drops a lot of packages.

Had that happen, got a new router, problem solved.

[Seret]

Before you contact the ISP, rule out any equipment on your end. Try plugging the router into the master socket if it's on an extension. Try unplugging phones. If possible disconnect any extensions from the master socket. You need to start eliminating variables.

[rpayne88]

Sorry if I'm necroing this thread. I just replaced the router with a SURFboard SBG6580. Now, its dropping out more often. On the up side, though, I can reconnect it from my computer.

[vger]

Have you tried to time when it happens to see if there are any consistencies?

[ultimaterandombanana]

I have my PC hardwired in because the speed is too slow without it having to travel through walls. I get 6mbps on a really good day

[Red Iron Crown]

I have my PC hardwired in because the speed is too slow without it having to travel through walls. I get 6mbps on a really good day

Yeah, wired is much better where practical, it's one less point of failure. Generally faster, too. In my experience, 802.11ac is usually beaten by gigabit wired ethernet, even though it's nominally faster.