Odd wifi problems

[Da Orky Man]

I happen to have a very odd problem with my wifi.

Periodically, my wifi will either drop completely and leave me unable to even connect to the router, or will simply go offline leaving me connected to the LAN only. However, when his happens, if I go onto the internet on my phone and refresh a site, the internet will suddenly start working again, and stay like that for another 10 minutes or so.

I consider myself somewhat computer literate, and I have no idea whatsoever what could be causing this. Some help with this would be appreciated, my fellow escapees.

 

[DoPo]

Let me clarify some things - is it the router or the machine that doesn't work? And does it matter which website you visit on the phone or not? I assume the machine that plays tricks on you is not the phone, right? Finally, did you try using ping or turning it off and on again (or reconnecting, the machine if that is problematic)?

And sort of a post final but final question - does there appear to be any pattern to this or is it just random when it happens?

 

[OneCatch]

A few questions:
When the wifi goes off, does the wifi panel say something like "connected but no internet", or does it say that there are no networks available?
Does this happen with any other computers?
Have you tried connecting via ethernet?
Do any lights change on the router itself when the drops occur?

As above, pinging the router when it next happens would be helpful.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

This is going to sound strange, but do you or anyone near you use a wireless headset, like for gaming?

I started having intermittent pauses in wifi as well, several months back. The thing is, I use a Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 wireless headset, but I can't remember if my issues started when I used the PX5. The pauses in connectivity have driven me up a wall. Just can't figure it out. I've tried following advice like small changes in stuff like MTU and even going so far as disabling DHCP, but nothing's worked. Maybe it's my ISP?

Were you able to figure out what the issues were for you?

 

[Griffolion]

Test the stability of a wifi connection on that router/access point with another device (preferably multiple). If they all have solid connections, it's your problem-device. If they don't, there may be a problem with the router. If that's the case, test the stability of your problem-device wifi connection with another router. If it's stable in this case, it's your router. If not, then it's a combination of the two.

What frequency is your problem-device connecting on? Some routers have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency connections, but cannot do both simultaneously. There is a chance your problem device is connecting over 5GHz, and other devices are knocking it off by reconnecting over 2.4GHz.

Make sure your router's wifi channel is set to, preferably, a unique number. The standard channel is 11, get it away from that. Use Wifi Analyser on your smart phone or tablet to determine the best channel.

If it's definitely your problem-device, if it's a laptop of some kind, be sure to get the most up-to-date drivers for it. You can do that by going into control panel:
-search for "device manager"
-go into device manager
-go into the network adapters sub-section
-find the device that's associated with your wifi (it will usually be a Realtek or Intel thing of some sort)
-Right click on that device and select "update driver software"
-Allow Windows to go through the automatic process by selecting "use Windows update"
-If that doesn't work, then go on to try a manual google search for the latest drivers using the full device name as found in device manager
-If you find the drivers, download them, and install them (you're tech savvy, you know what to do)

Try these and get back to me on the results.

 

[Da Orky Man]

snip

This is going to sound strange, but do you or anyone near you use a wireless headset, like for gaming?

I started having intermittent pauses in wifi as well, several months back. The thing is, I use a Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 wireless headset, but I can't remember if my issues started when I used the PX5. The pauses in connectivity have driven me up a wall. Just can't figure it out. I've tried following advice like small changes in stuff like MTU and even going so far as disabling DHCP, but nothing's worked. Maybe it's my ISP?

Were you able to figure out what the issues were for you?

Indeed I was. I went into the router settings and found that auto-scan had been disabled. As far as I know, this may mean that the router was being interfered with by other routers nearby.

 

[OneCatch]

snip

This is going to sound strange, but do you or anyone near you use a wireless headset, like for gaming?

I started having intermittent pauses in wifi as well, several months back. The thing is, I use a Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 wireless headset, but I can't remember if my issues started when I used the PX5. The pauses in connectivity have driven me up a wall. Just can't figure it out. I've tried following advice like small changes in stuff like MTU and even going so far as disabling DHCP, but nothing's worked. Maybe it's my ISP?

Were you able to figure out what the issues were for you?

Indeed I was. I went into the router settings and found that auto-scan had been disabled. As far as I know, this may mean that the router was being interfered with by other routers nearby.

Yeah, it's probably now migrated to a better wireless frequency, or at least does it when you get interference.

@Fizzylzze, apparently it's a known issue: http://www.turtlebeach.com/support/entry/830516923/

There are some fixes listed at that link, but you could also try changing the channel/frequency of the router. You can find generic guide online - usually it's just a matter of logging into the router config and finding the channel in the 'wireless settings' section or equivalent.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

Thanks, I had actually already powered the Turtle Beach transmitting base down--physically, using the spring loaded on/off switch, but still experience the same problems.

snip

I had followed your instructions and everything was up-to-date. I changed the wireless channel several times and, while it seemed to work, I still get random pauses in internet connectivity through wifi. I had assumed it was my wireless router, but it's brand new. Last night I even turned off DHCP and manually assigned IP addresses to all of my machines. No change.

I think the real problem is that there are two issues. One, my ISP is not giving me the full bandwidth I'm paying for. I ran a DSL speedtest from both my wifi connected PC tower and the PC that's wired to the router. Both show a max download speed of ~1900 kilobits, or 1.85 megabits. I'm paying for 3 megabits! Also, this was just now in the morning, during what I assume are off peak hours.

But the other problem is the router. The wired PC can go to YouTube no problem, but my two wireless devices (this tower) and a Lenovo laptop, experience pauses and strange load times for things like YouTube. My theory is that because my ISP sucks so badly (Bell South/AT&T is the WORST), perhaps the QoS on my Belkin router is going crazy trying to allocate the limited bandwidth because someone else is watching YouTube just like I am (at 360p).

Do you guys think the blame rests entirely on my ISP? I tried pinging my own router and once in a while I'll lose one packet (25% loss).

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

Your wireless clients can suffer interruptions either between them and your router, or between the router and the ISP. If it's your ISP's fault and not your router, your clients' wireless connection to the router should always be solid and never drop. This can be verified if you have a NAS drive, or something of the like, and transfer a number of files over. If you get the same interruptions, then you know it's the wireless signal. If not, then it would appear that your router is fine. If it's between the router and the ISP, then there isn't much to do other than complain. QoS shouldn't be accounting for a full on interruption, rather a slowdown when a request over a non-priority port is made in the midst of prioritised traffic going through. You shouldn't be getting full on drops of signal, as you're describing.

Try ping testing your wireless clients to your nearest PingTest server. http://pingtest.net/

See what your packet loss is like, there.

On the topic of everything being up to date, does that include the firmware of your router? We may have already gone over this.

Lastly, you mentioned your router was a Belkin? Yeah, I've had nothing but trouble with Belkins. They used to be good, too, in like 2005. Such a shame.

I'm glad you're tech savvy, I'm confident we can get to the bottom of this.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

Thanks for your continued help. That idea about internal network file transfers--that's brilliant. It never even occurred to me to try that since I figured pinging alone would work as some sort of test.

The Belkin...I have mixed feelings about it. Thankfully I still have my WRT54GL so I can still break that out if the trouble isn't from my ISP. I should have time to figure this out tonight but I'm afraid it's going to be my ISP, only because AT&T is such a pain. I wonder if I would have the same experience with cable internet like Comcast. I've read reviews online and it seems that every ISP has unhappy customers.

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

No problem. I know that feel of connectivity issues.

To be honest, most American ISP's are rubbish. I'm English, but currently doing a 3 month stint in America (my fiancee is American), and I honestly cannot believe the state of your infrastructure and how much you are getting shafted. I know the UK is usually slower to the take with new technologies (we were a couple of years behind on broadband adoption, and are only just rolling out 4G), but when we approve new tech, it's regulated and competition is kept high for the sake of the consumer. Otherwise, corporations just form monopolies and duopolies in areas, and run the prices artificially high.

The house where I'm staying only has Time Warner available to it. They charge to unlock the wifi feature of the standard modem/router they give you. That sort of stuff is an arrestable offence in the UK.

Anyway, give those file transfer tests a try. If you get solid performance (make sure that the transfer takes more than 10 minutes, or however long you said it takes to drop out) then you know that it may not be the problem with your router/client.