(Wireless) I am a little bit stumped here

DaveStall · 10-06-2012, 04:08 PM

My wireless setup at home is probably overly complicated, but here it is:

Main router = Dlink DIR-655
Repeater = Linksys WRT54G (DD-WRT)
N-Only Wireless Router = Linksys E2000

The connection looks like this:

DLink --> Switch --> Linksys
--> Wireless bridge mode to WRT54G

Over the past couple of days I have been having some very strange connectivity issues. Any one or all three of my routers drop their connections in fairly frequent intervals, say every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes the repeater drops, sometimes the N-Only router drops and sometimes they are all three gone. The repeater can stay gone for several minutes while the other two come back within 30 seconds or so. What I am wondering is what kinds of diagnostic tools could I use to see what in the world is going on here? I almost have to think that my main router is dying on me because the other two rely on it for a connection.

spidey07 · 10-06-2012, 05:04 PM

Sounds like interference. Change channels to 1, 6, 11 to see if it helps.

alkemyst · 10-06-2012, 07:43 PM

Can you do a diagram?

AD5MB · 10-06-2012, 08:30 PM

Quote:

drop their connections in fairly frequent intervals

drop their RF connections to each other, or their wired connections to each other, or their connection to the internet?

when you ping from the nearest to the farthest device on the signal path, where do you lose connectivity?

can you ping an IP outdide your local network?

DaveStall · 10-06-2012, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AD5MB

drop their RF connections to each other, or their wired connections to each other, or their connection to the internet?

when you ping from the nearest to the farthest device on the signal path, where do you lose connectivity?

can you ping an IP outdide your local network?

Sorry, I should have been more clear. They are dropping as in not able to be seen by any clients (everybody gets kicked off of the wireless network). At that point I cannot ping anything if I am connected over wireless. My wired connections stay OK.

I think I might be onto something here though. I pulled the power from the Linksys E2000 and my wireless connection has stayed alive for about an hour now which is longer than I have seen it for a couple of days. I had a power outage last week and perhaps the channel settings got reset and there is some type of interference as suggested earlier. Having that router on my network is probably a stupid idea anyhow. I was hoping to have one router dedicated to N devices only.

I will try to get a diagram together if things are not solved.

forumuser · 10-10-2012, 12:00 AM

Question comes to mind: Who's acting as a DHCP server in this configuration? Could that have been a setting that got messed up as well?

007networkpro · 11-02-2012, 02:54 PM

Are your wireless devices set statically? If so, you can wait till the problem occurs and start pinging around the network to see where the connection is failing.

gsaldivar · 11-02-2012, 04:37 PM

Try turning off uPnP on all routers.

DaveStall · 11-12-2012, 05:28 AM

Well I thought I had the problem solved but over the weekend I saw it happen again numerous times. I am down to running just my main router (DLink DIR-655) and a wireless bridge (Linksys WRT54G + DD-WRT). What seems to happen is that if there is a lot of wireless network traffic then one or both of the routers somehow gets overwhelmed and shuts off wireless transmissions for a minute or so. Is this possible? The problem is, both routers seems to disappear at the same time so I have to assume the problem originates with my main router and not the bridge. Wired connections never drop at all, only wireless. When the wireless signal drops both routers disappear completely from view, so doing any diagnostic work from a wireless client is impossible.

Things I have tried:

- Turn off uPnP
- Set a static channel configuration
- Remove third "n-only" router from network

I guess at this point I need to start looking for a new router.

remixedcat · 11-12-2012, 07:02 AM

have you reset all the routers completely? also do the 30/30/30 reset on ALL the network hardware including your modem. Please let us know how that goes!

spidey07 · 11-12-2012, 09:00 AM

That still screams interference, especially if it happens under load (the actual channel gets so overloaded you can't maintain management frames and stay associated) Cordless phones? Microwave? Bluetooth? Other wireless devices in the area?

DaveStall · 11-12-2012, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidey07

That still screams interference, especially if it happens under load (the actual channel gets so overloaded you can't maintain management frames and stay associated) Cordless phones? Microwave? Bluetooth? Other wireless devices in the area?

I have the following in close proximity to the wireless bridge:

Cordless phone: yes
Microwave: yes
Bluetooth: yes
Verizon Network Extender: yes

The wireless bridge in general is what every wireless client in my house connects to. The house is a ranch with a basement. My cable service enters in the basement which is where the cable modem is. I have the main router in the basement as well and the wireless bridge upstairs. It is a crappy backwards arrangement but I have finished ceilings in the basement and no way to route an ethernet cable upstairs for a proper AP.

alkemyst · 11-12-2012, 09:07 AM

most microwaves are bad mojo in the 2.4GHz range esp older more heavy duty ones.

spidey07 · 11-12-2012, 09:11 AM

Ouch, that is a lot of sources of interference. Also make sure the antennas aren't "pointed" at each other or aligned on the same horizonal plane, omni-direction antennas have very poor gain at their poles.
|ap|
|ap|

That's bad, will get terrible signal to noise without any noise sources.

-ap-
-ap-

Much better from a signal to noise perspective

DaveStall · 11-12-2012, 09:22 AM

As far as I can remember the microwave has never been running when I have lost my connection so I can most likely rule that out. I believe I have the antennae oriented correctly. It just seems strange that this only happens when I am streaming Netflix and there are other clients surfing the web.

nk215 · 11-13-2012, 12:05 AM

Bad switch?

DaveStall · 11-13-2012, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nk215

Bad switch?

I don't think it would be the switch in this case as my wired connection never drops, only the wireless. The main router and the bridge are not connected via any type of switch, only over the wireless network.

I have been over at the Dlink forums and it seems that there are other people having similar issues when using WPA2 security which is what I am using. Once I get a chance I will try disabling security for awhile to see what happens. If that is the case I will just get a better router and call it a day.

Cabletek · 11-13-2012, 10:24 AM

Personal opinion sounds more like overheating or improper voltage to the routers. Ensure you are in a well ventilated controlled climate space and verify you did not switch the power supplies around when moving them.

DaveStall · 11-13-2012, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cabletek

Personal opinion sounds more like overheating or improper voltage to the routers. Ensure you are in a well ventilated controlled climate space and verify you did not switch the power supplies around when moving them.

The router sits out in the open in a basement room, so ambient temps are always in what I would consider at an almost ideal range (right around 70F all year). I have never moved the main router so it has not been unplugged.

The thing to remember is that this only seems to happen when there is very heavy network traffic. All of the sudden we will all look at each other and ask if the network is down. That's when I know the wireless has shut off for a bit.

What would be nice is to find a program that I could run on a wireless client that could log any network outages during the entire day. It could be happening all the time and I just don't notice it.

remixedcat · 11-15-2012, 06:54 AM

I really think you should get a new router if you keep having problems like that.