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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: lupinus on December 20, 2014, 12:40:51 PM

Title: Wireless Woes...
Post by: lupinus on December 20, 2014, 12:40:51 PM
So the last couple of weeks my WiFi has been getting hinky. Random devices, all that have worked fine with it, will randomly not connect. About a week ago it was my phone. Nothing I did with the phone made it connect to either my main or guest wireless. It connected to other wireless networks fine. I'd power down the router, turn it back on, and after it went through it's turn on mojo I'd connect fine. After once or twice at that, all was well.

Last night, wife's tablet. Same procedure, it worked fine. This morning the wifes computer, which is on wireless.

All instances it detects the signal and tries to connect, but it wont do so.

Wireless dying on the router? Something to toy with in settings?
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: Calumus on December 20, 2014, 01:24:23 PM
How old is the router, what brand, and how crowded is your area? Ie: suburbs, apartment complex etc.
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 20, 2014, 03:10:03 PM
Throwing out a guess that the router is having heat-related Tx/Rx issues. That would somewhat explain it working for a short while after a power cycle. Is any device cabled into the router having connectivity issues?

Brad

Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: TechMan on December 20, 2014, 03:16:44 PM
Are you sure the .gov has not hid anything in your house.
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: lupinus on December 20, 2014, 03:19:59 PM
I live in an apartment complex. List of networks doesn't appear any bigger than usual.

Devices that are wired having no issue. And wireless devices don't all go out at once. Just seems to be an intermittent this one does it, or that one does it, or none of them do it and everything from the phone to the ipad, to the computer connect and run fine.

As for the .gov, no idea. But how to make a bug sweeper is for a different thread.
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 20, 2014, 03:24:18 PM
Being an apartment-dweller and surrounded by lots of wifi networks you could also be having channel interference issue. Theres a neat freeware app called Wifi Analyzer. Use it to see if there is a low-traffic channel you can manually set your router to. It would only take a couple minutes and it's free so worth a shot.

Brad
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: Calumus on December 20, 2014, 05:25:27 PM
Being an apartment-dweller and surrounded by lots of wifi networks you could also be having channel interference issue. Theres a neat freeware app called Wifi Analyzer. Use it to see if there is a low-traffic channel you can manually set your router to. It would only take a couple minutes and it's free so worth a shot.

Brad

This, plus check if your router has an auto channel detect. When I moved to Florida I kept getting drop outs every two hours. Turns out the router changed channels every time it checked, that led to everything connected wirelessly disconnecting for a few seconds. Not a big deal unless you're transferring data from one device to another. Have it find the least populated channel, and stick with it. If its not that it could very well be a thermal issue. If its a Netgear 614 series, they're well known for heat issues.
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: lee n. field on December 20, 2014, 05:43:31 PM
So the last couple of weeks my WiFi has been getting hinky. Random devices, all that have worked fine with it, will randomly not connect. About a week ago it was my phone. Nothing I did with the phone made it connect to either my main or guest wireless. It connected to other wireless networks fine. I'd power down the router, turn it back on, and after it went through it's turn on mojo I'd connect fine. After once or twice at that, all was well.

Last night, wife's tablet. Same procedure, it worked fine. This morning the wifes computer, which is on wireless.

All instances it detects the signal and tries to connect, but it wont do so.

Wireless dying on the router? Something to toy with in settings?

For S&G, check to see that there aren't competing access points using the same channel.
Title: Re: Wireless Woes...
Post by: never_retreat on December 20, 2014, 10:53:10 PM
There is an app for the droid called wifi analyzer. Its free and works good. It will show all the other wifi signals and what channel they are on.
Sounds like a crowded channel to me. Most people never take there routers off the default setting, usually channel 1.