Wireless Router Problem

[RainMaker]

Hoping someone can help me out here. I'm running into this problem where my internet connection will drop off for like 5 seconds and then pop back in. It doesn't stop too much stuff, but it's become rather annoying since it'll log me out of messenger or occassionally lockup a page I'm going to.

Anyways, I'm certain it's just the wireless since plugging it in directly to the router works. The cable company also said nothing looked suspicous. Does anyone have any clue what would cause this? I've reset the router and still running into the problem. Had the router for 6 months now and hoping it's not something permanent.

Netgear WNDR3700

[cartman]

Do you know if you are running it at 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz? Those symptoms sure sound like you are running at 2.4Ghz and getting interference from another device (cordless phone most likely).

[RainMaker]

It's Dual Band so it runs both. Haven't had any problems till now though.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sounded like what I suffered through for about a year with BellSouth ... right up until you said it was cable & that they found nothing out of the ordinary.

In my case it was intermittent drops - up to several dozen a day - that were being overlooked by the ISP because they were affecting too few customers (<20) to be generating a report for their engineering department. Turned out to be an issue at the street, took several months & multiple repair crew visits to find & fix.

I'm no help here really, except to commiserate on what a PITA those kinds of outages can be.

[rjolley]

My first thought was it's a b,g router and you have an n card. I see the same thing from time to time and thought it was due to that.

What type of router are you using?

[RainMaker]

http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/high-performance/WNDR3700.aspx

It's N. Would the channel have any effect on it? Or would the 5ghz band cause any interference? I can turn that off since I don't think I use it for anything.

[Alan T]

http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/high-performance/WNDR3700.aspx

It's N. Would the channel have any effect on it? Or would the 5ghz band cause any interference? I can turn that off since I don't think I use it for anything.


Based on your symptoms (wired to the router works fine without any drop offs), it sounds like it is solely an issue with the wireless transmission to your computer. Usually my first thought would be what cartman said, it sounds like you have competing signals that is causing your wireless performance issues.


The router you link is a dual-band wireless router that runs both 2.4 and 5Ghz. Routers that run 2.4 Ghz are far more likely to encounter issues like you describe thanks to all kinds of cordless phones or other wireless devices that exist around the house. Another possibility is that you might live in some kind of apartment or condo and your neighbors have competing wireless devices as well.

A couple of possible quick fixes you can try:

Find out what type of wireless card is in your computer. Is it an 802.11n card? or is it 802.11b or 802.11g? If B or G, try upgrading the card to an 802.11n card and see if you can get off of the 2.4Ghz channel. If you already have an 802.11n card in your computer, try to see if you can configure your wireless router to only use the 5.0Ghz channel. Last option is you can try to change what channel your wireless device is using just in case a neighbor is also using the exact same channel. For instance if yours is set to channel 1, switch it all the way to channel 11 and see if that helps any.

[RainMaker]

Thanks. I did have some new neighbors move in so I'm wondering if that is where the interference is coming from. I do have an N card on my PC which is fairly new, although I can'g get the 5.0Ghz channel to show up on my available networks (I'm assuming my card can't access 5.0?). I'd also note that I have the same problem with my laptop when it's in wireless so I don't think the cards are the problem.

I've changed the channel to 1. I'll see how that works. Would the security type have any effect on this (I'm using WPA2-PSK [AES]). Or what about the mode which I have set at "Up to 300Mbps"?

I'm on the verge of just ordering a different router at this point since it's terribly annoying. But the fact I spent $100 on this one 6 months ago makes me mad.

[weegeebored]

Is there a router firmware update available? New wireless card drivers?