Wireless Network Issues

[IainC]

I've been having intermittent problems for a whiel with my network at home and I think I've ruled out actual faults with either the router or the wireless card in my PC. Periodically the connection on my machine will just vanish and I'll need to disconnect and then reconnect to the network to get things running again or whatever. My internet seems to be fine coming into the router, it's the network beyond that is the problem.

The router is an Easybox 802 that came with my DSL from Vodafone. Due to the way my apartment is laid out it's by the front door (as that's the only phone socket) and my PC is upstairs a few feet over but otherwise directly above it (floor is wood and supported on ~1ft thick beams, ceiling is about 15ft high). I checked the other wireless networks in my apartment building using a network stumbler and found that there was another network broadcasting on the same channel that I was using. I changed the channel and it's been a bit more stable but it's still not good. Specifically I notice that my signal to noise ratio is very low compared to others in the building. The other networks are returning an SNR of about 70% while mine generally is below 50%.

Is there an easy and/or cheap way to fix this?

[luckton]

I wouldn't rule out that it could be a wi-fi adapter issue on your computer end as well.

Also, if that router's taken a few surge hits, one too many can create niggling issues, where it may seem fine one minute, but a second later it borks out.

[Sand]

Had the same issues with my wireless router a few weeks ago and posted about it. I tried everything. Wiped it back to factory settings. Updated the firmware. Nothing worked.
The issue was simply that it was three years old. It was time to throw it away and buy a new one.

[taolurker]

DSL? Really?

[Ironwood]

Location, location, location.

[IainC]

DSL? Really?

I live on the same street as the local cable store, there is a fibre-optic line running past my front door. Getting the cable company to connect my apartment with that line proved to be such a frustrating exercise in institutional incompetence that I eventually told them to get fucked and took the much slower and more expensive DSL option instead.

[Mrbloodworth]

I would instantly go to your router is dieing. Get one of those fancy dual bands.

[Viin]

Microwave nearby? Wireless phone?

Either of those can smash your wifi signal.

[Hammond]

Avoid all in one modems like the plague.  They are a pain to troubleshoot and generally the hardware is just crap. Judging from some of the sites I found talking about that model of modem several people have had issues similar to what you are talking about. So see if the dsl company will replace it with a new modem. Preferably just a modem and buy yourself a wireless router to go behind it.  You will have a better experience and odds are your problem will go away. 

[MahrinSkel]

When you checked on other networks, did you check for client strengths as well?  I have a 1000mW Wifi adapter that I can't use in the house because it overwhelms the signals from the standard units everything else has (especially the laptops).  I can cause general screams of frustration using it in a Starbucks, as everyone else in the place gets drowned out by a signal 20 times as powerful as a standard card (and I get all the bandwidth).

If someone else is using a high-power card or router and it's close enough to you, it could explain the high SNR.

--Dave

[Samwise]

The issue was simply that it was three years old. It was time to throw it away and buy a new one.

I've had the same thing.  It annoys the hell out of me that a piece of electronics with no moving parts can "burn out" like that, but at least it's not a horribly expensive thing to replace.

[Hammond]

The issue was simply that it was three years old. It was time to throw it away and buy a new one.

I've had the same thing.  It annoys the hell out of me that a piece of electronics with no moving parts can "burn out" like that, but at least it's not a horribly expensive thing to replace.

From what my friends who are electricians have told me that is due to the quality of the power to your homes.   If you could monitor the power input you would notice it goes up and down all the time.   Small electronics device like routers and modems do not like "dirty power". Even if you have a surge protector it doesn't protect you against the brownouts (lack of enough power) which can cause electronics to fail. So their solution is to get a cheap UPS that protects you against both power surges and brownouts.  /shrug. 

[Chimpy]

Avoid all in one modems like the plague.  They are a pain to troubleshoot and generally the hardware is just crap. Judging from some of the sites I found talking about that model of modem several people have had issues similar to what you are talking about. So see if the dsl company will replace it with a new modem. Preferably just a modem and buy yourself a wireless router to go behind it.  You will have a better experience and odds are your problem will go away. 

This. DSL chips run really hot and they tend to cook the radio chips in all in one modems pretty quickly being packed into a small space with terrible passive cooling.

Also, which channel did you switch to? If your neighbor is on 6 you will want to be on 1 or 11.

[apocrypha]

So, so, so many things can mess with wireless networking connections. Troubleshooting them is a gigantic pain in the arse.

If your PC is above your router then try changing the angle of the wireless aerial, although be warned that this may reduce reliability on the same floor level as the router. You can try a high-gain antenna but again this may make things worse in one plane. You can get an 802.11n wireless router which uses both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and are much more reliable.

You can also try careful positioning of reflective surfaces - metal, glass, etc. Mirrors work well. We had real problems with a wireless music player in our dining room with an old 802.11g router until we put a large mirror on the wall behind the router which increased the signal strength significantly. Now we've swapped to a 802.11n router we no longer need the mirror.

At the end of the day if you can feasibly run cable to the PC you'll have a lot less problems and a much faster connection, always the best option if possible.

[IainC]

Also, which channel did you switch to? If your neighbor is on 6 you will want to be on 1 or 11.

There are networks broadcasting on channels 1, 6, 8 and 11 so I switched to channel 7.

[Salamok]

I swear next router I buy is getting gutted and popped into a custom case some fans.  So tired of the countdown to meltdown most routers seem to have built in these days.

[Chimpy]

Also, which channel did you switch to? If your neighbor is on 6 you will want to be on 1 or 11.

There are networks broadcasting on channels 1, 6, 8 and 11 so I switched to channel 7.

You want to be on 1, 6, or 11 with 802.11b/g as those are the only non- adjacent channels in that frequency band. If you have someone on 8 in your vicinity it is likely that channel 1 will have the least interference even though there is another device on that channel.

[Hammond]

Also, which channel did you switch to? If your neighbor is on 6 you will want to be on 1 or 11.

There are networks broadcasting on channels 1, 6, 8 and 11 so I switched to channel 7.

Yea that is not going to work.  With wifi there is what is called adjacent channels.  For all intents and purposes they overlap over several channels.  Generally you want to use 1, 6/7, or 11 because they do not create interference with the other channels.

Also you can read up on adjacent channels if you want here. 

http://www.wifiyacht.net/wifi-adjacent-myth.html  (sorry best link I could find at work)  I use a app on my cell phone to give the actually graphs.  wifi analyzer for android.

[Salamok]

Get a 5 ghz band router for more channels.

[Chimpy]

Get a 5 get band router for more channels.

Problem with 5ghz (802.11a/n) is that he might get worse signal since he is going through a floor. 2.4ghz is bad enough penetrating solid surfaces but 5 is atrocious.

[Nerf]

Get a 5 get band router for more channels.

Problem with 5ghz (802.11a/n) is that he might get worse signal since he is going through a floor. 2.4ghz is bad enough penetrating solid surfaces but 5 is atrocious.

I'm connecting through a 1.5" concrete floor and have 100% signal strength, not sure if it's an a/n or g router though - it's whatever AT&T U-verse hands out these days, one of the 2WIRE gateways.
My main PC is almost directly above the router.  My HTPC is also connected to the same router via wifi, and it's about 20ft away and through the same floor, and it gets ~90%+ signal strength.

I'm using a fancy D-link wifi card with 3 antennas on my PC, and the cheapest usb dongle I could find on the HTPC ($15 at Fry's).

And it's on channel 4, the only network broadcasting on that channel I can see.  14 networks in range.

[sinij]

You probably have fridge compressor on the way out and it spills all kind of EM noise. Its that, or your neighbors trying to re-animate corpses with high-voltage electrical discharges.

Ether way - easy solution is to get bigger antenna for your network card. That is if you are _sure_ that it isn't your router just crapping out or someone nearby pushing you out of your frequency.

[IainC]

I was originally on channel 1 and my connection would keep dropping completely - I'd get the wireless network disconnected notification and then it would reconnect after a minute or so. This would happen periodically and made online gaming a real lottery (especially for Bloodbowl which has shitty network code and error handling anyway).

Since I switched to channel 7 that has stopped but I get slowdowns where, even though the wifi status is still good, webpages won't load unless I disconnect and then reconnect again - at which point it's fine again for a random length of time.

There's nothing like a fridge or microwave in the way, nothing except the floor itself. I live in an attic flat in a ~400 year old house so I have big wooden roof trusses holding up my floors but other than that there's nothing else in a direct line between my PC and the router. There is a wood/metal spiral staircase connecting the two levels but that's behind my PC and not in line with the router.

[Chimpy]

See if your dsl provider will hook you up with a plain modem and buy a new router of your own. Don't buy a belkin.

[Sky]

I live on the same street as the local cable store, there is a fibre-optic line running past my front door. Getting the cable company to connect my apartment with that line proved to be such a frustrating exercise in institutional incompetence that I eventually told them to get fucked and took the much slower and more expensive DSL option instead.

Some truths are universal.

Are you using an external adapter? When I upgraded recently, I added a high gain adapter and noticed a significant increase in speed and reliability (from 700kB/s to 1.2MB/s). As others have said, the router (or modem) itself may be suspect. To hell with your neighbors, the filthy non-Imperials anyway, and boost your gain on both ends.

At least with DSL you're not facing my other issue (with cable)....I can tell when the neighbor is torrenting movies.

[Hammond]

IainC,

Getting a new modem / router will probably help some but from your description it will not most likely totally fix it.  If interference is the underlying problem and its coming from the neighbors getting a more powerful access point would override your neighbors.  This could lead to a arms race where your neighbors try to compensate and you could end up back where you were.   I would just run a cable to the upstairs location and be done with it. If you have your own power panel you could run a network extension over the power with a product like this. http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-PLTK300-PowerLine-Network-Kit/dp/B001FB5TZ4 so you wouldn't have to run a ugly Ethernet cable.

Pretty much though this is the joys of having wireless in a crowded area. 

[Sky]

You could also line your floor with tin foil.

[Furiously]

Possible em interference from knob and tube wiring in a house that age? Id try buying a new wireless router and turning off the one on your existing one too. Course just running some cable would be the fastest solution.

[IainC]

Becasue of the weird shape of my apartment, the height of the ceilings and the way the stairwell goes, I'd need something like 40m of cat5 to go from my router to the PCs upstairs. A wired connection isn't really feasible. The powerline networking also isn't something I'd be confident as the wiring in here is.. idiosyncratic. I have wall switches that appear to do nothing, five different light switches in the hallway for the same lightfitting and so on. I've tried making sense of the circuitbreaker box and it looks as though different rooms are assigned to circuits more or less at random.

I'll see if Vodafone can supply me with a modem only option.

[Furiously]

Becasue of the weird shape of my apartment, the height of the ceilings and the way the stairwell goes, I'd need something like 40m of cat5 to go from my router to the PCs upstairs. A wired connection isn't really feasible. The powerline networking also isn't something I'd be confident as the wiring in here is.. idiosyncratic. I have wall switches that appear to do nothing, five different light switches in the hallway for the same lightfitting and so on. I've tried making sense of the circuitbreaker box and it looks as though different rooms are assigned to circuits more or less at random.

I'll see if Vodafone can supply me with a modem only option.

One hundred meters is where you start needing a repeater. So 50 should be just fine.

[Nerf]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/50m-Professional-Network-Cable-enhanced/dp/B002UD0EDS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1323901173&sr=8-3

Problem solved?

[Hammond]

You could also just disable the wireless on the dsl modem and hook a wireless router up to it 90% of the time the dsl part still works it is just the wireless chip that is fried.   You could also do a direction wireless point to point connection and add access point upstairs.  Since the access point would be closer to your point of use it would also help with your connection issues. 

You can build the point to point connections with pringles cans or a coffee can as seen here.

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html

[Sky]

Use wax paper, a comb and flashlight to simluate a ghost.

Pretend the building is haunted, driving out all the other tenants.

Enjoy your interference-free wireless.

PS: Watch out for meddling kids.

[Hammond]

Or you could hack your neighbors wireless and change all the channels thus eliminating the interference 

[Ingmar]

Use wax paper, a comb and flashlight to simluate a ghost.

Pretend the building is haunted, driving out all the other tenants.

Enjoy your interference-free wireless.

PS: Watch out for meddling kids.

No no, soak a sheet in moth pheromones, and throw it over some moths, who will fly around and simulate a ghost.