Internet connection cuts out randomly, Help

[Mercinator]

My Wifi cuts out randomly while I am online. It has worked great for months, but just recently started acting up. Am using an ASUS PCE-AC88 Wireless card with an Orbi CBK40 Modem/router. When I am connected I am getting ~ 200 gbps. I haven't changed any PC settings so not sure where to start looking for a permanent fix. My quick fix has been troubleshooting my internet problem and then it tells me that it resets my network adapter. This usually gets me back up and running but its annoying when I'm trying to game online. Any help would be appreciated!

[Tomthehitman]

4 minutes ago, Mercinator said:

My Wifi cuts out randomly while I am online. It has worked great for months, but just recently started acting up. Am using an ASUS PCE-AC88 Wireless card with an Orbi CBK40 Modem/router. When I am connected I am getting ~ 200 gbps. I haven't changed any PC settings so not sure where to start looking for a permanent fix. My quick fix has been troubleshooting my internet problem and then it tells me that it resets my network adapter. This usually gets me back up and running but its annoying when I'm trying to game online. Any help would be appreciated!

Can you choose if it tries to connect with 2.4 Ghz or 5Ghz?

 

I've had issues before where it was trying to change between them and kicking me off while it switched.

[Falcon1986]

@Mercinator

1. WiFi is a convenience. Never expect reliability from WiFi, especially for online gaming. A wired connection will always outperform WiFi.
2. How far are you from the CBK40? Any walls or floors/ceilings between it and the computer?
3. Do you have any other wireless devices in your home? Are multiple clients trying to access WiFi at the same time?
4. Run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer from the Microsoft Store. Post screenshots of the 'Networks' and 'Analyze' tabs. In the case of the latter, include the graphical output for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Highlight your SSID.
5. List the WiFi settings that you use on the CBK40. Exclude any passwords.

[Mercinator]

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

@Mercinator

1. WiFi is a convenience. Never expect reliability from WiFi, especially for online gaming. A wired connection will always outperform WiFi.
2. How far are you from the CBK40? Any walls or floors/ceilings between it and the computer?
3. Do you have any other wireless devices in your home? Are multiple clients trying to access WiFi at the same time?
4. Run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer from the Microsoft Store. Post screenshots of the 'Networks' and 'Analyze' tabs. In the case of the latter, include the graphical output for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Highlight your SSID.
5. List the WiFi settings that you use on the CBK40. Exclude any passwords.

1. I agree, however due to my living situation, wired connection is not currently possible. Though fortunately, the games are play are forgiving to a little bit of lag.

2. Across the entire house and up stairs, about 3 rooms away. Literally the worst place it could be. Unfortunately, moving it is not an option. We have 1 satellite unit at a midpoint between my PC and the Modem.

3. Yes, plenty of devices. 6 PCs, 3 or 4 tablets, 3 cell phones, 2 smart TV's. None of the other devices ever have this issue, including my smart TV and phone, which are used in the same room as my PC. The modem is supposed to be  able to handle 32x8 and the devices aren't all being used at the same time, maybe half is usual.

4. SSID is ORBI70

5. What settings are you looking for, not sure what to post.

[Mercinator]

5 minutes ago, Mercinator said:

1. I agree, however due to my living situation, wired connection is not currently possible. Though fortunately, the games are play are forgiving to a little bit of lag.

2. Across the entire house and up stairs, about 3 rooms away. Literally the worst place it could be. Unfortunately, moving it is not an option. We have 1 satellite unit at a midpoint between my PC and the Modem.

3. Yes, plenty of devices. 6 PCs, 3 or 4 tablets, 3 cell phones, 2 smart TV's. None of the other devices ever have this issue, including my smart TV and phone, which are used in the same room as my PC. The modem is supposed to be  able to handle 32x8 and the devices aren't all being used at the same time, maybe half is usual.

4. SSID is ORBI70

5. What settings are you looking for, not sure what to post.

[Falcon1986]

@Mercinator

 

Firstly, your 2.4GHz band is congested, so I hope none of your important devices are using it. Instead, push as many devices to your 5GHz radio.

 

Why are you stacking SSIDs onto the same wireless channel? Is this something that the mesh system does? Can you specify which broadcast channel each mesh point uses? Because there is quite a bit of overlap even on channel 48.

[Mercinator]

@Falcon1986

 

This is all out of the box setup. I will be the first to admit, that while I do consider myself tech savvy, networking related topics are completely lost on me. We got this modem/router when we upgraded our service to Gigabit. When I look for a network to connect to, there is only 1 option for my entire network. In the past, on different hardware, I have had the option to switch between 2.4 and 5 GHz network frequencies. I know that my current hardware has both options, but I cannot see how to choose which frequency to assign for a device.

 

I only have 1 satellite unit, not sure if that is causing the overlap.

 

Is this something you think I might have a better chance of figuring out with the Netgear help desk? 

 

I appreciate the help, I just don't want to waste your time, I feel like I need my hand held working through this issue.

[Falcon1986]

@Mercinator

 

I've never used an Orbi before, so I'm not familiar with the admin interface.

 

Does the admin interface allow you to set a specific WiFi radio channel for each point in the mesh?

[Mercinator]

@Falcon1986

 

No that I can see. I can change my channels for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz freqs. I did change both a few minutes ago to less crowded channels and using Wifi Analyzer, it seems to be in a better state.

[Intergalacticbits]

I'm no expert but I had seen on some videos that Wi-Fi cutting out is often caused by interference.

Which comes to my mind first since you said it started out good then went bad months later?

I think Linus has a bunch of Wi-Fi videos you might want to search and watch some.

 

Also I have a netgear router myself and I used to find their website very helpful years ago when I first set mine up.

I don't have a mesh router though.

I thought I heard that those tend to want to manage the users, traffic themselves but not 100% sure.

That would explain the lack of control settings you seem to be saying you don't see though.

 

[Falcon1986]

4 hours ago, Intergalacticbits said:

I'm no expert but I had seen on some videos that Wi-Fi cutting out is often caused by interference.

If you look at the OP's wireless survey, you'll see that the most-likely interference is from other wireless networks in the neighbourhood. There can be other things, however.

 

21 hours ago, Mercinator said:

I can change my channels for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz freqs. I did change both a few minutes ago to less crowded channels and using Wifi Analyzer, it seems to be in a better state.

This is why I don't particularly like mesh systems that provide limited control versus a simple access point.

 

When you change the channels, use something that isn't already occupied. For 5GHz you should have many options. Unfortunately, the 2.4GHz spectrum is too congested even if you move to another channel. In this scenario, you'd just have to settle for a channel where the signal from other WiFi networks is at a minimum. Doing this won't completely remove it as a source of interference, but your network is less likely to slow down during everyday use.

 

If you could change the SSID of each radio so that your 2.4GHz SSID was 'ORBI70-2G' and your 5GHz SSID was 'ORBI70-5G' for example, you could clearly connect to each radio separately instead of letting the system do it for you. Left in its default configuration where the SSID is the same might mean that at one moment your device is on the 5GHz band, but can randomly jump on to the 2.4GHz band; and since the 2.4GHz band is going to be the poorly-performing band looking at how congested it is, you will experience slowdowns. Some devices have "band-steering" to automatically push client devices to the less-congested band, but it is not something that is implemented very well on many consumer-grade WiFi equipment.

 

Another thing you can look into is setting your wireless adapter to have a preference for 5GHz or 802.11ac and reducing roaming aggressiveness to medium or low. Unfortunately, you won't be able to do this for all devices.

[Mercinator]

Thanks for the help guys. Doing some more research, I have discovered that my wireless card has this problem, random cut outs and needing to be reset to work again, many other people have the same issue.   ASUS PCE-AC88 Wireless card is the culprit. Warning to anyone who might buy one, DON'T!

[Jarsky]

27 minutes ago, Mercinator said:

Thanks for the help guys. Doing some more research, I have discovered that my wireless card has this problem, random cut outs and needing to be reset to work again, many other people have the same issue.   ASUS PCE-AC88 Wireless card is the culprit. Warning to anyone who might buy one, DON'T!

 

I have 2 of these cards and dont have this issue at all. my one closest to one of my AP's connects @ 1.7Gbps stable. The other one goes through 2 walls of the bedroom next to it, through to the family room and connects @ 900Mbps-1.1Gbps to my 3x3 MIMO AP's. They are completely stable. I did however have this happen with a TP-Link Archer T4E AC1200 which used to randomly have latency spikes and drop. 

 

Did you try what was suggested by @Falcon1986 to disable band steering on your Orbi (That is to split your 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz into 2 distinct SSID's), to see if it's a band steering problem? 

 

I'd also suggest you try disabling the Power Management settings on the adapter through device manager as well, as sometimes these features in Windows can cause issues with adapters.