Unstable WiFi - intermittent drops

[priyeshwagh777]

Hi,

I just bought a TP-Link Ac1200 Router. And I'm not able to get a stable Internet connection. My Teams/Zoom calls drop for 4-5 seconds and reconnect. It's really annoying.

Here are a few things I tried - 

1. Got the Settings down from IPv6 to IPv4.

2. Tried to switch channels.

I don't have much interference of radio devices around me anyway.

Could this be a router issue or from my provider directly?

 

Attached image is what I usually get when the connection goes off for those seconds.

 

Please advise!

[Boomwebsearch]

10 minutes ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

Hi,

I just bought a TP-Link Ac1200 Router. And I'm not able to get a stable Internet connection. My Teams/Zoom calls drop for 4-5 seconds and reconnect. It's really annoying.

I understand and will try my best to help you get your connection working well.

 

11 minutes ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

2. Tried to switch channels.

Set the channel and bandwidth to "Auto" and set the speed mode to the maximum available in the drop-down list. The 5GHz option on most home routers gives pretty terrible range, and unless you have a lot of electromagnetic interference, you are probably going to have a better overall experience with 2.4GHz.

 

15 minutes ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

Could this be a router issue or from my provider directly?

 

Connect up to the modem directly and check if your connection works well, don't actually keep running it off the modem since there could be some potential security risks for your PC and data with doing so. If the connection works on the modem then the issues with the router, I would recommend calling your ISP and asking them if your connection status is online and if they could set their modem to bridge mode and disable NAT (Network Address Translation).

[Radium_Angel]

39 minutes ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

connection goes off for those seconds.

run pingplotter and ping the stuffing out of google (the program is quite easy to use) and look for "PL" (Packet Loss), and let us know what percentage it is.

 

You can also ping your modem and see if your internal network is stable, or you are getting Packet Loss as well.

 

Dollars to donuts it's the outside connection. I see it all the time.

[priyeshwagh777]

34 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

I understand and will try my best to help you get your connection working well.

 

Set the channel and bandwidth to "Auto" and set the speed mode to the maximum available in the drop-down list. The 5GHz option on most home routers gives pretty terrible range, and unless you have a lot of electromagnetic interference, you are probably going to have a better overall experience with 2.4GHz.

 

 

Connect up to the modem directly and check if your connection works well, don't actually keep running it off the modem since there could be some potential security risks for your PC and data with doing so. If the connection works on the modem then the issues with the router, I would recommend calling your ISP and asking them if your connection status is online and if they could set their modem to bridge mode and disable NAT (Network Address Translation).

Hi @Boomwebsearch, thanks for your prompt response. So, it was all set to Auto for channels. And the router is right in the same room with straight line-of-sight setting. So no interference. My old D-Link router was in the same place and worked well for 6 years.

 

I tried to connect my laptop from the Port 1 of the WiFi router (I didn't want to pull off the cable and set everyone off the network.) But I saw the same issue when I connected via Ethernet port from my laptop to the router itself on Port 1.

 

Could this be particular to my laptop then? Or still the WiFi to be suspected?

[priyeshwagh777]

22 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

run pingplotter and ping the stuffing out of google (the program is quite easy to use) and look for "PL" (Packet Loss), and let us know what percentage it is.

 

You can also ping your modem and see if your internal network is stable, or you are getting Packet Loss as well.

 

Dollars to donuts it's the outside connection. I see it all the time.

Hi @Radium_Angel, thanks for your quick response. Here's what I did. It ran it for a few minutes and my results are in the screenshot below. It ran well for a first few minutes.

 

[Boomwebsearch]

1 minute ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

Hi @Boomwebsearch, thanks for your prompt response. So, it was all set to Auto for channels. And the router is right in the same room with straight line-of-sight setting. So no interference. My old D-Link router was in the same place and worked well for 6 years.

 

I tried to connect my laptop from the Port 1 of the WiFi router (I didn't want to pull off the cable and set everyone off the network.) But I saw the same issue when I connected via Ethernet port from my laptop to the router itself on Port 1.

 

Could this be particular to my laptop then? Or still the WiFi to be suspected?

 

If you're not having problems with other devices on the network and the laptop only is not getting a good connection with ethernet and/or WI-FI, then try updating your integrated networking adapter drivers by pressing the Windows Key, typing in "Device Manager", and then "network adapters", now go through and update the drivers one by one (right-click and select update driver).

 

Otherwise, use something such as Driver Easy to detect and update out of date drivers on your laptop:

https://www.drivereasy.com/

[priyeshwagh777]

Just now, Boomwebsearch said:

 

If you're not having problems with other devices on the network and the laptop only is not getting a good connection with ethernet and/or WI-FI, then try updating your integrated networking adapter drivers by pressing the Windows Key, typing in "Device Manager", and then "network adapters", now go through and update the drivers one by one (right-click and select update driver).

 

Otherwise, use something such as Driver Easy to detect and update out of date drivers on your laptop:

https://www.drivereasy.com/

Other devices are streaming well because they can't detect the 4-5 second drop because they've already streamed that media in that while and hence, able to bridge ahead without buffering. I'll thinking between my ISP and my laptop itself (if not for the wifi router) but not quite sure.

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, priyeshwagh777 said:

I'll thinking between my ISP and my laptop itself (if not for the wifi router) but not quite sure.

Here is where pingplotter can help.

Run it, just pinging your router, see if you get packet loss, if you do, then you have a bad/unstable router. If it's good, try again to your modem. If that's good, and it's only to outside sites like google and the like, then you need to take it up with your ISP.

[priyeshwagh777]

11 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Here is where pingplotter can help.

Run it, just pinging your router, see if you get packet loss, if you do, then you have a bad/unstable router. If it's good, try again to your modem. If that's good, and it's only to outside sites like google and the like, then you need to take it up with your ISP.

I see. So I tried pinging just my router 192.196.0.1 and it looks stable for 5 mins.No drops whatsoever (while I was on the Teams call simultaneously and it dropped twice but reconnected in 2-3 seconds)

 

[priyeshwagh777]

Just now, priyeshwagh777 said:

I see. So I tried pinging just my router 192.196.0.1 and it looks stable for 5 mins.No drops whatsoever (while I was on the Teams call simultaneously and it dropped twice but reconnected in 2-3 seconds). I'm not sure my modem's IP. My ISP just threw an RJ45 jack and wire inside, no other device, just that cable. Any thoughts how I can get to my ISP?

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

looks stable

Time to yell at your ISP then.

Depending on who that is, you can show them screenshots of pingplotter to prove it's not your gear at fault

[priyeshwagh777]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Time to yell at your ISP then.

Depending on who that is, you can show them screenshots of pingplotter to prove it's not your gear at fault

Haha!! Yea, I think so.

Because it looks like it's from them. Or maybe even they are routing from somewhere else then. I'll give it a couple of days. They told me they were working last night. but when they usually do, this never happens. And I suspected my 2-day old router.

 

I'll keep this thread posted on how it goes.

[priyeshwagh777]

2 minutes ago, priyeshwagh777 said:

Haha!! Yea, I think so.

Because it looks like it's from them. Or maybe even they are routing from somewhere else then. I'll give it a couple of days. They told me they were working last night. but when they usually do, this never happens. And I suspected my 2-day old router.

 

I'll keep this thread posted on how it goes.

Again, I think as soon as ISP come into picture, it takes my router and drops with it I guess (like passing on the % to my router). I might be wrong.