2.4ghz dropping

[frankr2994]

Ok so I had to move my home office to the basement my PC no longer can get wifi. My ont box is right there. So I bought a used Asus router and a repeater(package deal) off of FB today. Hooked it all up....worked better than I'd hoped....until my kid told me the tv was disconnected. My roku tvs run off the 2.4 band in the house. So I changed everything I could find settings wise. Channels, banding, power ect.. running my wifi speed test app next to the router after about 30 seconds my link speed would drop to 0. Did this no matter what settings I tried. I removed the repeater and it still persisted. So I gave up and got my Linksys router back out and hooked it up(I've owned this wrt3200acm since it was the newest thing in the market) and it does the same damn thing now. I reset it. Still does it. I moved it back to the original location in the house still does it. When either router is happy I get a 144mbps link speed and about 90mbps upload while running and extended wifi test. Test were done directly beside the router and away from it. Confirmed it's not just my phone by watching the TV's freeze up and then eventually display no internet connection. Networking isn't my strong suit but I'm not dumb with this stuff. Anyone have any idea what's going on or do I have 2 bad routers? Only thing I can say about the Linksys router is this is the second house it's been in and I never have to reboot it. I keep an eye on what channels my neighbors are on and occasionally change mine to try to reduce interference. Other than that it's been rock solid for years.

[Allan B]

It is hard to know exactly what you are doing, I would go back to basics, make sure that repeater is disconnected for troubleshooting, it could be causing your problems.   Can you provide the model of your Asus router and repeater? (did you try firmware updates on the asus devices?)

if you can, connect a computer to your router (wired) and disable wifi on the router.  Does it work normal as expected?   If yes, then the issue is wifi related, if no, then it is probably your ISP router.

If it works wired, I would enable wifi with a new wireless SSID name and security password.   Join only your phone to it and do the test, does it work fine? 

If yes, then add the repeater back into the mix (you will need to reprogram the repeater). 

Test again only with your phone.  Do not join any other wifi devices to it yet.

If everything is working then you can start adding other devices to the new WIFI SSID on by one, watching to see if the issue returns.  It is likely one wifi device is causing a problem.

 

One Note: Unless you are using a wifi mesh, wireless devices (like a phone\tv) will not switch to the better wifi signal, they will stay on the first one they see unless it is out of range.  So you may have a repeater beside your phone, but if your phone is connected to the router it will not switch to the better signal unless the first one is out of range.

 

[frankr2994]

Ok well you may be right on a specific device causing the issue. Leaving my Linksys router hooked up the way it's always been seemed to work. If I load tested it then the wifi failed but the TV's and such stay connected. I thought my Asus router may have been getting hot. Because I am who I am I tore it down and the thermal pads were shot. So all new thermal pads, added 2 5v fans to the inside and installed Merlin firmware on it. Testing it with the only device being my phone I loaded it for about an hour without a drop. Configured everything to switch it over as the main router and swapped it without the wifi dropping in the house for more than a minute. Fast forward 20 minutes the 2.4ghz band dropped completely. All devices showed strong signal with no internet connection. So for now I turned off the 2.4 radio on the Asus and set my Linksys router up to provide just 2.4ghz wifi on the same network. It's working fine. I'm going to have to force the wife and kids to play a board game for a few hours some night and try and figure out what device is actually giving me grief. The three things I have here are Linksys wrt3200acm, Asus rt-ac88u  and an Asus rp-ac68u. So all I know is that my modded Asus rt-ac88u worked fine for at least an hour with 1 device being hooked up. With 19 hooked up (7 on 2.4ghz) it took about 20 minutes to drop out. But hey now everything in that router stays below 50c......if that matters lmao.

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, frankr2994 said:

So for now I turned off the 2.4 radio on the Asus and set my Linksys router up to provide just 2.4ghz wifi on the same network.

Wait…

 

How are all of these devices connected to each other?

 

And how are they configured?

 

What ISP device is your router connected to?

 

On 8/17/2022 at 11:35 PM, frankr2994 said:

I had to move my home office to the basement my PC no longer can get wifi. My ont box is right there.

The basement is the last place to expect WiFi to work properly.

 

Furthermore, almost all wireless routers/APs with omnidirectional antennae have weak signal penetration in the upward direction. If all of your wireless clients are upstairs, the signal will be weak or barely usable.

[Needfuldoer]

Are these routers transmitting two different networks with the same SSID? Are they both running their own DHCP scopes?

 

Can you sketch up a quick diagram to show how everything’s connected?

[frankr2994]

Ok I've started alot of confusion so I'll apologize for that. I'm not expecting outstanding wifi signal everywhere. When I say devices are dropping it's not due to signal. When this happens I can stand right next to the router and have no internet with very high signal. Current config right now is FiOS ONT to Asus router. Router is broadcasting 5ghz only. Ethernet connection to Linksys router. DHCP turned off. Static IP set to 192.168.1.2 and gateway set to 192.168.1.1(Asus router) Linksys only broadcasting 2.4ghz. 2.4 and 5ghz bands are different ssid. When setup with Asus router only broadcasting both 2.4 and 5ghz everything will connect,work and get decent speed. Only last for about 20 minutes then everything using 2.4ghz loses internet. Signal strength stays high. And again I use a separate ssid. When I notice a tv is offline I can walk right up to the router and connect with my phone. My phone will show me that (from my phone) tx 144mbps and rx 1 or 2 Mbps. So the 2.4ghz radio basically is only receiving and no longer transmitting. 5ghz radio continues to work fine throughout the house. In the second post it was recommended that I connect devices one at a time to find a problem. I think that may be the answer. Right now my Linksys router is broadcasting the 2.4ghz band.....stable. TV's won't drop out. If I stress it by running an extended connection test off of my phone I can make it do the same thing and drop out. This was proven also using only my Linksys router connected to the FiOS ONT.  Initially I could feel the heat off the Asus router and it's very safe to assume my Linksys is filled with dust so I thought heat. I "fixed" that. No change. Both routers have been completely reset and the firmware was changed on the Asus. No change. So unless I get another idea I'll change the ssid sometime and connect devices back to it one at a time while monitoring the network from my phone. Side note even though it's not worth anything. The range on that Asus router kicks the crap out of the Linksys. This was all supposed to be a quick little purchase so I could have Ethernet ports downstairs. I probably should have never turned the wifi radio on with the Asus and just continued using the Linksys as an AP and never monitored any speeds or anything. I got excited when I first hooked it up and my son's PC upstairs was pulling 500mbps down and my roku tvs were over 100. Never had those speeds before over wifi.

[frankr2994]

4 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Wait…

 

How are all of these devices connected to each other?

 

And how are they configured?

 

What ISP device is your router connected to?

 

The basement is the last place to expect WiFi to work properly.

 

Furthermore, almost all wireless routers/APs with omnidirectional antennae have weak signal penetration in the upward direction. If all of your wireless clients are upstairs, the signal will be weak or barely usable.

I only have 1 cat6 line in my house. Verizon installed my service to the basement and then ran a line upstairs to my living room. My PC and anything I'm working on has wifi and an Ethernet port. When my office was upstairs wifi worked. Didn't downstairs. So ya I kinda expected wifi issues but just needed Ethernet ports in the basement more than anything. Eventually I'll get the rest of the pieces to build my pfs sense pc and I'll have a switch in the basement and run cat 6a everywhere. That keeps getting pushed further down the list of projects I have to do around the house.