Smart devices overwhelmed router

[PdxDad]

To set the scene I have fiber into my home 1g up/down. I am currently using a linksys ea9500 router and a TRENDnet 24-Port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Switch, 24 x 10-100-1000 Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 Ports, 48Gbps Switching Capacity from 2012(I know its

old but still getting the job done… mostly)

okay so with all that out of the way here is my issue. We had a few Kasa smart bulbs (honestly love them they work great) but my wife wanted to smartify all the lighting and I’m not about to say no to that so I installed smart switches, bulbs and even some smart plug adapters all in the Kasa smart system since I was already invested in it. However Kasa devices do not use a hub and all connect via 2.4ghz and now my router is overwhelmed with all the devices. I turned off band steering and that did help but it seems to be on the tipping point because 2.4 band will just crash and the router has to be restarted at least once a day sometimes more. Looking for any suggestions on the best way to fix this without spending a bunch of money some I already did on all the smart devices. 
I was thinking about using my old netgear nighthawk ac1900 as a second router and moving all smart devices over to it but not sure if it would actually help or potentially add additional complications. 
thanks in advance, appreciate any suggestions :)

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, PdxDad said:

thanks in advance, appreciate any suggestions

The EA9500 is no slouch. How many IoT devices do you have hammering the 2.4GHz antenna?

 

1 hour ago, PdxDad said:

...but it seems to be on the tipping point because 2.4 band will just crash and the router has to be restarted at least once a day sometimes more

What does this mean? Does it "lock up" to the point that non-IoT devices have no connectivity to the internet? Do you have non-IoT devices connecting through the 2.4GHz band?

 

Can you take a screenshot of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz settings pages? Obfuscate any sensitive information, of course.

 

Also, please run a wireless survey for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands using something like WiFi Analyzer or WiFiMan.

[PdxDad]

26 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

The EA9500 is no slouch. How many IoT devices do you have hammering the 2.4GHz antenna?

 

What does this mean? Does it "lock up" to the point that non-IoT devices have no connectivity to the internet? Do you have non-IoT devices connecting through the 2.4GHz band?

 

Can you take a screenshot of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz settings pages? Obfuscate any sensitive information, of course.

 

Also, please run a wireless survey for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands using something like WiFi Analyzer or WiFiMan.

About 32 IoT on the 2.4ghz and yes I have some non IoT devices on there as well as the 5ghz does reach the other end of the home with a strong enough signal. 
As for the lock up… the 2.4ghz just completely drops from all devices. You can’t connect to it and and even just turning the band off an back on again in settings won’t get it working you have to restart the router. 5ghz band is not affected. This issue started when I added all the new smart switches.

not home so can’t grab the other info you had asked for at the moment.

[Falcon1986]

4 hours ago, PdxDad said:

About 32 IoT on the 2.4ghz and yes I have some non IoT devices on there as well…

That’s a lot of low-bandwidth chatter.

 

5 hours ago, PdxDad said:

as well as the 5ghz does reach the other end of the home with a strong enough signal. 

Does or does not?

 

Since that router has dual 5GHz antennae, you can disable Smart Connect and run one at a wide channel width (higher speeds, shorter range) and the other at a narrower channel width (lower speeds, slightly longer range). That way, your non-IoT clients can probably still stay connected even at the other end of the house.

 

5 hours ago, PdxDad said:

You can’t connect to it and and even just turning the band off an back on again in settings won’t get it working you have to restart the router. 5ghz band is not affected.

That’s unusual, especially since clients connected to 5GHz are not affected. It’s the same BCM4366 SoC for the 2.4GHz radio and at least one of the 5GHz radios.

 

5 hours ago, PdxDad said:

not home so can’t grab the other info you had asked for at the moment.

This information would be very helpful since interference from a heavily-congested 2.4GHz spectrum in your area could present the same way.

 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

14 hours ago, PdxDad said:

I was thinking about using my old netgear nighthawk ac1900 as a second router and moving all smart devices over to it but not sure if it would actually help or potentially add additional complications. 

 

thanks in advance, appreciate any suggestions

If you make sure its on a different channel and in AP mode (or DHCP Server, upnp, etc turned off) then yeah I suspect this will help.

 

Its a shame Netgear are actively trying to block people installing OpenWRT on their devices now as it would be even better, though depends if the firmware on that is dated before they blocked it.

[PdxDad]

11 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Since that router has dual 5GHz antennae, you can disable Smart Connect and run one at a wide channel width (higher speeds, shorter range) and the other at a narrower channel width (lower speeds, slightly longer range). That way, your non-IoT clients can probably still stay connected even at the other end of the house.

Tried this out last night and worked great. The combination of this and moving all no IoT off 2.4ghz seems to have helped. Id usually wake up in the morning and have to restart the router because the 2.4ghz would be offline.