Router troubleshooting

Before I rush out and spend £100 on a new router I want to see if my existing one can be fixed or at least ensure that my issues are actually caused by it.

Periodically my Internet cuts out. The network itself cuts out. I am still connected to the Wi-Fi but the internet either works extremely slowly or stops altogether. I have a NAS device with a media collection on there but these do not stream on these occasions and I am lucky if I can even navigate the file system on it. Eventually the Internet comes back, streaming works, and all is well.

I have tried connecting directly to the SuperHub and it works fine, even whilst the issue is occurring, so I am reasonably confident the problem is with the router itself. I would use the SuperHub's wireless but my initial attempts at this back in the day made me questions it's effectiveness - especially in my house where the devices are quite far from it.

I have done a Factory Reset and this seemed to cure most of the outages, there were a couple but they didn't last long and could just be put down to normal little hitches. However last night the problem reappeared with leaving the Wi-Fi down for around an hour before it stuttered back to life.

Is there anything else that could be causing this?
Is there anything else that I can try?

Thanks!

[thenry]

what router have you currently got? have you got a pingy monitor running? what are your SH connection stats? have you tried manually changing channels?

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by thenry

what router have you currently got? have you got a pingy monitor running? have you tried manually changing channels?

Install InSSider to help with finding the least congested channel.

Good point about the channels and I shall install that program. Thank you.

I don't that a ping monitor thing. I am not sure how helpful that would be. It tends to be 'borked' or 'fine'.

---------- Post added at 15:22 ---------- Previous post was at 15:20 ----------

This is my router btw: http://www.netgear.co.uk/service-pro...s/WNR3500.aspx

[thenry]

is it only wifi that screws up? are wired links fine?

[craigj2k12]

*cough* Netgear

Originally Posted by thenry

is it only wifi that screws up? are wired links fine?

I don't know. Only plugged into modem to test. When it next screws up I'll try it.

[Waldo Pepper]

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

Install InSSider to help with finding the least congested channel.

Seconded.

It's a nightmare to test this because it's so unreliable when the connection will go down or stay up. It seemed to go down just now, went to the router to plug in, was fine but then a ping test on wireless got the same result! 32mm pin, 6mm jitter.

PS Do those WiFi range extenders work? Do they harm ping speed?

[Hom3r]

do you have a smartphone?

if so Android do an app call WiFi Analyzer, I used this to test my connections and it will also shows me what other channels around me are being used.

Yeah I've put the router in the least used channel, no improvement although the nature of the problem means I should leave it a few days to see...

---------- Post added at 15:01 ---------- Previous post was at 14:58 ----------

New symptom: Even when the internet is working my laptop, far from the router, has it's ping change drastically from time to time. This morning 500ms to 35 mms.

[Hom3r]

Now this might sound silly but I guess your network is secure, and it's not being accessed without your knowledge?

Nah it's secure with a strong password.

[thenry]

Ar$€n€W£ng€r

[qasdfdsaq]

Have you done basic network diagnostics - ping, nslookup, traceroute, ipconfig, etc?

And I've said this over and over again. InSSIDer cannot tell you how congested a channel is.