Home wireless networking problems (signal loss and random disconnects)

abice

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
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10,510
Hi everyone, so this issue has been going on for about the 2 months. My ISP is Time warner cable. I have had them for 4 years and never had this issue before, however, I moved into a new house 6 months ago. The internet was completely fine during the first 4 months. I had a Ubee modem with my 4 year old Cisco Router. I was on the standard 15 mbps package that they offer. My modem and router are located upstairs in my bonus room, it is about 10-15 ft away from my family room down stairs, and like I said with the ubee and cisco combination, there was never a hiccup whatsoever.

2 months ago, I decided with more wireless devices in the house it was time to upgrade plus I VPN in to my works server in order to work from home a lot. So I upgraded to their extreme package which is 30 mbps. They sent me an Arris DG860 modem/router all-in-one. I first had it inside a cabinet, and randomly at night when there was three laptops connected it would disconnect, so I moved it on top of the desk instead, it seemed to help. Of recent within the last two weeks I started calling my ISP for help, my girlfriends HP laptop was only at 3 bars of signal while I was sitting next to her with my work (lenovo) and personal (samsung) laptops and pulling 5 signal bars. She insisted it was Time warner, I said it was her computer. (I did research her Envy M6 it has a bad networking card, so there is one problem) Because the smartphones and xbox were getting the same week signal as hers I did think it was the modem/router also. The customer service reps don't know what they are doing at Time Warner, they reset my modem, switched the channels, screwed it up so more, and then some more. So I finally got a tech to come out and look and well he basically laughed at me, as he sat in the same room with his work laptop next to the other 3 laptops and pulled 5 bars of signal like my work and personal laptops were doing, he said that HP has a problem. I said what about the smartphone and xbox he said well time warner doesn't care about that. He said go to best buy and buy a range extender. So I bought a Belkin N600 range extender, and to my surprise it did fix the signal, so now all devices are getting full signal. Here is the kicker:

With full signal I hooked my xbox up to the ethernet port in the range extender and have tried back and forth with the wireless adapter, however, I will get disconnected from xbox live randomly, even though I have full signal, and there is no real internet disconnection issue. Also I am noticing with my work computer and my VPN to their server, that I will randomly get disconnected from their server and then it will reconnect, however, my internet connection does not go out. It seems to me like when I connecting to servers I lose connection, could this be some sort of setting in my modem? I have also been told by at least three people that the modem/router all-in-ones are no good, however, the tech told me that it was working fine. I'm considering buying my own modem or buying my own router, but I am convinced that it has to be something in the setting of my modem because the time warner customer service reps can't even answer questions about what the actual settings mean.

Please help thanks guys!
 
Solution
It could be that someone living close by has set up a wireless network on an interfering channel
User this program to see what networks are near you and what channels they are on
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

There is a really good troubleshooting section you should follow

hubbardt

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Nov 19, 2004
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19,460
It could be that someone living close by has set up a wireless network on an interfering channel
User this program to see what networks are near you and what channels they are on
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

There is a really good troubleshooting section you should follow
 
Solution

abice

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
16
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10,510
Thanks, I will go through and report the results I find. This may be the case as the time warner customer service reps changed my channel multiple times.

I'm concerned about the settings because I believe in my modem settings I did find some settings that seems to affect things like voice over internet and multi-media devices. I'm concerned about this because I know of recent I have had trouble with my work laptop, I often do a lot of phone calling using my work laptop and sharing screens and I notice when I do these things my internet starts to act up. This would also be the case with xbox as I am connecting to a service speaking through a mike and playing against others on the server.
 

abice

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
16
0
10,510
So I am looking at this, Since I have a range extender, I have both my networks on the same channel 11, the other networks in my area are on lower channels, however, there is one network that seems weak but comes in and out on channel 11 also. It says that I am on channel 8-11 though, when I click on the channel tab. It shows my signal around -40 for my range extender and my regular wireless network at -60. All networks in my area are on the 2.4ghz grid not the 5.0 grid. It says my link score is 83. Is there anymore important information I should let you know?

 

hubbardt

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Nov 19, 2004
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The score sounds fine but I'm worried about your signal strength -60 is very low, it should ideally be around -20.

Your network is on the 5GHz grid?
Can you try using a different channel to see if it makes a difference? (try 1,6 or 11)