Why do I have to reset my wireless router every day?

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Zenthar

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This thread might differ from other in that I'm not looking to solve the problem (I pretty much gave-up :p), but being an inquisitive mind, I want to understand WHAT is actually happening to cause that issue. I noticed many people seems to experience this kind of problem and part of me want to know why this is happening.

First thing first, I have a D-Link WBR-2310 Revision A with the latest non-beta firmware (1.05 dated 2008-09-10) with WPA2 security enabled. What is happening is that every day I would have to reset my router (unplug and replug, easier than reaching for the reset button) or all my wireless devices (GF's laptop, Wii and PS3), wouldn't have wireless access. The part I find strange is that none of the devices seems to think they are disconnected, it's just that none of the devices can connect to the internet, DLNA server or any other device on my network.

I know a decent share about wired networking (would need refreshing, but still), but not as much as I would like with wireless. I know the innards of Ethernet, IP (TCP/UDP), DHCP and all sorts of technical crap so don't spare me on any details you might have, worst case scenario I will have to google it up and learn something ... :p

If you have any tests I could run to have a better idea of what is happening, it would also be great (ex: using wireshark).
 
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I too have had problems with wireless routers failing prematurely. They DO seem to be junk! My symptoms have generally been radio-related. Disconnects from the Access Point.

But that being said, it sounds more like you folks who have to reset your routers every day might have a problem related to IP address distribution. These routers use DHCP to distribute IP addresses, but if you have some devices on your network (like printers) where you hard-assign an IP address, and then DHCP hands out the same address, you will find that you get all kinds of crazy things happen with those two devices not able to communicate. The router will also have its own IP address (often 192.168.1.1). If you hard-assign another device to that same address...
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Guest

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if u have all of those things all on one internet connection of course it is going to mess up all the devises are taking data from the same wireless connection my advise is to disconnect some of the devises that you are not using and when u want to connect them when you want to use them
 

Zenthar

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The thing is that I shut down all those devices when not in use and I can even reboot them without solving the problem; the router itself has to be rebooted. Moreover, I would find ridiculous if a router wouldn't be able to support 3 wireless devices especially when 2 out of the 3 do very little traffic.
 

frogg983

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Dec 10, 2010
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I have that exact same router and I'm having the exact same problem. I wake up in the morning and I can get online, but when I get home from work the internet doesn't work but I'm connected to the network. It's so weird. I don't think I'm overloading the router or anything because They are off during the day while I'm out and I had all the same devices connected to another router before this one and didn't have trouble.


How common is overloading a router? Can you supply some links for more on this issue?
 

Zenthar

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I pretty much gave-up, I guess the problem might be the router dying, I ended-up buying a Wireless N router with gigabit ports; all my problems went away.

However, I'm still curious on what was happening, it's like the wireless AP in the router got disconnected from the router itself; wireless devices think they are still connected because the antennae is still working, but they are disconnected from everything else.
 
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Guest

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same problem with Dlink dir655 wireless router. our laptops think they are connected, with 'excellent' signal strength, but no internet access (i assume wireless access to printer drops off too). happens seemingly randomly - sometimes in the middle of a session. reset the router and good to go. happens daily. getting annoying.
 


I don't want to labor this thing to death, so I'll be brief.

I have a D-Link DIR-451 I use for portable use. It was doing what your router is doing until I changed it's lease time from 300 to 99999 minutes. Never a problem again.

Found in the Setup/Network Settings/DHCP server settings.
 

thbob

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Jan 4, 2011
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My WBR-2310 was running 1.02 for two years without major issues, though it was a little slow. I decided to upgrade to the latest f/w to see if the performance would improve. After doing this, the router's wireless would lock up every 2 to 3 days, requiring a power cycle to fix it. After a couple weeks of this, I went back to 1.04. Now my WBR-2310 is stable. Avoid 1.05 - go back to 1.04 which is still available on the D-Link website.
 

NJPoolboy

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Mar 5, 2012
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I had the problem with having to cycle my power after adding a wireless router to the system. I noticed my printer would periodically go offline, then come back online to the network. I turned the power to my printer off, and the problem has subsided. I just turn the printer on when I need to use it, and the network is stable. If I leave it on, it kills my internet. Weird.
 

aggiemusic123

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Mar 29, 2012
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I've also heard this is the best way to fix this problem... but I can't find anything that says DHCP server settings or lease time... I have an Atheros AR9285 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
 

abacon

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Dec 8, 2012
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I have a Linksys WRK54G. It is about 7 years old. It started dropping connetions 2 years ago, and I have had to reset it (unplug from power, wait 15 seconds, and plug it back in) two or more times per day, because it kept dropping connections.

I finally tried setting it from "mixed" to G-only (I have no 802.11a or 802.11b devices). That seems to have helped, a LOT. I still need to reset it, but only about once a week now, instead of 2 or 3 times per day.
 

blakecaudill

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Dec 26, 2012
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Check out NetReset1. website is www.netreset1.com. I can not explain why this happens but I had to power cycle my modem and router daily or my Internet would not work. I purcahsed NetReset1 and it power cycles the equipment daily for me. I have not manually power cycled my router or modem in over 6 months. Very good buy.
 
Aug 6, 2013
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I dont have the same router. The problem seems to be because the computer software (Windows) affects the way it should direct itself to the Wi-Fi network connection; which is unable to tell the router to `look left and right`. e.g. It is unable to tell the router to head to the Outside internet or the internal HOME Network.
I have windows 8 on four computers. Two are off most of the time. The network printer is wireless.
I use a buffallo hi-spec router. The router is not the problem. The problem is Windows (8).
My laptop is an i7 3D dynabook and I have to
 
Aug 6, 2013
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CONTINUED..........
My laptop is an i7 3D dynabook and I have to "Diagnose" network not working every time I try to print or use the internet when I start the laptop up.
The same goes for the Hand-built i7 Z87 Sabertooth Desktop running W8.

My solution is to suggest that a Microsoft executive shoud kidnap himself and hang himself off ropes over a small fire and stay there until he thinks up a fix; even if that means sharing some additional info with the router and Wi-fi manufactureres.
 

Darkblue006

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Dec 28, 2013
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I have a Xfinity cisco modem/ router and it does the same thing too..

my bet is that they have this set into it so you can't use it for hosting service instead of paying for a lot of hardware you don't need they just make it so you need to reset every so many hours or so, they are also keeping track of your usage, and can now control how much bandwidth you get from some sites.
 

dshaps

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Jul 2, 2014
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sally10

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Jul 25, 2014
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I have the same problem. I've tried a couple of routers (BT Home Hub 3 and a Thompson model) but no difference. To keep everything connected means resetting the router 2 or 3 times a day but I have tracked the problem back to WPA2. If I change the router setting to WEP then no problem at all, network stays up for weeks but the minute I change to WPA or WPA2 then a few hours and it needs a reset.
I'm using the latest router firmware, anti virus and firewall all up to date but still feel vulnerable pushing back to WEP.
Anyone got any suggestions?
 

David Haas

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Aug 10, 2014
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I too have had problems with wireless routers failing prematurely. They DO seem to be junk! My symptoms have generally been radio-related. Disconnects from the Access Point.

But that being said, it sounds more like you folks who have to reset your routers every day might have a problem related to IP address distribution. These routers use DHCP to distribute IP addresses, but if you have some devices on your network (like printers) where you hard-assign an IP address, and then DHCP hands out the same address, you will find that you get all kinds of crazy things happen with those two devices not able to communicate. The router will also have its own IP address (often 192.168.1.1). If you hard-assign another device to that same address inadvertantly, then nothing on your network will communicate through the router. If you have DHCP set to distribute 192.168.1.1 to a device, then you get the same problem. Resetting the router might clear the problem for a short time.

So check your router configuration to make sure DHCP is distributing addresses which you are not using for any of your other devices.
 
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sally10

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Jul 25, 2014
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I don't think it is the IP address that is the issue here and it was the first thing that I tried and ruled out as the problem.
The DHCP setup in the router looks fine and there are no conflicts with device addresses. I extended the lease time to 20 days but still the problem persisted. I also tried disabling DHCP and setting all the devices up with static IP's but the problem is still there.

The only thing I have found that solves the issue is to change the security setting to WEP. With WEP turned on the network and devices stay up for as long as I tested it (which was a couple of weeks) but after turning back to WPA2 the issue was back within the day.
I have checked with the manufacturers of all of my connected devices and they all support WPA2 so doesn't appear to be an obsolete equipment problem.
 

caruncles

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Feb 20, 2013
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We have 16 access points. They were all Intermecs and installed around 2004. some of them have croaked and been replaced with newer, <$100 APs or Wifi routers. We have NetGears, Cisco, Linksys, etc., and we have this problem with ALL of them. The network has been using WEP 128 for 10 years. When they don't work, I browse to them using their IP address and reboot. Then it works. The problem is with the radio, not the networking. I can ping them and configure over the network when this happens. However, they won't pass data until I reboot them. I would be willing to buy more-expensive APs if I thought I wouldn't have this same problem. All the APs have static addresses. I'd give a reward of milk chocolate carmel pecan clusters to someone who could solve this issue.

Wallace
Sunnylandfarms.com

 
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