Home Networking Troubleshooting?

[Phog Allen]

Gents, we have had a nagging issue with our home network for several months. It started with constant disconnections of our HP wireless printer. The laptop we use would pop up this warning dialogue box; Scan to computer is no longer activated. The network connection to the printer has been lost'. Things go progressively worse and our Netflix and YouTube videos would buffer constantly and many times stop playing.

Calls to provider, Wow!, led to their suspicion of a bad cable modem. They were right. A new Arris(Motorola) SB6141 Surfboard seemed to fix it. We had not had a huge amount of network issues with the hard wired part but always the wifi. I get it. Wifi in any form is nowhere near as reliable or consistent as Category cable. But now we are also experiencing a lot more network troubles. Even on our hardwired connections. Load of buffering and drops to the FireTv.

Set up; Arris(Motorola) SB6141 Surfboard modem. Maybe three months old. Asus RT-N66R dual band wireless N900 router with built in Gigabit switch ports. Category 6 patch cable ran from router to telly area and connected to a Linksys four port gigabit switch. Cable run is about 50ft and has been rock steady for years. It does lay on the floor though and has been subjected to foot traffic and other issues over the years so I don't rule out. We have a 12Mb download speed package with 1.5Mb upload that has been more than rock steady. At least til the recent issues. So while it could be their service, I need to rule out network before calling. If Wow! sends a tech and the line side is not the issue then we have to pay the service call. This is likely I am guessing to run between 75-100 dollars so we are well motivated to do some troubleshooting first.

We are still getting the printer notification issue from time to time. But larger is the FireTv issue. You cannot watch a single video without multiple buffers, horrid latency, and sometimes outright drops. Even on the wired connection. So as an electrician, I understand how to diagnose power issues. Cut the circuit in half, remove components, etc. I was thinking of this. Remove the router and switch entirely and connect the Cat6 cable from modem to the FireTv direct. And see if that works. I don't think the FireTv needs the router to work but it may if it needs an IP address assigned. I am not sure. If that works then add the router. Again to the FireTv alone. Then add back in the switch and so on til hopefully something becomes apparent.

Wifi troubleshooting is a complete mystery to me. I can access the router and set up the passwords, which frequency gets priority and things like that but quality of service or other connection issues are simply not intuitive to me. Last, I have thought of trying to reset the router to factory specs and downloading the firmare(s) to the latest and starting over. It is already updated with the latest but who knows if there is a corruption? I am simply unsure as to how to proceed to see if the router itself is the issue or the incoming service. Lots of questions I know but if there is any group around who can help me out it's right here at B&B. Thanks.

 

[Commander Quan]

My HP printer givesme the same message, and it sits 3 feet above the wifi router.

I would start with what you suggested starting with a hardwired connection from the modem and work out from there. I know anything about the Fire TV but you should be able to do a hard rest, and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Phog Allen]

Derrick, I did indeed try the direct connection. And it worked. And it was obvious to the eye and senses the connection was faster. Almost zero buffering to start Neftlix videos and even a 30 minute skip forward resulted in less than two seconds buffering to start again. YouTube was nearly as good requiring 4-5 seconds buffering during initial start up and 5-10 seconds buffering if you fast forwarded a bit. That latter seems high but it has always been like this. Google/YouTube have always seemed to have ridiculous problems with video delivery at times. Netflix has their streams optimised for delivery over minimal connections.

I did a hard reset but I am not convinced it really does it. I think it wipes out settings and personalisations but the firmware remained the latest that was installed a few weeks ago. I double checked for a new version but it was up to date. One thing I was a bit curious about was the QoS option. I think this is aimed at gamers but wouldn't it apply to video delivery as well? I enabled it and entered the upload/download speeds claimed by my ISP and left it at that. I did not try to customise the settings since I haven't a clue what to do. Right now my wife and daughter are messing around with Amazon video looking at movie trailers. Like Netflix they know how to optimise the delivery. No issues so far. I will keep and eye on it and update this thread with results. And in case someone has any other ideas!

I can say that when I added the switch back to the mix I thought it showed just a slight increase in buffer times but it was not bad. I went ahead with the router reset the minute I connected it back into the network. I am really suspicious of this router. I hope it holds up since it was not cheap and is not old either. New cables are likely in order as well. Monoprice is dirt cheap for great cables. Couldn't hurt. And I am going reconfigure the system so the router sits behind the telly. This will allow direct connection to the streaming devises with no extra switch and put the antennas 25 feet closer to the typical use area.

 

[Commander Quan]

I think moving the router will be your best bet. I have a Vizio smart TV in the bedroom that will periodically have buffering issues especially with youtube but occasionally with Netflix & Hulu. The ridiculous part is when this happens running a speed test app on my phone in the sameroom shows a 65mb download speed.

I'm thinking of getting a wifi to ethernet adapter to connect to that tv in the hope that a different adapter with an external antenna fixes the issue.

 

[Bebe]

Hi Todd
As a rule of thumb, using a wired connection is ALWAYS better than WiFi... N66R is a decent router (although runs kinda hot) but don't expect to give the same performance a direct ethernet cable connection. I do this for a living and i prefer to have a router and APs (access point) separately. For my home i use the same modem as you, an UBNT EdgerRouter Lite, (i have 100mb pipe), HP 24 port switch and a few EnGenius APs. EnGenius are ok (I do prefer the UBNT Unifi, which i use at work, but i did not want something centrally managed for home use). Like you've said, Monoprice prices are hard to beat and now they came out with a thin ethernet cable, more visually appealing.
I would suggest to hard wire whatever you can and get an Access Point as well - yes, you'll need to hook it up to your router via a cat5/6 but the advantage is you can move it around for better signal.

 

[TexFlood]

Wireless can be much more fiddly than wired. let's take the case that you have it working and it starts acting up. Often this gets attributed to equipment failure, usually the wireless router.

Now maybe it is, or client hardware failure. But in my experience it's much more often interference. Very commonly it's a neighbor with a new device.

But it can be anything on the same frequency range. For an N router, that's 2.4GHz. So it can be another router, microwaves, baby monitors, alarm systems, phones, keyboards, mice, headsets, Bluetooth devices, etc. Unfortunately there are many possible sources. Some Comcast equipment by default runs a public access portal that can interfere with your equipment.

There are free smart phone apps to help identify interfering wireless network devices, but not of course non-network interference in that range. Positioning of the router can make a big difference.

You might want to play with an app that I plan to look at - heatmapper. It is a free tool for creating a visual "heat" map of wireless coverage of your environment. Positioning your router & antenna can have a huge impact on reception in weak areas. I've tried to follow the best advice in the past but in the end it's testing / trial & error that tells me what is best. So any tools that help with that are worth looking IMHO.

Product page:
http://www.ekahau.com/wifidesign/ekahau-heatmapper

Reviews & how-tos:
http://mobile.wi-fiplanet.com/reviews/article.php/3822241/Review-Ekahau-HeatMapper.htm
http://www.howtogeek.com/165614/how...nalysis-better-coverage-and-geek-cred-galore/
http://lifehacker.com/5293823/heatmapper-helps-you-create-a-detailed-signal-strength-map

And check this to be sure you aren't baking any of those mistakes.

http://7signal.com/blog/10-wi-fi-antenna-placement-mistakes/

 

[Ecl]

This is one of those "duh" things, but I suffered through a month of bad internet connectivity after my most recent move. Did diags with cable co, swapped modems, etc etc. No good. Then one day I noticed that the cable modem had the wrong power supply. Turns out a lower-rated router power supply gives enough juice to (sort of) run a cable modem. I wasted a lot of time looking for a complex solution to what turned out to be a simple problem, but it's now a part of my diagnostic routine: are all the devices matched up with the correct wall-warts?

 

[thematthatter]

This is one of those "duh" things, but I suffered through a month of bad internet connectivity after my most recent move. Did diags with cable co, swapped modems, etc etc. No good. Then one day I noticed that the cable modem had the wrong power supply. Turns out a lower-rated router power supply gives enough juice to (sort of) run a cable modem. I wasted a lot of time looking for a complex solution to what turned out to be a simple problem, but it's now a part of my diagnostic routine: are all the devices matched up with the correct wall-warts?

Same exact thing when we first moved, Time warner guy came over and set up the modem and used the wrong power supply. We were paying for 25MBS and only getting 1.5MBS.


I have my own modem now, saves us $6 a month in rental fees and time warner will "activate or provision it"over the phone.

 

[Phog Allen]

Thanks for the responses. The modem is powered with the supply it shipped with. So is the Asus. So all should be well on that account.

The reset seems to have helped but I know better than to be too happy til a day or two goes by.

As for cabling versus wifi, there is no contest. We use wifi to connect mobile devises and all the streaming devises are supplied through category rated patch cables from the router or switch. In fact, I am considering a structured wire install through the house. Not only will it give me hard wire performance throughout but more importantly I can add drops at the entry doors and garage area for POE cameras. Just a matter of time and effort.

 

[1kentj]

Hello Phog

Not sure if you have done this or not but if it were me I would start with pushing the reset on the modem or unplugging it for a minute or two and then trying the Asus website and checking that your WiFi router has the latest firm update. No expert here, that is what I would try.

Regards, Kent

 

[gb12549]

There's a few things to try:
1. Check your laptop in the system tray on the bottom right & look at "available connections"
- Cable companies often issue a bundled modem/router. If you have a separate router on top of that it's going thru a network on top of a network.
2. Do a speed test
- Cable companies often lie about what you actually get because the majority of their customers don't verify via speed testing. Run it off your laptop both connected via cable direct to modem and WiFi
3. Check the frequency standard for your setup
- New stuff is backward compatible for the most recent iterations preceding it; old stuff doesn't always accommodate adjacent iterations. Think Moore's Law - things that are relatively new purchases may be outdated earlier than you think!
4. Check for pirates
- free WiFi is free WiFi!! See who may be sucking your bandwidth and make sure you put a PW on your network.
5. See if there are other deals about from different providers too
- When you run speed test, it will tell you what's about and what other experience

 

[Alacrity59]

With all the wifi proliferation you could also try setting yours to a different channel.

 

[bberg100]

I use Net Analyzer on my I-Phone to scan the area for other wifi setups, lock into a channel with the least usage in your neighborhood. When the kids next door get a new XBox be prepared to rescan and pick a new least used channel. Channel selection and router placement will cure 90% of wifi ills.

 

[TexFlood]

With all the wifi proliferation you could also try setting yours to a different channel.

Yes, that very likely will help. You can use a tool to see what other Wi-Fi signals may be interfering and use that Intel to make an educated guess what the best channel for your case might be. Easiest way is using a mobile device that you can carry around for tests, but you can also use whatever stationary devices you may have in the target locations. Here's some suggestions for free software on a few different platforms to aid in this. Oh, and in my experience, pick a static channel, don't use automatic channel functions, I've never found those to work well. On the end, testing will prove what works best.

Android – Wifi Analyzer
Windows – NirSoft WifiInfoView
Linux – The iwlist Command
Mac OS X – Wireless Diagnostics