I'm at my wits end and need advice.
ATM I have to restart my router about 5 to 10 times a day.
I haven't a clue why or the cause of the situation.
I'm in the UK and I use Plusnet on a Netgear DGN3500
I thought I found out why it's happening as it seems more than a coincidence when the misses is around with her Samsung Galaxy S3 that it happens.
So I though hey! it must be a conflicting IP issue.
I setup dedicated IP's but and it still happens.
The weird thing though is when it does happen it's always surfing the internet that fails first. I've been in many of situations where I can't browse the web but I can skype or still use my VOIP phone. Then of course after a while skype and everything else fails.
What could it be?
Shall I change IPS? but then Plusnet uses BT's infrastructure anyhow and my exchange hasn't been totally unbundle yet (the joys of living out in the sticks). The only other company who has their own hardware in the exchange is TalkTalk and theirs no way I'm going with them.
Shall I buy a new router? If so what do you recommend?
Sorry if I'm coming across as irate but as you can probably tell I'm getting very frustrated having to restart my router. (I've even had to do it writing this post!) :(
Join the club!
I have had three fail in the last 12 months. 1 old one, one sent back for exchange only to die again.
To get over the problem I ended up buying two so that I had a stand-by (one is a Billion BiPAc 7800N) the other is a Cisco. The BiPac loses connection for no reason (just about to send that one back), but has an amazing range. The Cisco seems solid but with a smaller range. Both around £120.
I'm on TalkTalk here. Connection is OK, but the customer service is bad.
I would say try another router first and see if that works. Is the current one still in warranty?
> Is the current one still in warranty?
Na, it's about 2 years old.
You see I was with vodafone@home to start with but they closed that department down and moved/forced everyone to plusnet.
It was fine with Vodafone, maybe a couple of restarts a week but since the move to plusnet it's become more frequent. Not sure if that's a coincident or not but AFIK they both used BT wholesale so the hardware should still be the same.
Today is just the breaking point.
I suppose the other option is to move house to an area with fibre :P
Try a different router before you switch ISP. Not saying it is that, but it certainly has been for me.
If this is a wireless problem, try a different channel for your network. As things come on and off sometimes using a particular channel (neighbors wifi, cordless phones, etc. etc.), it becomes unavailable.
If a wired problem, try updating the firmware if there is a newer version available.
Also, try different dns servers, since voip and skype work.
>Wireless
It's wired and wireless.
But I have used a program called inSSIDer (http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/) and everything seems to be in order.
It's also not just my laptop. It's the misses phone and laptop that has these problems too (thankfully in a roundabout way)
>Firmware
Done that. Was the first thing I did.
>DNS
Haven't tried that. Will get on the case and see if that curbs it.
Thanks.
I think I mentioned this before, but my NetGear router is now serving as the most expensive switch I ever bought. I had nothing but problems with their equipment.
I'm generally a wired guy, but my ASUS RT-N66U has expanded the use of my wireless devices greatly. In about 90 days I rebooted once for a firmware update, and one other time when things went wonky with my DHCP tables...but that was probably my fault. Otherwise the thing just runs.
Try a new router before an ISP change. These guys at the Small Net Builder site have some of the best reviews/reports I found. I used this WAN to LAN Throughput chart to decide on my router: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view
> smallnetbuilder
Yea, love that site. And respect to the guy(s) who run it. A lot of time has gone into it.
I think I will look at getting a new router. The one I got I've had since it first came out as it was one of the only ones that offered ADSL with giga ports. As I've wired my house with cat6 cabling I didn't want a bottle neck.
But time has passed and most have giga ports now so at least my options have opened up more :)
I had to reboot 5-10 times a day when I was with Sky, switched to BT and now never need to except on days with genuinely crap weather, when the trees muck the phone lines up and I'm back to constant rebooting.
Not sure if it's a router thing or BT downgrade other peoples broadband services, but it was definitely an instant change, so if all else fails I suggest a swap to them.
>BT
The misses keeps banging on to me about changing to them. She's getting fed up too.