Wireless Router Issues

Aegis

OS: Vista 64-bit

I have a cable modem that works perfectly. However, since my sister has a laptop I've bought a DIR-615 wireless router, set it up as per the CD instructions so she could connect from my connection and it worked.

For maybe 2 days. Lately (most notably today) I've been having intermittent connection issues. Connection would be fine, then randomly just stop working. Oddly, all the lights including the Internet connectivity light on the wireless router still work, making me have no idea what the hell's wrong. Disconnecting the wireless router and reconnecting my cable modem to the computer makes Internet come back instantly, making it obvious the router's the problem.

Any idea what the hell's wrong with the router or how I can fix it? I'm not terribly versed in wireless networking or why my router is telling me it's working when it isn't.

TL DR

This fixes 90% of router issues.
1 Unplug router
2 Wait 5 seconds
3 Plug in router

Failing that, check and make sure there aren't other networks broadcasting on the same channel.

Aegis

Did that multiple times earlier and it didn't do anything.

And I have no idea what that last sentence means or how to go about it.

exoplasm

Is it the internet not working, or the connection to the router? There is a distinct difference.

Also, microwave ovens and cordless phones are the bane of wifi.

TL DR

Open command prompt (start > run > "cmd")
Type "ipconfig" and look at the 'default gateway'. Type those numbers into your web browser. Should be something like 192.168.0.1

Poke around and see what channel your wireless connection is broadcasting on. If there isn't an option for scanning other networks to see their channel, just try changing yours and see if that helps.

Aegis

exoplasm wrote: »

Is it the internet not working, or the connection to the router? There is a distinct difference.

Also, microwave ovens and cordless phones are the bane of wifi.

I'm 100% positive the internet is working fine, as evidenced by the fact that whenever I plug my cable modem right back into my computer my Internet has no issues. However, my router connection was also fine initially. It just decided, for some reason, to become intermittent even though all visual indications (no flashing warning lights) indicate it's working.

There's no microwave anywhere near my router, though there is a cordless like at the other end of the basement.

Aegis

Okay, now, after attempting to check the channel Timothy, the router's working again. Though I doubt for long.

Edit: Though it won't let me login to check router settings. Apparently the factory password's wrong. Bleh.

exoplasm

What I mean is the connection from your router to the cable modem, or the router to your computer.

If you can connect to your router (usually http://192.168.0.1 or similar) then your wireless connection should be fine (but that won't tell you if its spotty). Usually from the router you can run tests to see if its connected to the 'net.

Try unplugging the power from both the modem and the router for 30 seconds or so, then plug them both back in (doesn't matter which order or at same time). Plugging into your PC can prevent your router from getting hooked up to the modem because of the way cable companies handle DHCP.

Aegis

I think I'm beginning to hate wireless.

Just after the suggestions here at the beginning of the week, I thought to reset the router to its factory settings (partially so I could get into its settings by resetting the pass since I forgot the one I set it to the first time). Well, resetting the router and setting the connection back up seemed to fix the system entirely and I had internet.

Then it started doing its same old thing and I thought perhaps (since it seemed to coincide) that it was cutting out each time my computer went into sleep mode, so I turned that off on my computer. That seemed to fix it up even more, with my connection remaining on constantly except for small interruptions whenever I came back to the computer after a long break and turned on the monitor on (the connection would just disconnect for a split second then reconnect and have no issues).

Now it seems to have just stopped working entirely as it was doing initially at random moments. I followed Timothy's suggestion to find the channel, but switching channels didn't seem to do anything. The router's status seemed to show the following at the time under the WAN status window:

Connection Type: DHCP Client
Cable Connection: Connected
Network Connection: Establishing...

And doin' nothing, staying like that.

So I followed exo's suggestion with the power to both router and modem. This resulted in the router indeed establishing a network connection, causing the Internet indicator to show on both the router and on my computer's network icon. However, even though everything is telling me I now have internet, nothing is connecting when I try to use firefox or msn. This is how it seems to be staying.

In effect, it worked for about a week with less issues and now has stopped again.

And again, plugging the cable modem directly into the computer fixes all my ills, at least with regard to getting internet on 1 computer.

Edit: When I look through MSN Messenger's internet connectivity troubleshooter, it seems to throw up red flags at the DNS and Key Ports stage, whatever the heck that means.

Edit #2: I seem to still have some very limited internet access though, in that Steam continues to be able to refresh my server list and current friend status while not being able to view its store or any of the large tabs.

Edit #3: Resetting the router to factory settings (3rd time now) and installing it from scratch also solves the issue, though from past indication it's only temporary.

exoplasm

Try setting your DNS servers to 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2.

If this fixes the problem then your ISP has crap DNS servers, though something else could be going on.

In Windows you can enable or disable putting wireless adapter to sleep to save power. Check in the device manager for that.

photozz

Everything your saying points to interference. I have the exact same behaviour, so I know what your talking about. I'm guessing one of your neighbours has a wireless router that is interfering on your channel. You need to go to that web page again, log in and try another channel and see if it helps your problems. If you don't have the default admin password for your router, check the manual or the Internet. It's usually pretty easy to find.

Aegis

So, touch wood, I've had a week with only one issue (the router autochanged the channel on the router which screwed up the laptop's internet access but was easily solved by changing the channel back to the one I know it's usually on).

It seems that changing the power settings on my computer's network adapter may have done the trick. Thanks for all the help.