Wireless Router Death (Not with a Bang,, but with a Whimper)

oXYnary

Is there a way to tell if a wireless router is failing? Having many issues lately, and having spent money on items really didnt need.

It doesn't help that tm having bandwidth issues with (Broadstripe IE Millienium) recently that I cant tell if it was the introduction of my roomates getting regular cable (just had net before, but noooo, they want "TV"), adding a bridge for another roommate who systems so old it cant take an internal card. Or the fact my old wireless g card seemingly would only connect for a few minutes to the network then disconnect then reconnect then disconnect after a recent reinstall. Nevermind my new N card replacement that I have been running the past month is showing somewhat the same issue now.

Or that throwing in another N router for 5 minutes a few weeks back as a test really didnt improve performance any (again issue with Broadstripe brandwidth and timeouts). Or that the Broadstripe people have been out twice so far, and the second time replaced our old modem with one of theirs and reaching 6mpbs when could only reach 4.5 before at most. Then the next day after he leaves, it drops back down to 1.5-2mpbs at peak hours.


Anyhow, I think in all this I still might have a router going bad. Is there a way to tell easily? The wireless N I borrowed for the test has already been returned to person and not easy to get again.


With all the bells and whistles of DD-WRT, it would be cool if it had some type of self diagnostic mode.

Target_Renegade

In 4 years I've had 1 wireless router but 3 power/ac adaptors, it could be that maybe? Usually though when the powers gone the router doesn't switch on at all.

bearkub

To check and see if it is the router or network, take the router out of the equation, if possible. Plug a PC directly into the modem and see if the issues still exist.

oXYnary

its hard to explain, but yes, there is a slight increase in throughput with the laptop that's near the modem when hooked directly in. I only could do this recently since buying a new cable modem since the others would not allow direct connection of a lappy without special software installed.

The throughput still sucks however. Again I think I have two issues going on at once so its hard to separate one from the other.

A: A shitty cable company that may or may not deal with my roomates deciding on cable TV. Or that its something on their end with their servers since I get time outs to their gateway even connected direct to the modem.

B: A shitty connection to the router, that could be caused from so many variables
-having to install a router bridge taking up badnwidth (from what I read bridges take half the available bandwidth).
-Recent Reinstall of windows that possibly went bad with network though roommate suffers issues though not as bad as me (he is much closer to router).
-Flaky router that's failing.

And there it goes again, disconnecting and reconnecting....

gamedev

When your router starts disconnecting and reconnecting like crazy do you power cycle it (turn the power off for 1min then back on)? Does that improve your connection / stop the constant reconnect / disconnect?

Wireless routers go all the time. I've had 4 in the last few years. The wireless radio inside goes first, and intermittent connection issues and slow speeds can be the first signs.

oXYnary

Yea, it was dying. I managed to get the other router, and its super now. I didnt know they could have slow deaths. I thought they would work, or they would brick.

The new router doesn't support dd-wrt though