Access Point has Poor Connection

[Wickedfresh]

I recently purchased a Linksys E1200 router to use as an access point. I needed it because I had basically no connection in the upper part of my house. I set up the access point by using an Ethernet cord to connect to my main AT&T router. I did all the steps to set up the access point correctly like disabling DHCP etc. For about 2 weeks everything was fine. I could use my phone in this part of the house and connect my computer via Ethernet. But after about 2 weeks, the access point's Internet began to randomly drop at times. Sometimes it would be many times a day and other times not. I looked up the issue and one guy recommend to set up a static ip on the access point. I did that and it seemed to fix it, but a week or so later the connection began to randomly drop again.

Now the connection is constantly dropping and fluctuating like crazy.

Not sure what is going. If anyone knows anything I will provide any information that is necessary. Thanks.

 

[Solandri]

Routers are little computers (usually running Linux or VX Works). The firmware is the software it runs. Like most software, sometimes it has small bugs in it which don't show up until it's been running for a while. Like a week or two.

More than likely, changing to a static IP address "worked" simply because you rebooted the router. Next time the router starts acting up, try power cycling it to see if that fixes the problem. If it does, then yeah, you've got flaky firmware which starts to develop problems after running for a week or two.

If rebooting fixes it, check in the router's admin settings or advanced options to see if there's something called a keepalive function. That'll let you set the router to automatically reboot on a schedule. Usually once a week or once a day at a specified time. There's little to no penalty for rebooting (you might lose some logs, and people using the Internet will drop connections but you can avoid that by scheduling for like 4am). If the router doesn't have a keepalive function, you can reboot it manually once a week, or you can try upgrading it to a third party firmware which has the function.

https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_E1200

 

[Unolocogringo]

+1 to the above. good advice. for fist steps to diagnosing the problem.