ERR error while browsing and general wifi failings.

gazza_bib

Commendable
Sep 15, 2017
20
0
1,510
Before i explain my error is describe my setup.

Im running two home computers connected to the internet via wifi less than 5m away from the router. Both using USB dongles ( 1 2.4ghz and 1 5 ghz )
I have a TV box also connected to the wifi about 1m away from the router.
i have an ipad connected to the router.

My problem is i have very unstable connections with all the devices.

On my PC's i get this error quite abit while browsing

"This site can’t be reached
www.tomshardware.com’s server IP address could not be found.
Search Google for tomshardware answers 2008428 connected web pages loading
ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED"

Also another fault about DNS but i have not seen that 1 for a couple of days.

My TV box while streaming using nowTV struggles quite abit and i have very low quality streams.

The ipad just drops from streams all together.

Usually a restart fixes on the router fixes it for a short time. about 30 minutes.

I have 20 MB fibre broadband with no faults on the line.

Its plugged into the master socket.

So i believe its my setup that's failing.

I've tinkered with settings and asked help from i ISP but all they do is reboot it and say monitor it.
any suggestions?
Hard wiring isn't an option at the minute.

thanks.

 
Solution
You need to test this while wired. Even if it means draping a 5m long network cable across your floor for a few days. You need to eliminate WiFi as the possible culprit, and hooking up with an Ethernet cable is the only way. If it's a WiFi problem, then you're going to have to look for interference sources, change WiFi channels, re-orient antennas, reposition your computers, replace the dongles with real WiFi adapters with antennas. to try to get a better WiFi signal.

If you encounter the same problem when wired:

Go into your router's settings and manually change the DNS servers to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, and 208.67.222.222. Those are the DNS servers for Google and OpenDNS. Many ISPs use a flaky DNS server, or return failed DNS...
You need to test this while wired. Even if it means draping a 5m long network cable across your floor for a few days. You need to eliminate WiFi as the possible culprit, and hooking up with an Ethernet cable is the only way. If it's a WiFi problem, then you're going to have to look for interference sources, change WiFi channels, re-orient antennas, reposition your computers, replace the dongles with real WiFi adapters with antennas. to try to get a better WiFi signal.

If you encounter the same problem when wired:

Go into your router's settings and manually change the DNS servers to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, and 208.67.222.222. Those are the DNS servers for Google and OpenDNS. Many ISPs use a flaky DNS server, or return failed DNS requests with an ad page which can result in confusing error messages. Google and OpenDNS are much more reliable in my experience, and return an authentic failed DNS lookup page.

It's possible to get similar DNS problems if your upload bandwidth is saturated (common among people who are file sharing). You need to cap your upload bandwidth in the filesharing app, or enable QoS on the router and manually enforce a cap.

If you've got a separate modem/router, you can also try eliminating the router from the equation. Take the computer with the draped Ethernet cable and plug it directly into your modem. Unfortunately this limits you to a single device with Internet access. But you can perform this experiment for as long as you can to see if the problem persists. If it still happens, then it's a problem with your ISP or the modem. (It's also possibly your computer, but probably not since you report the problem across multiple devices.)

If the problem goes away, then you need a different router. What router are you using? If it's an Asus RT-AC series, that's had a 2.4 GHz bug for a long time which results in flaky connections on certain devices (data throughput occasionally drops to zero, which would cause the error messages you're seeing). The baffling thing is the 2.4 GHz guest network works fine, only the 2.4 GHz private LAN connection has the problem. I wasn't able to find a fix a couple years ago and ended up switching to a Netgear router. But I've seen one person report that it's been fixed in the latest Asus firmware. So you can try updating your firmware.
 
Solution