Router dropping calls and other latency sensitive data, help!

Sterlingr

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Feb 11, 2015
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18,510
Hoping someone can help;

About a year ago got new fiber to the home internet with a Pace 5268ac. I now notice that the wireless performance is very strange. I'm hoping I can get some input as to where the problem lies.

It seems as though the connection completely drops for 10-30 seconds every few minutes. With buffered video it usually causes few problems, but when doing things like FaceTime, Skype, or calling via AT&T Wifi it causes the call to fail completely, it's maddening. Additionally, webpages sometimes hang loading completely.

I am wondering if buying new AP's (Ubiquiti) will solve this, or if there is something else wrong here than just the crappy wireless system in the all-in-one pace. Interestingly, I haven't run into any of these problems on my wired desktop, although I don't use it as much as my wireless devices. Possibly it's the router/ modem part? Further symptoms are listed below.

1. Calls from the bedroom furthest from, the router (Where I usually get 7-9mbps) cut out and drop every 5-10 mins.
2. Calls from the basement (Where I usually get 30-40mbps) drop every 20ish minutes)
3. Places in the house get seemingly random speeds. Example: On my deck I get between 2mbps and 60mbps randomly.
4. When browsing the web, sometimes sites will hang and take over a minute to start loading unless I disconnect and reconnect.
5. I pay for 100mbps, get 120 when right next to the router.
 
Solution


Based on your wireless-only problems yes - was in a similar predicament with FIOS 75/75, the built-in wifi on the quantum router had exactly the same symptoms you describe... Stuttering, dropouts, disconnects etc once outside the same room as the router. Once I disabled the built-in wifi and setup an UniFi AP-AC-LR in the center on my townhome I suddenly have full 5Ghz signal in pretty much every room in the house and 1/2 strength in the backyard. The 2.4ghz connections are also solid...


Based on your wireless-only problems yes - was in a similar predicament with FIOS 75/75, the built-in wifi on the quantum router had exactly the same symptoms you describe... Stuttering, dropouts, disconnects etc once outside the same room as the router. Once I disabled the built-in wifi and setup an UniFi AP-AC-LR in the center on my townhome I suddenly have full 5Ghz signal in pretty much every room in the house and 1/2 strength in the backyard. The 2.4ghz connections are also solid and no dropouts.

As a bonus, the crappy wifi adapters in old laptops suddenly work well and the cheap AC600 USB adapters also get very good performance. It is not the fastest connection per device but it is very stable and tried to connect all my devices at once (about 50 with some friends over) and could not get any wifi performance degradation to be seen. Was well worth it IMHO, I absolutely recommend in congested environments like apartments or townhome communities (I can see about 200 APs in my wifi analyzer app, we are pretty close to the center of a town).
 
Solution