[SOLVED] Weak WiFi Signal Crashes Network ?

[rockwhynot]

Hey guys, my Netgear R6100 wireless router works well so long as connected devices receive a strong signal but if a device's wireless signal is weak by being too far from the router for a minute or two it typically results in the entire wireless network crashing. Connecting one's cell phone to the wireless network and then driving away from the house is a great way to easily crash the WiFi and someone will have to power cycle the router in order to get the WiFi back up.

I have already set the wireless channel to 6 in order to avoid interference, disabled UPnP, disabled guest network, & disabled dual band 5G so that the WiFi router only broadcasts at the 2.4 GHz frequency. Firmware version is V1.0.1.28. I'm aware it's a pretty old router but it should work for our family if devices could just experience slower internet speeds or get disconnected from the network whenever its signal gets too weak instead of causing the entire network to crash and consequently kicking everyone off the internet. Any suggestions on how I can fix these frequent WiFi crashes? Thank you.

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model modem?

"typically results in the entire wireless network crashing. "

Just the wireless devices - do wired devices stay connected? Have you set up a separate wireless network?

Are you assigning static IP addresses within your network?

When every thing is working check all device IP addresses and MACs (Physical Address). There should be no duplicates.

 

[rockwhynot]

-My modem is Arris Surfboard model SB6183.

-No I don't assign IP addresses, all connected devices get their IP addresses dynamically from my ISP. I connected four different devices simultaneously to the wireless network just now and all their IP and MAC addresses are different.

-No we don't have a separate wireless network, just the one.

-I will establish a wired connection later today and check to see if it maintains its internet connection even after the WiFi network crash issue occurs.

Whenever the "network crashes" which admittedly is my best attempt to describe my problem given my level of understanding, actually the wireless network does pop up when scanning for wireless networks. Devices can even connect to it sometimes. However, connecting to that wireless network after it already "crashed" grants no access to the internet. Sometimes using the Windows 10 troubleshooting "Fix/repair my internet connection" corrects the issue and everyone can access the internet again by reconnecting to our wireless network but that tool doesn't always work.

I'd like to mention that after the WiFi has "crashed" on my cell phone I will connect to the WiFi anyway presuming it is visible and I will see the wireless symbol at the top of my cell phone screen and I will notice that only the upload arrow blinks, there will never be any downward arrow blinking which always let's me know my cell phone won't be able to access the internet. Lastly, in my router's advanced wireless settings tab I just unchecked the box "To prevent PIN compromise, auto disable the PIN after X number of failed PIN connections, until router reboots. In auto disabled mode, router's WPS LED will keep blinking slowly." Hopefully that helped fixed this issue... I'll let you know about the wired connection test soon thank you very much Ralston18.

 

[rockwhynot]

I think I may have fixed the issue by unchecking the box in the advanced router settings "To prevent PIN compromise, auto disable the PIN after X number of failed PIN connections, until router reboots." Two years of dealing with this issue geez... I will let you know if I still have issues but for now thank you very much for your time and energy Ralston18.

 

[rockwhynot]

I have an update. My network issue still persists. I thought unchecking that auto disable PIN thing would fix things because I stood next to my neighbor's house while connected to my WiFi using my cell phone with the weakest signal ever and I still somehow managed to watch a 20 minute youtube video albeit there was a lot of buffering. Later on in the day I was back inside and the issue occurred again even though my connection was pretty good yet we all got kicked off the net. I did a scan for all available networks and I saw that our network was still visible and at full strength, but all attempts to reconnect to it failed. I thought one pattern to this issue might be that a weak signal triggers the wireless network to crash, I still think there's something to that notion because the last crash I was spaced away a little out of my comfort zone, but apparently there may be more to this issue than how distant one is to the router. My router may be going into a temporary lock-down state related to the PIN thing.

-I then hard wired my laptop to it and yes I was able to connect to the internet via ethernet even though the WiFi was not allowing anyone to connect to it. The wireless light and internet light on my router remained solid the whole time. Then I power cycled the router again to get the wireless network back up.

I've taken good care of the router over the years, never overheated, never dropped etc. so I would be surprised if there's a hardware issue. And I have not opened any ports in the port forwarding section. It works so well when it's not booting everyone off the WiFi lol. Any further assistance is much appreciated thank you.

 

[Ralston18]

Unfortunately, many electronic devices (and many other things as well) have designed in EOL (End of Life).

What that means is eventually the device will falter and fail. With or without an warning.

No matter how well cared for and treated....

Electronic devices can go through many cycles of heating up and cooling down. Expanding and contracting until something "breaks".

Could be that the wired circuits have held up and the wireless side circuits have not held up. A power side problem would probably have the router not working at all.

Could be multiple intermittent problems occurring in varying patterns and circumstances. Difficult to diagnose. A perfect storm of sorts.

A failure somewhere means that the router has to deal with corrupted packets and continually be sending and re-sending until the wireless exchange is correct. All the extra traffic slows things down.....

Are you able to borrow a router from a family member or friend?

Just set the router up and configure enough to determine if you can achieve stable, working wireless environment.

 

[rockwhynot]

Thank you very much for your response Ralston18. I will look into all those things you mentioned.