Wireless internet dropping but wired connections keep working

[dgoepfrich]

Hi,

I've been dealing with this for about three weeks now and just can't figure it out. I was out of town when my wife said that her laptop was having internet issues. Turns out it was every wireless device in the house.

Since coming back home I've factory reset the modem, router, and Unifi AP. I've replaced the AP, deleted the SSID, and created a new one with new password.

The thing is that none of the wired computers drop, even if plugged into the same switch as the AP. Also, Netflix (wireless on Wii) rarely drops, even when everything else does. And it's everything else - laptops, phones, tablets, wireless camera - even in the same room as the AP.

I'm doing this post on my laptop, and it's dropped during the process. But yesterday I had the same laptop plugged into the switch pinging 8.8.8.8 continuously with no issues at all. Plugged in it gets full internet speed, no lagging.

I've tried a lot of things, but all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Daniel

 

[dgoepfrich]

I should mention that the SSID doesn't drop. The devices are still connected, and I can ping other devices on my internal network, but they can't load web pages.

 

[Jesse_20]

Try downloading an app to your phone called wifi analyzer. Load it up and you can see what networks are on what channels in the vicinity, as well as how much channels are overlapping as well as how congested they are. If you find yourself on a congested channel, change the channel in your router to one that is barely used.

It's also possible the wireless amplifier in the router is going bad, in which case you need to replace the router.

 

[dgoepfrich]

Thanks, Jesse...wifi analyzer definitely shows overlap, but the signal is much stronger than the others in the vicinity (-50 or -40 compared to -80 and -90). I've tried channels 1, 3, and 11. There are a lot in the channel 6 range.

My router is not wireless, just an 8-port router. Would that have an amplifier in it? My Unifi AP is the only wireless feed.

Additional info... last time it went down, I did a continuous ping on both 8.8.8.8 and the router via my wireless laptop. Pinging Google dropped as expected, but I can still ping within the network (router and AP).

 

[Jesse_20]

No, the router would not have an amplifier, only a wifi device. After reading your situation closely, I'm suspecting the issue ios with the unifi aAP, even though you replaced it.
I did a bit of research, and if this is your AP:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0ED-0005-00014&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Network+-+Wireless+AP%2FBridge-_-0ED-0005-00014&gclid=CMTA84PVidMCFRW2wAod6i0AOQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Then I suspect the video streaming is bringing it to a crashing halt. That unit has less than stellar reviews when streaming video and could be crashing page loads due to congestion. This could explain why a quick ping could get through. Out of curiosity, what is the delay of the pings to the router from wireless laptop while the web won't load?
I'm leaning toward the AP being the culprit because you are still able to ping the local network wirelessly while the internet is not accessible through wireless, but is accessible through wired during this time (If I understood you correctly).
An application like Netflix gets assigned an amount of bandwidth to ensure a smooth video without buffering. If this bandwidth overruns an inadequate device, the device slows down to a crawl while trying to maintain that prioritized stream. I'd be also interested in knowing if the dropouts occur while no one is streaming video/file sharing.

 

[dgoepfrich]

Then I suspect the video streaming is bringing it to a crashing halt. ... I'd be also interested in knowing if the dropouts occur while no one is streaming video/file sharing.

Yes, the dropouts occur whether we're streaming or not. Last night, I was doing a continuous ping to Google, before we turned on Netflix, and it was dropping regularly, but usually for only 30 secs or so. Again, every wireless device lost internet access, even though still connected to the network. With Netflix on, there was no difference, except that the stream kept going while other devices dropped.

Out of curiosity, what is the delay of the pings to the router from wireless laptop while the web won't load?

That usually drops from about 1-2ms to several hundreds or more than 1,000ms during the drops.

I'm leaning toward the AP being the culprit because you are still able to ping the local network wirelessly while the internet is not accessible through wireless, but is accessible through wired during this time (If I understood you correctly).

Yes, this is correct. Only wireless devices are affected. My gut keeps wanting to look at the router, but wired devices don't drop, so I keep getting drawn back to something in the wireless system. But it almost can't be a setting, since I was gone when it first happened, and no one else in the house messes with any of it.

That is the AP we have, albeit a little older. Ours is about 3 years old, and it has worked great until just a few weeks ago when all this started. I'm not sure why replacing it with a different, working AP (from a completely different location and network) would continue the problem if it were an AP hardware problem.

 

[Jesse_20]

You might want to look into virus scanning all the computers/devices on the network. A botnet virus could be using a device on your network that would explain the extra congestion.

The delay on that 1 bit ping is extremely high. But it does show that the wireless is in fact still up, but very congested. When a web page loads, it's loading thousands of bits, so the page is timing out while waiting in line to pass the chokepoint. You can try to track down a specific culprit by looking at each computers network traffic (performance monitor->network) and seeing where the suspicious activity might be coming from.

You can also look at the delay times when pinging the AP vs when pinging the router. If the AP is returning small delays, you know the issue is somewhere in the Router->Cable->AP connection. You can try pinging any devices on the wireless and look at delays there, which might point to a specific device having issues which is bogging down the entire network.

 

[dgoepfrich]

You might want to look into virus scanning all the computers/devices on the network. A botnet virus could be using a device on your network that would explain the extra congestion.

I'm running Bitdefender Total Security 2017 on all my Windows and Android devices, but I'll do thorough scans to be sure.

The delay on that 1 bit ping is extremely high. But it does show that the wireless is in fact still up, but very congested. When a web page loads, it's loading thousands of bits, so the page is timing out while waiting in line to pass the chokepoint. You can try to track down a specific culprit by looking at each computers network traffic (performance monitor->network) and seeing where the suspicious activity might be coming from.

I'll work on that tonight. I'll start by taking all wireless devices off the network and adding them back one at a time. There are only a couple that are on it all the time, so I'll start with those.

You can also look at the delay times when pinging the AP vs when pinging the router. If the AP is returning small delays, you know the issue is somewhere in the Router->Cable->AP connection. You can try pinging any devices on the wireless and look at delays there, which might point to a specific device having issues which is bogging down the entire network.

I'll run some more ping tests and see if I can screenshot them here for you.

Thanks for all your help on this!

 

[dgoepfrich]

So, interesting twist. Last night, I went home and turned wifi off of all wireless devices except my laptop. I started a continuous ping of 8.8.8.8, the router, and the AP. Over the course of a couple of hours, I added all the wireless devices back onto the network, one at a time.

By the time I went to bed (probably 5-6 hours), the ping had sent more than 19,000 packets. None were lost with the router or AP, and only 7 were lost with the public DNS. So, essentially, it didn't go down all evening.

I didn't change anything on any of the wireless devices, just turned off wifi and turned them back on. No settings, no change in usage, etc. I'll watch it again today with everything already on and see what happens.