Has my M1424WR router "gone bad"? - and its replacement "bad" out of the box?

[robardin]

I've had Verizon FiOS service for about 3 years now, and have had very few problems with it.  A few times I lost internet or TV during storms when lines came down somewhere, but that's about it. 

The FiOS installer gave me an Actiontec M1424WR router and access port, with a coax connection to the outside box.  I have a multi-room DVR setup (2 DVRs that can "see" each other, and a third read-only STB), so as I understand it I have to use the Actiontec (good bye to my old Linksys router used with my high speed cable service).

I have 4 computers attached directly to the router and up to 8-10 wireless devices (cell phones, tablets, wireless printer, gaming devices, streaming media players, etc.) on my home network.  As such, I reset the router's SSID to the same one I had before, with 128-bit WEP security (a 16 char hex key).  I also am "advanced" enough to know how to go through the advanced settings and start the DHCP address allocation to start at 192.168.1.100 to allow several of my devices (network storage drive, wireless printer, gaming systems, etc.) to maintain locally static IP addresses like 192.168.1.3 through 192.168.1.9 that reconnect when the router is reset or rebooted.

All this worked beautifully for about 3 years, until last week.  The wireless network started dropping out - not just external internet access, but seeing other hosts in the home network - requiring a router reset to come back (or just a disable/re-enable of wireless service via the router settings at http://192.168.1.1).  However, the "Wireless" light on the router remains green.

Even the wired internet connection (the computer hooked up with an Ethernet cable, right next to the router) would lose its internet connection for 5-10 seconds at a time before resuming.  The multi-room DVR functionality would get spotty, too - until a reset, boxes couldn't see each other, playing back data from another box would be very slow or not come up at all.

After 4 goes of it with Verizon support via chat and phone (the experience of which I won't go into), which included a remote reset of my external access box by Verizon, I concluded that the router must have gone bad.

Last night, I went in person to a Verizon service station near me to swap the router, got back what they said was a "brand new" M1424WR, and installed it...  To get the same problem, actually worse.  The wireless drops out in about 5 minutes, the light is still green but no wireless hosts can ping each other or anything on the wider internet (like using Speedtest).  I can use my wired internet fine (no hiccups there, yet) but my multi-room DVR is not 100%, two boxes can see the other two but one of the DVRs can only see itself.

It seems unlikely but I have to believe this is still a problem with the router box itself, and I just got yet another flaky one back, right?  Nothing in my home network has changed (no new devices, services added, firmware updates, etc.) from last Tuesday when it was fine.

Any other ideas for me to try?

[robardin]

BTW it doesn't seem like it's the router.  I swapped out the second MI424WR Rev F router for a Rev I (the 3rd router in a week) and it has the same problem.

Puzzled as to what this could be, I'm going to have to start looking at interference scenarios I guess?

[gs0b]

Try to determine if the problem with WiFi is due to a radio problem or the connection to the internet.  Many WiFi devices (including Windows computers) will tell you the WiFi link speed.  This should be 54Mbps for a 802.11 a/b/g link or up to 130Mbps for an 802.11n (wih the MI42WR rev I).

If your link speed is good and the link doesn't go down, that points to an issue with your local area network.  I suspect this is what you'll find.

The connection between your router and the Internet is via coax.  The same coax is used for the LAN connection used by your set-top boxes.  My guess is something is causing problems with your coax, thus causing overall Internet connectivity problems and the DVR issues.  Check all your cables and splitters to make sure connections are tight and nothing is demanded.

Good Luck!

[robardin · Accepted solution]

Well, I traced it to a "radio problem" with a client device.  It was a "Belkin F5D7330 802.11g Wireless Ethernet/Gaming Adapter" I was using to connect a network printer that has only an ethernet port to my wireless network (so I wouldn't have to run CAT5 cable to where the printer is situated).

To do this I had to remove/disable ALL my wireless devices and computers, then add them back in one by one...  It was frustrating because I'd forgotten that printer was actually connected wirelessly, I was used to thinking of it as connected via an ethernet cable since I "knew" that's what the printer supported.  I even unplugged my 2.4 GHz wireless phone base, which I actually believed to be the culprit.  I only remembered the printer's wireless adapter after everything else was removed.

But once I unplugged the Belkin's power, boom, my wireless network was back to normal!  And plugging it back in caused the problem again.  So it's bye-bye Belkin.

[smith6612]

Congrats on finding the problem. Devices can go bad, and some can develop incompatibilities. If you find a way to get it working again without messing up your network, others I'm sure would love to hear.