internet problems

[mark3]

Hi all,

I am sorry this is so long I don't know what is important to help solve the problem... I have developed a problem with my FIOS (internet only no tv, the service is 15/5). Last Sunday it was slow (1.5m down, 5mUp) I called into Verizon they told me that there was an outage and it would be fixed by Monday by 7am. I got home for work at 4 on Monday and the service was even slower (600k down, 5m up was the best, some tests would not complete - using speakeasy). I called into verizon and we went though a whole bunch of junk, where he told me they do not guarantee speed and he needed to know what my wired speed was before he would do anything to help me. I could not even get the verizon speed test to start, my connection was so “iffy”. He had me connect the computer to the ONT and he determined I was dropping packets to certain URLs and to others it was ok. After an hour on my cell with the guy he gave up thanked me for calling and hung up. The service was no better...

I played around with it for a couple more hours, totally messing up the router and had to call back at 9pm. The gal who I got this time had me on line with in 5 minutes at the proper speed. This leads me to the current problem and I think the original problem...

My router keeps dropping the internet to the WiFi only. Anything I have hard wired into the router (Verizon Actiontec MI424WR-Gen2) works fine at speed but anything connected though WiFi periodically goes down (i.e. no internet) but you can still log onto the router, see the other computers on the network (and move files between the computers) but just no internet and it is all of my WiFi devices. When this happens the router does have a lease with the ONT (although it seems it is a short lease, one time it was 91min another it was 73 min) and it shows it is on the net.

The set up has been problem free for over a year. Nobody else is on the same channel nor close enough physically to interfere and there are no new electronics in the house, nor anything that could be on the same frequency. Another thing maybe related, when I turn on my laptop it takes a good 2 or 3 minutes for the router to give it an ip address. The others are snappy, the laptop being on/off has no impact on it dropping the internet. It will come back on its own w/o doing anything. I do not know if the router is rebooting on its own. All computers are windows 7 machines and the router does have the latest firmware (update a while back), if that matters any.

Here is the question.... How do I know when the router is going bad and what can I do about it? What would cause this problem if it isn't the router and I am sure it is not RF interference?

thank you for your help.  I get my work from the internet and when it is down i don't work the next day.  So I am panickey when it is not working perfectly.  Thanks

[cert1]

it seems you have isolated the problem to the wifi portion of the router, you could change the wireless channel to like 9 or 10 instead of automatic you may have someone broadcasting on the same channel as your router ?

[mark3]

Thank you for the response but i have checked all of the neighbors and they seem to be sitting on channel 6 so mine is set to channel 11.  It only went out once today so it seems to be getting better (i don't know why). I am going to piggy back an older router on an open 10/100 port with a gateway address of 192.168.0.1 (the action tec is 1.1 as the last two quartetes) and when the actiontec dies i can just jump over to the other router.  It is not an elegant solution but it atleast gives me some redundancy.  Thanks again. 

[Hubrisnxs]

Try channel 1 if 11 and 6 are no good.

[mark3]

Thank you for your response.  Unfortunatelly, the problem is not solved and i have tried channels 1, 6 and 11 with the same issue.  It is not channel specific.  I am not sure there is a solution aside from just replacing the router. 

[cbwoodstock91]

Hi Mark3,

        I can see you are really frustrated, this is a large letter!,ok lets move on 

SUGGEST:

contact again tech support via chat but in this time you will request "Break the DHCP lease" in your circuit.

Also Ask to "Re-boot the ONT(gray Box),

NOTE:

the agent will see that you know more about technical specification,I'm very sure they will do it for you.

JUST IN CASE:

If they ask you why you request al these, just explain, you did all troubleshooting several times before,

actually they have a record every-time you contact there.

FINALLY:

if all this don't fix the problem, request another router.

Good Luck!

[spacedebris]

---

@cbwoodstock91 wrote:

Hi Mark3,

        I can see you are really frustrated, this is a large letter!,ok lets move on 

SUGGEST:

contact again tech support via chat but in this time you will request "Break the DHCP lease" in your circuit.

Also Ask to "Re-boot the ONT(gray Box),

NOTE:

the agent will see that you know more about technical specification,I'm very sure they will do it for you.

JUST IN CASE:

If they ask you why you request al these, just explain, you did all troubleshooting several times before,

actually they have a record every-time you contact there.

FINALLY:

if all this don't fix the problem, request another router.

Good Luck!

---

those would be good suggestions if the OP was having issues with wired as well. since he is only having issues with wireless, the problem is going to be internal to the home. Either router, wireless device, or interfearance.

Mark3, you say that you have another router available. I would connect it and connect your computers to it for a while and see if the problem returns. If it does, then you have some wireless interfearance and there is not much you can do on that. If the problem doesnt happen with the other router, then you have a failure of the wireless system on the Verizon router. At that point you have two options. Either continue using the second router for your wireless or call Verizon to have them replace the router.

[mark3]

Ok, understood.  I am trying to isolate it further but it may be time to just get a nice N router and just not worry about it anymore.  When i get to that point i will ask Verizon to supply it so they can have diagnostic access.  If they say no then it will be replaced with a nice Linksys. I do have issues with not having so much control over the ONT to router lease.  Rebooting the ONT does not make it give a new least to the router (at lease when i power it down and reboot it, it does not give a new lease).  But if i ask the actiontec to break the lease it will do it.  I just can't get the aftermarket router to rebreak the lease.  So i have to make sure I can stick with the new router becuse it is a one way street w/o having to contact FSC.  Thanks again to all who responded.  I am still playing with it and will get it worked out. 

[spacedebris]

At this time Verizon doesnt have "N" routers. Personally, since you dont have TV service with Verizon, I'd just get my own router and get one that fits my needs (thats what I actually did do   ). If Verizon replaces it, you will basically get the same thing you have now.

rebooting the ONT doesnt break the lease, the only ways to break the lease are...

1. release from the actiontec
2. power down the router for 2-4 hours (the longer the better)
3. call Verizon and have them break it from their end.

I generally just turn the router off when I go to bed and then when I get up the next morning the IP has been released and I can do what I need to do.

[mark3]

So i plugged my extra g router into one of the 10/100 ports of the actiontec and am now using that as my wifi connection.  I still get the same speed overall but now pages load faster...  So i am keeping my eye out for a nice N router and plan to change it out.  Thanks to all who responded.  While the problem is not solved with the router, i plan to just go the repalcement route.  As the Disk Doctors use to say, it is a "Franklin fix".  Thanks to all who responded (i did not want to walk away with out a last thanks), i guess this thread is done.