I've had my Fios (internet only, not tv or phone) router for almost three years now. Looks like its a Westell 9100.
We've had an iphone, three computers, and Nettalk phone that we've been using through the router. Now we've added another laptop, an ipad, and then we tried to start using an HP wireless printer (for Airprint, and regular wireless printing).
Something seems to get dropped or messed up when we try to get it all to work at once (if the laptop prints, then the ipad loses its connection to the router, etc.).
After three hours on the phone with HP printer support today, it seemed kind of obvious that the problem likely has to do with the router not being able to handle all of this.
Any ideas on the basic direction to head?
- need a router firmware upgrade?
- need to change some settings in the router (static IP for the printer, for example)?
- need a new router from Verizon (I have to buy it, I assume)?
- buy my own router and run it through the existing verizon router?
are all those connections wireless? The 9100 is the latest westell model that verizon offers, and it has it's firmware updated automatically, but you can check for the latest firmware update @ http://my.verizon.com/micro/fiosrouters/
Additionally if they are all wireless and having this issue, then it may be the dreaded wireless signal issue. Truthfully, from my experience, it is what typically fixes a wide variety of problems with wireless devices. So try changing the wireless channel in the router and let us know if you have any success with that. After you try the different wireless channels (qty 3) we can go a different direction.
To answer your immediate question, unless the router is "bad" then I don't think you need a new one. the westell "should" be able to hand that no problem. If you want a new router, they do an even steven exchange, so you send the old one back, they give you a new one, and there is no charge. OR you can drop by a store and do that (take the old one with you), or you can do chat support, or you can call Verizon @ 1-800-VERIZON and talk with technical support, and do that. If you talk to verizon either via chat or via phone, be prepared to do a little bit of troubleshooting. They are pretty easy to work with to get a new router, but I have never had luck talking to them and immediately getting what I want. I have always had to do a little bit of troubleshooting with them.
If you want to try to change the channels, then follow the instructions below, I think you'll probably have pretty good success with it.
open a browser, and go to http://192.168.1.1
user name is admin. and the password is most likely the serial number found on the service tag of your VZ router unless you changed it. Once you login succesfully, go to the top and hit wireless, then on the left basic security. then go to option 3 which is channel 1, 6 and 11 and are the only channels you should try.
So it will likely be set to auto, change it to 11 and put the check for keep settings even after reboot (Directly under the channel) and then hit apply. after you hit apply, test your connection out, if you notice a difference, leave it like that until the problem happens again, and if it happens again, go back into the router, and try channel 6, test it out. and then finally 1 if the first two don't work.
Also take a look at page 2 of Actiontec's Wireless PDF File. It gives you some idea's with regards to position and orientation of where the router sits and how it can best be positioned for maximum coverage.
http://support.actiontec.com/doc_files/MI424WR_Rev(all)_Wireless_Networking_Guide.pdf
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