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WiFi drops out on a regular schedule?

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  • 12-04-2015 10:53pm
    #1
    Fenster
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,763 ✭✭✭


    My household is connected through the power sockets with a pair of TP-Link AV200+ kits, and from there I broadcast a signal to my top-floor room through a brand new cheap (literally today) Netgear WNR2000 wireless router.

    The last router died last night after two days of intermittent connection dropouts, and the the one before that died in January after a few days of the same pattern of dropouts.

    I pinged my VPS between Sun, 12 Apr 2015 19:21:03 UTC to Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:58:52 UTC.

    There were six losses of connection in that time, according to the parsed log (raw log is here in Pastebin):

    84 seconds beginning Sun, 12 Apr 2015 19:32:28 UTC
    33 seconds beginning Sun, 12 Apr 2015 19:47:42 UTC
    34 seconds beginning Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:02:52 UTC
    35 seconds beginning Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:17:56 UTC
    34 seconds beginning Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:33:07 UTC
    54 seconds beginning Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:48:14 UTC

    Dropouts have continued similarly since then along this pattern: Every 15-20 minutes for ~35 seconds duration.

    I know well enough to point my finger at the ethernet-over-power in my room, but I do not know where to proceed from here. My housemate downstairs is similarly connected via TP-Link, but she has ethernet plugged directly into her desktop computer, and hasn't reported any problems at all.

    Is it a faulty TP-Link connection, somewhere? I swapped the old one in my room with a spare; the problem continued.
    Is it a problem with power lines in the house?
    Regardless, how can I isolate and determine the problem?

    Cheers!


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,061 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    Got heating or a freezer coming on every 15 mins? A source of EM noise like this could lead to disconnects.


  • Options
    #3
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,164 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    Spear wrote: »
    Got heating or a freezer coming on every 15 mins? A source of EM noise like this could lead to disconnects.

    This. Something is bursting noise onto the loop thats taking you out.

    Is the last hop from your homeplug to your PC wireless? That could also be vulnerable to bursts of RFI.


  • Options
    #4
    Fenster
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,763 ✭✭✭Fenster


    ED E wrote: »
    This. Something is bursting noise onto the loop thats taking you out.

    Is the last hop from your homeplug to your PC wireless? That could also be vulnerable to bursts of RFI.

    How can I find what is causing the interference, given that I currently have no special tools?


  • Options
    #5
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,164 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    Unplug everything else. Leave for an hour, confirm no drops. Add one more device, wait another hour, add another......

    Its not gonna be a quick process. That said, you can start with anything that might kick in on a timer/periodically. Heaters, fridges, freezers are the core culprits there.

    Also, by the sounds of if you've had a fair few units die? The failure rates in networking kit arent usually that high, I'm no electrical engineer but I'm wondering if there might be something bigger up with your mains.


  • Options
    #6
    Fenster
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,763 ✭✭✭Fenster


    My problem spurred a lot of discussion elsewhere, and eventually it came down to changing around how everything in the house was plugged in. The problem was fixed, but I'm still unsure as to what was the culprit.

    Meh, lesson learned: Don't use ethernet-over-power in future. Thank you for your help and answers!


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