What could cause interference with a wireless router?

[JohnJSal]

I've posted previously about the problems I'm having with my router (ASUS RT-N56U), and the more I think about it the more I'm wondering if the problem has something to do with interference in my area, specifically at night.

Briefly, my problem is this: usually during the day everything works fine, but consistently at night I lose internet access. However, when I view my wireless connection in the system tray, it shows both "Connected" to the network *and* "Internet access" for that network. But going to websites returns an error.

I have tried two different (same model) routers and the same thing happens. I have tried all kinds of "fixes," such as power cycles, firmware upgrades, changing certain router settings, etc. Nothing has worked.

So I'm wondering, could this be an interference problem, and if so, what would cause it? Like I said, it only seems to happen at night (it's happening right now) so I doubt it's something in the house like the phones or the microwave. Also, when the problem happens, it happens on both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands, so it seems unlikely it is interference with just the 2.4 band.

I'm getting a different router tomorrow and I'll see how that goes, but I hate not knowing what's going on with this one. When it does work, it seems to be a great router, and I hate to think I'm giving up on it for something that might not really be the router's problem, but maybe something in the area (or a setting I can change to fix this possible interference).

I have tried changing the control channel, among other things, and this doesn't work (despite using an app that shows I am the only wireless network on channel 11).

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Shlouski]

Well a few months back I had problems every night at around the same time for a while, the internet would become very temperamental, but mostly unusable, even though I appeared to have internet access. It turned out that they were upgrading the infrastructure, are area is making the move to fiber optics and they were doing anything that would maybe cause internet problem at night when there is the least amount of traffic and less people online. You have tried calling your ISP?

 

[JohnJSal]

Yes, I have called my ISP and according to them everything seemed fine on their end. I should add that when I bypass my router and plug my modem directly into a PC, I do have internet access, even during these times when the router stops working, so I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the internet connection itself. I suppose it could be the way the ISP interacts with the router, but I asked this specifically and they told me that my ISP (satellite internet) doesn't require any special settings to work with most routers.

Also, I think night is when there are *more* people online and more traffic. I get faster speeds (and a constant connection) during the morning, but at night it slows down and according to my ISP, these are the times when congestion is heavier. I figured that might have something to do with the issue, but why congestion would cause my router to stop, I have no clue.

 

[beers]

(satellite internet)

Gross.

 

[JohnJSal]

Gross.

When I typed "satellite internet" I almost typed "::shudder::" after it. It sucks. The speeds aren't completely awful, but I hate the data cap each month, and of course the latency is atrocious. But it's the only option where I am. And I can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with my problem.

 

[johnb35]

Is everything hooked up wireless for Internet or do you have anything hard wired to the router? Does anything hardwired lose connection?

 

[JohnJSal]

Is everything hooked up wireless for Internet or do you have anything hard wired to the router? Does anything hardwired lose connection?

Everything is through the router, but there is one PC that has an ethernet cable from the router to the PC. This one also doesn't work when the problem happens, but when I plug the modem directly into the PC (and bypass the router) it works. So it doesn't seem to be the internet by itself that's the problem.

 

[Darren]

Are you in an apartment complex? I get a whole lot of competition for bandwidth in my complex. I don't know enough about networking to know if traffic would cause changes in this or not, but it's a thought.

 

[JohnJSal]

Are you in an apartment complex? I get a whole lot of competition for bandwidth in my complex. I don't know enough about networking to know if traffic would cause changes in this or not, but it's a thought.

No, actually quite the opposite. I'm out in the country with about 6 or 7 other houses spread out on this street. That's why I have satellite internet -- no cable out here. This is also why I'm not sure it's interference. I've used a Wi-Fi app on my phone to see which channels the nearby networks are on, and since they were on 1 and 3, I changed mine to 11. But I still had the issue last night around 10pm, as usual.

 

[Darren]

Welp.

I'm clueless then. Sounds like a bad router to me.

 

[johnb35]

I don't think its the router, I'm guessing goofy interference from something. Maybe the router can't stay connected with it being in the evening and more congested and the router can't stay connected. Lets hope a different router solves the problem.

 

[JohnJSal]

Yeah, doubt it's a bad router because I tried two different ones.

But right now I just set up a third (and totally different make and model), so hopefully this one sticks.

 

[Agent Smith]

I'm wondering if it's a DHCP issue? Perhaps when the lease expires from you ISP the router doesn't properly renew?

 

[JohnJSal]

Hey guess what...I set up the new (and completely different router) this afternoon, and all was fine until, yep, later tonight. Internet went out again, even though it showed connected and internet access.

 

[johnb35]

Have the satellite company replace your modem and see if that makes any difference. Also try replacing cable between modem and router.

 

[Geoff]

It's not interference as you said the hard wired machine has the same problem, and if this happens with multiple routers it sounds like a modem/ISP issue.

Since it's satellite internet I wonder if there is some interference in the atmosphere that happens sporadically during the evening causing the outages.

 

[beers]

I'm wondering if it's a DHCP issue? Perhaps when the lease expires from you ISP the router doesn't properly renew?

I was wondering that too, JohnJSal, does it seem to happen around the same duration of time after plugging in the router? Say, 8 hours later or similar?

 

[JohnJSal]

It's not interference as you said the hard wired machine has the same problem, and if this happens with multiple routers it sounds like a modem/ISP issue.

Since it's satellite internet I wonder if there is some interference in the atmosphere that happens sporadically during the evening causing the outages.

The hard-wired PC doesn't have the problem when I bypass the router, but I think it still does when the router is plugged in. Wouldn't that still mean there is something going on with the router? I'll have to check again to be sure. We hardly ever use that particular PC.

And like I said, it's hard to think it's a problem that lies purely with the ISP, because bypassing the router works, but going through the router doesn't. So even some kind of atmospheric interference wouldn't make sense in that case.

 

[JohnJSal]

Have the satellite company replace your modem and see if that makes any difference. Also try replacing cable between modem and router.

Heh heh, this is the third ethernet cable I've used

 

[JohnJSal]

I was wondering that too, JohnJSal, does it seem to happen around the same duration of time after plugging in the router? Say, 8 hours later or similar?

The weird thing is that with the two Asus routers, they worked fine for about a week before it started happening. But with this new router I got yesterday, it happened immediately (that is, later that night after I set it up earlier in the afternoon).

There is only one other thing I can think of at the moment. I have an internet plan that gives me 12GB of "priority" data per month, during which allotment I have 12Mbps download speed. After I go over this limit, the speeds slow down to 1-5Mbps. During the day I usually have faster speeds than this even if I've gone over the limit (and I went over the limit within about four days!). But at night it slows down considerably.

I'm wondering if maybe at night, when there is more congestion, that it slows down so much that somehow the signal isn't getting through the router? Is something like that possible? Yet it would still work when I bypass the router?

All I can do to check this is wait until my new month of data starts again (Tuesday, I think) and see if it still stops working at night.