Wireless range extender now stops internet access when switched on (and other issues)

Question

I have a Netgear DGN2200 router, and two TP-Link range extenders, TL-WA730RE and TL-WA830RE. This configuration used to work just fine until a few weeks ago, but has started to play up recently.

I can turn on the router and access the internet on a laptop or tablet. Then, when I turn on one of the range extenders so I can use a desktop PC in one part of the house, it seems the internet access cuts out. Even when I have a laptop connected to the router, not the extender (I can tell by the signal strength), the internet stops working when I turn on the extender.

If I turn off both the extender and router and turn them on again, the internet comes back.

Another issue is sometimes when I turn on an extender, it just doesn't connect to the router/extend the signal unless I restart both as mentioned before. Again, they used to connect just fine before.

Also the internet connection has been playing up, sometimes losing internet access randomly, or it becomes very slow. This isn't always solved by restarting the router. Again, not an issue before.

Could the connection to my house have become bad, and caused these problems, or is it an issue with the router maybe?

UPDATE

The problem seems to have disappeared now.

Answer 1

I would say its an issue with the router communicating with the extenders. I would always recommend buying whatever range extenders the manufacturer says work with the router. It is interesting that your setup ever worked at all. I would suggest looking into routers that support WDS (wireless distribution system) and then buying 2 or 3 routers (all same manufacturer and brand) and going that route rather than trying to troubleshoot your range extenders..

EDIT:

So, I went over to TP Links website and looked for the TL-WA730RE emulator and noticed the following option available in the interface

Which repeater mode are you currently using, Universal or WDS?

Also, have you taken a look at the System Tools > Statistics or System Tools > System Log to see if you notice any interesting logs or stats when one of the extenders stops working? What I would do is get everything in a working state, save your system log. Wait for a period of time until it stops working again and get back into the router and view the log to see if there is anything that jumps out @ you in regard to the information presented.

Is there any possibility you have played around with the MTU or Jumbo Packet setting on any of your devices recently? If you have changed the jumbo packet or MTU value on one device, all of the devices need to be at the same setting (even your computers NIC needs to be configured for the same packet size) or you can have connectivity issues. The reason I mention the MTU is if one device is set to accept a MTU of 1500 and another is set to 1490 or some strange value (sometimes this value has to be changed to connect to some VPN services), you will start having connectivity issues since the MTU is the TCP window size (basically the max amount of data in KB in a TCP Packet). I am basically just throwing ideas out there to see if there was some change that might have brought this issue to life on your network..