I just purchased a new router (Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH) and setup our router in a new location. I'm running the stock firmware 1.72.
Between my PC and the router there are several walls and a ceiling. The router is sitting in the basement which is mostly directly underneath the rest of the house. The router sits close to the basement ceiling--the floor of the rest of the house. The router appears to give out a fairly strong signal, however, the Internet tends to cut out from time-to-time. I wanted to determine if it was our new router or the ISP that was at fault, to do this, I ran a ping -t to see if I'm getting a steady response from the router.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=124ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=165ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=906ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=371ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=260ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=610ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=206ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=149ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=531ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from <routerIPAddress>: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Other related symptom -- our phones randomly leave our WiFi for the 3G network despite the 3 bars of wifi.
What could cause such a sudden degradation of quality? Could the router placement be bad? Should I find a better place for the router? Is the router itself faulty?