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I've got a problem with my wireless router at home. It is a BT ADSL line (8mbit) (though we usually get 5mbit). We're using a Belkin N wireless modem router

There are at any one time between 1 and 6 devices for example:

2 x iphone 4 2 x PC 1 x XBOX 360 1 x laptop

Typical usage ranges from simple web page browsing to online gaming and HD movie streaming. The router usually drops out after 30 mins - 1 hour. Sometimes the internet will stop for a certain device and the others will be o.k or all will drop internet and we'll have to restart the wireless router to gain connection again.

We had a wireless router before this one and the same would happen. Although the range on that one was not as a good as we thought it was, we thought it was probably that so we decided to get a better one in hope that it would solve the issues. I don't think the range is the issue here though as the devices are all within about 20 meters of the router.

We have contacted BT and there are no faults on the line so we are thinking it must be the wireless router.

WPA2 (64-bit key) encryption has been setup and I have tried various settings on the router. It has always been set to using band B, G and N. I have tried setting it to just G but with no luck. I have also tried changing the channel around from 11 to 13 but also no luck. The channel mode has also been set to 20/40MHz which is apparently a recommendation. We are also running a firewall built into the wireless router and are also running the latest firmware.

It might also be worth noting that connecting to the wireless router via network cable does not have any problems with dropping out.

It seems I am not the only person to suffer with this problem as I've come across a few posts on the internet from people with the same problems. I have been reading this article http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399897,00.asp and apparently a dual band wireless router helps with crowding and also enabling WMM is meant to help with streaming multi-media. These features are not included in my router.

So I guess I have a few questions here: Is my wireless router recommended for the type of use that i'm currently using it for. Ie web browsing, video streaming, gaming etc.

Should I be using a better make/model such as CISCO? Would features like dual-band and WMM make a difference?

Does anyone have any recommendations to solve this problem? Maybe it's something else other that the wireless router?

Thanks in advance!

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    Why only test channels in the 11-13 range (these are all the same effectively). Did you try 1 or 6?
    – Paul
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 9:51
  • I have tried range 1 but not others. Might be a good idea to test these ranges.
    – codemonkey
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 9:55
  • This is difficult to diagnose. Next time it happens can you try pinging the router IP address from any wifi defice that supports ping?
    – Paul
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 9:59
  • The thing is, it's intermittent. I pinged the router ip from my laptop last night (when it dropped out) and got a response from it. Same with the xbox, it can still see the router just can't connect to the internet. I think mostly it's just the internet dropping out and the network is still accessible.
    – codemonkey
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 10:20
  • If the wired connections continue to function, then this would suggest that wifi is working fine to the router, but then the router won't forward packets on to the internet, only from the wifi clients. This is unlikely. The response time for the ping may give clues. Try ping -l 1000 <router ip> and see what the time field says in the response. Do the same to google.com and compare to wired.
    – Paul
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 10:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I have solved this problem by going to the routers control panel, going to the channel SSID menu item and turning protection mode on and also WMM.

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  • WMM should never be disabled unless you have a very good reason.
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 9:16

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