Router dropping connection

August 8, 2023 8:50 PM

I have a new ISP and my router keeps dropping connection. Any way to pinpoint where the problem lies?

Last week I moved across the country. Installed Ziply fiber, connecting to the box with a TP-Link Archer AX50 that I’ve owned for a couple years. Attached to the router is a Synology DS1821+ NAS that is maybe six months old.

Throughout the week, the router is randomly dropping connection to the internet. It goes from five lights to one, and takes 3-5 minutes to reconnect. Happening several times a day.

One way I’m able to reproduce the issue is by streaming a video hosted on the NAS. It seems to choke especially when I try to fast forward. This isn't the only time it happens, but it does happen often when I try to do this.

Nothing Ziply has tried so far has helped. Any thoughts on why this might be happening? I read something about bufferbloat but am unfamiliar with the concept—could that be the culprit?

posted by soonertbone to Technology (6 answers total)

Best answer: Sounds like your router is horked and is restarting itself. Could be any number of things causing it, ranging from a bad power brick to something overheating, maybe because a heatsink got knocked loose in transit.

If you want to make sure that it's not some interaction with the fiber connection, you can disconnect the router from the Ziply box and try to reproduce it while you're disconnected from the Internet.
posted by wierdo at 9:43 PM on August 8, 2023

Best answer: I recently had a similar problem with a TP-Link Archer C3150 after switching to fiber, and the thing that fixed it was to disable "Smart Connect" under the wireless settings. I also thought it was overheating - it would boot me off the network and seemingly reboot every few minutes. No idea why this was never a problem with my old cable provider, except that the fiber has a lot more bandwidth.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:50 PM on August 8, 2023

Best answer: One way I’m able to reproduce the issue is by streaming a video hosted on the NAS. It seems to choke especially when I try to fast forward. This isn't the only time it happens, but it does happen often when I try to do this.

Nothing Ziply has tried so far has helped.

My best guess is that it's not Ziply's issue. Streaming stuff off your NAS shouldn't involve the WAN side of your router, so there should be no way for Ziply to screw that up for you.

Reducing your router's range of potential weirdnesses by aggressively turning off anything described as "smart" will probably get you closer to an idea of what's actually going wrong.

Giving each radio band its own SSID often helps with troubleshooting. So does minimizing the number of devices connecting wirelessly, so if your NAS isn't already attached to your router with a nice reliable patch cable I'd certainly recommend doing that.
posted by flabdablet at 12:44 AM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In addition to the above advice, try disabling anything in your router that requires it to do any sort of packet inspection (like per-IP bandwidth monitoring or firewalls). If the CPU has to do anything to every single packet then they start to struggle and overheat at higher packet rates especially if the vents are clogged or the heatsink isn't heatsinking like weirdo says.

Bufferbloat shouldn't cause the major problems you're seeing, it would show up as increased latency or lower throughput but not a full on disconnect.
posted by samj at 1:36 AM on August 9, 2023

If it does turn out that the issue is caused by the router occasionally restarting itself, especially if that's a thing that happens mostly under heavy load, the single most likely cause of that problem will be a failing wall wart.

If you can find another wall wart with the same plug style, plug polarity and output voltage rating as your router's, and at least as high a maximum output current rating, try switching that in and see if reliability improves.
posted by flabdablet at 1:50 AM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you're streaming off your NAS and it chokes, the problem is INSIDE your network, i.e. NAS / Archer / Client, and nothing to do with the fiber "modem".
posted by kschang at 9:13 AM on August 9, 2023