Is it Router or Wifi Cards - PING Results

[BJ1200]

Is it possible for our AC66U router to temporarily drop connection and not show that in the System>General logs? Running a continuous ping shows it drop for a few seconds, then comes back. Drops happen all day, about every 10-20 minutes.

How do we determine if the cause is the router or Wifi cards (laptop)? The Surfboard Modem logs look OK, a couple time sync issues in the last couple days since rebooting it.

Surfboard 6183 Modem (Cox)
ASUS RT-AC66U - 2 laptops & 1 PC via Wifi (5Ghz)
Two Intel AC7260 cards

PING by laptop shows connection drops. Taskbar icon does not change.

When the connection drops the ASUS logs don't show any kind of change.
I scrubbed some IP and MAC info from the below image:

This is a new AC7260 card in the laptop.
It has numerous identical GUID's, which seems odd.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Is it possible for our AC66U router to temporarily drop connection and not show that in the System>General logs?

Run a ping to the router's LAN IP address rather than an external site.

 

[BJ1200]

Run a ping to the router's LAN IP address rather than an external site.

Thanks Colin. Do you mean use a PC connected to the router via ethernet? Or use the 192.168 address from a wifi connected laptop? Currently, only entertainment devices are hard wired to the router (ROKU, PS3, Oknyo, TV, Printer).

 

[ColinTaylor]

From the WiFi laptop you are experiencing the problem with (as shown in your first screen shot) to the router's 192.168.x.y address.

 

[BJ1200]

OK. I will do that.
Note: I ran continuous pings on two differient PC's. They both drop connection at the same time, and come back up at same time. One is a laptop (Win7) using an AC7260 card, other is an Optiplex Mini (Win10) using AC9560 card.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The objective is to compare the pings to the router and an internet host. This will help to determine whether the issue is with your local network or your ISP connection.

 

[BJ1200]

The objective is to compare the pings to the router and an internet host. This will help to determine whether the issue is with your local network or your ISP connection.

Thank yo so much Mr. Taylor. I'm an older guy, performed hours and hours of research, to avoid bothering people about this stuff. Cox reprovisioned the modem earlier (I called them), they see no signs or history of modem issues.

Ran the router ping for about an hour. At least 3 times I lost internet connection but the pings never produced not one "time out". Now I am really confused.

Also, the pings were mostly 1ms for the first few minutes, then they randomly jumped, sometimes over 200ms. You can see when that happened below. Nothing significant changed at that time, no video streaming, etc.

 

[ColinTaylor]

It's not that unusual for ping times to jump up occasionally. That could be caused by background tasks (like AV or Windows updates) or other devices on the network.

The main concern is why you can still connect to the router but loose connectivity to the internet.

If you log into the router and go to Network Tools > Network Analysis you can set the router to ping 8.8.8.8. Unfortunately the maximum number of pings is 99. AFAIK there's not an option to run it continuously. For that you would have to Telnet or SSH into the router and do it from there.

Can you log into your cable modem and look at it's logs? That might reveal something.

 

[BJ1200]

Thanks C.

The SB6183 modem logs have been clean for 2 days, it's last reboot, except for a half dozen lines trying to sync time when it powered up.
SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol
SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing;CM-

There have only been two line items today. Cox rebooted it remotely.
Resetting the cable modem due to docsDevResetNow
Then 13 minutes later it has this last line item:
Unicast DSID PSN startup error

At this point I think I should replace the router. I see they've introduced AX, which means more hours of reading to figure it all out. Most likely will get the AC86U. All 5 wireless devices have AC abilities so I don't think we would gain much from an AX3000 or similar.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If your "AC66U" is one of the original RT-AC66U's from about 5 years ago it's probably a good idea to upgrade to something more current. It's an end of life product so unlikely to see much support in the future.

You said in your other thread that it started acting up after being manhandled by your sister. All the more reason to replace it.

 

[BJ1200]

Makes sense. I will order a new AC86U instead of an AX version. Not the most modern, just the least headaches.

Thanks to Colin Taylor, a true professional!!!

 

[Tech9]

I will order a new AC86U instead of an AX version.

Order the newer AX86U. AC86U is not only older, but some overheat and/or stop working. Read this thread for more information:

Router temperatures

Hello everybody With this release, temperature of my RT-AC86U has risen again. It's around 96°c. and logs shows CPU turned off due to excessive heating. CPU Wait is ENABLED. Anyone else experiencing this? Thanks

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