What's new

RT-AC68U 2.4 GHz network suddenly doesn't work

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

maxbraketorque

Very Senior Member
Firmware 380.1842 has been running pretty much trouble free since it was released several months ago, and then yesterday out-of-the-blue, my 2.4 GHz network just stopped working. Rebooting the router didn't fix it, shutting down all computers didn't fix it. Finally I found that changing my 2.4 GHz network settings brought it back to life. The entire time it was working, I had it manually set to Channel 1 with Auto 20/40 MHz. When I set the channel to Auto (with the router selecting Channel 11), it started working again, and then when I set it back to Channel 1, the network went away again. I've got it set to Auto again, and the 2.4 GHz network is alive, but it seems that the range is diminished. A wifi device in the master bedroom on the other side of the house was working fine when the router was set manually to Channel 1, but now with it in Auto Channel mode, the device is struggling to obtain any bandwidth.

I'm guessing its some kind of network interference issue that suddenly started, and I have scanned for other networks, but there is nothing out of the ordinary (just my neighbor's networks that have always been there).

Interestingly, the nearby networks in the 2.4 GHz range utilizing Channel 11 have a weaker signal (1-3% strength) than the ones using Channel 1 (one network at 10% signal strength), so it would seem that Channel 11 should be a better choice.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to what is happening?
 
Who's to say?

The router can't tell if there is any other kind of interference except to indicate other WiFi AP's in use around you. There can be many reasons for the interference caused that also affect the 2.4GHz band (in your case, particularly channel 1).

Just manually test/choose a different channel (or the same channel with a different channel width) and settle for the best overall channel available now. :)
 
I found my interference issue! I've got an ancient 2.4 GHz broadcast baby-cam that we had been using recently. There had been no interference issues up to this point, but for whatever reason, apparently yesterday it decided to start causing interference. I changed to a different channel on the baby-cam, and now everything is back to normal.
 
I found my interference issue! I've got an ancient 2.4 GHz broadcast baby-cam that we had been using recently. There had been no interference issues up to this point, but for whatever reason, apparently yesterday it decided to start causing interference. I changed to a different channel on the baby-cam, and now everything is back to normal.

Don't you use some sort of WiFi surveying utility? I think it is a must have for wireless users.
 
Don't you use some sort of WiFi surveying utility? I think it is a must have for wireless users.

Those 'utilities' are a time drain. In any event, it wouldn't have picked up the baby monitor, unless the monitor is on a standard WiFi setup (which, I'm pretty sure it isn't).
 
Those 'utilities' are a time drain. In any event, it wouldn't have picked up the baby monitor, unless the monitor is on a standard WiFi setup (which, I'm pretty sure it isn't).

They are regular ip cameras lately. Earlier ones were made by toy makers may be on 900MHz public band.
 
Those 'utilities' are a time drain. In any event, it wouldn't have picked up the baby monitor, unless the monitor is on a standard WiFi setup (which, I'm pretty sure it isn't).

Tools like InSSIDer, WiFIExplorer, and the like - they have utility as far as Network Discovery on the client side...

To get a better feel for traffic on the LAN/WLAN, you'll need to go a bit deeper into the stack and start doing packet captures - Wireshark is good, very good for this, and there are other tools - but then you're getting into knowledge/skillsets that are out of scope for most home users... as we're into the deep layers of the protocol stack...
 
The baby-cam did not show up on my wifi network scanner because its on its own protocol. If I had a frequency scanner, I suppose I might have found it. As a sidenote, before I found the issue with the network, I ordered the new Trendnet AV2000 powerline network kit to fix the low bandwidth issue for the device in my bedroom, so I'll get a chance to evaluate that this week. I'm pretty curious to see what kind of bandwidth I'll get.
 
The baby-cam did not show up on my wifi network scanner because its on its own protocol. If I had a frequency scanner, I suppose I might have found it. As a sidenote, before I found the issue with the network, I ordered the new Trendnet AV2000 powerline network kit to fix the low bandwidth issue for the device in my bedroom, so I'll get a chance to evaluate that this week. I'm pretty curious to see what kind of bandwidth I'll get.

As I guessed, it is using a proprietary and interference inducing frequency. :(

I wouldn't expect too much from PL products. About as useful as repeating mode, ime (for consistent throughput and latency).
 
I'm dubious of the PL products as well, but if I can get 200 mbps of consistent throughput with a tolerable latency, I'll be happy enough.
 
Ah, low expectations! :)

What I've noticed is that even if it gives a certain throughput for the next week or month, it may not do so in the following week or month. It is like gambling with throughput and the currency is your patience and sanity. :)

Of course, YMMV. Different wiring codes and practices may bring different results. ;)
 

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top