Router Question!

[PvtDirt]

Thank you for the suggestions. I will try these things! I'm just brainstorming, but could it possibly be a cell phone using the wireless connection that's interfering? I always have my cell phone next to me.

Just a question, but if it was interference from another router, microwave, etc, should it not effect the other people in my house too?

 

[root]

it depends. if other people are closer to the router then they may also receive interference, but as their signal is stronger it does not make a difference.

or their signal is degraded, but still there, whilst yours appears to be greatly degraded.

 

[PvtDirt]

Understood!

So I was watching my signal strength. While I'm connected to the internet I have full signal strength. I'm noticing that when it's about to lose connectivity, the signal strength drops by about 25%. I hold that reduced signal strength until my connectivity decides to come back on.

 

[root]

So there is definitely still a strong enough signal (~75%).

and you're still connected, (it doesn't say anything like media disconnected).
it just doesn't connect to the internet in this time.
but at the same time everyone else in the house is able to connect perfectly fine?

 

[PvtDirt]

That is true, yes.

 

[root]

next time this happens try opening the command prompt and typing

ping 8.8.8.8

 

[PvtDirt]

I will do this! I'll post again when I do it. What does it exactly do?

 

[root]

Ping is a command that sends packets to a device.

The device is supposed to respond.

you can try pinging your router first. to do this you type

ping <router address>

you can find your router address by typing ipconfig, it'll be listed as gateway.



it shoudl look something like this when you are done.

C:\>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 1ms

C:\>ping 8.8.8.8

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=100ms TTL=37
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=100ms TTL=37
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=93ms TTL=37
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=97ms TTL=37

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 93ms, Maximum = 100ms, Average = 97ms

C:\>

the address 8.8.8.8 is just a publicly available DNS server operated by google that will respond to ping requests. (and it's an easy address to remember.

Pinging your gateway, (in my case 192.168.1.1 will confirm that you are still actually connected to your router, pinging 8.8.8.8 will confirm that you are connected to the internet)

if both these tests work but you're still having problems try typing

ping google.com

 

[PvtDirt]

I will do this. Thanks a lot for all of your help, Root. I really really appreciate it.

 

[PvtDirt]

So I've done the test that you requested. When the triangle comes up I have typed in ping 8.8.8.8 and it comes up with 4 packets sent, 0 returned.

It's also been veryyyy slow the past couple of days. Not sure if my router just needs to be restarted or what on that front.