Archer VR 1600v Wifi Drop Outs

[A1]

I have been trying for a month now to fix drop outs on my Archer VR 1600v. They occur every 20 seconds or so, increasing latency to >300 for an instant before returning to normal.

This occurs on both 2.4 and 5ghz but not on ethernet, so it is definitely connection between the device and router via wifi, not router to internet. It occurs to all devices (that are using wifi) at once regardless of how many bars connection. About 5 devices are in use at one time.

I have tried changing channels and channel width to various numbers and reseting the modem many times but it hasn't resolved the issues. I have also tried using bandwidth control to limit everyones connection in case of a buffer consuming all the bandwidth but there was still no change.

Firmware is the latest verision.

I feel like I have tried everything so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[david64]

Hi @A1 . What types of activities are going on when drop outs occur?

How do they show it is happening? General slowdown in response?

How do you tell it is >300? Game?

Do any of your devices have background tasks like uploading to cloud?

Are there other wifi networks around that might interfere with yours?

For now, just disable bandwidth control.

Pick one wifi device, turn off wifi on other devices and unplug ethernet computer.

Does the dropout occur now?

[A1]

Usual ongoing activites are video streaming and gaming on 3-4 devices

Symptoms are buffering videos, freezing in games. Most of the time it affects gaming, but occasionally can become so bad as to stop loading of webpages for 10 seconds or so

I can tell latency by pinging the router in command prompt. I can also observe through pinging servers on browsers and through games.

Upload is neglegible; no background tasks

I have looked if there is inteference from other signals with wifi analyzer apps. There is no nearby signals

Bandwidth control has been disabled for a while

There is no computer connected with ethernet anymore, and when only one device connects via wifi there are still dropouts

[david64]

@A1 . Login to router and find its "Gateway" ip address (on main status page).

Open 2 command windows.

In one window, do     ping -t 192.168.1.1

In other window, do    ping -t 10.........        the "Gateway"

Let them run until you see the bad response time occur and then recover. Control C to stop.

Wifi response times can be erratic. If the router response time stays constant, under 1 second, but the other blows out, there is a problem in the external network.

Check the Archer System Log for any error messages at this time.

Possibly, the Archer wifi is overloaded. Are the wifi devices spread over both bands?

Use the Traffic Monitor to check activity on each wifi band and WAN link.

What is the firmware version of the Archer? Build 220518 is latest apparently.

[david64]

@A1 . What wifi connection speeds do your devices get? This is the speed between device and router, not the normal internet speed test. Eg. my tablet gets 65Mbps on 2.4GHz band close to router. Newer devices should be faster, esp on 5GHz band.

[A1]

With the 2 command windows, both response times blow out at the same time.

Looking at the Archer System Log, it doesn't show any errors if I filter Type: All, Level: Error. I'm not sure how to inteprete anything else on the system log though

The devices are over both bands; half and half in terms of amount of devices and bandwitdth usage

Firmware is latest; build is 220518

Wifi speed is about 30Mbps on my phone through 2 walls on 2.4GHz and 80Mbps on 5GHz from the same location

[david64]

@A1 . Can you try factory reset on Archer? (Probably easiest next thing to try.)

Check syntax of username and verify password and VLAN ID settings first. Any other user settings will be cleared.

On the laptop (Windows?), check for surrounding wifi networks:
netsh wlan show all

This shows other networks, channel, and relative signal strength. There could be wifi interference.

What type of NBN connection do you have and what plan speed?

As a variation to the 2 command windows test, ping the router in one window and phone in the other.

Would the ping response time blow out if you had no activities or do you need to be doing something for it to occur? Do the least amount of activity to make it occur. As soon as you notice it, just remove the WAN (or DSL) cable from Archer.

Do the ping times return to normal? Times are high for an instant so you won't be quick enough to remove the cable before they return to normal.

Do they stay normal with cable disconnected?

[phoulihan]

Hi,

I'm having a similar problem with an Archer AX53.

Is going along fine - then just everything seems to drop out. 

Connection to the modem is fine, can ping it and see all the devices connected.

But internet connection just seems to stop. 

[BasilDV]

Hi @phoulihan 

When the connection drops out, did you notice any changes with the light status of your modem/router?

Are you using both WiFi and Wired connection? Or WiFi only?

What troubleshooting have you tried so far?

BasilDV