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Forum Discussion
MK83 - 2.4GHz Randomly Dropping
Hi everyone!
2 months ago I bought a new home and upgraded to the MK83 Nighthawk Mesh System to network the house. As of the past 2 weeks, I started having an issue that the router/satellite would drop connections to only devices on 2.4GHz. Hard rebooting the main router seems to fix the issue, but it's only temporary. I've been having to reboot the system about 2 times a day. Most devices that I have are either 5GHz or wired so those aren't affected, but I did get WIZ smart lights (16 of them right now) about a month ago, which all of those are on 2.4GHz. I also have a couple older Roku units that are still on 2.4GHz as well.
I haven't much time to truly setup the network and am using out of the box options. So it's using the singular WiFi signal and allowing the device to pick which bandwidth to be on. I did do a firmware update yesterday, but that doesn't seem to help as it just happened as I was writing this out.
Has anyone had this issue? If so, what have you done to resolve this?
The biggest issue is it messes with my automation of lights as well as the Roku that is running the streaming TV goes down and my elderly mom that moved in with us thinks our internet is bad since her TV keeps going out.
Any help would be great!
Thanks in advance!
4 Replies
One update.
As I noted above, as I was writing it, my 2.4GHz bandwidth went down. I decided to not reboot and just change the channel. After the change was made, all devices were working again.
So maybe, because of all the lights, the channel is bogged down? I had it set to 11 when it went down and just changed it to 1.
Just thought I'd post this update with more information.
emoxxxkid wrote:
As of the past 2 weeks, I started having an issue that the router/satellite would drop connections to only devices on 2.4GHz.
People scream "router" at the first hint of a network problem.
The first challenge is to work out if it is the router that stops broadcasting wifi, or the devices that drop the connection.
First some boilerplate questions.
What firmware version do you have on the device?
A number is more useful than "the latest", especially you used the on-board system of an app to check for firmware. There may be newer versions, or "hot fixes", that do not show up if you check for new firmware in the browser interface.
If there is one it might also help if you told people the make and model number of the modem/gateway/ONT that sits between this router and the Internet. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back?
I ask because a lot of people turn up here trying to put a router behind a modem that is also a router. That can complicate troubleshooting.
The biggest issue is it messes with my automation of lights as well as the Roku that is running the streaming TV goes down and my elderly mom that moved in with us thinks our internet is bad since her TV keeps going out.Running a TV on a wifi connection can be a recipe for chaos. For TV devices that have an Ethernet option I use Powerline Ethernet turn the mains circuit into a fake Ethernet network. Easier to set up – just plug it on – and less likely to fall over than wifi.
Response below in bold and italicized.
People scream "router" at the first hint of a network problem.
The first challenge is to work out if it is the router that stops broadcasting wifi, or the devices that drop the connection. -- I'm truly not trying to be a **bleep** here, but every single 2.4GHz device loses connection at the same exact time and it can't reconnect nor find the signal until I change the 2.4GHz channel or reboot the whole system.
First some boilerplate questions.
What firmware version do you have on the device? The firmware is V1.1.7.14_3.1.10 across both the router and the satellites
A number is more useful than "the latest", especially you used the on-board system of an app to check for firmware. There may be newer versions, or "hot fixes", that do not show up if you check for new firmware in the browser interface.
If there is one it might also help if you told people the make and model number of the modem/gateway/ONT that sits between this router and the Internet. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back? This isn't an internet issue as it drops the signal completely and can't connect to the network at all. This still happens even when the modem isn't connected to the router.
I ask because a lot of people turn up here trying to put a router behind a modem that is also a router. That can complicate troubleshooting.The biggest issue is it messes with my automation of lights as well as the Roku that is running the streaming TV goes down and my elderly mom that moved in with us thinks our internet is bad since her TV keeps going out.
Running a TV on a wifi connection can be a recipe for chaos. For TV devices that have an Ethernet option I use Powerline Ethernet turn the mains circuit into a fake Ethernet network. Easier to set up – just plug it on – and less likely to fall over than wifi. -- Once again, if you read my post completely, the TV isn't connected. This is running through a Roku device. I'm fully aware of a Powerline Ethernet and was considering it for my house, but ended up running Ethernet through the walls and routing the cables to hardlined devices. Unfortunately, this Roku device is older and doesn't have an Ethernet port on it so WiFi is the only solution, also 2.4GHz is the only Band that it sends/receives on.
Also, I want to note devices connected too.
- 34 devices connected in total
- 21 devices connected on 2.4GHz
- This includes Nest Cameras, Rokus and WIZ Smart Lights
- Nest should have an option to be on 5GHz, but not sure why they are defaulting to 2.4GHz, but they are outdoor so that may be why
- This includes Nest Cameras, Rokus and WIZ Smart Lights
- 12 devices connected on 5GHz
- This includes iPhones/iPads, Nintendo Switch, Rokus, Nest Hub/Doorbell and Laptops
- 1 hardwired
- Main desktop which also hosts a media server to the house
- 21 devices connected on 2.4GHz
As you can see there's a lot of devices fighting for the 2.4GHz bandwidth.
Also, I should note that this is using a shared/singular SSID that auto switches for the channels. My next step is to setup individual SSIDs for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. In my old apartment, I used a nighthawk router (not mesh) and that's how I had it setup, but I never used smart lights or anything so we were on about 20 total devices between both bands.
I truly believe this is overload issue, but, in theory, each band should support up to 32 devices.
- 34 devices connected in total
