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Internet disconnects randomly only when wired to WNDR4500v2
Hi there - thanks for taking a look. (This post is all about wired networks.)
I have been working flawlessly for over 3 years with my charter spectrum Arris router and Netgear WNDR4500v2 as an AP. I just recently moved to a dettached office (from my main home) and unplugged my netgear router that was there which was working fine with the WiFi devices in that area - I hooked up my office computer and this is when everything started to go down hill. I have been trying to troubleshoot this random internet disconnect issue which only seems to occur when this netgear router (recently upgraded to the latest firmware) is used (like I had previously). I would plug in the router, turn on AP mode and hook the router to the lan drop. If I used the WAN port to connect to the landrop as the picture shows in the UI - I would get 7mbps - if I used the LAN port on the back of the rotuer I would get 80mbps (never the full 100mbps) - During this time of troubleshooting - I tried to eliminate a number of issues - I even replaced the Arris with a new one provided by sepectrum - not sure what brand it is - I want to say technicolor. NOW I am not sure if it is the ethernet cat 5 lines (so I bought a line tester - will get it saturday) - bascially I have cat 5 running from my office under ground in a conduit to the panel in my main home that hen connects to one of the four ports on the back of the modem / router provided by spectrum.
All I can say is now I am writing this with the PC's ethernet cable directly plugged into the Lan drop - which runs to my home in the patch panel. AND I have not experienced any issues. BUT as soon as I hook up my netgear router and put it in AP mode -and hook my PC into the netgear router - it works for a little bit and then the device loses connection to the internet. if I unplug my computer from the netgear router and back into the lan port in the wall it works again. I am completely bafffled by this, because I have bee using this exact setup for years in my home in the main part of the house as well. I have the main modem with 4 ports in the network panel and each port goes to a landrop which has a netgear WNDR4500v2 pugged in (in AP mode) so we get WiFi all over the house. In my home I have 2 other WNDR4500v2 devices like this and they have been working fine. It is just when I plug this one here in my detttached office that it randonly disconnects. Has anyone experienced anyhting like this before? Could it be a wire even though when directly connected it is working with out issue. I swear you can't make this stuff up - troubleshooting network related issues is the most frustrating thing anyone could ever do. Thanks for your time.
OK it is confirmed and what was suspect - IDC but connectors splice in junction box was covered in a greasy gel like substance, possibly causing the issue. The IDC connectors were leaking there gel after X amount of years.
Problem solved!
19 Replies
My home modem is a TC8715D technicolor
so just an update - I've had the computer plugged back into the rotuer (as AP) now and the router back to the lan wall port. It has been working for a few hours without any issues. I ordered a new netgear AP just to test to see if this other oruter I have is bad. Will update.
UPDATE:
I tested the cable run from my detached office to the mail panel with this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XZYXN63/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The cable seems fine, all green lights blinking in sequence.
I switched out WNDR4500v2 with a WNDR4500v3 and configured it as an AP. I assigned static IPs. Changed my main router / cable modedm to use 192.168.2.1 - Hooked everything back up - I first plugged the WAN port from the WNDR4500v3 to the wall - I was getting about 80Mbps which is what I would nomally get. I left it alone. it has been running without issue for a few hours. I cam back and ran a speed test and now only get 8Mbps. I see many ports that state not to use the WAN port - but not sure why the picture on the AP page shows you that you should use the WAN port. Anyway - I switched the cable from the wall to another ethernet port and ran speed test and got 80Mbps again. I have no clue WTH is going on here. Things that worked without issue for many years you would think would continue to. All I did was move in and hook up a wired machine to the existing router and that when all this hell started. At the moment I am still connected and getting 80Mbps. So we will see what happens. I'll post an update tonight.
UPDATE # - or hell I lost count - 3 or 4 I think. :smileyhappy:
OK so yesterday (Sunday) everything was running smoothly (it ran all trough Saturday night without isse) until about 12:30PM on Sunday. That is when I lost conenctivity (I can tell because I have NEST outdoor cams that disconnected in that area) BUT it reestablished around 1:30pm and I have it all day today - woth some noticeable hiccups but not a complete outage.
Keep in mind when this happens, the whole house DOES NOT lose connectivity - just my detached office. Today spectrum came and tested the COAX lines coming into my home and to the modem and all was green. While he was there he witnessed the port activity (blinking lights on the port) on the technicolor modem- where the wire was coming from my deattched offce (the netgear AP) - he saw the light turn from green (1GBps) to amber (100Mbps) - he watched it flip back to green - so we just through our hands up and are concluding that there has to be a bad cat5e wire somewhere between the main home and my deattached office - perhaps damaged in the remodel.
However, what is weird is that internet connectivity it works for long periods of time - I would assume if it was a bad cable - would it NOT work consistently?
ANYWAY!!!
Before the spectrum tech was ready to leave, I recall seeing (through dozens of internet searches) that technicolor modems and netgear routers "don't play nice with each other" - not really knowing what that means - as a last ditch effort - i asked the tech if he had an Arris modem. He did and we hooked it up. At this time I am in my office and getting super speeds and consistency writing this post.
Is it possible that lone internet forum poster was right? Perhaps originally when this whole thing started, I had a bad wire in my drop (which originally lead me to think my modem was bad, andwhy I swapped it out and then actually made things worse? Causing a "red herring" situation? Only time will tell.
Here is my current speed test:
I will update you all again if all seems to last.
OK - continuing this troubleshooting - back online after another bout of internet disconnect - being anxious and assuming all seemed to be working - I went an attempted to configure my LED light strips: I got from Amazon here - (now this happened to me earlier but I did not think anything of it) - as I configured the WiFi LED strip using my phone - and it attemtped to connect - my amazon echo comes on and states - "i lost connection to the internet" - is it coincidence that this happened - at exactly the same time? So I just packed them up and sent them back - but now thinking I infected my network some how - who knows with this stuff - I factory reset my modem - and all is back on line. At the same time I unhooked my netgear AP and plugged it directly into my pc and all is working again. WTH is going on? I'll report back.
Hi mtarallo,
Welcome to the community!
Looks like you've done quite a few steps already.
1. Did you get to keep the Arris modem or did you have the Technicolor setup back?
2. Do you still have the WNDR4500v3 setup in the office? To confirm, it is behaving exactly the same as the WNDR4500v2, correct?
3. When you swapped the WNDR4500v2 with the WNDR4500v3, was the WNDR4500v2 behaving normally without issues where you relocated it?
4. Does the issue persist if you have any of the routers (either the v2 or v3) configured in router mode (for isolation)?
Dexter
Community Team
Hi Dexter - thanks for the reply:
1. Did you get to keep the Arris modem or did you have the Technicolor setup back?
Yes - I am back to using the Arris modem
2. Do you still have the WNDR4500v3 setup in the office? To confirm, it is behaving exactly the same as the WNDR4500v2, correct?
correct - I do have it available, but as a test I switched over to a D-Link AP for giggles just to see. I can return to Amazon if the issues persists.
3. When you swapped the WNDR4500v2 with the WNDR4500v3, was the WNDR4500v2 behaving normally without issues where you relocated it?
Yes - my v2 and v3 in the house are working as they have been for the past 3 years. Only difference now - they are purely wireless APs with no wired devices.
4. Does the issue persist if you have any of the routers (either the v2 or v3) configured in router mode (for isolation)?
That is a good question - my network knowledge is still limited, I am a creature of habit. I always used AP mode as I was told that the main modem router should be doing the router capabilites. I was about to switch to Bridged mode on my mome and have netgear perform the routing capabilites but the cable provider wanted to come out and test all the lines first. So we still have some options here. I also don't know enough about line integrity - I don't have a FLUKE or anything - just the simple cat 5 line tested which proved to be fine. So I'm being a bit stubborn about it being a bad wire - as my computer when directly connected works fine - but you don't know what you don't know right? :-)
Update:
OK so it worked all night - no disconnects - but even with this D-LINK AP - I woke up to a amber (100Mbs) ethernet port light on the back of the Arris modem. So something along the way is obvioulsy not working right. I think it is safe to say that there is a bad wire or something between my deatached office and the main panel. JUST so odd that it works at first for a long time.
One thing though that Netgear might still want to investigate is if there are any potential issues with connecting multiple devices in AP mode. I did notice odd behavior when attempting to add more devices such as those WiFi LED light strips.
Nest steps is to have an IT company come in with more advanced equioment to check the integrity of the lines. Will update.
Update:
OK so it worked all night - no disconnects - but even with this D-LINK AP - I woke up to an amber (100Mbs) ethernet port light on the back of the Arris modem. (same behavior as before with the Netgear AP and technicolor modem) So something along the way is obvioulsy not working right. I think it is safe to say that there is a bad wire or something between my deatached office and the main panel. JUST so odd that it works at first for a long time.
One thing though that Netgear might still want to investigate is if there are any potential issues with connecting multiple devices in AP mode. I did notice odd behavior when attempting to add more devices such as those WiFi LED light strips.
Nest steps is to have an IT company come in with more advanced equioment to check the integrity of the lines. Will update.
Oh one more observation - if I disconnect the existing ethernet from the wall to the AP and reconnect - 1Gbps (green on Arris) - is back
> [...] I would assume if it was a bad cable - would it NOT work
> consistently?"inconsistent" (usually called "intermittent") is a subset of "bad".
A poorly crimped connector could be susceptible to oxidation or
corrosion, and to mechanical disturbance (vibration). Other than gross
physical damage to the cable, cable problems are almost always at the
cable ends (connectors, termination).> [...] I'm being a bit stubborn about it being a bad wire [...]
Unreasonably so, I'd say. On occasion. a close (magnified) visual
inspection of a connector will reveal a subtle problem (wire not fully
inserted, contact not fully/evenly depressed, ...). Once a gigabit
speed has been negotiated, all eight conductors must work. (Slower
speeds use only four.)How much trouble would it be to replace the connectors on the suspect
cable (or the whole thing)?
