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R7900 Router constantly dropping / adding devices
My Nighthawk router has suddenly started dropping devices off the network. Normally I have between a dozen and 18 devices connected. At random times, most of the devices will suddenly drop from the network, and the network map shows only 3 devices. If you try to reconnect the devices, the can see the network but will not connect. The only way to get them back on the network is to reboot the router. Then all is well for a short time, and the process starts over. I just updated to the latest f/w V1.0.1.26_10.0.23. When I run Genie, I can see the devices connecting and disconnecting constantly. Router has been working fine for months - have not changed router location or anything.
I've been able to solve the problem, but I'm not sure why it worked. I mentioned in an earlier post that there was multiple IP addresses that kept connecting - and when I'd edit one of them (like change the name of the devlce), they would all change. So I did two things, I changed my router password and used access control to block those IP addresses from connecting. When I did that, the router became very stable and everything is fine. Interesting side note - after I manually reconnected all my "real" devices to the router, the rogue devices showed up again, but couldn't connect. My theory is one of my devices is misbehaving, probably the amazon fire tv. But for now life is good. Thanks for your interest.
7 Replies
Hi Hillyjd,
if you have Google home, Chromecast, or Android apps that supports “cast” feature. There have been reports that this may be source of disconnects. Disconnect and observe if problem persist.
I do have Chromecast, but I don't use it much. I'll disconnect it. Thanks for the tip. However, I did disable the 5 GHz antennas and that has made the system dramatically more stable. I will turn those antennas back on after I disconnect the Chromecast and see if there's any difference. Thank you for the response.
So I disconnected the Chromecast device and turned on the 5 GHz antennas. Things seem stable so far, but it's only been a few minutes. Here's another odd thing that I've noticed for quite a while. Multiple "devices" with different IP addresses are listed as being connected. I cannot identify what these devices are. However, the other day as I was troubleshooting the instability problem, I edited the name of one of them (changed it to "???"). Why I applied that change, all of the devices changed to that name (usually 6 or 7 of these "devices" show up as being connected to the network). Yesterday I went to the "Access Control" page and blocked one of the IP addresses, and now they all say "blocked." I've attached a screen shot. I have a sneaking suspicion this is part of the instability problem. Any ideas?
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