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bwinroc
join:2009-09-04
Rochester, NY

bwinroc

Member

Too many devices on network causing Wifi to choke?

I am a Frontier DSL customer with a SpeedStream SE567. Over the last few months, I have had more and more instances of my wifi connection dropping, requiring a reboot of the router. When this would happen though, my desktop computer connected directly to the router would still have a connection. When it finally got to once a day or more, I called Frontier.

They asked me how many computers I have.

My response - 9 network devices.

Fronter: "9 computers?!"

Me: "No, 9 devices that access the network - 1 through a hardwire, 8 wireless"

Desktop (hard wired network) . . .

and the following wifi devices (ranked in order of my perception as to their network usage):

-Work laptop (I work from home)
-HP NAS Back-up Drive connected via a WRGT54G router with DD-WRT firmware to act as a bridge
-Wife's Netbook
-Nintendo Wii
-iPhone
-Kodak Wifi Digital Frame
-Dish 622 Receiver networked via a different WRGT54G running dd-wrt
-Linux laptop

Frontier rep told me they weren't sure if the router could support that many devices, that was why the wifi portion of the router was failing and that they wouldn't trouble shoot it with me unless I turned off all devices but 1. Before I call back and lie and say that I turned off all the devices but 1 and go through the tedious troubleshoot steps, I figured I would run it past you guys/gals.

So, my question is - shouldn't the SpeedStream SE567 be able to handle these devices? While I know my usage may be more than the average Frontier customer, I would think the router would be able to handle it and not make the Wifi choke.

Or, is the simplest solution to get a standalone Wifi router? If I go this route, I would think I would just plug it into one of the ports on the Siemen's, but looking around here I see people talking about "bridging" the router - what does that accomplish?

Thanks,

Brian

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

1 edit

Smith6612

MVM

Well, knowing how Wi-Fi can be a tricky animal to troubleshoot, the dropouts could be from anything. I know a neighbor of mine who has an SE567 from Frontier doesn't use their wireless, but whenever their cordless phone would ring and I was in their living room, the wireless would drop and reconnect if the channel were on channel 6 or 11. It was a 900Mhz cordless phone as well so whether or not it was the SpeedStream or my wireless card, I don't know.

Now, whether or not you're overloading the router on the SpeedStream or the card is starting to die inside of it, who knows. The only way to check is to take the load off of the SE567 and possibly stick everything onto your DD-WRT router for the time being, having one or two devices on the SpeedStream at the most. I believe the Speedstream supports Telnet, so if you can Telnet into the SpeedStream using your wired PC, see if you can bring up the system statistics on it such as CPU, RAM, etc. Residential routers have the problem of crapping out when you put them under heavy CPU or RAM usage. Yet again, it may even be the SE567's firmware.

For the separate router, we do suggest bridging it here to rule out Double NAT and to make it easier to deal with things. The only downside is, you'll need to de-bridge it should you need support from Frontier, as they'll probably want access to the SpeedStream. Bridging does take some time, but there are a few recent threads with Bridging steps to do so with the SE567s. Again, it's up to you. If you think the SpeedStream is dying and Frontier won't replace it for troubleshooting purposes, go pick up your own router and bridge the SpeedStream.
n2ubp
join:2007-07-13
Middletown, NY

n2ubp to bwinroc

Member

to bwinroc
The rule of thumb is 15 devices for 802.11G
Things that can mess stuff up include router location, 2.5 ghz cordless phones,power saving options in laptop configurations, mixed 802.11G and 802.11B on a single router, neighbors running on the same channel, the electronics in CFL light bulbs and LED traffic lights, plasma TV sets, unshielded low power RF devices, and more. Where do you want to start
WeatherPilot
join:2009-08-20

WeatherPilot

Member

I personally have 12 wireless devices and 4 wired devices on the Se567 Gigaset modem. So no, the number of devices you have is not a factor it's something else. Try different channels and where you place the modem. Possibly interference next to where it's placed?