Router help needed.

[gripitripit]

My ISP is Post Office. I have been with them 5 years and still using the same router they supplied. It keeps dropping WIFI and sometimes the wifi goes completely for a few days then comes back. It still works with cable to back of PC.

I bought a brand new BT homehub 3 off Gumtree last week for a tenner. I have set it up and because I am not on BT I have to log on with my post office login ....still no joy...any ideas chaps?

 

[CMAC]

Why can't PO provide a new router as yours is obviously faulty?

 

[gripitripit]

To be honest I did not ask them and thought it would be a no go as it pretty old?

 

[CMAC]

What contract are you on? Monthly cost? It's in their interest to ensure you receive your BB so no router and you might leave.

Personally never heard of the PO doing BB but I'd imagine there are many better, cable in the area?

 

[gripitripit]

Unlimited BB and phone with free evening & weekend calls and free international calls at weekends is £23 a month so decent enough deal.
BT infinity has just been installed so am waiting for the other ISPs to get access to this. So I just wanted a cheap fix short-term hence the £10 spent.

 

[CMAC]

So they have a lot invested in you, call them! If they are any good you'll have a new router tomorrow.

 

[guest100718]

yes defo give the PO tech support a ring.

 

[Rooter]

yes defo give the PO tech support a ring.

what he said, most ISP's are not happy about you using other routers, so they are often locked down with weird encryption features, settings, hidden user names and passwords, they make it as difficult as possible to stray from their own approved kit.

 

[sawtooth]

My ISP is Post Office. I have been with them 5 years and still using the same router they supplied. It keeps dropping WIFI and sometimes the wifi goes completely for a few days then comes back. It still works with cable to back of PC.

I bought a brand new BT homehub 3 off Gumtree last week for a tenner. I have set it up and because I am not on BT I have to log on with my post office login ....still no joy...any ideas chaps?

If you are able to connect to the internet by cabling your PC to the router then the issue is wireless and not the connection to the ISP, routing, etc.

Most likely there is a source of interference in your environment that is wiping out some or all of the spectrum. Experiment by changing the channel used, always use 1,6 or 11. Try another laptop, PDA, phone as well to make sure its not just an issue with your PC. Failing that if your PC and router supports 802.11a then select that because 11a works on 5Ghz and is far less congested/saturated than 2.4

The main issue with 2.4 is that its very popular, all your neighbours will have it, and also there are loads of other household devices that uses the same spectrum. ie baby monitors, video senders, security cameras, PIR's, leaky microwave ovens, etc, etc

 

[Rooter]

Further to sawtooth, if you want to see what wireless networks are around you and what channels are busy/quiet, you can download a free programme called "inSSIDer 3"

Its very good and allows you to see which channel will be best for your house.. As you can see, here is mine and channel 11 is the least congested, so thats what mine are on!

 

[sawtooth]

Yes useful utility to let you know about other 802.11 networks. Note this will not tell you anything about non-802.11 interference however. You will need a spectrum analyser for that, something like wi-spy (funny enough from the same company)

 

[Hacker Khan]

Have you checked the RS232 interface lead?

 

[vkurup]

What OS do you have running on your machines at home? Did you add a new machine at home. I suspect the Wifi router and supports the old 801A/B on it. A few years ago, we used to have an old wifi. All machines in the house were running XP and it was all fine. Then we got the first Windows7, and soon we could not have an XP and W7 on the network at the same time.

(i know the protocols are OS-neutral, but never trust technology)

 

[gripitripit]

Windows 8 on a new i5 machine.

 

[CMAC]

So what did they say?

 

[gripitripit]

So what did they say?

Could not get through.. The usual "you are in a queue" BS.... Gave up after 15 minutes. Will try during week when they should have more people on end of phone.

 

[vkurup]

Windows 8 on a new i5 machine.

That might be the one tripping it... Does it work when no conflicting OS are running?

New machines are also now going for bands other than 801a & b.. so more efficient to upgrade. But as others have said, get PO to send you a new kit.

 

[sawtooth]

That might be the one tripping it... Does it work when no conflicting OS are running?

New machines are also now going for bands other than 801a & b.. so more efficient to upgrade. But as others have said, get PO to send you a new kit.

Yes get PO to get you a new router is the best option. In the meantime though you should be able to use the BT home hub as the wireless AP/repeater. Its not difficult to do, you basically want to disable DHCP (assign a static IP address in the same range as your network) on the home hub, set the wireless up as you want it. Then connect it to the original PO router, use LAN ports on both routers to do this. You should disable the WLAN on the original PO router if you can but otherwise just use a different SSID and channel on the home hub. Your PC should still get an IP from the original PO router but if it doesn't configure it manually with a static IP, the gateway and DNS will be the same as the PO router. Get you working again until you get a new PO sorted.

BTW 802.11n operates on the same 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz bands as a/b/g