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Hello.
At my wits end, hoping STW can enlighten me!
A few times a day I'll lose internet connection on all devices (phones, laptops etc) connected via wifi or ethernet to my router, a DWR-953* (A1 hardware i.e. the older one).
I can restore connection by resetting the router.
Strange thing is... if I'm on a work video call, in Teams or Bluejeans, that call will continue uninterrupted (both sending and receiving) despite all other apps on the same laptop e.g. Outlook, Chrome losing their connection.
Seems this is key to understanding what's happening... any ideas?!
Best
Bob
*My setup is complicated. I have a 4G repeater in the loft and router is connected only on 4G - no wired broadband at all. When router drops connection, iPhone still connects fine to the 4G network so I think that rules out any issue with the repeater.
Your conference connection is already established so keeps going but you can't create new connections.
Could be the DNS resolver, or just a bug in the router.
Except OP suggests that 4G calls go through when the connection ‘drops’.
What ports are the teams and other app/devices using?
Could it be some bandwidth throttling or limit imposed by your mobile teleco that only applies on certain ports?
[i]Except OP suggests that 4G calls go through when the connection ‘drops’.[/i]
The 4g calls are via the phones own simcard, not the routers 4g simcard.
My bad, thought he meant it was a WiFi call through the router.
Yep for clarity, 4G data connection is fine when accessing internet from iPhone via its own SIM card.
Conference calls are on work laptop, connected over VPN, but given everything else on that laptop drops too I didn't think it was VPN related.
I tried using cloudflare DNS instead of the default (provided by EE I presume) but it made no difference.
I also wonder if it's just a bug in the router that I need to live with until I find an alternative...
Firmware update?
Does it have any logs when this happens?
It's been firmware-updated and factory-reset-ed to death. No joy.
Nothing visible in the logs either.
Dang and blast.
If it can be configured to run as a bridge rather than a router then you could put a raspberry pi in there as the router.
EDIT: there's a bridge mode.
But before doing that, when it drops out, can you still ping external hosts by IP address (e.g. 8.8.8.8) ?
Hmm interesting idea... I do have an old router sitting around that was plenty stable. Transparent bridge to that? Will report back.
Haven't tried pinging external hosts yet - what will that tell me? (I'm operating on the edge of my understanding/competence!)
Win 10 has connectivity sensor software built in that can go a bit nuts. It changes the system tray icon to disconnected and MS and related apps can have connectivity issues that mean they think they’re offline even though you can still ping 8.8.8.8. Is that’s what’s happening? If so it’s not the router but Windows.
Pinging external hosts like 8.8.8.8 tell you that fundamentally you are connected to the internet and the problem is ‘higher up’.
Ping with the -t option will loop indefinitely. Useful in this case. You can also ping your router at the same time in case the problem is actually between your pc and the router
Type Win-R, then cmd command and in the black box ping -t 8.8.8.8
Your conference connection is already established so keeps going but you can’t create new connections.
Could be the DNS resolver, or just a bug in the router.
That was my first thought on both points.
If a ping test to an IP address works but to a domain name fails, that's a DNS issue and something you can (usually) change on the router.
I'm pretty sure this can all be put down to 5G, can't it ?
OP, check for excited oxygen around the house. That'll tell you for sure. Easiest way to see it is to form a reflective peaked cap out of some readily available, easily moulded material. That'll concentrate 60 gigawatt wavelength vibrations from the pieces of excited oxygen right in front of your eyes.