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Issues with T3200M modem

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

I have a newly installed T3200M modem/router.

I have excellent signal strength and speed however I am plagued but connection issues.

Repeatedly through the day our devices, laptops, phones etc just drop the connection and reconnect.

Our Roku TV often says it has no connection. Shut it off and it's connected.

Just wondering if anyone else has had similar issues and is there a resolution?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

@DavidR8 ,

 

I know you tried turning SmartSteering off and it made things worse. Now, however when you have better channels selected for 5G and 2.4G, you may want to try it again. Then sign in your devices to one SSID or the other to see where they work best. In general 2.4G may have longer range if that is an issue. 

View solution in original post

28 REPLIES 28

xray
Hero

Have you noticed whether the router is rebooting during these times? Check the uptime on the router status page.

If you are having random reboots it may be a power problem, either house or DC adapter brick.

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

It doesn't appear to be rebooting.
It's very odd.
First thing in the morning when I fire up my laptop I do a Speedtest. Usually it's around 13Mbps on 25Mbps service.
Later on it will be 25-29 Mbps.
Then I get dropped for no reason...

Could be channel congestion. Do you see a lot of your neighbor's SSIDs when scanning for WiFi?

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

Only a couple of other services.

RonAKA
Rockstar

Are your issues on the Ethernet connected devices or the WiFi devices, or both?

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

Just Wifi

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

I spoke to Telus on Friday afternoon.
The tech walked me through turning off Smartswitching. Seemed to make a bit of a difference but that night we had a heck of a time connecting devices to the 2.5g service
Last night, it took ten tries to connect to the 2.4 service. I was beyond frustrated.

Do you now have two different SSID's, one for 2.4 GHz and another for 5 GHz? One of the issues I found was that my iPhone did not like the 5 GHz band. It would connect but then disconnect an hours or so later. I now sign in on the 2.4 GHz line, and leave the rest of my stuff to the 5GHz SSID.

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

@RonAKA We did have two SSIDs but I've since turns Smartswitching back on as service was even worse than with it off.
I'm frustrated beyond belief, between waiting on hold to speak to someone and actually talking to a rep I've spent 5 hours on the phone with Telus and the service is barely better than when we had the old modem/router.

You may find this article of interest. 

Why Changing the Wi-Fi Channel Number Avoids Interference

@RonAKA , agreed. Hence my previous question about how many SSID's are visible which remains unanswered.

If the router is set to automatically choose a channel the speed may change every router reboot or over time. In an area with lots of SSIDs that may see changing trafic throughout the day or from day to day you won't see consistent speeds if there is channel congestion.

 

I use an opensource WiFiAnalyzer on my phone.

You need ot fix the channel to the one with the fewest access points. In my case channels 9, 10 and 11 would be poor choices.

xray_0-1600711877593.png

 

@xray 

Does WiFi Analyzer show you the channels being used by neighbours? I downloaded Fing for my phone, and I could not seem to get anything useful out of it. It looked like the desktop version was better so I downloaded that for my PC. It does a WAN scan but really shows me nothing useful. I assume you recommend WiFi Analyzer?

I'm not recommending (i.e. taking responsibility for) anything 😉.  WiFiAnalyzer seems to work for me and my phone hasn't been taken over by malware so that's about all I can say about it.

 

If you look at the last column of the screen shot it shows the number of access points (SSID's) on each channel. This will change base on location so running an analyzer from a desktop has limited usefullness.

 

Thanks for the info. I tried WiFiInfoView on my PC laptop, and it seems to give good information. Here is what I see with the Channels Summary Mode display screen. I read this to mean that I would be better using Channel 1 or 11, instead of the channel 6 I am using by default? I can't see the image you posted. It just shows up as a faded yellow triangle??

 

WiFi.JPG

@RonAKA @xray @DavidR8  I use a site (matthaefner.com)  just the free one. It shows people 2 to 3 blocks away  20 or more show up. Shows what frequency they are on and what channel they are using. Have it on laptop and my cell phone. I just check on occasion. Polecat

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

@xraySorry I didn't responds directly to you about the number of visible SSIDs.
Just checked now from my laptop and there's only five other networks showing.

@DavidR8 The number of SSID's is just part of the equation. It also depends on how many devices are using each SSID and how strong each signal is at your location. I have over 40 devices on my network. If the 5 networks visible to you have a lot of devices and they are close then it will have an impact on the congestion.

 

In any case it doesn't hurt to choose the best channel and set it on the router rather than relying on the auto channel selection.

DavidR8
Helpful Neighbour

Thanks @xray Please pardon my ignorance. By channel do you mean 2.4 vs 5G?

@DavidR8 

 

No, the Channel is different than the 5G or 2.4G Frequency. You can set the Channel for each by going into your T3200M router, signing in as Admin on the home page, then go to Wireless Setup, Advanced. See screen shot below. I set my 5G to Channel 36. You have to Apply to update your router. Similar can be done with the 2.4G. In that case I selected 11. However before you do this you should scan your area to see what channels are being used by your neighbours. 

 

RonAKA_0-1600722820739.png

 

giantbrownguy
Rockstar

Honestly, I had performance and connectivity issues constantly with my T3200. They resolved when I switched to a mesh setup. The T3200 wifi seems to be problematic in houses.