Calling all lan/router experts

TJExcalibur said:
See if a double thickness of aluminium foil will do the trick.
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I would stick it under a metal bucket.

Actually a bucket would allow directionality to test if the reset signal is coming from a specific direction.
 
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OK guys here is some new info, the ISP tech said to try this, shut down the 5 GHZ WIFI in the router and see what that does.

I did and lo and behold it works, so now the problem looks to be something in the 5 GHz band (or a harmonic from something) where would that be coming from I don't know....I shut down the ISP modem (it TX's and RX's on 5 GHz) to see if it was the problem, same thing happened.

This setup has worked for over a year without problems.

Now after looking out at the setting Sun last night I saw a red flashing light just over the top of the hills in back, taking a drive this morning I found a new cell sight tower, looking at the cell maps on line, I find it's from AT&T, hummmmmm....Could they have just turned something in the 5 GHz band on at the time this problem started?????

I may need to contact AT&T to see whats up.

I'm going to go out to the wood shop and build me a Faraday cage, this way I can see whats happening to the router's LED's, I have line filters for this.
 
I think my suggestion was closest if this turns out to be the problem :D
 
Well still looking for parts for the cage, but the funny thing is WHY does it work 30 feet down the hall but not in that room, oh I wish I had access to my test equipment in my old lab at work, I could borrow a very nice HP spectrum analyzer that can cover up to 60 GHz, that way I could sweep the whole area.
 
Making a dedicated 'cantenna' for the 5GHz band is a doddle, using some 30mm metal pipe, or some food tins.
 

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Terryl said:
Well still looking for parts for the cage, but the funny thing is WHY does it work 30 feet down the hall but not in that room, oh I wish I had access to my test equipment in my old lab at work, I could borrow a very nice HP spectrum analyzer that can cover up to 60 GHz, that way I could sweep the whole area.
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If it is OK until you plug in a LAN cable doesn't that mean that the cable is acting as antenna?
 
Ethernet cable should act as though it is - almost - fully shielded, otherwise the manufacturers would not be able to claim the 'loss per m' figures on the spec sheets.
 
Is it proper CAT 5, 5e or 6 cable? If the pairs of wires inside are not twisted then they won't be able to shrug off external radio fields.
 
It's all CAT 6, with a few CAT 5e jumpers, and 95% of it is in metal EMT conduit (all grounded) due to mice liking the taste of the PVC jacket.

I have thought of RFI problems, and have used some ferrite toroid cores on the free ends of the 1 to maybe 2 foot free ends of the LAN cables, no help.

If it was an RFI problem, then why in that room only and not down the hall?? As the RFI signal would have to be quite strong to affect a router.

And everything was turned off in that room as a test.

The only source for any type of high power RF signal would be or could be the cell tower I spotted the other night, but that is over 3/4 of a mile away.

And more info, the ISP tech said to try the router with the 5 GHz WIFI shut off, I did that and it works, and has worked over night, so now I know something is getting into the router via the 5 GHz section on the router, and swamping it, ooohhh I wish I had my RF spectrum analyzer....

Now putting it inside a metal box or cage may not be the solution as the antennas need to be outside any type of shielding, that would effectively negate any type of shielding that could help out.
 
What model of Netgear worked as a replacement ?
 
Well I don't know, it's an old one..... I would have to go out to the site and see.....But I think I found the problem, as it's only on the 5 GHz side, I put some metal IR insulation foil up on the wall facing the new cell tower, it has seemed to help, we will need to let it run for a bit.

Also Ampedwireless is very concerned about this problem and is sending out a different model of router, they think that the 5 GHz side on these older model routers may have some filtering problems, the newer one has better filtering on the WIFI, I think it's a RTA1300M, that uses MU-MIMO technology, new stuff to me.
 
I thought you'd already turned off all the Wi Fi options, in the router?
 
Not the internal WIFI, just other stuff around the router, there is an option to turn off both the 2.5 and 5 GHz WIFI and use it as a standard router.

Waiting on a newer modle in the mail....Will see what this one does.
 
Terryl said:
Not the internal WIFI, just other stuff around the router, there is an option to turn off both the 2.5 and 5 GHz WIFI and use it as a standard router.

Waiting on a newer modle in the mail....Will see what this one does.
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That's what I meant, in my first post, regarding turning off the Wi Fi, in the routers menu.
 
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