Router doing my head in

R

RandomDesign

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Last month we ran a cable from the adsl router to another part of the office and connected it with a TP link router to add wifi on that side. For a few weeks it worked fine. In the last few days however it keeps slowing down and often dropping out completely. I can see the slow-down happening sometimes when I happen to have clicked on a page and nothing happens for several seconds and if I check downloads they've dramatically reduced speed or paused. Sometimes they resume, often they break. Sometimes when this happens I can't even login to the router other times I can. In either case usually the only way to get things going again is by resetting the second (non-adsl) router. This resetting bit is frustrating - why is this necessary/helpful?

I've tried reducing MTU a bit and setting it on different channels, doesn't help. I don't know whether to play with channel bandwidth, one guide I read said definitely another one said don't touch so I've left that on auto.

Please help.
I don't know how many more times I can watch a download get to within 95% completion and then fail. (if this wasn't uncapped I'd be a hairless screaming wreck)
 
Could be the mode on the wireless, it sounds like the packets are circling. Make sure the wireless is set to bridge the wifi and ethernet, AND NOT to any other "smart" management setting. Let the ADSL router handle the DHCP, NOT THE WIRELESS ROUTER. Otherwise, Murphy's Law you will have duplicate IPs, I guarantee it.

Unless someone is actively jamming your signal, dont bother fiddling with the wireless settings. Make sure channel is on auto.
 
IP's are different on both wireless devices I take it and only one is acting as the DHCP server right?
And the two wireless devices are connected via ethernet, and plugged into the lan ports, not wan ports?
 
Have you got a Router behind a Router? Or did you mean access point when you referred to the second router?
 
Ok bear with me I thought I'd done well just getting internet working through the second router :D my networking skills are still...developing.

agentrfr said:
Could be the mode on the wireless, it sounds like the packets are circling. Make sure the wireless is set to bridge the wifi and ethernet, AND NOT to any other "smart" management setting. Let the ADSL router handle the DHCP, NOT THE WIRELESS ROUTER. Otherwise, Murphy's Law you will have duplicate IPs, I guarantee it.

Unless someone is actively jamming your signal, dont bother fiddling with the wireless settings. Make sure channel is on auto.
Click to expand...

So I should disable DHCP server under DHCP settings on the TP link? It's this TL-MR3420 to be exact.

Now setting it to bridge this sounds like the golden question, how or where do I do this? when I first setup the router I tried looking for something like this and couldn't find anything. I looked again now and the closest thing I can find is this:

Code: 
The router provides some Internet access modes for you to choose:
  	3G/4G Only (Recommended) - Only use 3G/4G as the access to the Internet.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as LAN)
  	3G/4G Preferred - Use 3G/4G as the primary access, WAN as a backup.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as WAN)
  	WAN Preferred - Use WAN as the primary access, 3G/4G as a backup.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as WAN)
  	WAN Only - Only use WAN as the access to the Internet.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as WAN)

got Wan preferred selected.

irBosOtter said:
IP's are different on both wireless devices I take it and only one is acting as the DHCP server right?
And the two wireless devices are connected via ethernet, and plugged into the lan ports, not wan ports?
Click to expand...

it's going out the Lan port of the adsl router and into the Wan port of the TP link. That's how the install guide showed it :confused:

SauRoNZA said:
Have you got a Router behind a Router? Or did you mean access point when you referred to the second router?
Click to expand...

I think the answer here is yes. but I'm not sure!

Assistance MUCH appreciated
 
RandomDesign said:
So I should disable DHCP server under DHCP settings on the TP link? It's this TL-MR3420 to be exact.
Click to expand...
Yes, both cannot have DHCP active. Leave only DHCP in the one acting as the modem enabled.

RandomDesign said:
Now setting it to bridge this sounds like the golden question, how or where do I do this? when I first setup the router I tried looking for something like this and couldn't find anything. I looked again now and the closest thing I can find is this:

Code: 
The router provides some Internet access modes for you to choose:
  	3G/4G Only (Recommended) - Only use 3G/4G as the access to the Internet.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as LAN)
  	3G/4G Preferred - Use 3G/4G as the primary access, WAN as a backup.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as WAN)
  	WAN Preferred - Use WAN as the primary access, 3G/4G as a backup.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as WAN)
  	WAN Only - Only use WAN as the access to the Internet.  (RJ45 Ethernet Port as WAN)
Click to expand...
You're looking in the wrong place. Look for Access Point mode. Download the manual if you have to.

A word of advice. Use a direct cable connection between a PC and the router acting as the AP while setting it up.
 
Last edited:
YingYang said:
Yes, both cannot have DHCP active. Leave only DHCP in the one acting as the modem enabled.

You're looking in the wrong place. Look for Access Point mode. Download the manual if you have to.

A word of advice. Use a direct cable connection between a PC and the router acting as the AP while setting it up.
Click to expand...

Ok I'll try changing dhcp settings. I'm struggling to find access point or bridge settings in the router login menus. I've downloaded and looked through the manual and can only find how to set it as a bridge between two WLANs but that's not going to help me (is it?).
 
RandomDesign said:
Ok I'll try changing dhcp settings. I'm struggling to find access point or bridge settings in the router login menus. I've downloaded and looked through the manual and can only find how to set it as a bridge between two WLANs but that's not going to help me (is it?).
Click to expand...
No, its not. But ff you can't find AP Mode then don't sweat. Bridge and AP are just fancy words to indicate a certain configuration of settings.

If you set the SSID and security settings to exactly the same then it will still work. However, plug the cable from the modem into a normal LAN port and not in the WAN port. Then make sure the channel is also different to avoid interference.

What you're effectively now doing is setting this router up to repeat the signal it receives from the LAN port, broadcast it via wifi and vice versa.

A word of caution though: you won't be able to connect to this router over wifi if you need to, it only acts as a proxy and you cannot address it directly. If you need to change something, use a cable.
 
YingYang said:
If you set the SSID and security settings to exactly the same then it will still work. However, plug the cable from the modem into a normal LAN port and not in the WAN port. Then make sure the channel is also different to avoid interference.
Click to expand...

ok the SSID settings I know but what would the other security settings be?
I've disabled DHCP server on the TP link and while it hasn't dropped out completely and require a reboot (yet) I've had one download fail. When the remaining ones fail or complete I'll switch the cable from Wan to Lan port.
 
RandomDesign said:
ok the SSID settings I know but what would the other security settings be?
I've disabled DHCP server on the TP link and while it hasn't dropped out completely and require a reboot (yet) I've had one download fail. When the remaining ones fail or complete I'll switch the cable from Wan to Lan port.
Click to expand...
The security type (WPA, WEP) and the passwords need to be 100% the same.

If I didn't know better I'd say you've never been connected through the TP-link to begin with. You are still connecting to the modem on the far end. Too many points of failure: DHCP being on, changing to the same SSID, but not changing the security type and password.

There's no way the devices connected through the AP to the modem. :p

edit: Just to add, or you thought you were connected to the main network, but you were actually connected to the SSID of the localised AP's network (since you only gave it the same SSID).
 
Last edited:
Ok I changed the cable into the Lan port and a few downloads have completed since then, no reboot at all today.

Sincere thanks to everyone!


2 DHCP routers... what n00bness
 
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