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  • Author Author: neilk
  • Date Created: Date Created
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Unintended Consequences........

neilk

Just before Christmas last year, my ISP offered me a deal whereby I could have my broadband connection upgraded to twice the speed and actually pay a little bit less, provided I signed up for another 18 months contract. The deal also included a new router. I have been satisfied with my ISP and the price was competitive so I signed up,

 

The router arrived, the switch over occurred and my desk top PC (cable connected) was back online and looking good almost immediately. I then went through the process of reconnecting both laptops and the wireless printer to the new SSID. I then brought the ESP8266 greenhouse monitor inside so that I could update the firmware via a cable connection - can't do OTA updates if the device can't connect to the network! Finally, I reconnected the Humax hard drive video recorder to the new SSID (we don't have a SMART TV).

 

Then the trouble started: my wife's laptop periodically refused to connect to the WiFi, or would drop out whilst she was using it and refuse to re-connect, although mine was OK. The only fix seemed to be to disable and then re-enable the WiFi adapter and then reboot the laptop. Strangely, after a few weeks, this behaviour stopped! Then the Humax video recorder started to regularly disconnect from the network, - every hour or so - flashing a message up on the TV screen to tell us and then re-connecting after a few seconds, flashing another message on the screen!! Although annoying, this was not a big problem, because we rarely streamed content from the Internet.

 

However......... In these extremely difficult times of enforced stay at home, we decided it would be good to be able to access streaming content. So we did, and it was very inconvenient when the recorder disconnected from the network in the middle of a film! I did some Googling and found a suggestion that certain models of Humax recorders don't like to connect to an SSID with a long name. Easy peasy - I logged onto the router, changed the SSID and password and then reconnected the Humax. By this time it was 9:30pm. We didn't stay around long enough to see if this had fixed the problem with the Humax.

 

The next morning, I sorted out the laptops again and then the printer. My brain obviously wasn't working properly, because I then logged on to my server to check the overnight temperatures in the greenhouse. It took me several minutes to realise that logging had stopped at about 9:20pm when I changed the SSID!

 

Out to the greenhouse, disconnect the unit, back inside and connect the unit to my PC and upload an updated firmware image. Check that it's connecting to the network and logging OK, and then back out to the greenhouse. Strange, it's not logging anymore. Back out to the greenhouse; watch it for a while, waiting for the blue LED to flash when it logs - it doesn't.......I wonder if the battery is flat? It shouldn't be!

 

Back to my desk, grab the phone powerpack, back out the greenhouse; plug it in and see the blue LED flash almost immediately! back to my desk and check it's logging. Yes!!

 

Thinking it through, even though the battery had several days of life left in it, when the unit failed to connect to the network at about 9:20pm, it just kept on trying and trying and failing  Connecting to the network and logging are the heaviest drain on power, so it's only to be expected that the remaining life in the battery drained away between 9:20pm and about 11:30am the following day!

 

To add insult to injury, the Humax recorder continues to regularly disconnect from the network and then reconnect!!! I have no idea why!

Parents

  • Is your Ethernet connected PC OK? i.e. Is it the WiFi that's the problem? If so, you could leave the new router doing the broadband side of things and use your old reliable one on WiFi duties.

  • in reply to Fred27

    Hi the weather stopped my gardening yesterday so I decided to try your suggestion. Seemed to work brilliantly until bedtime, when I turned off my PC - there was a shout from my wife - "Network disconnected".

     

    Thinks.............ah! I powered the old router from the dis board that gets switched off at night!!!!!!!!

     

    Plugged it into an outlet that stays on....."Network Connected"

     

    But.............this morning..............."Network disconnected" and won't reconnect!!!!!!!!!!!!

     

    Did a bit more peering at screens and thinking...

     

    When I look at the available networks in the Humax config screen, the new router appears twice. I had been selecting the first occurrence; the new router operates on 2.5Mhz and 5 Mhz bands; the selected network was the 5Mhz band - strongest signal. I have now connected to the 2.5Mhz offering and we'll see what happens!

  • in reply to neilk

    Latest Update - connecting to the 2.5Mhz band didn't solve the problem!

     

    I have now disabled the use of DHCP on the Humax and assigned it a fixed IP address. I have also reserved that IP address on the router. Still connected to the 2.5Mhz band

     

    See what happens next!

     

    Surely, this is mass market consumer kit......I shouldn't need to do this!!!

  • in reply to neilk

    And it's no better! If anything, it's worse.....disconnectiong and reconnecting every 10 to 15 minutes!

     

    At least I can stream on my Laptop and cast the stream to the Chromecast...............until that stops working!!!!!!!!!!

  • in reply to neilk

    I find wifi infuriating to debug when it goes wrong.  You have to assume that if it worked without issue on your old router and works intermittently on your new router then it's unlikely that the wifi module in the humax is failing.  I recently had a problem with PS4 not picking up the network - it's 2.4Ghz as well.  No rhyme or reason for it, 'yesterday' it worked, 'today' it didn't - I ended up unplugging it and carrying it closer to the router to see if it was still working (it was.)  I sorted that out by changing the broadcast channel on the router from Auto to 1 or 3 (can't remember.)  As I say, some routers, particularly BT but I may just be paranoid, broadcast a strong signal which can cause interference. 

     

    The only things I can suggest are:

    • Are you able to power up your old router and log into it to check settings and do a comparison? 
    • Does your new router allow you to set the channel width for 2.4Ghz?  It's better at 20Mhz rather than 40Mhz (or 80Mhz.)  The 5Ghz channel should be set to the widest. 
    • Does it have traffic prioritisation (QoS or WMM) - enable WMM if it has it.

     

    I'm sure you've tried all those things and obviously I have no idea if they would help.  It might be worth downloading and trying a wifi analyser application.  Have you access to a wifi extender to try?

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  • in reply to neilk

    I find wifi infuriating to debug when it goes wrong.  You have to assume that if it worked without issue on your old router and works intermittently on your new router then it's unlikely that the wifi module in the humax is failing.  I recently had a problem with PS4 not picking up the network - it's 2.4Ghz as well.  No rhyme or reason for it, 'yesterday' it worked, 'today' it didn't - I ended up unplugging it and carrying it closer to the router to see if it was still working (it was.)  I sorted that out by changing the broadcast channel on the router from Auto to 1 or 3 (can't remember.)  As I say, some routers, particularly BT but I may just be paranoid, broadcast a strong signal which can cause interference. 

     

    The only things I can suggest are:

    • Are you able to power up your old router and log into it to check settings and do a comparison? 
    • Does your new router allow you to set the channel width for 2.4Ghz?  It's better at 20Mhz rather than 40Mhz (or 80Mhz.)  The 5Ghz channel should be set to the widest. 
    • Does it have traffic prioritisation (QoS or WMM) - enable WMM if it has it.

     

    I'm sure you've tried all those things and obviously I have no idea if they would help.  It might be worth downloading and trying a wifi analyser application.  Have you access to a wifi extender to try?

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