Wireless suddenly stops working, no idea why......

xkj1985x

Over the last two days, my wireless router has just kinda stopped working. I've lived in a two story home since April and when I had my services moved over, the router was placed in an area where it would be about the same distance from devices on either side of the house. We've had absolutely no problems since the installation 5-6 months ago. This is with Computers/Laptops upstairs and down, as well as gaming consoles and an iPad.

Everything has worked seemlessly....until about two days ago.

Out of nowhere, literally....most of our devices upstairs away from the router couldn't even find the network at all and the ones downstairs were extremely slow.

After contacting Verizon and troubleshooting it (to no avail), they've decided to ship me out a new router which I guess will be here next week but I just am having trouble understanding why it just stops working out of nowhere. The router hasn't been moved nor have any settings been changed.

The guy on the phone had me reset the battery box out in my garage and that did absolutely nothing but after doing some research on my own, it seems the router/modem is a piece of junk and tends to quit working after a little while.

When I hardwire myself into the router, it works without fail but the wireless aspect of it has just curled up and died on me over the last few days and I'm simply at a loss as to why and how this isn't something I should be able to correct on my own.

I have Fios and I pay for one of the higher speed packages, I don't recall which off hand but the router that I have Actiontec MI424-WR Ref F.

Anybody else have issues with this thing dying? If so, any way to fix it/make it work?

I understand that Verizon has shipped a "new" router to me but it won't be arriving until probably next week and I have to get this figured out sooner than that for my online classes if at all possible.

Halfway tempted to just go buy a modem/router.....

Accepted answers

eljefe2

At this time only channels 1-11 are approved for use in the U.S. If the analyzer you're using is showing channel 14 in use the signal has to be coming from something other than a WiFi network.

Also, if the Wireless Analyzer is showing the strongest signal was on channel 11 when your Actiontec is using channel 1, it means you should stay away from channel 11 because there's another strong network on that channel.

If channel 1 doesn't show a conflicting network, another SSID, that would be the best choice for your Actiontec.

All comments

somegirl

Have you tried changing the channel on the router? The one you are on might have some new device interfering. Have you added any electronics to your home recently (cordless phones, microwaves, baby monitors, etc.)?

Caboose1

My experiences have been similar. I used to have a Rev C Actiontec. The wifi radio died after a while. No reviving, so Verizon sent me a new router, a refurbed Westell box. It worked well for a few months. Now the wifi portion drops out several times a day. Some times it comes back on it's own. Other times I have to reset/reboot it.

I'm about to give up on Verizon hardware and just buy a brand name wifi router and plug it hardwired to the Westell router, and disable the Westell wifi radio. The hardwire connection doesn't give me ANY problems.

HuesFL

I have had the same problems with the ACTIONTEC Wireless and a couple of others. I finally come to the conclusion it is caused by outside interference. Several months ago I switched to a Wireless N router. So far my dropouts are very minimal.

smith6612

Log into the Westell at http://192.168.1.1/ (same goes for ActionTecs) and visit the Wireless Settings. Disable Automatic Channel Selection, and choose Channels 1, 6, or 11 to use, whichever gives the best performance, range and stability. Make sure, before applying the settings you ensure a check box for Remembering your settings through reboots is checked, this way the settings remain permanent.

The FiOS routers should be using a login of admin for the username, and the router's serial number as the password.

goyaman56

Where on the router is the serial number. I have tried entering all numbers on the sticker including the ESSID, WEP, WPS PIN, WAN MAC and the number below the bar code.

Hubrisnxs

Serial Number is under the UPC Bar Code, and it IS case sensetive.

It will look kind of like this

"CSJx1111111111"

Geothurm1

Smith6612,

Thanks for the info. Worked like a champ. Verizon has replaced my router three times in four months. Today after four attempts at trying to reach tech support I stumbled on your post and I'm glad I did!

Hubrisnxs

Also keep in mind the VZ In home agent now provides an easy to use interface for making these changes. Some users may not be comfortable going into the router and making the changes themselves, but if you download Verizon's little In Home Agent, it has a neat tool that takes all the guesswork out for you.

www.verizon.com/connect

smith6612

@Geothurm wrote:
Smith6612,
Thanks for the info. Worked like a champ. Verizon has replaced my router three times in four months. Today after four attempts at trying to reach tech support I stumbled on your post and I'm glad I did!

You're welcome 🙂

bbinnard

Smith662:

Thanks for your post. I used an app called Wireless Analyzer on my Nexus 5 to check the strength of the wireless signal at various places in my house. I have the ActionTec MI424WR Rev I router and it had been set to "Automatic" channel selection. When I started testing the analyzer showed my Nexus 5 was using Channel 1.

Everywhere I went the analyzer showed that channels 11 - 14 were stronger, and 14 seemed to be the best one overall. When I went to change the router to I found that 11 was the highest number channel available, so I set it to that one.

I wonder if future versions of the router will allow use of the higher number channels. I also wonder if my existing wireless devices will be able to recognize them. My Nexus 5 and the ASUS wireless card in my wife's computer picked up Channel 11 immediately.

eljefe2

At this time only channels 1-11 are approved for use in the U.S. If the analyzer you're using is showing channel 14 in use the signal has to be coming from something other than a WiFi network.

If channel 1 doesn't show a conflicting network, another SSID, that would be the best choice for your Actiontec.

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