Actiontec MI424WR Rev I causing disconnects?
lwoody79
Enthusiast - Level 1

We have been happy FIOS subscribers for years - internet, phone and TV. We have a reasonably large number of devices - 3 DVRs and a STB (coax), a thermostat device, a printer and an Windows laptop connected by ethernet, 2 Windows laptops, 1 Macbook Pro, 3 iPads, 3 iPhones, Apple TV,  and an XBOX connected wirelessly to the Actiontec MI424WR Rev D.

Recently, my son has been complaining about slow internet access, and after a fair amount of research, I bit the bullet and ordered (and paid for) a new Actiontec MI424wr Rev I (GEN 3) to provide wireless N and gigabit connectivity. During the first month, it worked great (lost connectivity once and I restarted the router) but most of the time, my husband and son were away, so it was only me. Since they have been home (less than a week), I have needed to restart the router 8 times, each time sooner than the time before. While the Mac and XBOX and wired devices seem to continue to work fine, the Windows laptops lose connectivity. I can watch the green bars go from 5 to 4, then yellow exclamation mark and no internet, then connected again every 30 seconds forever (as far as I know) - router log says PC is making DHCP requests over and over, PC log says DNS is not responding. Router is on the newest firmware (40.19.22) Lights on router continue to flash. Powering the router off fixes it, but only briefly (went 24 hours the first time, now down to about an hour)

Finally fed up, I put the old router back, and we have not hae a problem since then (18 hours so far) but we've lost the faster wireless.

Any suggestions on what to check, or how to do further troubleshooting? The router was a final sale, so I guess I can ask to have it replaced under warranty, but I can't just return it for money back. There do seem to be lots of other people who want one, but maybe they wouldn't after trying it...

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7 Replies
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Have you tried driver updates on the PCs to see if that helps with the issue? If the Mac and Xbox are not seeing problems, that may be significant or insignificant depending on what is actually going on.

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Mistaya
Enthusiast - Level 3

We also got that router when we first had Fios installed. I constantly was loosing connection with my laptop , Ipad and Iphone. My husbands laptop would else go down latter than mine or not even disconnect. I was constantly on the phone with a Verizon Tech person and they seemed to be really trying to figure out what was going on. They never did though. I finally got fed up and asked them to send another router which they did though it certainly wasn't anything like what I had. This is a much older one with low security. It worked fine for quite a few months but now I am noticing I am starting to get low signals though no disconnects. I just moved my router to I hope maybe a better location and changed the channel when I noticed the router was on auto. Also upped how many devices can connect at one time. All my things are wireless though I do have tripple play. Have been trying to figure out if I want to take on configureing my old router which was actually new when Fios came in to help with signal strength but even though there are a lot of posts out there I am just confused which to use.

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Mauser
Enthusiast - Level 3

Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to your problem, but I did want to assure you that it is not an inerrant issue with that specific model of router (but that does not say that your specific unit may not be bad - I have no way of knowing).

Although I have had FiOS TV for several years, I just got FiOS Internet a few months ago.  My initial router was an MI424 rev F.  I had constant problems with spontaneous reboots of the router many times every day.  I got Verizon to send a replacement router (another rev F), and it was even worse!  Had a truck roll to check things out after I shoed them the routers would reboot from simply using the test connection feature in the router.  The tech that came out just gave me a brand new rev I gigabit router, and my problems was solved 100%.  The new router has performed flawlessly, without even one single disconnect or reboot.

Good luck getting your issue sorted out.

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PhilBr
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have not checked our WiFi setup on the actiontec because I use our netgear router as the wireless access point.

Anyways, with the wireless N, I'd try to put the 5GHz on a different wireless connection name. For example have your regular wifi "homeWiFi" and then the 5ghz N band be "homeWiFi5".

Move all the devices over to "homeWiFi" and see how stable it is, then slowly start moving devices to the faster wifi if needed.

In my case with my netgear WiFi, the 5ghz has about 1/2 the range.

good luck

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digitaldarknes5
Contributor - Level 1
I also had problems with random disconnects with the rev I. My problems went away when I turned off WMM. You can do that in the wireless settings. Go to advanced security settings, other advanced wireless options, WMM settings. Uncheck the box and apply.
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dpgreeno1
Newbie

What is WMM and where do I go to change it?  I'd like to try that before calling about a new router....

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digitaldarknes5
Contributor - Level 1

You can disable WMM in your router's configuration. Use this URL below after logging into your router to take you directly to the area that will allow you to disable WMM:

(Note: You will need to put your router's internal IP address in place of the 192.168.1.1 if it is different) 

http://192.168.1.1/index.cgi?active_page=9122&active_page_str=page_actiontec_wireless_setup_wmm

Here is an article explaining what WMM is and what it does:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Multimedia_Extensions

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