Quantum G1100 Router suddenly not keeping 5ghz connections

[RichLux]

For the past 2 weeks or so, my G1100 router will no longer connect reliably at 5ghz. My devices will connect and then immediately disconnect or refuse to connect at all. If I reboot the router or change anything in the wifi settings that causes the router to reset the wireless, 5ghz will work again for a day or so, but then the same thing will happen. I have tried many different 5ghz channels, but none fix the issue for more than a day or so. I have no issues with 2.4ghz, only 5ghz.  Prior to this problem recently, everything worked fine for over a year. I posted over at DSLReports and one other person has the same issue, but no one has any resolution to the problem.

Has anyone here seen this issue?  Does anyone know if Verizon pushed a firmware update over the last 2 weeks?

Rich

[Simbapenn]

I've had different passwords and network names and it doesn't help.

Still up after nearly 2 days with rolling back to WPA/WPA2 on the 5GHz band. 

[ymDroid]

All those if you that are posting.

"Me too!" Or "Add me to the list"

You guys are actually calling tech support and reporting the issue right?

[betsy5141]

I'm a me too - I've called (yesterday) and did a live chat (the day before).  Was told both times it was a firmware issue but they had no idea of when it would be fixed - likely a couple of days.  

[bikerpilot]

I had the same issues and tried all the suggested changes with no improvement. However, I then realized that the problem started to occur after I added 2 Google Home Mini's to the network (I have had 3 Google Home's already).

After I disconnected the Google Home Mini's, the 5G remained stable. As soon as I plugged them back in, the problem reappeared. Can anyone confirm this as well? I have not finalized that testing, but it would be great if someone could run a similar test.

[Simbapenn]

Wow that is interesting!  I think the timing matches for me too. Had Google Home no problem. Around the time of the boots, added two home minis (just one right now). 

Even more interesting:  That would explain why my 2.4 GHz went down last night as I had moved all of them to the 2.4GHz band!

[chubrock07]

I don't own a Google Home but I do own a Chromecast. Have you guys tried looking at the packets being sent? 

In my effort to track down the issue I did notice a wireshark report that had the Chromecast sending obscene amounts of packets over the network. Though I doubt that is the reason for the disconnect. It was on my 2.4Ghz network and that has yet to crash.

I will say the last 3 days I've had to disconnect/reconnect my phones to the 2.4Ghz network. It never dropped out but certainly wasn't loading anything. 

[maestro2]

I will be adding google mini this week.

I have google home, apple tv, roku, chromecast and other WiFi devices and all seem to work fine since I switched from WPA2 to WPA2/WPA mixed mode. As I have the same SSID/password for both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks, I see most of the devices connected to 5GHz most of the time and some to 2.4GHz, which is normal I think.

[wecoyote5]

Hi all,

Google Mini was not the culprit in my setup. It used to be on the verizon 5G but I moved it to my backup 5G AP weeks ago when this started. I only had 3 devices on my 5G when it crashed this morning. Google Home (which I've had for close to a year so it was not new), a phone, and a laptop. I've moved the Google Home and phone to my backup AP) leaving one device, a run of the mill older laptop housing my NAS. We'll see what happens.

PS: Nothing of value in the logs either.

[bikerpilot]

Unfortunately, the Google Mini's are not the problem. Even with them disconnected the connection dropped (alas it took longer before the connection dropped). I have them plugged back in and for some reason I am online now for just over 24 hours. A recent record!

Summarized: it's not the Google Mini's, but I still don't have a solution.

[TommRXE]

Hi all. Same here. Called Fios technical support tonight. They said that they are aware that it's a firmware issue from the last update. They said they're working on it but have not resolved it just yet. They also said that they are well aware of the many complaints and will have it fixed as soon as possible via a firmware update that they will push to the routers. They just don't know what time frame is that will be. By the way, didn't realize it was such a widespread problem until I called and then found this forum after that call via a Google search.

[smith6612]

Just some food for thought.

While looking through the FCC's documents for the G1100, I noticed the router is using a BCM4360 Wireless chipset for the 5Ghz Wi-Fi. The rest of the chipset in the router is Broadcom based as well as the SoC being a Cortina Systems WPCS7542E.

Since the router functionally works fine beyond 5Ghz, this would isolate the problem down to something in the Broadcom WLAN driver running within the Linux base.

Personally, I have observed other complaints from other Broadcom based routers, notably those made by ASUS with 5Ghz instability after a certain firmware update. A fix customers have found is to force the router to use 40Mhz wide channels. The G1100 seems to have an option for this, but in the Verizon firmware this is locked out and forced to 80Mhz.

It's pretty logical to figure out why 80Mhz may be unstable. Underpowered chipsets, compatibility issues with devices which cannot make use of more than 40Mhz of bandwidth, increased interference which must be mitigated against, and the list goes on.

Chances are very good if I'm observing complaints from other Broadcom-based routers, given Broadcom's Linux driver stack is pretty universal for most of their chipsets, the problem lays in Broadcom's hands to fix. Greenwave and Verizon won't be able to touch their code, but can regress back to a working driver. This may or may not re-introduce old security issues like the KRACK vulnerability, which Broadcom may have included a patch for despite the router not necessarily requiring it.

No witch hunt here. Must making an observation.

[Corcodush]

And this is why downgrading security to mixed WPA/WPA2-PSK makes it work again. After two weeks of getting tired of disconnected 5G, I see it working for several days with no issues. All this time I used an alternative 5G access point, while continuously monitoring the  Quantum 5G AP with a low-bit stream.

[chubrock07]

Any idea why the WPA2 on the 2.4Ghz network isn't also affected by this firmware update? I mean KRACK affects the WPA2 encryption, not the band. Just curious as to how an update could affect a 5Ghz band and not a 2.4Ghz band.

[jared14]

I am having the same problem.  I've had the modem/router since April with no issues, then all of a sudden in the last month it stops working.  I contacted support three times; they finally sent me a new g1100 2 weeks ago and now this one is disconnecting.  Is there a work around I can do to resolve the problem?  Tech support didn't seem to know much of anything.

[Duckiesauce]

Read up on the responses from folks above, changing your security mode to WAP/WAP2 mixed mode seems to do the trick for me. Almost a week now no disconnects.

[maestro2]

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@jared1 wrote:

I am having the same problem.  I've had the modem/router since April with no issues, then all of a sudden in the last month it stops working.  I contacted support three times; they finally sent me a new g1100 2 weeks ago and now this one is disconnecting.  Is there a work around I can do to resolve the problem?  Tech support didn't seem to know much of anything.

---

The workaround is to switch from wpa2 to less secure options.

[Cheese5]

That work around doesn't work. The issue is with the firmware in the router. If you log into your router when 5Ghz isn't working, go to My Network > Network Connections > Network (Home/Office) > '5.0GHz Wireless Access Point 1' and you'll see that the router has disconnected it:

Changing to WEP or WPA will not solve this issue as the firmware auto-disconnected the 5Ghz after about 4 hours. Changing any setting on the 5Ghz channel or rebooting the G1100 will allow it to work for about 4 hours before it disconnects again.

[maestro2]

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@Cheese wrote:

That work around doesn't work. The issue is with the firmware in the router. If you log into your router when 5Ghz isn't working, go to My Network > Network Connections > Network (Home/Office) > '5.0GHz Wireless Access Point 1' and you'll see that the router has disconnected it:

Changing to WEP or WPA will not solve this issue as the firmware auto-disconnected the 5Ghz after about 4 hours. Changing any setting on the 5Ghz channel or rebooting the G1100 will allow it to work for about 4 hours before it disconnects again.

---

Switching to WPA2/WPA mixed mode seemed to help me, and many others here. It is possible that yours is a different issue?

[KevSha72]

I contacted Verizon 2 days ago and was told there would be a firmware update coming soon to fix the issue. +

[Supaman]

Add me to the list. 5G WiFi keeps dropping connections. Also added a Google Home Mini over the holiday. Going to try the work around today. Fingers crossed!!

[JenMarie1313]

Hi,

I'm new to Fios and fixing computer stuff in general, so sorry if this is an easy fix. I have the basic internet only fios package and until Christmas the devices I had on the wifi were: my phone and sometimes my partner's, my laptop, a network printer, and an Xbox one (the 360 is rarely ever turned on). For Christmas, my partner got me a smart tv and brought me his switch. That brings the total devices to 8. Ever since then, the router needs Rebooted every other day. My laptop, printer, Xbox, and partner's phone always seem fine. My phone, and more recently the tv, always have issues connecting. They're on the 5G connection. Should I maybe bump some down to the not 5G? Or is it too many devices?

Thank you in advance