FIOS Router with Netgear ACX11000

[Dawitz]

I will try to make this as short and simple as possible.

We have our FIOS coming into our basement. I have the Fios router connected to my NetGear(NG) 11000. The 11000 is set in AP mode. 

the FIOS router has WiFi ON because I need it for the wireless tv box on the middle floor. The WiFi SSID is different and nothing connects to it. It’s sole purpose is to feed a signal to the Fios media/tv box.  We do have the master box in basement hardwired to the FIOS router. 

the issue I am having is that every week or two weeks my network just goes down. I can see the network as available but nothing will connect to it. The only solution is to unplug both routers, bring up the FIOS router and then bring up the NG.

I suspect it had to do with network collisions. I have been scratching my head at trying to fix this. I am a systems engineer and admit networking is my weakness. Does anyone have a solution for this? I am wondering if I should revert the NG to factory default and not have it in AP mode. But I don’t want to that if it won’t fix the issue.  Am I just better off running a network cable up to the middle floor? 

[Cang_Household]

When the network becomes congested as you suspect, did you see link indicator LED flashing crazy when there is no valuable traffic between devices? If so, that's indeed a sign of packet collisions. I suggest you to install Wireshark on a client to see what can you capture on the interface.

[Dawitz]

The LED on both routers did not appear to be flashing abnormally. At least not that I saw. Wire shark is a good idea. Haven’t used that in several years