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I recently bought 2x W311R wireless routers in hope to setup a wireless repeater to improve WIFI in areas of home. The base router is coupled with a Netgear DM111P modem via WAN port.

Problem: The internet connection from the base router is unreliable, even when using an ethernet cable. The connection and speed are strong at 5/5 bars and 54Mbps, but the internet will "fizzle out" after 5mins-20mins of use.

In order to regain internet use, a reboot of the router is required or wait for 5minutes for it to return. I have tested the modem with a direct link to a PC via ethernet with the modem signal lights showing no disruption and no dropouts at all. The problem I'm sure is with the router.

Issues I think could be the cause:

  • The modem is using a PPoE connection style with my ISP which works fine, on the router its using a Dynamic connection style. There are many options to choose, sometimes the "Identify connection" returns a static type.
  • The DHCP server is enabled on the modem and disabled on the router.
  • Would having the WDS mode set to "Lazy Mode" have an effect? (requirement for repeater WDS use) I have tried either, with no result.
  • I have tried changing the DNS servers, with no improvement.

P.S. I have tried the startup disk with restore factory settings many times with no result. :(

If you have any areas that you would like more information, feel free to ask.

Regards,

House

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I just found this comment on a website selling routers.. "Broadband routers are designed to be used with Virgin Media Broadband (previously NTL, Telewest) via a cable modem. If you have a broadband via a phoneline, see ADSL Wireless Routers instead." (goo.gl/AJMPn) Is this correct? As I have a phone line which provides me with broadband from BT. The modem I'm trying to use is an ADSL2+ ethernet modem... /confused – House Jul 18 '11 at 18:54
If you have a separate modem, then it doesn't really matter what router you get. If you do not have a modem and have an ADSL connection, then you want an ADSL router because those have a built-in modem as well as the router. – Darth Android Jul 18 '11 at 19:51
@Darth Android - Ok, my setup should work fine, and does work if rather unstable.. As I'm Using an ADSL modem to a router. And so my quest to fix my problem continues.. – House Jul 18 '11 at 20:44
About how many connections are open when it locks up? I had similar issues with my router when it ran out of memory for all the connections I had open (~3000 connections). Bittorrent is notoriously bad for this on low-memory routers. – Darth Android Jul 18 '11 at 20:49
@Darth Android - How can I lookup how many connections the router is trying to handle on the network? I would say there is only at max 5 devices connected to the network. I suppose if each device was requesting mass data or opening many connections, it could be an issue. But after having tested on a 1-1 trial where my PC is the only connected device to the router, it still drops the internet randomly. Thankyou for trying. – House Jul 18 '11 at 21:27
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