Frequent disconnects and slow browsing on Netgear access point

Question

I have a 2 Netgear WiFi routers.

• One is connected directly to an ADSL modem and the clients access its WiFi.
• The other one is connected to on the LAN with 192.168.X.10 (static IP). Clients connect to this on WiFi with the DHCP of my DHCP Server (not wife DHCP). It just acts as an access point.

The problem is that clients will experience frequent disconnects and slow browsing if they are connected. I reset it and changed its configuration, changed security settings, changed the channel, even updated the firmware, but no luck.

So I got suspicious about the WiFi router and exchanged it with the other one. I manually configured it to act as an access point again. The behavior is the same. Where is the problem? It's just acting as an access point, but there are frequent disconnects and browsing is slow.

Answer 1

First connect a machine directly to the ADSL modem and see if the connection stays up. If you use both ADSL and WLAN on same connection, you have no way of knowing which of them is faulty.

If the problem is on the WLAN, not ADSL, start by scanning the channels and pick a channel that's least used by others. Measure the S/N level and if it seems low, you need better antenna or more WLAN access points.

Measuring can be done with any WLAN-capable device bundled with proper software. I have used Android platform and this: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

It can display both other networks, their channels, relative strengths and signal level of your own network.

Answer 2

A failing power supply or overheating can lead to flaky consumer grade router behavior (both WiFi and wired). Try swapping the wall wart or pointing a desk fan at the router.

In my experience, router power supplies last about 2 years before they start exhibiting this behavior.