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This has continuously been driving me insane for the last couple of weeks.

I have a TP Link TL WR1043ND WiFi router, and it has been working great for the last ~18 months on stock firmware. Now around 3 weeks ago it started to behave strangely. The day before that I had to toggle my flat's main power fuse since I was installing a new lamp, I have no idea whether that might be related but a friend on Twitter told me a Cisco router he had got a knack when he had a power outage and never got back to full swing again :/

The behaviour:

  • The WiFi randomly vanishes for my Ubuntu Laptop, Android phone and PS3. Sometimes a reconnect helps, but most of the time it does not. On Ubuntu it does not directly disconnect, but I can notice that coming because no network traffic is coming through anymore (i.e. request timeouts when browsing). Ubuntu also tends to give me the password dialog when trying to reconnect, but it is not able to do so after clicking OK.
  • Rebooting the Router sometimes helps, but most of the time does not.
  • I went around the flat with WiFi Analyzer on my Android phone, the channel 5 I had selected is "clear" as there does not seem to be any other networks on that channel around. I have tried auto-select and various other manual channels to no avail though, too. When the WiFi has one of it's fits again I usually can see it's signal on WiFi Analyzer when I move the phone very close to it (~ 40 cm)
  • It seems to be dropping more in the afternoons/evenings (it drops during daytime too, though)
  • It obviously is especially inclined to vanish when I put higher data loads through it - watching a YouTube video and such makes it more likely to drop than just regular browsing.
  • Now here's the best part: I have an older MacBook Pro on my desk which is wired to the router via Ethernet cable, but also connects to the WiFi (OS X seems to do this to have maximum throughput). It usually is sitting there on standby. Now when I open it and thus awaken it from standby, the WiFi springs back up for all other machines too! When I keep it on after a while the WiFi drops for everyone, including the Mac again. Putting the Mac to sleep, then waking it up again remedies the situation again ~3/4 times.

Apart from changing WiFi channels I also tried to upgrade the stock firmware to the latest official release, and more recently also shifted it to the latest DD-WRT build for that router. Nothing helped.

Any ideas what is going on?

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  • When these types of issues start up for me I usually figure it's time to get a new router. Feb 8, 2013 at 17:04
  • Still got 6 months of warranty on mine, but obviously I'd need to buy another one while this one is sent in... Feb 8, 2013 at 18:35
  • Well, ordered a new one. Funnilly since I have ordered the outages have reduced significantly sigh. Feb 14, 2013 at 11:57

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i use a program called inssider its full of help to establish best wi fi connection LINK http://goo.gl/ldfpZ

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  • Unfortunately that seems to be windows only, but as I mentioned I use a similar tool on my Android phone, called Wifi Analyzer. That didn't give me much helpful information though :( Feb 14, 2013 at 11:57

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