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For a home setup, my network is kind of complex. Here's a quick rundown of everything that's on it:

  • Three Phones
  • Two Tablets
  • Two TVs
  • A handful of servers (not high traffic)
  • A handful of computers
  • A Crestron system that uses a POE switch that powers ~7 in wall panels
  • 4 IP cameras that are constantly viewed by one of the aforementioned servers
  • A Second Access Point running DD-WRT

It's a lot, I know. The 4 IP cameras were really putting a load on the network. But even with them off, it runs faster but it's not reliable. I'm trying to make it so that the router has to be rebooted less (I know it'll have to be rebooted sometimes.) I'm just trying to make the network not suck. My router is a Netgear AC1450, so it should be handle all of this and more. At any given time, there aren't more than 50 IP addresses on the network. Sometimes it doesn't resolve web pages (using google's public DNS) and the latency of internal connections is long.

Any help in debugging this shotty wifi/network situation would be swell. My expertise is not with networking but I am a software developer. I'd be happy to answer any questions to clarify the network's details.

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  • This sounds really odd. You shouldn't have to reboot your router at all. It should just work for days, weeks, months. Have you tried testing the network with everything disconnected and then add just one device after the other to determine when/where (and why) it becomes unstable? This really sounds like some device might have faulty wiring, causing additional voltage on the network cable.
    – Mario
    Sep 1, 2014 at 22:15
  • To keep it working at the speed it should, some times it's every 1-2 weeks. It is odd, indeed.
    – Osmium USA
    Sep 1, 2014 at 22:16
  • 50 Ip addresses is quite a lot for a consumer router to handle. Would throwing something like untangle (or setting up a server for dhcp, and host masqurading and so on) on a spare system just to see if it handles it better be an option?
    – Journeyman Geek
    Sep 2, 2014 at 2:30
  • I suppose i could set something like that up but from what I've read this router shouldn't be breaking a sweat. Most of the IP addresses are static anyway.
    – Osmium USA
    Sep 2, 2014 at 2:34

1 Answer 1

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That's a lot of variables to control for! Definitely start simple and add things one at a time to eliminate variables.

Start with just the router and a single computer, plugged in via a cable. Test internet - does it work well? If not, your internet connection or router is the problem - try eliminating the router if you can.

If it works fine, start adding devices one at a time until the problem occurs. Honestly, that's all it is. Process of elimination.

Once you do have a problem, try and see what's going on - excess traffic? Routing/switching loops? Flapping between wireless APs? Router/AP CPU/memory/etc issues?

Sorry for the generic response, but there's usually a million things that can cause this, but at least this will narrow it down to which of the 50 things we need to focus on more!

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    Just to add, some router status pages (only know those of AVM though) will show you stats like CPU and/or memory consumption, so that might make it easier to tell whether you somehow reached the cap (which I still consider unlikely, even with lots of stuff on the network).
    – Mario
    Sep 2, 2014 at 7:03

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