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I have an odd situation in my current property. When connected to the wireless I need to have full bars or Internet connection is nonexistent. It won't disconnect from the wireless, just the internet stops working. I have also noticed it never seen it drop to 1 bar. Once connected to WIFI I only ever get full bars or a mid strength signal. Never a 1 bar/weak signal.

My initial thoughts were maybe channel contention, so I checked the channel config. I was on 6 so tried both 1 and 11. Same issue persisted. So left it on 11 for now.

It's a virgin horizon box (Ireland) so the Internet is excellent when you can connect, averages about 36Mbps+, last test I ran today was about 37.

Has both a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I use the 2.4Ghz generally. Tried the 5Ghz at one stage, but I struggle a bit with range if I'm too far from the router.

Rebooting the box makes no difference. Anyone ever come across this?

Note: I originally posted this (in error) on Network Engineering (https://networkengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/32322/wireless-internet-only-works-on-full-bars) and got a reply to install DD-WRT firmware on the router and it should fix the problem. But I'd like to hear other opinions before I embark on a mission like that!

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    You say "Internet connection is nonexistent". Do you mean your wireless connection doesn't work? Or it works, just won't let you connect to the internet? For example, can you reach the router? Jun 17, 2016 at 22:40
  • That's good thinking, can't believe I never thought of checking that myself! Initially I thought it was just Internet... But the connection was fooling me. It's like a fake medium strength, I can't hit the router either. At least that highlights the problem, although I can't understand why it doesn't drop to 1 bar. Jun 18, 2016 at 20:32
  • Are you 100% sure you are connected to the same access point in both cases? My father had a similar issue, and the problem was that he had left an old router (configured with the same SSID and key) plugged in. Jun 18, 2016 at 20:34
  • 100% sure. Moved in last March and have only had the 1 router since I moved in. I'm thinking the issue is just a mix of a poor signal and connection so it's intermittently finding the router. Might invest in a powerline adapter like Netgear 500 or something. Jun 18, 2016 at 20:54
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    If you're going to get poweline adapters, only get those marked AV1200 or AV2000. Trust me, it's a huge improvement. Jun 18, 2016 at 21:06

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