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I'm having a fairly consistent issue with one of the wireless networks I regularly connect to:

The connection drops. It doesn't disconnect from the wireless router, just loses internet connectivity.

The wireless router is a D-link dir 601B. Thinking it was the firmware being out of date, I updated it months ago to D-Link's most recent stable update for the specific router model.

After this, I realized it was a fairly consistent issue around lunch time, so I changed the channel and frequency to Channel 11 - 2.462GHz to avoid overlap with the microwave. Fairly certain there aren't any other devices at the 2.4GHz range in the room.

Power cycling the router sometimes works, but sometimes doesn't.

The oddest thing about this is that I can connect directly to the wireless router when it drops the internet, the router's connectivity test is fine and completes, I can ping and connect to the ISP's router (the wireless router is connected to the hardwired ISP router), but still no internet.

It seems that when this problem occurs, DNS connections are still active - when pinging a website it's still able to find the correct IP address.

I've tried everything in my own repertoire of router troubleshooting, and haven't found any similar issues throughout Stack Exchange or anywhere else, so figured it was time to ask the group. Happy to answer any further questions about the router configuration to resolve this issue.

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This sounds like you are a victim of the lunchtime effect, where office staff browse facebook/youtube/some other relatively bandwidth-intensive site.

Since the issue seems to be after the ISP modem (which can you reach at all times), it sounds like either the ISP modem can't deal with the volume of traffic it sees at certain times of day, or the ISP line can't.

For reference, several networks I'd had visibility into showed substantial (50%+) in traffic during lunch hours - and such lunchtime activity has been the root of a fair few support calls.

See if you can setup/monitor usage, and if so, if there is a big spike during the times you see issues. I would assume DNS is being cached by the wireless and/or ISP modems, so not sure that's necessarily something that would help get to the bottom of the issue.

Edited to add:

Ok, then I would have to suspect the ISP line is part of the issue. It may be worth calling them to see what they have to say.

I know I have had issues in the past due to bad (or deteriorating) cabling between my home sockets, and the ISP cabinet. They generally ended up denying anything was wrong, but still occasionally would send someone to check the cabinet.

You don't mention whether this has always been an issue or not, but if it hasn't, and you have some idea of when this all started, it is also worth:

  • considering if anything done within the office might be causing this (i.e. moving/re-organising your equipment room)
  • asking the ISP about the same date(s).
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  • Unfortunately it's not just during lunch time, just more frequent during lunch time. I do monitor the devices connected at any given time, and there's no real rhyme or reason to it. I.E. - I'm the first in the office, internet works fine and then it goes down... no one else is connected to it or using the bandwidth. Generally, the same devices are connected almost all through the day as people trickle in, with no upticks or down ticks at any given point.
    – Datura
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:19
  • Deteriorating cabling would make sense, I've though about checking it... but the hard wired computers seem to do just fine and never have any down time... I figure if deteriorating cabling on the ISP's end were to blame, then hardwired devices would be affected too. It's a really odd situation.
    – Datura
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:27
  • That would make sense. I wasn't aware there were cabled boxen to compare with. If you are correct that those never see any issues, it might make sense to beg, steal, or borrow another access point from somewhere and see if that has the same problems. You probably want to remove the pinning to channel 11, though, because it sounds like allowing the access point to switch frequencies might help a bit. It could also be someone is messing with you, of course.
    – iwaseatenbyagrue
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:33

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