Tell me more ×
Server Fault is a question and answer site for professional system and network administrators. It's 100% free, no registration required.

I live in a small town which has one primary ISP. Lately I have noticed that a number of wireless routers have been locking up and requiring a reboot before allowing any connections. This has affected two of my routers, my work router, and a few others. In all cases wired continued to function as usual. Often wireless clients can see the SSID but simply won't connect. I can only think of a few possibilities and was hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction:

  1. Our ISP is well known to be flaky, something they are doing is causing this, what that might be I have no clue it as seems to affect the wireless only.

  2. There's a power issue in town, given our remote location and reputation for crap electrical, this seems reasonable. Only one router was plugged in to a UPS, and I'm not sure of the quality.

  3. There is some bug in all the different firmware for every one of these routers (all different). That doesn't seem reasonable, unless;

  4. it's an unknown (or known) exploit or DoS of some sort being launched by a massive team of ninjas hell bent on forcing us all to be tethered to our walls by ethernet cables or;

  5. it's just been a coincidence and I'm just paranoid (this has some weight, I mean read 4 again).

Anyone else experience similar issues and have some tips?

share|improve this question

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

It is very unlikely that ISP settings would mess about the wireless side of your routers. It is very likely that power trouble takes down the most power-intensive part of your routers (the wifi emitters).

Schedule/automate regular reboots or use UPSs that can 'upscale' the input voltage. Also protect all your expensive (server) power supplies with a UPS, it will save on downtime & emergency call-outs.

share|improve this answer

In locations where I've had bad power I've used some inexpensive garden timers to do scheduled power cycles. Pick which ever time is the least busy and schedule a reboot.

share|improve this answer
show 1 more comment

Maybe unrelated, but depending on your router setup I've had the same problem. When our internet goes out the router adds bad values to it's routing tables, the router then requires a reboot to clear it's 'bad' data. In your case it maybe that the wifi device cannot sense an internet connection and drops service...

Either way we both need to do more research with some net tools / power equip. to figure out a root cause. I am just trying to throw ideas out there for thought :)

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.
{"cc_re__cc_re__cc_by_sa_3_0": ["f=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com\" title=\"proposing new sites in the Stack Exchange network\">Area 51</a></li>\r\n                        <li><a href=\"http://careers.stackoverflow.com\">Stack Overflow Careers</a></li>\r\n                    \r\n                </ol>\r\n            </td>\r\n    </tr>\r\n</table>\r\n                </div>\r\n            </div>\r\n\r\n            <div id=\"copyright\">\r\n                site design / logo &copy; 2013 stack exchange inc; \r\n                user contributions licensed under <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license\">cc-wiki</a> \r\n                with <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/attribution-required/\" rel=\"license\">attribution required</a>\r\n            </div>\r\n            <div id=\"footer-flair\">\r\n                <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" class=\"cc-wiki-link\"></a>\r\n            </div>\r\n            <div id=\"svnrev\">\r\n                rev 2013.6.17.742\r\n            </div>\r\n            \r\n        </div>\r\n    </div>\r\n    <noscript>\r\n        <div id=\"noscript-warning\"", "\r\n</table>\r\n                </div>\r\n            </div>\r\n\r\n            <div id=\"copyright\">\r\n                site design / logo &copy; 2013 stack exchange inc; \r\n                user contributions licensed under <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license\">cc-wiki</a> \r\n                with <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/attribution-required/\" rel=\"license\">attribution required</a>\r\n            </div>\r\n            <div id=\"footer-flair\">\r\n                <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" class=\"cc-wiki-link\"></a>\r\n            </div>\r\n            <div id=\"svnrev\">\r\n                rev 2013.6.17.742\r\n            </div>\r\n            \r\n        </div>\r\n    </div>\r\n    <noscript>\r\n        <div id=\"noscript-warning\">Server Fault works best with JavaScript enabled<img src=\"http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-c1rF4kxgLUzNc.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"dno\"></div>\r\n    </noscript>\r\n    <script type=\"text/javascript\">var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(['_setAccount','UA-5620270-2']);\r\n        _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'ta"], "copyright__copyright__copyright": ["s 'bad' data. In your case it maybe that the wifi device cannot sense an internet connection and drops service...\n\nEither way we both need to do more research with some net tools / power equip. to figure out a root cause. I am just trying to throw ideas out there for thought :)\n\nshare|improve this answer\n\nYour Answer\n\n\u00a0\ndiscard\n\nBy posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.\n\nNot the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question."]}