Wireless unstable at specific hour of the day.

[maregg]

Hi,

I have this very strange behavior with the wireless network in my home.

I have a Linksys 160n router that has been flashed with DD-WRT. It has worked flawlessly for the past year or so.
In the past week, I have had problem with the network at very specific hours of the day. It begins around 5pm and will end towards 7pm. In this timeframe, the internet connection will became very slow and gaming will give me latency that can go as high as 8000ms. Accessing the router firmware (DD-WRT) will be very slow. I'm talking close to a minute for every click of the interface. Its usually instant.

Here is what I have tried without success :

- Recycling the router.
- Changing the wireless channel.
- Decreasing the wireless power antenna power (tought it might be overheating).
- Changed the router acount/password and the wireless security password protocol + password (tought I might be getting hacked).
- Tried different computer.
- Tried different wireless protocol N-G-B.


No new electronic device has made its way in my home.
Keep in mind the router is working flawlessly outside of those hours.


My only guess is that someone close to my home has bought some crazy device that is bombarding my home with strong wireless signals, disrupting my network.

Is there any way to isolate my network from outside perturbation ?

If any of you have another guess as to what might be the problem, please let me know and if you have pointers that I could try.

Thanks

 

[spidey07]

Sounds like somebody using a microwave. Could be a wireless video transmitter or camera - those reak havoc on wifi.

 

[jhh979s]

If your ISP is cable its a shared connection. 5p-7p are peak hours. (people getting home from work, school, etc.) You probably got some new cable internet users in your neighborhood recently. If you have DSL, I have no idea.

 

[maregg]

Originally posted by: jhh979s
If your ISP is cable its a shared connection. 5p-7p are peak hours. (people getting home from work, school, etc.) You probably got some new cable internet users in your neighborhood recently. If you have DSL, I have no idea.

Hmmm, thats really interesting. My ISP is using cable technology and there has been a chuckload of new owners in my vicinity.
I think I might give a call to my ISP tonight and see if I can get any info. I don't have very high hope however. They are usually pretty clueless. Also, changing ISP is not an option as I'm contractually bound to them for 10+ months. Breaking the contract would cost me too much.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: jhh979s
If your ISP is cable its a shared connection. 5p-7p are peak hours. (people getting home from work, school, etc.) You probably got some new cable internet users in your neighborhood recently. If you have DSL, I have no idea.

Agree. This sounds like an ISP load problem.

OP, have you tried connecting directly to the cable modem to see your latency rates and speeds? I don't think this is a router issue (but I've been wrong before! )

 

[kevnich2]

The OP mentioned accessing router's interface is slow as well? ISP load wouldn't account for this. Best way to narrow it down - during the time of slowness, wire a system with ethernet to the router and see if it's still slow. if it is, ISP problem, if not, wireless.

 

[Gunbuster]

I vote neighbors microwave. My own is like an EMP. knocks me off wireless 100% of the time when it's in use.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I would vote ISP for this or high load on your end. Does this same problem occur when you are hardwired?

 

[imagoon]

Originally posted by: maregg

Originally posted by: jhh979s
If your ISP is cable its a shared connection. 5p-7p are peak hours. (people getting home from work, school, etc.) You probably got some new cable internet users in your neighborhood recently. If you have DSL, I have no idea.

Hmmm, thats really interesting. My ISP is using cable technology and there has been a chuckload of new owners in my vicinity.
I think I might give a call to my ISP tonight and see if I can get any info. I don't have very high hope however. They are usually pretty clueless. Also, changing ISP is not an option as I'm contractually bound to them for 10+ months. Breaking the contract would cost me too much.

This is easy to test. Having the problem: Ping the IP of the router and another server at the same time. If the response is <5ms for the wireless AP's address and google.com (whatever) is 8000ms, it is more likely to be ISP. If both are 8000ms, then your wireless is faulty. (distortion or otherwise, just not working).

 

[maregg]

Originally posted by: imagoon

This is easy to test. Having the problem: Ping the IP of the router and another server at the same time. If the response is <5ms for the wireless AP's address and google.com (whatever) is 8000ms, it is more likely to be ISP. If both are 8000ms, then your wireless is faulty. (distortion or otherwise, just not working).

Awesome idea, I'll try that next time I get latency issues. Getting the tower all the way to the second floor isn't ideal so this solution seems like the most hassle free. Thanks.

 

[kevnich2]

This is why I ran cat5e to all the rooms in my house. I like my wireless but wired still is most dependable.