Modem ignores wireless devices.

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Level 1

8 points

Modem ignores wireless devices.

Practically every day now, my modem will start ignoring wireless devices and I can’t figure out why. It’s not that the modem can’t connect to the internet, because wired devices still connect just fine. And the wifi isn’t invisible, since wireless devices can see and “connect” to it. But even when a wireless device connects, it can’t even open the modems settings page.

Even consulting the modems system log didn’t reveal anything. Nothing starts when the problem starts, or ends when the problem ends, and rarely does it naturally end. I either have to wait hours for the modem to miraculously fix itself, or I can just reboot the modem. The fact that rebooting fixes the problem has me believing that it’s not wireless interference, but rather a problem with the modem itself.

At first I thought it was a DHCP error, since the IP addresses on wireless devices would occasionally switch to an automatic private IP address (169.254). So I disabled automatic address leasing and assigned every wireless device a static IP address, and for a while, it seemed to work. But then, the problem reappeared, and I was back to square one.

The only idea I have left, is to unplug everything but the power for the modem, and let it run to see if the problem still occurs. If it does, then it’s definitely the modem, and if not, then I will truly and utterly be stumped.

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi

Posted on Dec 8, 2019 3:02 PM

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Answer 1

Rexaandel Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2019 5:10 PM in response to Rexaandel

The modem is only 2-3 years old, but it looks identical to the original which is approx 15? years old. I assume that the software is the major difference between the two, but I don’t know how I would go about proving that. Also the old one still works, but seems to run at a much slower speed. I haven’t tested whether the problem occurs on the old modem yet. The difficulties with replacing the modem is proving that something is wrong. The problem doesn’t show up with any consistently, so I can never seem to replicate it whenever I try to show anyone what the problem is.

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Answer 2

Rexaandel Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 12, 2019 6:15 PM in response to Rexaandel

The modem is provided, and setup by the company. That, and the fact that it worked just fine for the first 2 years, makes me think that faulty hardware isn’t the problem, and that instead it’s some sort of software problem. It hasn’t been moved since it was first setup. In fact, this past year was probably the first time I’ve ever touched it because turning it off and on again is one of the ways to fix the problem.

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