Wifi not working?

Question

I live in a pretty big apartment and require 2 routers to get full wifi coverage. One of my routers sends out a 2.4ghz and a 5ghz signal but the other only sends out 1 signal (we have 3 different wifi signals in total)
Heres where it gets weird. If you are connected to the wifi, every 30 minutes to an hour, the signal will randomly drop (it still shows that you are connected but it wont actually work) so you have to connect to another one of the 3 signals. Essentially, only 1 or 2 signals are active at a time, they are never all active and the ones that are active keep changing so it could be working but then after an hour, it stops and you have to reconnect to another signal. This is a huuugge first world problem but it s still pretty annoying. We have unpluged the routers and done all that jaz but it hasnt helped. Any advice?
btw, our wifi provider is pretty good and we get around 60mb/s but i think the issue is with our setup.

Answer 1

When you say "our wifi provider is pretty good and we get around 60mb/s" I assume you mean your ISP connection. If you have a wired connection from your ISP to your apartment, then there is no WiFi on that connection. WiFi originates in your router. Your ISP cannot tell if you are using WiFi or Ethernet. Also, you mean 60 Mb/s not 60 mb/s. (Mega versus milli.)



How are the two routers connected together?



You should have a PC/LAN port on the first router (the one connected to your ISP) connected to a PC/LAN port on the second router. Also, the DHCP service in the second router should be disabled. You might need a cross-over cable between the routers, but often a normal Ethernet cable will work. The WAN/Internet port on the second router is not used.



I assume you have different network names for your three networks. Some people use the same name (and pass phrase) for each network, but this can have problems as devices can randomly switch from one network to another. Each time a device switches to a different network, the network infrastructure has to learn where the device has moved to. If this is not happening correctly, then this can cause problems.



You will have to experiment to determine just what works and what does not, and possibly turn off one or two networks to see if you still have problems.



Finally, with two networks on the same band, make sure that they are operating at least 4 channels apart. many routers default to automatic channel selection, and this can cause problems in some installations.



Good luck.

Answer 2

use powerline adapters, these use the household wiring instead of a long Ethernet cable. You plug 1 adapter into the Ethernet port of the router and local mains socket the other adapter(s) into the distant PC/Laptop/game console and a mains socket. If you replace the distant powerline Ethernet adapter with a powerline wifi adapter you can create a local hotspot a good distance from the router.

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-intro.htm

http://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/powerline-and-coax/



You can actually network 3 or 4 powerline adapters if needed. Using several routers is asking for trouble, due to wifi interference and also there will always be a lag in dropping one wifi network and picking up the other

Answer 3

You need an extender, not a second router. Also, make sure both devices have the latest firmware upgrades. If all else fails, pfsense.