Netgear DGN3500 issues -help please?

[aliasojo]

I bought this router when it came out after seeing it talked about on here.

I was never very impressed with it tbh, it seemed to drop connection endlessly and I was forever having to reboot the thing.

It settled down a bit but was never rock solid by any means.

Over the past couple of months it has been really bad again and I'm having to reboot at least 2-3 times a day.

The connection dropped again last night and after rebooting again, I now can't get anything to connect to it wirelessly. For a short while I could still see the network to connect to but still had no internet. Now, the network is not even showing up on any of the pc's/laptops despite the fact all the lights are solid green on the router.

I can connect via ethernet cable and access the net but that's it.

Any ideas why the wireless has gone? Is the router likely to be on it's way out now? I'd be happy to see the back of it tbh but don't want to spend money on a new router needlessly.

In case it matters, I've changed ISP's since I got the router, it's acted the same with both.

(Firmware is the most recent.)


Edit: After rebooting again, the wireless option was unchecked (despite the fact it was selected previously). I've checked it again and the wireless is working again for now at least.

Why would this have changed by itself? Is this just yet another sign that the router is behaving in a buggy manner and needs replaced?

 

[mickevh]

May be a bug. May ne not. Software (including "firmware") doesn't "wear out" over time, so there's no reason why it shouldn't work as well today as it did last year.

Usually things "go wrong" in software because something has changed. One of the problem with software, is that it's incredibly complex (in the sense of "intricate") and (usually) poorly tested (to make it cheap) so sometimes a bug can sit there in a "dormant" state for ages until something triggers later on down the line.

Most of your symptoms sound like wi-fi intereference, however interference shouldn't cause your router to "turn off" it's wi-fi. That sounds really strange.

I'd suggest you read the wi-fi interference FAQ pinned in this forum and see if that diagnostic track helps.