App/program to detect Wifi drop outs?

[Neilk]

My wife and daughter complain that the wifi seems to drop on their laptops/iPhones. The issue doesn't seem to occur to me as much but I want to resolve the complaints, Happy Wife, Happy Life.

Is there an app that can continuously monitor our internet connection and log any drop outs, whether they are Wifi or ISP related? I just want to be able to test it for 24-48 hours to see if the issue is with the ATT router, or our Asus router. I see there is NetSpot app, but wanted to hear from the Pelican Brain Trust what other options are out there.

Thanks,
Neil

[flipper35]

Prior to our getting a Fluke, we used WiFi Inspector for tracking wifi issues on laptops. Don't know if that is still available or not.

Your router should have logs to check as well to see if they are dropping the wireless connection or the internet is dropping.

[masraum]

What Flipper/Brent said is correct, you should be able to look at logs on your router/modem.

Is there a PC that is wired to the router?

Is there a PC that is ALWAYS on and home?

I'm sure there are probably lots of ways to skin this cat, whether it be an app that's just for it or a ping scanner type of device or what.

It would be good if you had a PC that was wired to the router, that way you could monitor from that device (ruling out any wifi issues)

What's the signal strength where they usually surf from? Often certain parts of a house/office/building get crappier signal than others. How big is your place? One floor or two?

[Neilk]

Thanks for the idea on the logs. I looked at them but did not see any events from this morning that would represent a connection issue, but I will start looking at them more carefully.

Signal is excellent. I decided to go into the Asus router and set the Wifi Channels to fixed numbers rather than auto to see if that makes a difference.

I personally notice the issue when Wifi calling is on. Sometimes the call will go silent for 2-3 seconds then pick back up. Perhaps the drops are so minor that they don't get logged?

Would DD-RT or some other firmware work better than the Asus firmware?

Thanks,
Neil

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Neilk

Thanks for the idea on the logs. I looked at them but did not see any events from this morning that would represent a connection issue, but I will start looking at them more carefully.

Signal is excellent. I decided to go into the Asus router and set the Wifi Channels to fixed numbers rather than auto to see if that makes a difference.

I personally notice the issue when Wifi calling is on. Sometimes the call will go silent for 2-3 seconds then pick back up. Perhaps the drops are so minor that they don't get logged?

Would DD-RT or some other firmware work better than the Asus firmware?

Thanks,
Neil

Is your router firmware up to date? Are the wireless drivers for the devices that connect (especially if they are laptops/Windows) up to date?

When it happens, does everyone at home experience the issue simultaneously?

If the daughter gets dropped, but you or the wife or streaming netflix/hulu/whatever keeps working fine, then it's not likely to be a router issue. If 2 or 3 or more people/streams/services are impacted simultaneously, then it's more likely the router/ISP/interference.

Is there anything in common when they notice the issue? Ie, "Doc, every time a touch my elbow it hurts" kind of thing. (they probably don't think about that, but it is worth checking).

Does it happen more certain times of day than others or when doing certain things (wifi calls, netflix, streaming music, whatever)?

[Ziggythecat]

We went through a long process, trying to identify a similar intermittent problem.

End of the story, a 50 foot Ethernet cable, run in a drop ceiling, went bad.

[flipper35]

A lot of the home access points or combo router/wireless AP are not capable of handling much stress so if someone is pulling a game from Steam or playing an internet multiplayer game it could impact the others. On our units we could have one connect wireless for LAN parties. Two wireless connections and they would get kicked off the network.

[techman1]

Not mentioned.
Is the router near or blocked y equipment that starts and stops?
Refrigerator, ac, etc.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by techman1

Not mentioned.
Is the router near or blocked y equipment that starts and stops?
Refrigerator, ac, etc.

Microwave, cordless phone...

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by masraum

Microwave, cordless phone...

Neighbors wi-fi?

[John Rogers]

Wifi signal loss can depend on the type of house or condo you have. If there are heater forced air ducts in a wall going upstairs or some water pipes or ???? the signal can be blocked. In out house I have a new ATT box for internet going to an Asus router with 6 little poles sticking up and still have issues further than 20 feet. I finally added an "Access Point" in the living room with cat 6 cable. Then there are signal boosters (3 total as follows) one right under the ring door bell, one at the top of the stairs and finally one in our bedroom. All are named sequentially and password protected. They provide wifi in the middle and upper levels, all that is missing is the signal in the garage/machine shop.

The master tech at my computer store helped me figure it out and said to make sure all the extenders/boosters/access point(s) are seen from the mail admin screen of the Asus router. That way with the proper password the connection goes back to it.

Years ago I bought a RJ11 and RJ45 cable tester at Fry's for like $9 and it is great. It showed when the cable to the main flat screen in the living room got a bad cable connection needing new connectors, easy fix!

[widebody911]

I've looked for a similar app and didn't find one.

I run cygwin on one of my home machines, and wrote a script to ping the internal gateway and and external IP, and log any failures. This is very handy when I contact support about when my internet is down and I can give them a csv file of the exact time and length of outages.

[John Rogers]

Make a drawing of your house, showing electrical outlets. Just connect to the wifi close to your Asus router. Use your laptop, open the network interface to see the bright green indicator signal light. Then slowly walk around to see what happens to the little icon. As lines turn yellow note on the map where it happens and note on the map as the little icon gets weaker and note where it finally turns black.

That is the map to add signal boosters.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by widebody911

This is very handy when I contact support about when my internet is down and I can give them a csv file of the exact time and length of outages.

Most of them probably glaze over and hand your info off to the next level of support.