5GHz network goes down on XB7

[Hwaiting]

Hi everyone,

I upgraded to Ignite 2 weeks ago and have been using the XB7 in normal configuration with a single SSID for both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks. I've been popping into 10.0.0.1 periodically to check on my devices to see what's connected to which network band.

Usually the majority of my devices will connect to 5 Ghz. In the past week couple of weeks however, I've noticed several times where all my devices will be on the 2.4 Ghz network. (I've seen my tablet disconnect and reconnect to Wi-fi while using it and I'm wondering if that is what I'm seeing when it goes from 5 to 2.4 GHz). Attempts to get my devices to reconnect at 5Ghz by toggling Wi-fi on and off on my devices (even when standing next to the modem) or restarting my PC will not get them to reconnect at 5 GHz. A soft reboot of the modem initiated from within the Ignite app will result in my devices reconnecting to 5 GHz again.

It happened last night and it happened again now where all my devices are on 2.4 GHz.

I thought perhaps the modem over time simply sees 2.4 GHz as the more suitable network for my devices. As a test however, I decided to use different names for 2.4 and 5 GHz. When I did that the 5 GHz broadcast would intermittently appear and disappear as an available network to my devices and when I tried to connect to it, it would fail.

I decided to reboot but this time pulling the plug, waiting several seconds and re-plugging. My devices are connected at 5 Ghz again as expected but I'm not sure how long it will last. I'm going to monitor it over the course of the next several days.

Everything still works when all devices are connected to 2.4 Ghz but obviously I'm not maximizing on the speed that I'm paying for (I get around 100 Mbps on 2.4 Ghz and 400+ Mbps on 5 Ghz on a 500u plan) and some devices are close by to the modem so they should be connecting to 5 Ghz .

Has anyone had similar issues like this or do you think something might be faulty with the modem?

Thanks.

***Edited Labels***

[-G-]

@Hwaiting I have never seen this issue before, where all devices drop off of the 5 GHz band.  Where do you have your gateway located in your home?  Also, if it is plugged into a power bar, have you tried completely unplugging the power bar and plugging the gateway directly into wall power?  (A faulty or failing power bar can cause all sorts of weird problems.)

One other thing: with a 500u service and a good laptop connected to 5 GHz Wi-Fi, you should be getting more than 700 Mb/s on your speed tests.  Something is either degrading your W-Fi performance, or there could be interference, or you could have faulty hardware.  When the XB7 first came out, we also had some reports of WiFi dropping completely when a certain device connected... but I haven't heard of this happening recently.  It's also hard to assess the condition of the 5GHz Wi-Fi radio without a Wi-Fi analyzer.

Rogers tech support may be able to run tests and provide you with more information.  You can also check the modem's logs; log into the gateway locally and go to "Troubleshooting > Logs", then view the System and Event logs for the past week.

[Hwaiting]

Hi @-G- ,

My modem is located centrally on the 2nd floor. So it's been almost a day and the majority of my devices are still connected at 5 Ghz so that's a good sign so far.

It's funny you mention how there were previous XB7 problems when one device would connect. I have a Chromecast Ultra that I leave powered off and connect it only when I use it. I noticed the issues occurred after I connected the Chromecast Ultra. The first time was Day 2 after getting Ignite. I noticed right after I connected my Chromecast Ultra the network blipped because I had to restart my TV box.  I didn't power on the Chromecast again until this weekend when the problems occurred again. I've since powered it off again. I thought it might just be coincidence but maybe there is something to it after you mentioned it. I have several other Cast devices like Chromecast w Google TV and Nvidia Shield TV, but these devices have not caused any problems and are always connected. Maybe there's something to the Chromecast Ultra device in particular. 

With regards to speeds, my speeds on my old 300u w the CODA modem seemed to be faster than my 500u with the XB7. I had the CODA in bridge mode though with my own router (Netgear R7000) and I would always get over plan speeds. Whereas now I'm using the XB7 alone. I can tell the XB7 signal strength is weaker than my own router so I kind of chalked the degradation in speeds to that? I also imagine the XB7 does some sort of QoS to ensure the TV feeds get priority?  When I tried QoS on my own router w the previous CODA in bridge, I noticed speed test results were not as fast as when QoS was off. I should do some more testing though because if you are saying I should still be getting >500Mbps on 500u on a good wifi connection, then maybe there's more that can be done to optimize things.

At any rate, I'm hoping I don't see the 5 Ghz network being dropped issue again. It was solid for almost 2 weeks until this weekend. Thanks for the help.

[Hwaiting]

Just thought I'd update my post and share in case someone else ends up encountering something similar.

I haven't had any problems since I disconnected my Chromecast Ultra. About a week ago I did try connecting the Chromecast Ultra again. Sure enough a short time later my TV boxes disconnected and when I logged into 10.0.0.1 all my devices were on 2.4Ghz. So it looks like there's something about the Chromecast Ultra that causes 5Ghz issues for all devices with the XB7.

[Buddhababy]

Hi
Just following up on this. Do you still believe the Chromecast Ultra was the issue? I have been going through this for over a year and just saw this post now. Even though I searched everything trying to find a solution. Roger's swapped my modem but after that it was still an issue. My internet was down for about 6 hrs in November and after that outage all seemed good. I figured they must of found some issue and my 5g stayed connected for over 2 months. Now in the last week it is back to disconnecting all the time. My chromecast was never unplugged. I will try it to see if that helps but seems strange it was fine for 2 months with it connected. Just curious if you kept running into the issue with chromecast disconnected and if so did you ever find a solution???? Thank You