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Hello, @glenn5.
Welcome to Rogers Community Forums! 😀
Thank you for posting your concern in the Community; I appreciate your observation, and you may have identified the root cause of losing the Internet on your network.
We have seen in the past when one device crashing the network like you are experiencing. Have you checked if the WiFi adapter's firmware is up to date?
How far is the computer from the Ignite WiFi gateway? If it is within the line sight of the gateway, can you disable 2.4 GHz band and the Bluetooth on the WiFi adapter?
We look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
RogersMoin
@glenn5 You may not be able to disable the 2.4 GHz band in your WiFi driver but you can disable Bluetooth on Windows 10 as follows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027630/windows-10-turn-bluetooth-on-or-off
However, DO NOT do this if you have a wireless keyboard or mouse that requires Bluetooth connectivity.
Nope, not yet !! I'm thinking about this problem, just have a little research to do first.
What happens when you don't have that pc up and runnng? Does your wifi network behave as it should?
Can you have a look at the bottom of the modem for the model number. It will either be an Arris TG-3482ER or a Technicolor CGM-4140COM. The Arris modem is an Intel Puma 7 modem while the Technicolor modem is a Broadcom BCM-3390 modem. Please let me know which one you have.
When you have time, can you drill down into the Wifi Advanced Settings tab and list the categories of settings that usually show up in the left hand side of that panel. The right hand side will show the setting value as you scroll down thru the list. For the moment the actual setting values aren't important, so I'm not looking for them, but, I'm looking for a Power Saving item or category. I don't remember the exact title for it, but it might be in the list. That's a feature that allows the adapter to run in a low power mode to save battery power as commanded by the modem or router, but, not every manufacturer agrees on how that should work, so, first question is, is it in the settings list and if so, I'd like you to disable it. If the list is short enough to capture on a screen shot, you could post a screen shot. It just depend on whether or not the list fits in a single viewing field.
Next, in one of the tabs to the right will be a power saving feature, which "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. Disable that function. Thats not the same as the power save mode in the Advanced Settings list.
While you're at it, there are separate power settings that can also be applied. In Start .... PC Settings .... System .... Power & Sleep there are some power settings that can be changed to determine when the screen is turned off and the pc goes to sleep. On the right are "Additional Power Settings". Follow that link and when the next panel comes up, select "Change Plan Settings" to see what the wifi power settings are. I would cancel any sleep setting and set them for max power.
Ok, fwiw, Realtek adapters, historically on the forum have been a pain. They either work, or they don't. Its one or the other with no inbetween, so, not trying to disparage your pc's wifi, but, just be aware that we've run into issues with Realtek equipment in the past.
From what I can see, that adapter appears to be a single antenna adapter, so the adapter uses the same antenna for transmit and receive purposes. The adapter also appear to be 2.4 Ghz capable. Thats from a U.S. FCC licence application. If so, that could present issues with the XB6 which no doubt is using Band Steering to connect a device to either the 2.4 or 5 Ghz network. There's also the issue of the channel settings being on Auto, selecting their own channel instead of running on a fixed channel.
For test purposes, I'd recommend:
1. Disabling Band Steering for both bands. I don't use that modem so I don't know if it has Band Steering enable/disable selections for both bands.
2. Disable Auto Selection for the wifi channel selections. Park the 2.4 Ghz network on channel 1, 6, or 11 and park the 5 Ghz band on channel 149 to take advantage of the higher power output in the higher 5 Ghz channels.
3. Rename one of the Wifi networks to separate the two networks and assign devices to the networks as desired. I'd push everything that runs on a 5 Ghz network over to the 5 Ghz band for now.
4. Assign the pc to the 2.4 Ghz network and see what happens to the 2.4 Ghz network. If I knew what was available in the Adapter's Advanced Settings I might be able to recommend changes that might help out.
Ok, for now, that's the approach that I would take. Check out the adapter Advance Settings, the pc power settings and work on separating the two wifi networks so that the wifi devices don't bounce back and forth between the two networks.
You might need some assistance to disable Band Steering and the channel Auto Setting. If you peruse the settings you should be able to find them. The problem here is that the app locks users out of some settings, and these might be included, don't know at the moment. If thats the case, then a modem reset followed by a manual setup would be required to gain access and full control over the modem setttings, that is to say, don't use the app and don't use the online settings. Log into the modem and set it up from scratch.
In theory, the adapter should announce that its only capable of 2.4 Ghz traffic. The modem should take note and not attempt to force the pc adapter onto the 5 Ghz network. Thats all in theory if the correct bits are sent in the wifi control messages from the pc and the modem recognizes them and does what its supposed to do.
Lasty, load Winfi Lite from: https://www.helge-keck.com/
Thats the best freebie Windows Wifi tool around these days. Fire that up and select the wrench symbol in the second row from the top, near the right hand side. That will display the lower display area. Select "Spectrum" from that group to display the graphical interpretation of the surrounding networks. At the top is a 2.5, 5 or All selection. Toggle that between the 2.4 and 5 Ghz selection to see what happens with the display data. If I'm correct, with 5 Ghz selected, the data should clear off of the display, which does indicate that the adapter is only capable of 2.4 Ghz networks. The next question is, how many other networks are running nearby, which would slow your data rate, perhaps by a considerable margin.
If the pc is so close to the modem, why not run it via ethernet instead of wifi? That would give you a much higher data rate?
Ok, that should do it for now.
@glenn5 @Datalink I honestly don't know what to make of this issue. Over the last few weeks, there have been numerous posts where people complain about their Internet and WiFi dropping daily, or unstable Internet/WiFi after switching to Ignite. That's in addition to reports of Ignite TV constantly cutting out/freezing. Others are more specific, with reports of set-top boxes going offline when their computer connects, or that their WiFi has become unstable after connecting a newly purchased laptop to the network.
This thread is a different issue but still noteworthy: Arris XB6 Networking Issue with Apple Homekit
From @RogersMoin 's post, it sounds like Rogers is suspecting a strange interaction between one of the XB6's internal radios and external hardware. (It could be a WiFi or Bluetooth device. It could also be that tiny USB dongle that is used for connecting a wireless keyboard and mouse.)
If there was only one report of problems, you could chalk it up to bad hardware. Clearly, there is more going on here... but the problems are also clearly not affecting everybody either. However, those reporting problems are frustrated because tech support says that they can't see anything wrong and replacing hardware does not fix the problem.
The XB6 is neither a simple modem nor a simple gateway; it was designed by Comcast to be the hub for their "connected home" service offerings. It has Bluetooth LE and Zigbee radios, which don't appear in configuration settings. It has hardware and software features that are hidden to the end user that cannot be configured or disabled by the end-user. There are also numerous functions that are enabled and running in the background even when the XB6 is in bridge mode.
There is very little public technical documentation out there about the XB6; only documents submitted to the FCC/ISED for testing/certification and some leaked pre-release technical documents. The XB6 is a very capable device... and it makes me nervous when we see unexpected behaviour (e.g. hidden WiFi networks that remain enabled in bridge mode) that is not documented... that we cannot research, nor can we get a straight answer when we ask about it.
@glenn5 wrote:
Thanks for your input, if there are suspected issues with their modems, should step up and acknowledge it and fix it. I'll give it another attempt, if don't get resolved, guess Ill run back to Bell with my tail between legs.
I've only been a customer with rogers for approx 3 weeks.
I suspect that some of these issues are new. It's also possible that Rogers could be enabling features in the hardware that have been disabled or dormant up until now; perhaps they are about to turn up some new services. I'll have to pull out some diagnostic tools to see if I see new/weird behaviour.
As for what those could be, I have no idea... but, so far, we have only seen a fraction of the features and services that Comcast has rolled out to their customers. e.g. have a look at the bottom section of this page under Tiles, which is enabled by the Bluetooth capabilities of the XB6 gateway and the Xi6 set-top boxes and integration with 3rd-party services. If Rogers has enabled functionality like this for testing, perhaps for a completely different purpose, we would not know nor would we have the capability of disabling it at the moment.
@kilpatga wrote:
This also worked for me.
However, I don't get the same download speed on 2.4GHZ. Is Rogers figuring out how to deal with Realtek adapters ?
@RogersGordon Do you have any updates that you can share, particularly what other WiFi hardware has been confirmed to trigger these WiFi resets and when affected users might see a fix? Thanks!
Hello @kirknesbitt!
You may want to consider getting a newer adaptor if you're having troubles with this one.
802.11b/g is older tech and does not have the same range as newer WiFi tech does. If you have older equipment that only supports b/g, then you may need to tweak your settings to get it to work.
Just keep in mind that you will have an overall weaker WiFi performance than what our modems are actually capable of if you use these older settings.
Regards,
RogersCorey
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