I know it’s kind of a random question to ask for tech troubleshooting here but this is literally the only place on the entire internet that isn’t infested with condescending tech-bros, so I’m doing it anyway.

I’m also about to fuckin’ ramble, and networking terms go over my head, so anyone who’s answering please talk to me like I have no idea what anything means.

Alright, so I have xfinity (fuck monopolies, fuck capitalism), and the internet frequently cuts out. I am told that before we had our own modem + router + extender setup (that is, not the one xfinity provided, but a modem and router and extender we bought ourselves) the internet did not cut out quite so much. I’m not entirely sure I buy it, but it’s not like I can fix xfinity’s trashfire infrastructure that they have literally no incentive to fix because they are the only actual choice in the area.

Internet very frequently lags enough to kill the enjoyment of whatever game I’m playing, and a couple times a month or so the internet in the whole house just dies. Sometimes rebooting the modem and router fixes it, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes - and this is the part that boggles me the most - the internet will work when you connect through the wifi extender, but NOT when you connect directly to the router’s wifi… the same router that the extender is connected to. I assume this has something to do with IP addresses, but again, I don’t really know how IP addresses work, how to change mine, or whatever. Frequently some sites / services will load but others won’t. Lastly, apparently we are paying for more powerful internet than our modem supports, but I don’t know if getting a more powerful modem will actually stop the internet from crashing so much, and since being alive costs so fucking much I don’t want to blow like $200 or whatever on a more powerful modem if it’s not actually going to fix anything.

Someone please help me; I am an internet-addicted fiend and nothing erodes my psyche more than when I’m about to finish the runback on this fuckin Zangief I finally figured out in a first to five set and then suddenly xfinity pulls the plug on the final round.

Anyway rambling complete… for now.

  • AernaLingus [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    sometimes - and this is the part that boggles me the most - the internet will work when you connect through the wifi extender, but NOT when you connect directly to the modem’s wifi. I assume this has something to do with IP addresses, but again, I don’t really know how IP addresses work, how to change mine, or whatever.

    I’ll freely admit my knowledge is more theoretical than the practical, but this might be a DHCP issue? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable here can confirm, but it sounds like the kind of thing that might happen if you mistakenly have multiple DHCP servers running on the same network (DHCP servers being the bits of software on your routers that hand out IP addresses). If for some reason the extender is running its own DHCP server in addition to the main router, you have a rogue DHCP server on your hands, which can cause some of the issues you’re describing. The extender should not be handling anything like this–it should just be acting as an access point, which is essentially a glorified antenna that passes all traffic to your modem.

    As a concrete example, I’m using a cheap router as an additional access point to extend my Wi-Fi range and when setting it up, I have to make sure to select “Access point mode” rather than the default “Wireless router mode” to avoid the rogue DHCP server issue among others. Might want to look at the manual for the extender and take a peek at the config page to confirm the equivalent setting on your device (if applicable).