Losing Internet Wifi connection at home

[scrabble]

I have a Netgear N150 Wifi router next to my desktop in my office room at home and when I sit on sofa in living room and attempt to search on safari, I often lose Internet connection. Why does this happen? Please help.

Tried to attempt to update Firmware on Netgear N150 router which was only supposed to take 1 1/2 minute but it was running over one hour and finally I stopped update. Then, no Internet at all on both desktop and iPads. Turned off both modern and Netgear router and now have Internet back.

 

[scrabble]

I have a Netgear N150 Wifi router next to my desktop in my office room at home and when I sit on sofa in living room and attempt to search on safari, I often lose Internet connection. Why does this happen? Please help.

Tried to attempt to update Firmware on Netgear N150 router which was only supposed to take 1 1/2 minute but it was running over one hour and finally I stopped update. Then, no Internet at all on both desktop and iPads. Turned off both modern and Netgear router and now have Internet back.

Is there a Moderator or anyone that could offer suggestion or a reply? Thank you.

 

[twerppoet]

You're last sentence seemed to suggest that the problem was more or less solved. Or at least that's what I thought.

Is it that the NetGear still hasn't taken the firmware update and you want help? If so you best bet is to go to NetGear's support site. Router's are quite different from each other, so it's hard to help unless you happen to have the same or very similar models.

If it's just the reach problem, not working well from your couch, then a firmware update probably won't help. Not impossible, but probably not.

It's most likely interference, or a weak signal. If you have a cordless phone near the couch, try moving it. Some of these operate at frequencies near some wi-fi bands and will cause problems if too close.

It's also possible that other wi-fi networks in your area are overlapping on the same channel. Most routers are set to automatic, and try to find the least used channel, but that does not always work. You should be able to set the channel manually. It's difficult to find out what's going on using an iPad, but there are plenty of computer apps that will scan the nearby networks and let you see the signal strength; if you have a computer or laptop with wi-fi.

If the signal indicator on the iPad only shows one or two bars, then you can try moving the router. Even rotating it (or the antennas if it has any) may help. The reception pattern is rarely a perfect circle.

Another thought is that the 5.8GHz band has less range than the 2.4 GHz bands. You can turn off the higher band on the Netgear, forcing the iPad to always use the more robust frequencies. Since your internet provider is almost alway gong to be significantly slower than the wi-fi network, this won't slow most things down. If you stream between your devices and computer on the network, it might slow things a bit.

That's all I have off the top of my head. And since I don't own a Netgear that's probably all I can help.

 

[scrabble]

Thank you for your informative reply. I did get the Internet back, however the emails on my two iPads which I use in other rooms in my condo were all messed up. My emails all showed "this message has no content". And if I would send an email either from my desktop computer or iPad, it would only appear on the device it was sent from and not on the other - in other words, the same information was not syncing on all devices, as was previously the case. I called Apple and was on the phone with them for hours to no avail. My email is Yahoo and the specialist on the phone had me change from yahoo to sbcglobal.net on both iPads and still had problems. Finally, the 2nd person I spoke with at Apple suggested I bring my two iPads to the Apple Store which I did. The guy at the store reset both my iPads and changed my email from sbcglobal.net back yo yahoo, as my internet provider is AT&T. So anyways all the problems started when I attempted to do firmware update on the router, and I thought the issue was the router. But evidently the firmware update attempt messed up my two iPads and since bringing them to the Apple Store where the guy reset both iPads, and changed the email from other sbcglobal.net back to Yahoo, the issues are now resolved.

I am a Senior and unfortunately I am not tech-Savy so I guess I have learned not to attempt to do changes on tech devices. Out of extreme frustration that is the reason I asked for help on this site, before contacting Apple. Thank you.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.

I'm glad Apple managed to sort it out for you. Updating the router should have had not effect on the iPad's Mail app, but sometimes unexplainable stuff happens.

The most common fix for the kind of email woes you had is to delete the account on the iPad(s), and add it again; which sounds like more or less what your Apple Store guy did, long way around.

The Apple Stores are a great resource. If you've got one nearby don't hesitate to use it. My nearest one is 120 miles away, which is too far for a casual trip/visit.