A Sea Of Red

Techies: My cable modem was factory set with a DHCP lease time of 1 hour. Its wifi was disabled, and it is hooked up to a MESH WIFI router. We have been having issues with our internet connection from the router... the connection from the modem is constant. Will changing the DHCP lease to 8 days help?

FWIW - If I log in to the router and renew the lease, the internet always comes back within 30 seconds.

At this point, it is irritating, but I need to have the connection solid by the time school starts since my eldest will be home 3 days a week.

Paging @El Scorcho

If possible, I would check the router to statically assign a set IP address for the mesh. The hour lease is fine for personal devices but if you have a mesh hooked up, it is best to have a statically assigned IP address. If you are not able to do that then increasing the lease time will at least improve your experience.

thepostman wrote: ↑July 21st, 2020, 10:02 pm If possible, I would check the router to statically assign a set IP address for the mesh.

I know where that is located, but am afraid to do it. I know enough to get me in trouble, but not always enough to get me out

thepostman wrote: ↑July 21st, 2020, 10:02 pm If possible, I would check the router to statically assign a set IP address for the mesh. The hour lease is fine for personal devices but if you have a mesh hooked up, it is best to have a statically assigned IP address. If you are not able to do that then increasing the lease time will at least improve your experience.

So do you agree that one possibility for my problem is this particular issue? When I log in to the router box, it quickly checks for internet and always comes back as "good" connection... but the internet will not work. For a couple of weeks I had been pressing the "test internet" button, which always resolved the issue. More recently I have been clicking on the "renew lease" button, which seems to make the internet turn on quicker.

With wireless, it could be a host of things from interference to signal dropping to bad equipment but if you renew the lease and the connection comes back then it is at least a decent theory that the connection drops when the lease expires. That shouldn't happen but I guess it could. If you don't feel comfortable giving the mesh a set static IP, then I'd just set the lease time longer. 1 hour is really short, typically home routers come with a 24 hour lease time as the default time. I have mine set for a week.

So try that and let me know how it goes.

Will do.

My comfort level is a little low primarily because I don't actually own a computer that can connect directly (wired) to the router. If I screw something up I'm in trouble!

thepostman wrote: ↑July 22nd, 2020, 4:20 amSo try that and let me know how it goes.

Well, it didn’t work and I’m just now getting around to responding.

FWIW - the mesh system worked fine how it was set up when I was using the DSL WiFi Modem Router. The DSL company walked me through “bridge mode” and over time I upgraded my WiFi router several times. I was using this Netgear Orbi mesh for about a year before switching from DSL to Cable.

I really need to get this working properly because of work for my wife and school for the boys.