Linksys E3000 Wireless-N Router

[MP1975]

Hello All ,

For several weeks now 2 laptops and 3 phones were able to connect to the internet wirelessly through our
Linksys E3000. All of a sudden, yesterday, no one could get to the internet. This morning I came in and rebooted the router and still no go. I tried both putting the security key in manually and pushing the button on the router to do it automatically.

The coax connections work fine it's just the wireless function. Is it possible the wireless function has gone south on the router ? Everything looks just fine on the router itself....Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
MP.

[DaveLembke]

If the router works fine for Cat5 Cable connections ( coax ) and wireless is not working, it is possible that the routers wireless is dead. However I would first start with looking to see if this router is still transmitting a signal. When searching for wireless connections you should see it listed unless you have it set to hidden mode. If you dont see it and you didnt intentionally hide it, then you can try a hard reset of the router. But before doing this, go in and write down any special configuration data such as port forwarding info if you use Vonage for example etc as for the hard reset will clear this and kill your phone if you have vonage or another VoIP phone. Also if this requires authentication to say a DSL connection vs Cable Broadband be sure to have that info available written down too.

Hard Rest is easy... just find the small micro button that usually says reset next to it and power the router off first. Then hold this reset button in and power on the device while this button is held in. After the router boots up usually 15-20 sec or so you can release the push button and it might go through another warm boot before coming up to work with it.

If you have DSL to this router you will need to connect to the router at its default IP address via Cat5 Cable and use the default password to get into it. Then you will need to set the authentication info.

If it is Cable Broadband you just need to access the router via default admin user name and password that is either on the label on the router or in a installation manual that came with it or search google for it from another internet access location for that routers specific model.

One in you can set up the wifi which should be wide open ready to allow devices to connect with no security which is usually default for most wireless routers. At this time you should also be able to see the router from a wireless device as available and insecure wide open for a connection. If you see it now and didnt see it before then simply with the system connected directly to router via Cat5 cable set up WPA2 or other security option for wifi and then connect the wireless devices to the router, lastly after adding back any port forwarding etc, change the password on the router from its default to something only you would guess. I usually use a permanent marker and write the password on the plastic bottom of router, so next time I have to get into it, I am not guessing password and just look under it and get in, otherwise its a hard reset and lots of configuration since I have many port forwarding and other custom settings as well as mac filtering etc.

If after the hard reset the router is not showing wifi and going in and confirming that wifi is enabled its still missing then the wireless is bad on this router and you will need to buy a new one. Before doing this make sure the antenna's are not damaged and screwed in all the way if the type of router that allows for antenna replacements.

[MP1975]

Dave ,

Thanks so much for the help.

Whats going on now is we can connect sometimes and cannot other times.
I can always see the Router listed on my laptop. It seems to be bouncing
up and down. Can this be a service provider issue ? or strictly our Router is
going bad.

Thanks again ,
MP.

[DaveLembke]

Whats going on now is we can connect sometimes and cannot other times.
I can always see the Router listed on my laptop. It seems to be bouncing
up and down. Can this be a service provider issue ? or strictly our Router is
going bad.

Can this be a service provider issue ? It is if this is happening to both cat5 cable  connected and wifi connected devices, but if only wifi then its not your service provider.

If it is only the wifi having this issue, I'd check to see if anyone else in area has wifi on the same Channel (RF Frequency) as yourself and if others are found on the same channel, go into router config and select to use a channel that is not in use.

* I have seen the same problem you have with just wifi when there were two routers within range of each other both on say channel 6 and the noise from the other router causes loss of connection because of RF interference.  Moving to a different channel that is not in use has fixed this problem before.

** The worst case scenario I have seen with 2 routers on the same channel were two both from same manufacturer ( Linksys ) and both had the same SSID, and both were left without wireless security enabled. So the symptoms were that this client and their neighbor were configured the same also on the same channel and so as they would move around their home with their wireless device they would have dropped connections as for depending on which router had the stronger signal based on where they moved into their home, eventually they would lose the handshake to their own and be handshaked with the neighbors router and in the middle of playing streaming content etc, this causes a disconnect and reconnect as it has to renegotiate with a different router. Their fix was changing to different Channel, changing SSID, and at the time WEP was the security of it and so they were set up for what use to be secure wireless with WEP.

[MP1975]

Dave ,

Been on vacation and again TYVM for the help. Lets play catch up.

1. I have tried getting into the router using all default passwords I can find and it seems someone here did give the router a unique password and no one knows it. I am hesitant in resetting everything to the default because I do not know what to put them back to once I reset the router.

2. My company inopak, 2 laptops and 2 smart phones all see inopak2.4 which is the router connected to our server 1 smart phone also see's a inopak5 ? Have never seen inopak5 on any laptop. No one has a clue what this is or where it is. Is it possible for 1 router to have 2 names ? I never heard of such a thing.