# WiFi Connectivity issues Netgear A6200 Adapter/R6200 Router



## Mattb2e

I have been having a slew of connectivity issues lately with my hardware. I am running a Netgear R6200 router with an A6200 adapter(5ghz). I have been getting random disconnects, slow UL/DL speeds, and in some cases momentary lag spikes. i have been running this hardware for a little over a year with no issues, and now recently i seem to be having tons of issues. My PS3 has no issues (hardwired) at times when my desktop does (wireless).

Aside from running testmy.net and speedtest.net to verify connectivity, I don't really know where to start. Today I experienced abnormally low upload speeds on both test sites on my desktop, but not on my other PC (2.4ghz wifi). Even then, the results were far from repeatable. I have disabled windows ability to put USB devices to sleep (power saving feature) and disabled minimum power state in the adapters configuration (per netgear support article). None of this has helped.

The orange indicator flashes on my adapter frequently, and when this happens I tend to lag during teamspeak sessions. From what I understand, the orange LED is supposed to mean it's connected to 2.4ghz, blue is for 5ghz. So I would guess that the adapter is trying to connect to the different band randomly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated to diagnose this. I dropped $300 dollars on this stuff a little over a year ago (now out of warranty) and would not like to buy anything additional until I am certain the hardware is to blame. Thanks in advance!


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## Silvos00

One thing I noticed messing around with it is that do you have the SSIDs named the same thing? I found changing them works better. Also, how far away is the PC from the router, any walls in the way?


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## Mattb2e

My ssid's are different, the 5ghz band ssd has a -5G at the end. The distance is roughly 150ft through 3 walls.


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## Silvos00

What kind of thickness are these walls? 5Ghz doesn't like to go through much of anything. I'd try moving the desktop closer to the router, and seeing what that does. If it has no problems, your looking at it being too great of a distance. I know in my building's parking lot I can see 5 bars of our 2.4 Ghz, but the 5 is 0-2. And that varies greatly.


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## Mattb2e

It's an apartment so the walls are fairly thin. Yet still, I didn't have any issues with connections until just recently. I purchased both components new a little over a year ago.

I regularly get 4-5 bars, so I don't believe reception is the main issue.


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## dangerdan87

I had a Netgear N600 router when I first moved into an apartment (800 sq ft) in early 2011. I moved into a larger home (1450 sq ft) last year and everything was great until recently. I kept disconnecting and reconnecting. It seemed to always disconnect when I was doing something important and I would have to start all over again. My Wi-Fi printer wouldn't print unless it was plugged in via USB...which defeats the Wi-Fi purpose. All this on 2.4Ghz...

I said screw it and went out an bought a Netgear R6300 and everything is perfect. WAY better signal strength. The router is placed in the living room towards the front of the house and I can still get decent strength on 5Ghz in the back room. Full bars on 2.4Ghz and my printer will print wirelessly. Also, I don't have that annoying blue strobe light anymore that is on the N600









I don't know if routers wear out...but I was fed up with mine. You may also want to contact your ISP to see if they can boost up your modem. Mine wouldn't connect to the internet after I powered it down, so I called my ISP up and they fixed it over the phone.

Hell...for all I know, my modem might have been my problem all along, but at least I got rid of the blue strobe light on the N600 that wouldn't turn off


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## Mattb2e

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *dangerdan87*
> 
> I had a Netgear N600 router when I first moved into an apartment (800 sq ft) in early 2011. I moved into a larger home (1450 sq ft) last year and everything was great until recently. I kept disconnecting and reconnecting. It seemed to always disconnect when I was doing something important and I would have to start all over again. My Wi-Fi printer wouldn't print unless it was plugged in via USB...which defeats the Wi-Fi purpose. All this on 2.4Ghz...
> 
> I said screw it and went out an bought a Netgear R6300 and everything is perfect. WAY better signal strength. The router is placed in the living room towards the front of the house and I can still get decent strength on 5Ghz in the back room. Full bars on 2.4Ghz and my printer will print wirelessly. Also, I don't have that annoying blue strobe light anymore that is on the N600
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know if routers wear out...but I was fed up with mine. You may also want to contact your ISP to see if they can boost up your modem. Mine wouldn't connect to the internet after I powered it down, so I called my ISP up and they fixed it over the phone.
> 
> Hell...for all I know, my modem might have been my problem all along, but at least I got rid of the blue strobe light on the N600 that wouldn't turn off


I previously had a draft N linksys router that had some quarks, and it also had some issues when one person would stream Netflix and I would try to game. It wasn't able to keep up for whatever reason, so I dropped around $300 on my current setup a year ago to update and get a bit better performance. I was happy with the performance up until recently.

I don't want to just drop x amount of money on more new hardware if my current hardware is ok. I want to be able to diagnose my setup to find the root cause, I just lack the know how in this particular instance and need some help.

If I contact my ISP at this point, they will blame my router, because it isn't theirs and they therefore won't have to provide technical support for it. If through diagnosis I find the modem to blame, I won't have any issue calling them up and having them replace it. At this point however, playing dart board diagnostics isn't going to be advantageous to my wallet or my patience.


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## Silvos00

Networking is a fickle mistress. One thing you could try is disabling the 2.4 Ghz radio, which would let you pinpoint when the 5 is on or not.


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## chip94

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mattb2e*
> 
> It's an apartment so the walls are fairly thin. Yet still, I didn't have any issues with connections until just recently. I purchased both components new a little over a year ago.
> 
> I regularly get 4-5 bars, so I don't believe reception is the main issue.


Switch it to 40mhz on channel 36 or 44.


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## Silvos00

Completely missed that one, are there a lot of other networks in the area?


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## Mattb2e

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Silvos00*
> 
> Completely missed that one, are there a lot of other networks in the area?


on the 2.4ghz band yes, on 5ghz no. I am the only local network broadcasting a 5ghz signal.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *chip94*
> 
> Switch it to 40mhz on channel 36 or 44.


I have my channels set to ones that will not conflict with local WiFi networks. Those however are channels for the 2.4ghz band right? If so, I'm more concerned with 5ghz at the moment.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Silvos00*
> 
> Networking is a fickle mistress. One thing you could try is disabling the 2.4 Ghz radio, which would let you pinpoint when the 5 is on or not.


I had the 2.4ghz radio disabled on my network adapter, but not on my router. I re-enabled the 2.4ghz radio on my adapter to eliminate it being disabled as a cause.


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## chip94

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mattb2e*
> 
> I have my channels set to ones that will not conflict with local WiFi networks. Those however are channels for the 2.4ghz band right? If so, I'm more concerned with 5ghz at the moment.


These are the 5ghz channels I'm talking about.


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## Mattb2e

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *chip94*
> 
> These are the 5ghz channels I'm talking about.


Right, sorry I derped a moment there lol, I forgot 2.4ghz are 1-11. I currently have my 5ghz band set to channel 161, however I will try to run at channel 44 to see if that improves anything. As for the 40mhz bandwidth, I don't seem to have an option to change that on my router.


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## Mattb2e

Since my last post, I have moved my router to the top of a bookshelf instead of on my entertainment center, and I have also changed my channel to 44. So far I haven't had any significant issues to note. My reception appears to be the same, however my NIC is no longer blinking orange and blue like it was previously. I'm not entirely sure if my issues were ISP issues, or issues with my hardware, however if it was as simple as a channel change and a higher location that fixed it, I am a happy camper. Thanks guys for your help, ill update this thread again if this issue for some reason comes up again.

I have still been having issues with Teamspeak, such as lag, and roboting. However, I am not entirely sure if that is a server side issue or not, as I am not the only one that appears to be affected at the moment on that front.


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## chip94

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mattb2e*
> 
> Since my last post, I have moved my router to the top of a bookshelf instead of on my entertainment center, and I have also changed my channel to 44. So far I haven't had any significant issues to note. My reception appears to be the same, however my NIC is no longer blinking orange and blue like it was previously. I'm not entirely sure if my issues were ISP issues, or issues with my hardware, however if it was as simple as a channel change and a higher location that fixed it, I am a happy camper. Thanks guys for your help, ill update this thread again if this issue for some reason comes up again.
> 
> I have still been having issues with Teamspeak, such as lag, and roboting. However, I am not entirely sure if that is a server side issue or not, as I am not the only one that appears to be affected at the moment on that front.


REP for the update!


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