I'm using an older Apple airport Extreme (flat version) wifi router. We also live in a community where new fiberoptic cable is being laid down and due to this the internet (Comcast/xfinity) is randomly temporarily disconnected. At first this occurred about once/day, but I'm having loss of wifi signal several times a day, especially at night now, which makes me wonder if my router is dying. But it could also be the installation crew.

How do you know when your router is bad? It just won't work at all? Am I thinking this out too much and just need to relax? Would it show problems by randomly dropping the wifi signal? I know I have to reboot the airport whenever the signal loss occurs, but that was 0-1 times per day before, and now is 1-5 times per day.

Try connecting directly to the cable modem for a while and see if you notice any issues.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2016 01:33PM by btfc.

I have my appleTV directly connected to the cable modem and have no issues with it working. But it also does not require rebooting after internet disruption.

In the past, I have seen Airport Extremes that wouldn't get a fresh DHCP lease when the modem dropped out. I solved this by giving the Extreme an assigned IP address. You might also try resetting the router. You can save the current configuration through Airport Utility and re-import, but note that this would carry over potential problematic settings.

You might try a different Ethernet cable.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Installation of fiber optic cable would affect the quality of your WAN connection - it would have no effect on the quality of your Wi-Fi signal. You need to determine whether the problem is with your Wi-Fi signal or your WAN connection.

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It is what it is.

You should try a different ethernet cable from modem to router, as Speedy suggests. Not all such cables are equal.

I have that same AirPort Extreme, and have no problems. However others have reported nasty wifi problems with them.

If the multiple dropouts started when the digging started, you can reasonably conclude the router is okay. Without a stable signal from the modem, you cannot properly test your router.

If you have some spare change, buy a cheap router, hook it up to one of the other airport ports and compare wifi performance. You will have two different wifi networks that should behave the same under the same erratic input.

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Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

Great suggestions! Yes, I've already tried a different ethernet cable without change. I found out the cable crew were back on my street working over the past few days (they're here when I'm at work; but they left considerable debris in everyone's yards to prove they were here).

So, I'm going to wait until cable crews are at least in another neighborhood within our subdivision before I start blaming the AE. It's always worked fine previously. I'll post a follow up