Help...My network keeps dropping

I will be happy to try that again but I’ve tried reset button before. I didn’t think of that when you asked. I admit I am growing impatient. :confounded:

If I can’t log on to the router how do I: Login to the web UI, go to Advanced Settings / Admin / System / Rest

OK, after 5 days of total torture, I am disabling the QOS option which is one of the features why I purchased this unit. I can hold off for a f/w update if this is the issue.  I also noticed where mine dropped the recognized USB hard drive. I have since gotten it back by disconnecting the drive, turning the router off then on, going into the router control panel and then reconnecting the USB HDD. We’ll see how long that works.  Windows explorer would see the drive most of the time. My main reson for this router was the 7 1 GB RJ-45 connections, parental controls, and dyndns capability (still having issues with that).  The router is much faster than the Belkin N750 that lost many features to the 802.11n models.  WD needs some good USA problem solving to these issues to keep its dedicated customers.

4 weeks later and all **bleep** as broken loose.  Now, it’s dropping more than ever.  I bought this with the latest firmware release, so I have not updated the firmware.  I have reset it to factory settings and it’s still knocking out.  It will be working fine and when a new pc/tablet/device joins the network, it will go down.  I hope I saved my receipt.  Again, when it works it is fast.  It’s just the “when” in that sentence that is testing my patience.

Is there any action on solving this problem? It does seem that WD is ignoring the issue.

WD,

I have 12 more days to return this chinese made piece of junk… Ithe N900 keeps dropping my connection… I think I’m going back to my apple extremem base station. I like it when it works but when it drops a 1 or 2 times a day and you have VOIP. it gets annoying… It’s funny, when I tried using my ps3 with the N900 my connection went down… maybe it can’t handle the load of  hard connections to it? or wireless devices to it?  You have one week to send me a FIX!

Tony

By resetting I mean press the reset button on the bottom of the router, hold it in for a few seconds, then let it restart.  Configure the router now (it’s back to default settings).  In many cases, this appears to solve the problem, but not always.

I bought the N900 7xgb port version just before Christmas and have had a ton of issues with it at first even after updating the firmware to the 1.05.12 firmware to include the following:

  1. Unit would loose dashboard/admin interface first followed by wifi shortly there after where the SSID’s will still be listed as visible but unable to connect and then after about 30 mins of that, the wired ports would drop out as well.

  2. Under large file copy attempts on either a or b/g/n (greater than 1gb and yes tried both nets independently and not at the same time while also turning off the unused wifi to eliminate potential interference issues) then unit would totally lock up and require power removal for about 30 seconds before it would actually attempt to boot the router back up.

  3. Built-in DLNA would crash when streaming files to my Sony bdp-s580 after about 15 mins requiring the same 30 seconds of power removal.

  4. After about 4h of being on with a 2TB usb hdd hooked up to port 1 (the blue port on the back), the router dashboard would crash and the external drive would not be accessible but wifi/lan/wan still functioned for internet and file shares from my laptop to other computers on the network.

After conducting research on this router, several of these seem to b problems with it that are documented by many others.  The first thing I tried to fix the issues were simply wedging a CD case under the front of the router to prop it up a bit and let more air flow to the fan than what the small standoffs give.  This as eliminated almost all my issues with the unit.  After the CD fix, the only issue I have now is when doing large file copies over 20GB at one time instead of breaking them up into a few smaller transfers with pauses between.  This has led me to believe that something in the router is simply over heating under heavy/continuous loads.  I have also noticed that the internal fan never really seems to turn on, and when it does, it doesn’t spin very fast.  My next attempt is going to be propping the router up on it’s side and putting a small desk fan pointed at it and see if that gets rid of the heavy load crashing and will report back.  Should this work, then it simply means that WD needs to adjust the fan speed vs temp/load ratio they are using.

One note, if this doesn’t help you, it is entirely possible that you have damaged interal parts by overheating them multiple times and RMA or exchanging it may be your best option if you still can.

I disabled my Qos and my network seems to have established some stability. I noticed that WD has not adressed this issue in this post since 02/2012.  I see that as a problem! My issue with net network disconnects is using an attached HDD on USB1 and simutaneously using the internet from a separate PC or iPad device.  This locks up the entire router causing a need for a hard reboot which then make the password go back to the default.  Seriously WD, you haven’t addressed this issue since 02/2012. When are you going to fix these issues.  Where is the CEO on this issue? I was thinking about a My Book Live but now have to hold off on any WD products. Can a USA engineer contact me on this issue?

I got a call from an L2 rep who explained that QoS only needs to be enabled with slower ISP speeds.  In my case I have 20-25Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, so enabling QoS actually was part of the problem.  The documentation that WD provides should make mention of this and where the cutoff may exist.  At least this is an answer for anyone having similar issues - check your bandwidth!

Sounds great except I have a not so fast internet connection where I would like the QOS to help things like VOIP etc. However turning it on just basically destroys the internet connection after a few days. Several website just start timing out. Turning of QOS and like magic everything works fine.

So after using a desk fan, it still had issues at around the 20gb mark.  This prompted me to go with a more forced air approach and set the router on my laptop’s cooling pad with the 2x120mm fans blowing right into all the vent holes under the router and I can feel the heat being exhausted thru the top/side-ish vents on the router. This has now allowed me to transfer 200gb without issues and confirms that at least my N900 has overheating issues that are NOT detected by the firmware since the lights on the front do NOT all blink at the same time as the manual says they should if it over heats.  Also the WD Quick View doesn’t report a temp issue, it simply stops reporting on the router at all.

On a super good note, now that it is cooled properly, this thing is FAST!!!  It did the 200gb of files at a rate of 54MBps to the usb drive hooked to port 1 (the blue port) which is very close the the theoretical usb 2.0 max of 60MBps (480mbps / 8 bits in a byte = 60MBps)

A side not I feel should be added about the laptop cooling pad I added…it’s a usb powered cooler but CANNOT be powered from either of the routers ports for some odd reason.  The pad doesn’t even try to spin if ran from the ports on the router so I hooked it up to a usb hub I had laying around.

Just to update this thread, since installing my laptop cooler under the router on 5 Jan 2013, I have only had 1 issue with the router and that was where the WD Dashboard stopped working but ALL other functions still did (DLNA, file share, routing, port forwarding, VPN passthrough, netflix streaming to blu-ray player and laptop, etc.).  I noticed this on Monday morning 7 Jan 2013 and did resest the router just to make sure it would work for my wife and kids while I was at work.  

So far, it is now going on 2.75 days without issue and even the WD Dashboard is still up.  I have every feature turned on as well, FasTrack+ with auto priorizing, WMM QoS, Enhanced WMM QoS, both A and N wifi with 20/40MHz channel width, DHCP server, 2TB extrenal hdd on port1 with DLNA, file share, and FTP (no I anything in this house thank you) with user/password setup, firewall on, port forwarding rules set, AGL all on, network UPNP IGD on, HTTPS Server on, Time server on and set to NIST, and logging set to debug just so I see ALL messages the router tracks in case something does stop working.

One thing to note after I had the WD Dashboard crash, I used the Innsider wifi sniffing program to pull up all the networks around me and manually set my router to an unused channel.  While I cannot say if that really mattered at this time, it is the only setting I have changed since the 7th and the WD Dashboard hasn’t crashed since the change…time will tell.

Interesting I have not had any issues since turning off QOS. I do have my router propped up on bottle caps under each footpad but no cooling fan or anything. I have in my past seen how strange computers can act when over heating, it would be interesting to experiment with some increased cooling and ventilation while the QOS is on. If I can find my old laptop pad cooler I may give it a try.

Solved the problem by downgrading to 1.03.11 and now the cooling fan spins, the router works and even the WDPhoto works again.

Of course, the WD Media Player cannot play videos anymore, but I can live with that for now.

I solved my issue. I got a different router. And it’s not a WD.

I solved my issue as well!! I got an ASUS AC1750… and just returned the W(hat)aD(isaster) to Amazon…What a load off my chest :slight_smile: