[TriLUG] Weird WiFi router behavior

[William Sutton via TriLUG]

I'm wondering
1. what wireless protocols your old and new APs support (A?  B?  G?  N?)
2. same for the devices that did and didn't work
3. any security settings (key length, whatever)

sounds like Apple made an update that wasn't compatible with older 
hardware.

William Sutton

On Thu, 21 Jul 2016, David Both via TriLUG wrote:

> I have identified some very weird WiFi router behavior a couple days 
> ago. The good thing is that everything is working now, but here is the 
> rest of the story.
>
> <Long story warning>
>
> So my wife and I have different devices. She has an iPhone (very old) 
> and an iPad (fairly new). I have a Kindle Fire HDX and a Samsung S5. 
> Until a few months ago, all of these devices worked fine, including all 
> Apps and email access to my own server. I used a TP-Link TL-WR940N 
> wireless router plugged directly into my Time Warner Business Class 
> modem/router, an Arris that has never given me one bit of trouble. As 
> opposed to the previous Ubee I had before complaining, but that is 
> another story.
>
> Sometime late last year, all of the apple devices started experiencing 
> problems. They would not update email from my server. Two local TV 
> station apps would not connect at all. The N&O app (no comments, please) 
> on the iPad would frequently crash and the occasional reboot was 
> required to recover. Except that once or twice a month, her email app 
> would sync up. Facebook and other apps all worked fine. No change 
> regardless of distance from the wireless router.
>
> None of my Android devices experienced any of these problems and neither 
> did my laptop. In fact, I added my wife's email account to my laptop and 
> my Kindle so she could access email while we were away from home. Or 
> downstairs and away from the computers.
>
> All of these symptoms remained unchanged no matter where we were or what 
> WiFi routers we were connected to or what local providers.
>
> We went to the Apple store and the same symptoms were experienced there. 
> Identical for both sets of devices. Apple failed, Android worked. They 
> wanted to replace her iPad (for a fee) but their devices experienced the 
> same problems.
>
> So after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I added SquirrelMail to my 
> server so that my wife could access her email via web interface without 
> having to use my Kindle.
>
> Two days ago, I installed a TP-Link AC 1900 Gigabit WiFi router 
> downstairs since the signal from the existing router was fairly weak 
> down there, and I also wanted the 5GHz and Guest capabilities that the 
> AC1900 provides. Not to mention the touchscreen setup. I connected the 
> WAN port of the new router to one of the 4 Ethernet ports on the old 
> router since there were not any ports left on the TWBC modem/router.
>
> After configuring my wife's Apple devices to use the new wireless 
> router, all of the problems have disappeared. Everything works normally 
> and as expected now. All of the strange symptoms no longer occur. I 
> still need to test her iPad on other wireless routers and ISPs, but I 
> suspect it will work fine there, too.
>
> So the questions I have are: why? How could something like this occur? 
> Anyone else have a similar experience?
>
> -- 
>
>
> *********************************************************
> David P. Both, RHCE
> Millennium Technology Consulting LLC
> Raleigh, NC, USA
> 919-389-8678
>
> dboth at millennium-technology.com
>
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