Why does my wifi in my building go out every night at exactly the same time?

not sure....all depends what is causing it. Can you give us a picture of the room and like of the outlet? It is off how it is consistent at the starting time but the length of outage ranges.

 

When you open the door to the room, its basically like a room where you there is some useless stuff there etc. Like a room where you put stuff in a closet... but you can walk up the stairs. I can basically walk up from that room up to my apartment a few floors up. So when you go inside, you see lot of wires and outlet... then you walk up a bit and in those stairs... right to the left of it on the wall is the 2 routers attached to the left side of the wall. 2 wires from one router is connected to the outlet and those wires go downward... other wires from other router is the same... but one wire which is blue from router goes all the way up. At first i didnt know where this went to but as i kept walking up the stairs in this room... i saw it went to the top. Basically from that room, you can walk up 2 flights of stairs. Another thing i want to mention is my apt is 2 floors up from there. Another thing i want to metnion is that in a few of these apartments such as mine, you can walk up to your apartment from inside this room. The thing is in my apt, there is of course a door... but also another door that was locked... which i had no clue what it was. At first i thought it was a closet...i unlocked it... and then saw it was another way to get downstairs. Basically if i go down 2 floors.... im at that same spot where the routers are. Does that make sense? Of course if i want to get from that room to my apt walking up those stairs, i need to have that door in my apartment unlocked... otherwise i wouldnt be able to get in.

The outlet looks like a normal outlet. It isn't a very long outlet. Its a pretty short one but the wires all connect to 2 sides of it... thats why so many wires can go into the outlet.

 

so the outlet the routers plug into is seen and you can unplug them? Can you try next time it goes out to plug something in it to make sure no power is going to it? Would be good to confirm it is the outlet for sure. Assuming you haven't tried this yet. I am really tired and this thread to be honest i am not paying the closest attention to. So i am not trying to treat you like you are stupid and telling you to test the outlet....just coming up with ideas and not sure if you thought of it yet. If you have or haven't yet tried the outlet and you plug a phone charger or a light into it or whatever and that doesn't turn on than it for sure if the outlet and i have no idea how to remedy the issue.

Again sorry is i am asking you to do stupid things in your eyes and you have already done it....been a real busy week and everytime i read this i am like half a sleep.

 

Yes the outlet is right there. I can see it. The routers are connected to it. I can unplug it but i wont do this though b/c that would turn the wifi off and i dont want to do that. The thing with doing what you want me to do... i have to go there at 3:45am to test this out.

 

Also another thing i noticed. Since it was daylight savings time this week... i noticed that now instead of 3:40am this happens... now it happens at 2:40am. So it would go off back then at 3:40am and come back around 4:08am or so which is a 28 minute time span. That wasn't that bad b/c i would rarely be on that late. However... now its 2:40am... and i assume it comes back at 3:08am. This would be a bigger problem though. The thing was it wasn't that bad since 3:40am... but 2:40am that is pretty big problem b/c some days i will need to be on around that time.


Is there a reason why the timer didn't adjust for daylight savings time? This was a pretty big worry of mine a few days ago b/c 3:40am it going out for 28 minutes isn't that bad but if its 1 hour earlier, that is a pretty big problem.

Do you think the person that i rent from... they could change the exact time the power goes off for the router? Such as could they change it from 2:40am to 4:40am? Obvioulsy them making it 3:40am is good b/c rarely anyone is awake but im awake at that time sometimes when im online. How would they change it? Is it just them coming to that router and then making a change to it or is it going to involve something with logging on to the router settings with a computer?


The 2 routers... one is WEP and other is WPA2. The main wifi connection i use is the WEP one. I use the WPA2 other times when the WEP doesn't connect. However.... there is another strange issue i noticed. The WEP one... it works on monday, tuesday, wednesday. But then on thursday or friday... i can't connect to it and have to use the WPA2. Yesterday... i used the WPA2 one because i couldn't connect to the WEP one. Then i switched to the WEP one at night because i couldn't connect to the WPA2. And today... i can only connect to the WEP one... when i try to do wpa2... it cannot connect. Is there a reason for this? Some days i can connect with either one. But 3-4 days... i can only connect to only one of them...

 

the answer to the gist of your posts is yes, your landlord could set time limits on the router. he or she is able to do that as the "router administrator," meaning he or she can log into the router's firmware and adjust settings. if you are absolutely sure that the internet shuts off at the exact same time and comes back at the exact same time nightly, then that would be the most likely explanation. why your landlord would set the router to shut off for exactly 28 minutes in the wee hours of each morning however is the strange bit. you're also a little unclear as to what router is shutting off when assuming there are actually two routers based on your description of the different security key types--but different keys doesn't necessarily mean that there are two separate routers.

to tie this your other thread, even if you plug an ethernet cable into an available jack, a router with set time limits will still shut off internet service according to schedule regardless of you being wired or wireless. (pretty sure you can even set independent time limits for each method of connection.)

have you asked your landlord about this at all?

 

I am 100 percent sure the internet shuts off at the same time and close to 100 percent sure it comes back at the same time. I was awake the entire few weeks till 4:30am the whole time i was here. At 3:40am.. wifi goes out... both connections are not there anymore. It comes back at exactly 4:08am or so. The 3:40am is 100 percent... its not like its once a week, it was everyday. I stayed up 1 whole week just to confirm it and then wait few day then next day stay up... same thing. I then went to the place where the router was at that time and the routers were both powered off... there were no power to it and i didn't touch it of course but i doubt i would be able to turn it on.


Both routers are shut off when i took a look. I went there 2 times already and saw this. And by the time its 4:08am... then both of the wifi connections come back and im in my apartment. Of course if i go down, both routers will be on. Again one of them is a router, the other one im not 100 percent sure if its a modem or router... that one only has 2 things connected to it... the power wire that connects to the outlet and the ethernet cable that connects to the router. And those ethernet cables that i see connnected to the router from the 2 apartments in that floor, its connected to one of those 1, 2, 3, 4 ports on the router.


Yea im well aware that pluggin an ethernet cable to a jack when the internet is turned off won't do anything since its still off.


The bigger problem is now this happens at 2:40am instead of 3:40am and this is most likely due to the daylight savings time where we go back 1 hour. is there a reason why this timer or whatever it is didn't adjust for daylight savings time?


Yes i did ask the person that rented me the place Asked last week and was told they would ask the reason about this. Was not told anything back yet. They said they will contact the person who owns the building...

 

when i say that time limits can be set on a router to regulate internet access, i mean that you can do it while the router remains powered on. if you can see that the router/s is/are powered off every time this happens then it/they must be connected to a power outlet timer like KLF and others have suggested. that would also explain why the end of DST has caused the timer to "fall back" an hour. (i think. that's too confusing for me to figure out for this thread.) but again--if either or both of the routers are powered off while you're disconnected but they eventually come back on each night, then it's a power issue.

Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

 

...aaanndd that's why there's a nightly reboot.

It's a physical timer, something like this:

(that's a grounded EU plug but the function is still the same)
Those are usually used for car heaters and similar applications, simple 24 hour clock and I guess that ~half an hour is the smallest setting thus the 28min downtime.

 

I just went there and took a look again. The power cord from both routers go and plug into an outlet. The outlet is a white and and very small... it only has 4 outlets to plug into and two routers plugged into it and another white wire connected to it... that wire it goes to this thing where it goes through a hole... no idea where it goes to. Its one of those tiny outlets where its only a few inches.


I do not see the physical timer looked anywhere in that room. I assume it has to be hidden somewhere in those holes where the wire goes through?


nother thing i noticed was that blue ethenert cable that went from the router all the way up.. i went up there and took a look it goes all the way up to the ceiling... then the top of the ceiling has a hole on it and the wire goes straight up... thus i have no clue where it goes to. Im 100 percent certain thats not a wired connection b/c i live in the highest floor and no one lives in a higher floor above me.


Thoughts on this? So its 100 percent sure theres a timer and this is 100 percent a timer and NOT the wireless router doing the daily reboot? I also plugged my laptop directly with a short ethernet to the router and did the 192.168.2.1 and it still ask for username/password and the admin/admin still doesn't work. Someone told me doing it wired you have not have to put it but it still does.


Can someone answer me these last few questions? Still waiting for a reply back...

Okay the person just contacted me back. They told me it isn't a timer... its the internet company videotron that does this reset every night and they do it b/c they dont expect anyone to be awake/using the internet at that time. I asked the person so this can't be prevented and they said no. I then asked if they could do this reset at another time and they said they will tell me when they contact them again.


Seriously is this quite normal? Im from the usa this never happened with road runner internet. I find it strange in canada an internet company does this.

 

Yeah, I too faced this problem. I think, It will be happening for every internet connection system with the slight variation in time period. As with most electronic equipment, pick a place for your modem that has good air circulation and that won't get too hot. If electronic components get excessively hot, they don’t typically work as well, and may break. If your modem has wireless capabilities that you plan on using, then placing the modem in a high, central location allows for a better range of coverage. Like these many more are considered before we can install network system.

 

What does that mean then? So there isn't anything i can do about this?

 

doesn't sound like there's anything you can do. and no, it's not normal for ISPs to interrupt service nightly and/or power down a router either remotely or on some kind of odd schedule. it sounds bogus to be honest. i don't think you're getting the full story from the landlord or whoever it is you've been talking to about it.

 

I took some pictures.


The first few pictures are the cisco modem/router and the tp link router. As you can see the cisco modem/router has 2 wires attached to one.. one ethernet wire connected to the tp link router and one power wire connected all the way down to the outlet in the picture in my 2nd picture post.


The tp link router... the ethernet white cable that is closest to the power cord is my ethernet cable that i connect to my laptop. I have the 50 feet cable which its connected to. The other 2 ethernet cables one white and one red are the ones that conect to two different apt downstairs... where their cable isn't that long like mine. You can see the black power cord connect from tp link router to the outlet.


Do you see the outlet? Its white. The tp link router and cisco/modem router connects to it. There is one more spot left in the outlet where you can plug something in but its very small. But do you see the left of that outlet? It looks like something is attached to it but i made a mistake... thats basically the whole power outlet. Do you see how it goes to the left and then the last picutre shows that power outlet white wire going left? That outlet basically goes into this thing. Theres a lock to it. You cant open it without a key. If i had to explain what i looked like, its like big SAFE. Does that make sense?


So basically there is no where in that room where i could buy a new outlet and then connect the tp link router and cisco modem into it because if i do this... where would i connect the power outlet the other end of it to? There isn't a place...

 

That room needs a makeover. Looks like the AC power could use some remediation work ASAP among other things.

Take a look at Tripp-Lite power strips. Each individual AC connection is isolated and filtered. These Tripp-Lites also will detect proper
wiring (in phase green LEDs) or (out of phase fault red LEDs-reversed wires)

The ISOBAR6 model is very good : 120V, 12Amp, 1440 Watts, 3330 Joules surge suppressor. No plastic, it’s a metal case.
Also has a $50,000 Ultimate Lifetime Insurance; lifetime product warranty.
I have a few and use them for high end audio and video gear.

 

Hi. I wouldn't really call that a room. Its like this... when you open the door to it you see the routers and all of that but this is also like an emergency exit. In the apartments here... there is of course your regular door where you go and leave and go outside. Then there is another door inside the apartmetn where if you open it from the inside, you walk down the few stairs and you can go outside that way as well. And thats where these routers are located. So you could say the routers are put in the emergency stairwell? I dont think anyone in this building even use it etc. Only reason i walk through there is b/c i drop my ethernet cable down from my apartment to connect to the router. Basically what i did today was drop the etheret cable down and once it was around the router area... i then walked down the stairwell and then attached it to the router.


Im confused at the product you posted. So i would need that? Someone said just buy an power cord but if i do this... how can i even connect it to an outlet... there isn't any at all.

 

dude, that "power outlet" is an extension cord. and the other end of that extension cord holds the key to this whole mystery. the power outlet timer will be plugged into the actual outlet, which is presumably in the "safe" if i follow correctly.

unless you've read this entire thread, which you apparently have not, you're not only confusing the issue but also confusing the solution. stop it.

 

Okay i seee what you are saying. Just have that thing opened and i should be able to see whats the problem. I see there is a slot for a key for it. Okay so if i do that and open it... what should i expect to see. I should expect to see a timer there connected somewhere or is it connected to the outlet? The thing is if i ask them to open it and they open it, what would i need to do? Take out the timer that should be in that safe? Because if they do open it, i would need to what to take out and unplug etc and dont want to look confused there.

 

i'm not really sure how to reply to this because we're still only speculating that this is all, in fact, caused by a timer based on your description of what's going on (which has apparently also been somewhat corroborated by whoever you've been speaking to, i.e. the guy who told you about the videotron nonsense). plus, this actually does now get into the whole 'well the landlord apparently has this locked for a reason and even though internet access is provided for in your lease, no further terms, like nightly resets for example, have been reduced to writing so you probably don't have any authority, be it legal or otherwise, to be tampering with the internet setup' business (sorry downloads :\). if you're just plugging into one of the open router jacks that's one thing--but this is quickly turning into a dispute you'll have to take up with your landlord. so i guess i'll answer your post as if the landlord did unlock the box for you and give you permission to rearrange everything:

assuming the nightly disconnects are caused by a timer which turns off power to the modem and router on a set schedule, you'll see the extension cord plugged into a timer like the one pictured in KLF's post and the timer plugged into the wall outlet. by simply unplugging the extension cord from the timer and the timer from the wall outlet, you'll then be able to plug the extension cord into the wall outlet directly (with no timer in between) and they'll be no more scheduled disconnects.

 

as he said we need to see the source fo the power cord so you need to ask the land lord what is going on and have him open the safe or whatever to figure out what the source of the problem is. I don't see why the land lord would have an issue with you asking him and fixing it....unless he is a crazy jerk but who knows

 

To those of you who are telling me to ask if other ppl in building are having these internet disconnection problems... the thing is no one would know or notice because no one is awake at 2:40am in the morning. Everyone here sleeps pretty early.


And the thing is if im having problems... everyone is because when i go and check the routers... they are both powered off at that time and thus there isn't any wifi connection avaialbe. Thus when i use my ipod touch to check for wifi connecftions there isn't going to be any at that time either since my computer doesn't even detect anything and of course when you see the router is off that is obvious.


The person i spoke to again today mentioned that videotron had problems so because of that they do this reset every single night. I asked so if this happens only in this area of montreal and was told it happens throughout the whole montreal. If that is true... that would be a huge negative complaint since its a 28 minute disconnect from 2:40am to 3:08 am every night for ppl who are online that late.


I was also told the person who owns the building mentioned says there is no timer or anything like that that should cause this internet disconnect problem every night so unless that person has no clue what a timer is... then it isn't a timer issue.


I then asked so if i call videotron and get my own internet... woudl this still happen and i was told yes... Then i said okay so if i get Bell would that solve my problem and i was told you dont want bell because they are not good and not reliable and that is what ppl on this forum seem to all say.


If its not a timer issue then i assume it might be a router self reboot every night and only way to fix this is reset the router and need to get username/password? Someone in this forum mentioned
this router doesnt seem to have the reboot each night setting in its configuration. Then again remember theres 2 routers there so it would be extremely unlikely this would be the reason as both go out at the same time as well...

 

I've got to admit that yours is one of the weirdest Internet-related stories I've recently read...

The question that you have to ask yourself is what you're willing to spend on an Internet connection. And you should look into what Bell can offer at your exact location.

As with most anything in life, there are *reliable* solutions out there. They just tend to be on the expensive end of the Internet spectrum.

Good luck.

 

this right here immediately eliminates the possibility of it being a service provider (ISP) issue.

i can see from your other thread here on city-data.com that you didn't actually call videotron yourself and you're taking the person from your building's word for it that the issue is with videotron. i don't know how anybody can make this any clearer to you: YOU'RE BEING LIED TO. if you honestly think videotron's internet service covering the city of montreal, a city with a population of 3.8M in the metro area alone and the second biggest city in canada, shuts off nightly for 25 minutes--then i don't know what to tell you. not to mention you've made it abundantly clear that THE ROUTERS ARE POWERED OFF DURING THE DOWNTIME!

here, allow me to remind you of these posts from the other thread:

---

no router can power itself off and then power itself back on on a schedule. it's 99.99% a timer inside the "safe"/"lockbox" we were talking about. i thought we'd made headway on this. the contact at your building, be it the landlord or the property manager, is so incredibly obviously lying to you. get your own internet or get a new apartment, or both.

 

Okay so i just contacted videotron and told them about this. They laughed it off and said no way would internet go out every night at same time and that being standard. I mentioned that the routers are powered off as well.

I actually found out where the modem was... its a motorola 5101 modem and when it works... the activity is orange and works but of course when the internet goes out.... i no longer see the orange blinking thing. The other 4 lights are powered on though and are green. So basically what i learned was the modem was in an apartment in that floor where a chord goes from the router to it... i had assumed that chord was an ethernet cable to someones apartment but thats the main modem. Does this mean anything that the modem is still turned on with the 4 buttons that are all green yet the pc activity isn't orange? Because shouldn't the modem be powered off all of them thus no green lights at all? I found this part confusing.


I told videotron support this and they said it could be a router issue but when i said the routers both go out when this happens and you cant power it on... they said that means it has to be the timer.


I will contact that person again but they said there is no timer and i cannot open that thing b/c theres a lock in it. I asked videotron support and said okay so lets say i have it opened and i see the timer... will it be easy for me to remove and they said that goes beyond technical support. I will ask to have that thing opened but would someone be able to help me with it if i have it opened and then tell you what i see in it?


The other thing was i contacted videotron and said if i get my own internet is there anyway i could have this problem in my apartment and they said it shouldn't and if so you use another power outlet but is there any chance that outlet is connected in this building where the timer would affect even my own internet? Yes i know this question sound stupid but i dont want to have the internet install in my apt only to have the same issue b/c its due to this building or would this be no way 100 percent?


Thank you.

 

if you're seeing that all the modem lights are on except for the activity light this simply corroborates what you already know: that the routers are powered off during the downtime. just to recap--the modem stays on but you're losing the internet connection because the routers are turning off (presumably by the timer).

LIES, ALL OF THEM!!!

i instructed you on how to remove the timer in this post. it's one of the simplest things ever. it's consists merely of unplugging things and then plugging some of those things back in.

no, you would not have this same problem. if all the outlets in the building were controlled by the same timer then you'd be sitting in the dark while all your food went bad, in addition to being without internet. if you buy your own internet and buy/rent your own modem and router, you'll have all the internet you've been craving.

you're quite welcome.

 

Okay there is another thing that i noticed that i did not notice and want your opinion. When the internet disconnects... my landline phone doesn't work either. I tried making a phone call to videotron at that time when my internet is out and my phone line doesn't work. Is this normal as well? I thought it was strange at first but then once my wifi connection came back... then when i tried to make a phone call it finally worked.

 

Your phone line is obviously a cable-provided VoIP line...so yes, it's normal.

 

do the majority of you with a phone line have a cable provided VoIP line then?

 

Not me.

If you have one of those combo packages that offer TV, phone and Internet, your phone will die with the loss of broadband coennection.

 

Okay so i got to speak to the person that knows about the internet in this building according to the person that does the renting, the person who does the renting gave me their phone number and i gave them a call. I told them everything and they at first said it was videotrons problem... but the moment i mentioned that both the TP Link router and the cisco router both powers out at night... then he said okay thats not videotrons issue and its something thats in the building.

I was given the username/password for the router and right now im logged into it. Can someone tell me if i can see if there is any setting on the router that could cause this? There is lot of settings on the router.

Router is Wireless N Gigabyte Router WRT310N v.2. So does that mean the cisco linksys router is the main router and the TP link router is basically a 2nd router just for an extra one? Thing is i rarely could even connect to the tp link router anymore.

I was told that if i cant fix this issue by checking the wireless settings, i would give him a call again and he probably could come and take a look at it but if i could fix this issue if its some router setting it woudl be great.

 

Okay so i got to speak to the person that knows about the internet in this building according to the person that does the renting, the person who does the renting gave me their phone number and i gave them a call. I told them everything and they at first said it was videotrons problem... but the moment i mentioned that both the TP Link router and the cisco router both powers out at night... then he said okay thats not videotrons issue and its something thats in the building.

I was given the username/password for the router and right now im logged into it. Can someone tell me if i can see if there is any setting on the router that could cause this? There is lot of settings on the router.

Router is Wireless N Gigabyte Router WRT310N v.2. So does that mean the cisco linksys router is the main router and the TP link router is basically a 2nd router just for an extra one? Thing is i rarely could even connect to the tp link router anymore.


Actually made a mistake. When i type 192.168.1.1 and enter the username/password, it works and you go into cisco linksys router above. However, if i type 192.168.2.1 and use the same username/password... it doesn't log in and i assume that would be the info for the tp link router?

I was told that if i cant fix this issue by checking the wireless settings, i would give him a call again and he probably could come and take a look at it but if i could fix this issue if its some router setting it woudl be great.

 

Seriously...

You need to speak to the person who has the key to the timer. That's all.

As you've been told before, routers do not turn themselves off and on at specific time, nor can they be programmed to do so...at least not the ones you're dealing with.

 

there's no setting that will power a router off/on on a set schedule--at least that i'm aware of. that's what timers are for. unless this new person has access to that "locker" they won't be of much help. rather surprising that they're permitting a tenant to configure the routers' settings.

and yes, you're correct--192.168.1.1 is the linksys address and 192.168.2.1 is the TP-LINK address. they correspond to the two separate wireless networks (referred to by you as 'A' and 'B').

_____
EDIT: ah, ajkula66 finally beat me to the punch. you took the words right out of my head, sir.

 

wasn't it said before there is an option to due that in the router but someone googled the manual and it doesn't support that feature or something

 

^ I did that in the very begging.

There's no scheduled reboot in firmware of TP-Link or Linksys. And even if there was one - reboot means reboot - not switch off and half an hour later switch on by means of magic.

I wonder how many times few of us can write the same things over and over again...

 

okay i contacted that person about it but they didnt answer this time. So i will contact them again soon. I even asked him if there was a timer there and he said not that he is aware of and there shouldn't be one.


downloads, im very frustrated that this issue hasn't been fixed. Been like this few months already.


ajk, i will ask him about the key to the timer, i already said this many times but they at least gave me the username/pw to the router this time, i asked for that a while back when i thought that could possibly be the reason. So if he can open that box up where the wire goes in... is it easy for him to remove the timer?


Extremely frustarting.

 

lol, i'm checking out. good luck, OP. it's been entertaining to say the least.

Sent from my Lumia 1520 using Tapatalk

 

Quick review:

>The WiFi POP is not a closet, but an exit hall. A fire exit?
>Building is an apartment owned and/or managed by X.
>Electrical timer triggers off about 3:00am, disabling internet and land line phone.

If this property is legal, and the setup in those posted pictures were installed with proper permits,
then there should be official building code inspector and fire marshal sign off’s posted in this building.

 

The 2 wireless routers are found where you go open this door and you walk up the stairs up. Basically i could walk up to my apartment this way but problem is that door as to be opened. So when you open that door, you walk upstair and there are the routers. I really dont know how to explain it but when you open that door, you walk up these stairs. The main stairs ppl walk up/down of course and i doubt any one here use this exit.


Building is owned by someone that i dont know who it is. But the caretaker if thats the word who does the showing of apt to potential rentors etc is the one that takes care of stuff such as showing apt, collecting rent and you can ask them question if you have any problem.


Routers time off every night 2:40am to 3:08am. The modem's orange light turns off at that time as well. No wifi connection can be viewed.


Yes this property is legal. Its actually a renovated type of building and its fully furnished etc.


Also i spoke to that person and told them that the username/password doesnt do any good b/c there is no setting that does the daily reset in the router and that is the electric/power issue. The person told me they cant help me with that because this isnt router or anything involved with the equipment and i had to contact the person and tell them they cant fix this issue b/c its a power issue.

I asked them about the thing where that cord goes into and if they can open it and they said i have to contact the person and ask them it since he doesnt know these stuff. But the person did say he agreed this is a power issue and everything that you guys suspected this issue is, he says yes to it all.