So…I have been struggling with connecting a router via Wifi as WAN (WAW) at the park I am staying. I have a Cradlepoint that sometimes connects and then disconnects for no apparent reason. I have a Wifi Ranger that usually cannot connect at all. I got the Surf SOHO to see if it would be a better choice. The SOHO stays connected to WAW sort of. It periodically gets disconnected and then immediately connects again. I took a more careful look at the event log and began to notice a pattern. When I copied it into a spreadsheet and filtered on the disconnect event, it seems that the disconnections almost always appear on a regular basis:
[TABLE=“width: 364”]
Date/Time
Note
3/22/2014 8:44
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/22/2014 7:34
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/22/2014 4:44
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/22/2014 4:14
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/22/2014 3:34
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 22:24
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 21:04
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 19:44
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 19:04
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 15:44
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 10:34
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 9:15
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 7:32
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 7:24
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 7:16
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 3:04
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/21/2014 0:14
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 21:14
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 15:44
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 15:34
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 15:30
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 15:24
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected (WAN failed DNS test)
3/20/2014 14:41
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 13:51
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 13:01
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 11:41
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 11:31
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 10:51
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 10:31
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 9:51
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 9:31
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
3/20/2014 6:51
WAN: Wi-Fi WAN disconnected
[/TABLE]
At the start of two days ago, it looked like it almost always disconnected on minute 1. It then shifted to minute 4. Is it possible that the park doesn’t want routers connected and some utility is running that interrupts service? Dish Network has been doing a lot of work on the Wifi in the park and this may be either deliberate or inadvertent. I plan to contact them. They may or may not be aware of this or willing to discuss it.
Has anyone ever seen this before? How does a network identify a device as a router, not a computer? When I connect a PC directly to the network, it stays connected (or maybe automatically reconnects and doesn’t tell me). This has been puzzling me for quite a while.