Plugging in ethernet cable slows down wireless

Question

I have a D2200D DSL router provided by Frontier. The router connection has been failing with the DSL link light solid green, Internet link light blue. Failures show up as computer wired and wireless adapters showing "No Internet" and browsers failing with DNS failures. Failures occur every 10 min to about 1.5 hours.

To diagnose, I unplugged all devices from the D2200D and used ONLY the wireless connection. No failures for 36 hrs. Internet speed steady between 1.5 - 3 Mb/s (pretty much the max of my DSL connection).

I then added an Asus wireless router (high-end), and plugged it in to one of the D2200D Ethernet ports. Checking my wireless speed, it was now down to .5 - .8 Mb/s AND the latency went up from about 40ms to 170ms. Ran test several times with similar results.

I then unplugged the Asus device, re-ran the test and speed was back up to the nominal range. NOTE: No devices were plugged in to the Asus router either with a cable or wirelessly!

I then plugged in my Ethernet over power ActionTech device to the D2200D, and, without plugging in any other devices to any of the ActionTech remote ports, re-ran the test. Again, wireless speed (from the D2200d) was down to the .5 - .8 Mb/s and latency was back up.

Unplugging the ActionTech returned wireless performance back to nominal.

Why would plugging in Ethernet from a 2nd device, when that 2nd device has no other devices attached and thus no Internet traffic, cause the D2200D wireless performance to drastically fall? Since I used two completely different test units (Asus and ActionTech), I am not seeing the common cause for this.

And, I should add that the D2200D DSL router has been replaced three times with no change in the results.

Answer 1

It would appear that you're not the only one to have this issue as you can see here, (I know that page is for routers). It's possible that the firmware you're using is causing issues, which could explain why the other modems that were sent to you also have the same problems, they're all on the latest/same firmware. You'll probably have to contact your ISP again and see if you can get a different firmware version from them, or from Netgear directly. If they can't get a better firmware to you, you might want to consider buying your own modem and using that instead. My ISP charges extra per month for a modem "rental", so it's worth it if you're going to stay with them for a long time. My modem was ~$100 USD and they charge ~$5/month for a rental, so after 20 months, I've saved money.

Another test, (your ISP will probably blow you off unless you do this one), connect two devices to the ASUS router and try transferring data between them, (through sharing large files or anything that can do a sustained data transfer). If you can get good speeds from that test, then your ISP won't be able to say that your router is an issue.