@ArcherC8 

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I am using the power adapter that came with the router.

I have a hard drive attached that does not have external power - I will remove it to see if this makes a difference, but I'm fairly certain that I've had this happen before I connected the hard drive to the router.

All in all, only 2 devices are connected to the router directly (other than the USB hard drive) - they are 2 switches and they are externally powered. Then one of those switches connects to another switch (also externally powered), which then connects to one device (laptop). The other switch that isn't daisy-chained is connected to 3 gaming consoles. All in all including the switches there are 8 devices connected (4 if you exclude the switches and USB hard drive) and all of them except the hard drive are externally powered. I'll try disconnecting as you mentioned, but I doubt it'll make a difference because once upon a time I had the router directly connected to 2 externally powered devices with no switches (laptop and gaming console) and this was still happening, and if this router (which has like 8 or 10 Ethernet ports) can't handle 2 devices then it's not worth the money I paid for it IMO.

Router is plugged directly into outlet - it is the only device plugged into that outlet. I have surge protectors for my other devices but assumed router would not need it if it's on a separate outlet far from all my other devices. It also sits up high on a shelf in a room pets aren't allowed in, so pets are 100% ruled out. However I do live in Vegas and my wife and I keep the house at 78-80 degrees F because that's how we like it but I'm not sure if that would be too hot for equipment.

I assumed ISP is not to blame because router was reporting internet connection and decent speed when I ran a built in speed test from within the router. If ISP is to blame, then router is still faulty for reporting non-existent internet connection and speed...

My house is wired for Ethernet (cat6 up to the router and then cat5e from the router to other rooms), but the outlets terminate at the router then go to other rooms, so in other words next time it happens what I can do is quickly plug my room directly to the gigabit hardware bypassing the router to confirm for sure whether ISP is to blame - I'll report back what I find when it happens next.

Thanks for the help!

@TwoPumpChump 

If you have a cable modem don't go by what the ISP tells you, verify it by looking at the system logs, mainly for crit 3 or crit 4 errors.

If the router is telling you something is up with the WAN then could be a modem issue or the Ethernet cable or the WAN port on the router.

@Tony 

I do not have a cable modem - it's gigabit hardware from ISP which I guess functions like a modem but they themselves don't call it that. I have fiber internet, and the fiber runs to my building directly into ISP's equipment on the side of my building which has 3 units in it, so that same equipment then sends internte to myself, and my 2 neighbors. So, in a shell, fiber line runs to ISP equipment outside and then from that equipment a cat6 cable runs into my house to my router, and the rest I explained. I do not have control over this "modem" - ISP owns it and it is shared between myself and my 2 neighbors. Only thing I can do with the modem is unplug my own wire (cat6) and plug it back in.

The reason I think I still have a connection is because the router (which is my equipment and not provided by ISP) has a built-in speed test that I can run when I log in to the router. When I lost connection, I was able to log in to the router and run that built-in speed test of the AC5400X router - this is not ISP's test, this is router's test. The test returned around 200mbps down and 400mbps up speeds, which would not happen if there was an actual connection. So assuming the my router's speed test is a true, functioning feature, that would rule out ISP and WAN port. If ISP was at fault, my router would not be able to run a speed test, let alone tell me that I am getting 200mbps down and 400mbps up. If WAN was an issue, I assume once again that my router would not be showing that there is an internet connection with a 200down/400up speed.

System logs of the router where less than helpful - they literally did not show anything recent - the most recent log activity was 9/3 (more than a week ago).

I don't know how reliable the router's WAN port issue notification is, because the way it appears is if I lose internet connection and open a browser on my hardwired laptop, the browser (whose default page is Google) redirects to a TP-Link notification page that says there is a WAN port issue. If this was a note in the router's system log, then I would be inclined to believe it, but because it's a web browser redirect any time there is any connection loss, I have a feeling that notification is a blanket "you have no internet" notification and does not accurately report the actual WAN port status.

I suppose the ethernet cable could be faulty, but then the faulty cable would have to be the one coming from the ISP's equipment to my router, though I doubt it because it runs well 99.5% of time and just occasionally drops during that 0.5% of time which I wouldn't think a faulty ethernet would do, but then again...

I am not an expert so I do not know what kind of fault possiblities there are (I'm just thinking from a logical perspective based on my personal experience), so I suppose it could be ISP's fault, faulty ethernet, or faulty WAN port and dropping connection for a very short time (say, 10-20 seconds) enough for me to realize connection is lost, log in to router, attempt to run the speed test and have the connection up by then on the router's end and just take time for the router to "reset the connection" somehow before sending it to my equipment. If that's the case, the question I have is why would the internet status be showing as "on" on the router? I have a strong inkling that it's a faulty router firmware, or some other part of its hardware that isn't related to physical connections like WAN port because when I log in to router it LOOKS as though it should be working and all statuses are green, but when I try to go online on my connected devices, I can not for about 5-20 min.

I don't know - as I said, I'm not an expert (and that's why am looking for advice from people smarter than myself on this forum), but all I can hope for is that I can check connection speed directly to ISP's equipment using my laptop (disconnect the ethernet from router's WAN port and connect it directly to my laptop and run test) to see if I can rule out ISP and ethernet as the culprits. That leaves me with WAN port. The router supports WAN aggregation, but ISP's equipment does not, so I wanted to find out if I can turn on WAN aggregation and plug in the ethernet into the first port of the router which doubles up as a second WAN port for WAN aggregation and leave the actual WAN port unplugged and see how my internet fares then? Or will that not work?

Thank you!

@TwoPumpChump Did you get a solve for this? I just got the same router and been having very similar issue. The internet will go off after a while, I would have to reset the equipment to get the connectivity up again. I have updated to the latest firmware and dont have and schedule reboots either. Really frustrating with this expensive high tech I just got =(

@PoPnBeaTZ 

Sorry - my issue kind of resolved itself, so not sure how to help you out because I'm not sure what fixed mine.

I'll have to check when I get home (I'm at work right now), but as you can see in the thread above, I was advised to try disconnecting any USB-powered hard drives I have connected to the router, and I can't remember if I did or not. If I did, then that's probably what resolved the issue. If I didn't, then ISP was probably to blame, but I haven't had this issue anymore basically since I posted this question.

Do you have USB hard drives connected to yours?

I'll get back to you later tonight and let you know for sure about the USB hard drive - because that would be my first guess.

@TwoPumpChump 

Thanks for the response! I dont have anything connected to it not even anything in the LAN ports. All my devices are using the Wifi. Updated to lastest firmware and reset things to factory. I'll call my ISP and see if they can shed some light.

@TwoPumpChump I have the same darn problem!! The mobile phones at home lose internet, my computers at home lose the internet. But I know I have internet becasue my IPTV is going on with no problems... It just suddenly started with this behaviour. 

TwoPumpChump wrote

I searched the forums and couldn't find anyone with my issue, so please excuse me if this was posted before.

 

TL;DR:

Internet to WiFi and LAN devices occasionally drops but router still receives internet. When logged in, internet status is fine, built in internet speed test in router confirms good connection. Nothing in system log. Happens once or twice a week, sometimes in afternoon, sometimes middle of night, and lasts about 5 to 30 minutes.

 

The details:

My internet connection kept dropping about once a week in the middle of the night (1-3am) - thought ISP was to blame, but ISP was showing normal connection. ISP suggested I check router next time internet drops.

Internet dropped this afternoon. Opened the browser and without logging in to router, I was auto-forwarded to a TP-Link page that said my router had a WAN problem (this is something that happens every time connection drops). Logged in to router, checked on status of internet and it was working. I did a speed test within the router itself, and the speed test returned with 200+Mbps down and 400+Mbps up (a bit low, but normal) but my devices were still not connected to internet even though router was connected as confirmed by speed test.

 

I have latest firmware. Not sure if maybe it's a specific setting. ISP suggested it might be a scheduled reboot of router. I checked scheduled reboot setting and it is off.

Things I do different from default settings (in case any of this helps):

I changed router IP to 192.168.1.1 instead of default 192.168.0.1

Set DHCP range to .100-.200

I like organized IP settings, so all of my "important" devices are set to reserved IP settings within router's DHCP setting (but fall outside of the 100-200 range of DHCP). There are no redundancies - all connected device IP's are unique.

I have QoS activated prioritizing a few devices (3, to be exact) but not prioritizing specific types (i.e. gaming/streaming/etc.), just devices

Router has USB hard drive connected to it to use over network

Router is connected directly to ISP's gigabit hardware, but from router I have a LOT of connections that spread to different rooms of my house - I have 1 8-port switch and 1 5-port switch connected to router and then another 8 port switch connected to the 5-port that is connected to the router. The direct 8 port switch is connected to 3 devices, the 5 port switch is (usually) connected just to the 8 port which powers 1 more device, so all in all most of the time there are 4 devices connected to LAN via switches. I thought maybe the switches were to blame, BUT a) this issue has happened before I got switches, and b) the switches would have no effect on the WiFi and the WiFi drops as well as the LAN.

 

Any help is highly appreciated. Most of the time, the internet works great, but it just randomly drops and most of the time it's during gaming, which is the worst time to drop a connection.

 

Thank you!

@Breedy 

My problem stopped and I am not quite sure what I did to stop it, but I think I may have had 2 hard drives plugged into the USB's of the router with no dedicated power to them, so maybe the hard drives were drawing too much power from the router causing connectivity issues? Currently, I only have 1 of them plugged in and everything is working fine, but if this scenario applies to you, I would recommend unplugging both of them, wait a month to see if the issue persists, and if it does you can rule out the hard drives, and if it does not, plug them in one at a time to see which one causes the issue to come back.

If you don't have hard drives (or other USB power-drawing devices) plugged directly into your router, then unfortunately I don't know that I can be of help here...

EDIT: One other thing that may be of help - make sure the router is in a place where it is not very restricted. I feel like that may have been another issue of mine - it was on a shelf in a closet with boxes next to it. I pushed the boxes further away to give it room to breathe - that may have been a contributing factor as well.

Hope you get your issue resolved!

@Breedy Same here all of a sudden it stopped i didn't have to do antything was frustrating but now wireless seems to be funky randomly but overall doing ok now.