TP-Link TD-W9980 wifi problems

Rob Turbo · 6 Dec 2015 at 13:52

I recently bought a TD-W9980 to replace my TalkTalk "super router" that needed resetting at least once a day otherwise my fibre broadband would slow to a crawl!

My first problem was that I can't access the router through firefox, I see the login screen, enter the username and password then it just loads a blank screen, it works fine in IE and safari on my iphone, so not too much of a problem. The setup was simple, it connected to the internet, I set the wifi name and password and everything was good.

Then the second problem, my media PC kept loosing the wifi connection, every 15 mins or so, I have to go to the connections and tell it to connect again. Then the next day my iphone 6 and my brothers iphone 5s started to do the same, but if you leave them long enough they will reconnect. They don't all do it at the same time, my main PC and my brothers PC have been fine.

I've tried a few things to fix it, I disabled the 5ghz wifi, tried using different channels, I've tried setting the channel width to 20mhz, 40mhz and auto, reserved IP addresses for the devices that have problems and I've checked that the firmware is the most recent.

The wifi adapters in my main PC and media PC are the same TP-Link TL-WN881ND, so I don't think that's the problem or they would both be affected, not just the media PC.

Is there anything else I could try? Is it a faulty router? I never had any wifi issues with the super router, netgear router from before fibre or the old TalkTalk router before that.

babis3g · 6 Dec 2015 at 15:04

Note that the 9980 ... for the 2,4G band is using internal antennas & not the 3 external ones (are for the 5G only) which in addition the 5G band due to its nature, is not going that far ... so if you are far from the modem then may be issues with signal, so connectivity

Update to latest firmware if helps & place the modem in a clear view (not behind other objects) somewhere high if possible

Rob Turbo · 6 Dec 2015 at 17:04

I'm not using 5ghz, I turned it off to see if it would help, but it made no difference, even when I had it on I had good signal in most places, on 2.4ghz I get excellent signal even in the loft, the router is on the wall in the kitchen, as high as I could get it, the power cable is the limiting factor.

As I said, it's already on the latest firmware, I checked that right at the beginning when I couldn't log in to it through firefox.

babis3g · 6 Dec 2015 at 20:19

In this case if the singal is good ... maybe if you have any cordless phone next to it, so remove it and see if still drops the connection ... if you don't have any phone next to it ... go at Wireless Basic Settings and try some changes
Disable WPS if not using it
try change channels
(you can try change region for testing (example United States should give you more signal but due to regulations will not get channels 11-13)

At security settings change to WPA2-psk only if this the reason which fails

If still will not help may be better to write at tp link support, perhaps is something with the wifi drivers
http://www.tp-link.com/en/support-contact.html

Rob Turbo · 19 Dec 2015 at 12:46

Quick update, I tried changing a few more settings, still no luck, so I contacted TP-Link support, told them the problem and everything I'd tried, they told me the wireless function was faulty and told me to exchange it at the shop I bought it from.

I got in touch with OCUK and they replaced it very quickly, outstanding service as usual! I sent the old one back on Wednesday, the new one was delivered Friday. I set it up only to find I have the exact same problem.

I'm going to see what TP-Link have to say about it. I don't think it's a common problem, I've tried Googling the problem and can't find anything about it, surely there must be loads of people that have the same router and an iPhone, so if it was happening to everyone with this combination there would be more info about it.

For the two days I was using the super router again I had no wifi problems.

I might try an older firmware to see if that is any better, I have a feeling it will cause more problems though, the latest firmware fixed an issue with TalkTalk connections!

Orcvader · 19 Dec 2015 at 12:56

For the Firefox problem, try disable all your addons and see if it loads the page then.

Rob Turbo · 19 Dec 2015 at 13:00

I found a way around the Firefox problem, using http://192.168.1.1 instead of http://tplinkmodem.net like it says on the back of the router, I have no idea why it works, on everything else I can use either without a problem.

Avalon · 19 Dec 2015 at 14:25

Limit the frequency range from 20/40 to 20 (from memory) only worked for me.