DL32r or Router locks up in busy areas

[musicman7722]

Friends

I have an issue with my iPad occasionally  locking up on me.  Here is the situation.  I have mixed in two venues where I feel the amount of phone traffic is eating up all the possible bandwidth.  One was a large outside beach concert at Hampton Beach in Hampton NH and the other at a large beer festival in an ice hockey rink in Portland Maine.  I have mixed at the beach gigs 3 times and on each occasion it would lock up.

I am using a DL32r and have two differed iPads.  When this happens I go back to the board and eventually the connection resumes. 

Once at the ice hockey gig I did reboot the DL32r.

I have the router setup as it's own private network with password and it is not capable of on getting online.

The router is a standard off the shelf DLink and I am running it on the 5gz band.

I can't recall this ever happening in my basic sound gigs at clubs or party's.

Should I up the quality of my router or do I possibly need an external antenna, or none of the above??

TY as always

Chris

[Wynnd]

How many people at these events?  More than 5000?  I had about 6000 at the MLK March a few weeks ago with no issues using an Airport Express II on 5 Ghz.  (DL16S)  I was up to 125 feet from the router.  It does sound like you're doing everything right to me.  5Ghz does have less range than 2.4Ghz, but I'm sure you know that already.  A better router will never hurt you, but it also might not help you and I hate spending money without a reason.  (Though routers are pretty cheap.)

[musicman7722]

Thank you for your reply.

I would say less than 5000.  I wasn't aware of the distance limitation between both bands but even standing next to the DL32 wouldn't bring the connection back right away.

[WK154]

It helps to have the specific model numbers of both the iPad and the WiFi router. That way I can make a reasonable guess about your problem. iPads are really not the best WiFi tools and Dlink must have at least 50 different routers by now. You should at least have a WiFi analyzer to survive in a large venue. Here is one I would recommend.
http://nutsaboutnets.com/wifimetrix-product-info/

[Wynnd]

Agreed.  I noticed years ago that the iPad isn't as sensitive as my MacBook Pro at a restaurant we frequent.  On the patio, the MacBook works just fine and   the iPad rarely can connect.  Seems to be a very large difference.

[stevegarris]

I can add that my brand new iPads have better wifi than my older units. The new iPads run about $280 and the processing is much better than the older units.

[dpdan]

Should I up the quality of my router or do I possibly need an external antenna, or none of the above??

Steve is correct, get one of the new iPads and for Heaven's sake.... buy an Apple Airport Express... just do it 
Apple recently announced they are no longer in the router business but gosh, the Airport "Express" is killer, so is the Airport Extreme.
If you can not buy a new one, there are many on eBay.
Download the free Airport Utility and if you need help contact me through my website.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-AirPort-Express-A1392-802-11n-Nice-used-condition/123641158951?epid=116452199&hash=item1cc9965d27:g:CsQAAOSwhspcR4Yv:rk:8:pf:0

[musicman7722]

Sorry it has been awhile.

As for my ipads I have a mini and a regular size.  The regular size is about a year old.  For the life of me I can't find the model info on these to share here.

My current router is a Netgear WNR 1000.

When this happened the first time last summer I was using an apple air router.

TY

[dpdan]

settings/general/about


https://youtu.be/MjI66lr-jWQ

[musicman7722]

Thank you

My large iPad is

Model  MP1M2LL/a  #1823

My mini is
Model MK9P2LL/A #A1538

Hope this  helps.

[dpdan]

your iPad is not the problem

I really suggest getting an Apple Airport Express
You will not regret it,, plus you can stream music in stereo from your iPad via Airplay.
No other router that I know of does this,,,, not even the Airport Extreme.

grab this one...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Airport-Express-Base-Station-A1392-Wireless-Router-802-11n-WiFi-2nd-gen/273696212071?epid=219499442&hash=item3fb990c467:g:t~AAAOSw-o9cYLLM:rk:7:pf:0

[WK154]

OK the iPads are both at the same level in WiFi capability namely a/b/g/n/ac. It's the /ac that concentrated on the 5 GHz communication. The only frequency you should be using.  I would NOT recommend any Airport express since it never covered the /ac capabilities, it stopped at /n. The only Apple unit that is comparable is the 6th generation Airport Extreme.  Your Netgear WNR 1000 is only a /g/n level router definitely not good (weakest link in the chain). Apple's  /ac was also only based on the preliminary /ac spec. I don't know if Apple ever updated it before ditching the business. I've had good luck with Netgear, Linksys and Dlink make sure it's to a final /ac spec. You need to match the two units with comparable capabilities. The iPad's are fine the router is the problem.
Update: Stay away from Linksys Velop seems to have a problem with speed.

[musicman7722]

Thank you for shedding some light on this.  I am a PC tech but am at this skilled in the wireless side.

I am only using the 5g band so that is good starting part.  And from you are suggesting I should get an AC band router correct?

[Wynnd]

ac is a communications standard like b and g and n for wireless.  He’s right about the airport express not covering ac, but I don’t have any problem with it on 5 GHz.  I don’t understand why he thinks this is a problem.  He is probably right.  the other thing I like about my Airport Express (version 2) is that it is dual band.  5Ghz and 2.4 GHz at the same time.  My ipads are setup to connect to either and if one drops out, it will switch over to the other band.  (Don’t recall that happening.)

[WK154]

Thank you for shedding some light on this.  I am a PC tech but am at this skilled in the wireless side.

I am only using the 5g band so that is good starting part.  And from you are suggesting I should get an AC band router correct?

Yes /ac or /ax and missing from prior specs on the 5GHz /a/n is beam forming (antenna technology) in /ac for both a more reliable connection and better range and speed. Checking for clear channels goes without saying even in the 5GHz range. Auto is probably OK for now as well in only the 5GHz range. If you have multiple control surface users they need to be at the /ac level as well or they will affect their connection. Ideally the /ax spec is for this application (mixer control) but iPads are not there yet as many others. 2019 should change that. You could still go with a /ax WiFi router ($$ for now) and still gain some of its benefits of dealing with high density WiFi environment. A lot of the new technology is AP (WiFi router) related.