Fixing devices falling offline repeatedly by adjusting your router

Learn how to solve devices continually falling offline by adjusting your router settings.

Usually, devices falling offline repeatedly is related to poor wifi connectivity caused by signal fluctuations, channel congestion, or data loss. In rare cases, this can be caused by settings in your router.

Warning

The solutions offered in this article require using the advanced features on your wifi router. Be sure you are comfortable using these features before trying any of these solutions.

Things to check

Check for low upload speeds

To determine whether or not the problem is caused by poor upload speed, run a speed test to determine if your network can support Ring devices.

• Ring devices with 720p video

  require at least 500 Kbps upload and download speeds, although

  1 Mbps is recommended

  for optimal performance.
• Ring devices with 1080p video

  require at least 1 Mbps upload and download speeds, though

  2 Mbps is recommended

  for optimal performance.

Check for poor signal strength

A poor wifi signal can cause connectivity with your Ring device to be unreliable. Check the Device Health section of your Ring application to ensure the device’s RSSI is within an acceptable range. The recommended range for optimal performance is 0 to -60 for the RSSI.

Learn more about RSSI.

Learn how to improve your wifi performance.

Things to try

Router reboot

If your networking equipment hasn’t been power cycled in a while, try unplugging it for 30 seconds and plugging it back in.

Adjust your router channel

Wireless networks utilise different channels for communication. In Australia, the 2.4 GHz band uses channels 1-13. The 5 GHz band uses channels 36-165 for indoor devices, and channels 100-165 for outdoor devices. In some cases, setting up your Ring device(s) can fail due to wireless interference or congestion.

• If you are receiving a message that the network cannot be found or is too far away when connecting devices to the 2.4 GHz frequency, it could be due to this congestion. We recommend switching your router’s channel to 1, 6, or 11 as they do not overlap other channels.
• Make sure your device is 5 GHz compatible if you're connecting to a 5 GHz network. You can also try connecting to a 2.4 GHz network first, then switching to a 5 GHz network.
• Change the name of your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks so you can tell them apart easily. 
• You can use a wifi analyser app on Android devices, or sometimes within your router, to evaluate which channels have the most congestion. We recommend doing this when you are experiencing setup problems, poor audio and/or video quality, or delays with notifications.

Adjust your DHCP lease time

The average home router will have a lease time of 8-24 hours. Every time the lease renews, there’s a chance your devices will be assigned a different IP address and fall offline for a period of time as a result. To resolve this, you can set a longer lease time, give the device a reserved IP address, or set it up with a static IP.

Create a DHCP reservation

A DHCP reservation is a permanent IP address assignment that is reserved for the use of one device. Using the MAC address listed on the back of your Ring device or on the box, create a DHCP reservation to ensure that every time your Ring device connects to your router, it will be given the same address.

• Note:

  There are many different terms for this option; check your router’s manual to be sure.

Set a static IP

You can also set a static IP during the setup process in the Ring app.

Ensure the address you provide is outside the range of your DHCP server in order to prevent an IP conflict.

Change the encryption type to WPA2

While Ring devices are compatible with WPA, WEP, and WPA2 security protocols, we strongly recommend using WPA2 for the most secure connection and broadest compatibility. WEP encryption is the oldest and least secure of these options and, for your safety, we do not recommend using it with Ring devices.

Check your SSID

Check the SSID (name) of your network. If your SSID has special characters or blank spaces before or after the name, rename the network to something simpler. Unusual characters or spaces in the SSID can cause problems during setup.

Quick tip: Write your password down somewhere safe.

When changing the encryption type, your other wireless devices will need to be reconnected to your network using the new SSID and password.