How to begin troubleshooting an extender?

[robbro]

For over 1.5 years my setup worked great, however the last couple months I have been experiencing more and more problems. Just wondering if there are any tips/tricks to trouble shooting from any experienced pros out there? I'll describe my setup first then my troubles second...

First I have my twc router, which goes to my wifi/4 port switch router(referred to as router from now on). The router goes to my Windows 7 media center (and only PC), my networked HD Homerun Prime (which is connected via usb to a tuning adapter), one port goes to a 4 port dumb switch up under my house and the last port is ran to a wifi 4 port router (set up as ap only, routing functions turned off, will call this one WIFI AP from now on). The 4 port dumb switch is connected to 3 bedrooms (only 2 have tv's in them, one on an xbox 360 used as an extender, the other to a linksys extender). The WIFI AP is connected to another linksys extender and a smart TV. There I think that covers my whole home layout at this point, thats the entire wired network, naturally there are phones, tablets/laptops etc that connect wirelessly but I do not use them in any way with media center.

My problems started a couple months ago when the 2 linksys extenders (one is the small one, one has a DVD player built in) started freezing up on occasion. Both of them started roughly the same time. Then after a while they started having trouble connecting to the network or if they did fully starting media center. It would stop either on contacting PC or waiting for PC it seemed. Here lately they are doing both regularly. The 360 seems almost entirely unaffected. It never seems to freeze or have problems connecting to the network. I've actually just ordered a 360 slim to try switching in place of the linksys to see if that helps any. I've switched the 2 linksys boxes back and forth a few times. I've power cycled everything except for the switch under the house and sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesnt. A couple of times I have flipped my main to power off the entire house (easier than crawling under there to get to the switch) and that always helps temporarily it seems.

So my trouble shooting seems conflicted.... my PC is fine cause MC works on there flawlessly consistently. The 360 seems pretty consistent too. The 2 linksys boxes that were rock solid are now flakey as all get out, and got that way at the same time, so if they are beginning to fail that is a huge coincidence. Could there have been a Win7 update that borked non MS extenders? Could the dumb switch under the house be causing problems even though 1 of the Linksys boxes is not even connected to it? Other possibilities??

[hokie21]

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=8&t=6973

Sounds like the same issue. Especially since both extenders got the same issue at the same time. Easily resolved , following the instructions in the above posting.