Troubleshooting An Unstable WiFi Connection

This article is focused on users who have connected their gardens to the internet successfully but keep intermittent connection issues or their connections stop working.

IMPORTANT: If your garden was connected recently, you should not try and reconnect (Connect) or perform a Factory Reset using the Rise Garden application to get your garden online. Under almost all situations, these operations will not address the issue permanently (although they may at the time you perform this operation). The issue is typically elsewhere.

There are a variety of reasons for your garden losing connectivity to the internet

1. A weak Wi-Fi signal

2. Network interference

3. Too many devices on your network

4. Problematic Wi-Fi router or router firmware

5. For issues 2, 3 and 4 a quick diagnostic is to reboot your home WiFi and/or the Rise Garen and see if the network connection resumes.

Weak WiFi Signal: To check your WiFi strength from your garden, you can go to the gardens menu (gear) and choose “Device details” and open the “Device Status” section.  If your garden is not online it should show you the last observed WiFi signal strength. You will see a value and assessment of your quality.  

If your WiFi signal is weak or near the edge, there are a couple of options to consider

• Get your garden and WiFi access point closer together by moving one or the other OR adding an extender or additional access point (if you have a mesh system).

• Replace the Rise Garden antenna with a larger antenna that can be purchased online. Note that the antenna must have an RP-SMA connector.

Note: The Rise Garden, like most IoT devices and sensors, uses 2.4GHz which takes less power and performs better over longer distances and through walls than 5GHz. It is not as fast as 5G, but the garden uses very little data and does not require a high-speed network.

Network interference: Network interference can come from a wide variety of places

• Near-by networks - this is typically the most common reason for interference.

• Other wireless networks in your home - some people are unaware that their ISP modem may have a wireless network in addition to a dedicated wireless network they purchased separately.

• Bluetooth

• Baby monitors, cordless phones or similar devices

• Microwave oven

A simple way to test interference is to reboot your home WiFi. If, after giving it time to reboot and devices to connect things work fine for a while, you are likely getting interference.

To evaluate the level of other network interference in your home you should use a WiFi scanner (there are lots of options available for your computer or smartphone) and consider adjusting your router's channel if it allows you to. Take a closer look at this process with this article: Locating Good Channels and Bad Neighbors with a Wi-Fi Scanner

Too many devices on your network: WiFi routers are typically designed to handle a limited number of devices that connect to it.  As homes start to use more technology thai can be quickly pushed to the limit.  Check your router's device limit (typically found in the product specifications) and how many devices are connected (usually in your router's admin application). If you find that it is near or at the limit, you may want to consider upgrading your router

Problematic Wi-Fi router or router firmware

It is not uncommon for router hardware or firmware (the router’s software) to have bugs. Ideally, these are found and addressed through periodic firmware updates.  If you have instability issues with connectivity check your router admin application to ensure that you have the latest firmware and consider contacting your router's manufacturer support to see if there are any known issues or resolutions.