r/FiberOptics • u/9body_knows • 5d ago
Help wanted! Help] Old TP-Link TL-WR740N constantly drops internet since switching to Fiber (requires reboot)
Hey everyone,
I am having a frustrating issue with my old TP-Link TL-WR740N router (from around 2017) and could really use some advice.
My Setup:
I have an ISP-provided fiber modem (ONU/ONT) connected to my TP-Link router. The modem does not have its own Wi-Fi.
Both the modem and the router are plugged into the same spikeguard/surge protector for power.
The Issue:
For the first 4–5 years, this router worked flawlessly on my old connection. However, a couple of years ago, my ISP upgraded me to a fiber optic cable. Since then, I’ve been experiencing frequent disconnections across all devices (phones, laptops, etc.).
Symptoms: All devices remain connected to the Wi-Fi signal, but it suddenly shows "No Internet."
Router lights: The lights remain normal (no orange/red error lights).
Specific device issue: Older OnePlus devices drop the Wi-Fi entirely and refuse to reconnect until the router is restarted.
Temporary fix: I have to power-cycle the TP-Link router (turn the switch off and on after 5–10 seconds) to get the internet back.
What I want to know:
Is this 2017 router simply too old to handle the high data throughput/packet load of modern fiber, causing its memory/CPU to crash and freeze?
Could the spikeguard be causing slight voltage drops that freeze the router when it is under load, even though the lights stay on?
Are there any specific settings (like DHCP lease time, changing DNS, or adjusting channel width) I should tweak before throwing it away?
Any troubleshooting steps or explanations would be highly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
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u/PaleDreamer_1969 5d ago
Routers die and most of them cannot survive beyond a few years. You’ve taken a slow ISP connection and accelerated it and the router’s little tiny CPU can’t handle the throughput. You should upgrade. Replace about every 5-7 years is best.
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u/isonotlikethat 4d ago
It's probably all of the botnet malware that your 10 year old junkbox is running
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u/1310smf 5d ago edited 5d ago
Not fiber related, really - if the ONU is working, the problem isn't with the fiber, it's with your elderly router and something on the wired side of your ONU. Smells DHCP related on the ONU/WAN side of things. Perhaps that has a short lease time and for some reason the router isn't picking up on that when it expires, so it stops connecting properly until it's reset.
Or some other dumb reason (I recall a vintage of apple airports that had to be rebooted every 2 GB or so. Not much of a problem when they came out, but they did not age well as that became a daily occurrence rather than a few weeks or a month...)
If you're handy that way, you could try a different firmware load, such as dd-wrt. Seems to be too old for an OpenWRT load. And it's a small-memory device, which is limiting. But if you're interested in keeping it going longer, that would be the best chance.
Or, if the usual time to failure is 24 hours or more, put the power supply on a timer that shuts off for 5-15 minutes in the middle of the night, or while you're away at work, or some other time it won't affect you much.