Hardware Router rejecting everything except PCs; nothing else connects.

[BasedKiliK]

I've had this problem for about 3 days now and it's got me beating my head against a wall. For some reason that I still haven't figured out, my NETGEAR R6300 Wireless Router keeps rejecting every device I attempt to connect to it, saying the encryption key is incorrect (my PS3 will sit on "Exchanging key information" before failing to connect). We looked into the firmware, and nothing has been changed; the passphrase is the same. Not even my phone can connect to it. But for some stupid reason, my laptop, as well as every other PC in the house, can connect to it just fine. And this isn't the first time this has happened; our Linksys E4200 router started doing the exact same thing after a while, which led to us getting our new modem and current router. It's been restarted and unplugged several times, once for a whole hour, and the problem continues to persist. Our network security is WPA2-Personal if that's affecting anything (we like to keep our network as secure as possible).

As far as we know, our router and network hasn't been messed with or penetrated, nor have we changed any settings (it's been untouched for about 2 months). ANY help at all at this point would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sop]

I don't know why this is happening, my Netgear router has been consistently good since I got it.

If worst comes to worst and no one else answers I can recommend installing DD-WRT as an alternative firmware.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

 

[BasedKiliK]

I actually installed DD-WRT on the old router after we got the new one for my personal use. Unfortunately, the R6300 isn't supported by it.

 

[Originality]

Check to see if MAC filtering is enabled. Also check if you're capitalising your pass phrase.

 

[BasedKiliK]

Already checked those, multiple times. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell is wrong with this thing. I'm majoring in computer network security and I play around with crap like this as a passtime (no, really), so I have no clue what the hell is going on.

 

[Originality]

Try switching the encryption method and using an all-number pass phrase.

 

[BasedKiliK]

Tried that too. Worked temporarily before resuming issues.

 

[Originality]

Check the state of the antennas if accessible. Sounds like hardware issues to me.

 

[BasedKiliK]

FIXED IT! Our router emits a "Guest" network alongside our normal one, which restricts LAN access when connected to it. The channels for both the regular and guest networks were set to 'Auto'; I guess they were trying to use the same channel, and devices kept flipping between them when trying to connect, eventually timing out. That or the channels were generating interference with each other and causing issues.

 

[Originality]

Whilst being on the same channel does cause interference, they can't "flip" between the two, as they'll have different IDs used to connect. If the router has issues receiving connections from the same channel, that's a different story.

Anyway, glad it's fixed.

 

[BasedKiliK]

NOPE. Started having problems again earlier today, even after we disabled that guest network altogether. What has it working NOW is enabling wireless isolation (WTF?). This so far has lasted the longest, but it prevents any wireless devices from communicating. And since we have a 2TB network-attached storage, this a no no.

I'm at my wit's end....

 

[Originality]

Random thought. Check the WiFi settings for any timeout options.

 

[BasedKiliK]

Although I don't have admin access to the router atm, I don't recall any timeout options being enabled.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

NOPE. Started having problems again earlier today, even after we disabled that guest network altogether. What has it working NOW is enabling wireless isolation (WTF?). This so far has lasted the longest, but it prevents any wireless devices from communicating. And since we have a 2TB network-attached storage, this a no no.

I'm at my wit's end....

It seems like it randomly started working unrelated to any changes you might've made. I suggest looking for a firmware update as it might be a bug in the firmware, and doing a factory reset.
Edit: Note that if your router has a function to automatically check for updates online you might be able to find a newer version through Google than what the router finds. That was the case for my D-Link router and it fixed some of the issues I had with it.