Author Topic: Internet cutting out  (Read 6271 times)

CommonCents

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Internet cutting out
« on: June 30, 2015, 01:28:13 PM »
Our internet keeps cutting out at home, requiring us to reset the modem & router 1-4 times each evening.  This is a PITA.  I'm guessing we need to replace our 2007 modem or router.  Is it more likely to be one than the other?  (If I don't need to buy both, I won't.)  Any other ideas?  You folks correctly diagnosed our last internet issue (which was the Comcast guy writing down the wrong number), so I have great faith in your now.

Any suggestions on a new router/modem?

themagicman

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2015, 01:34:23 PM »
I would try just resetting one the next time it goes out and see which one needs to be reset to fix the issue. I had this issue a while back and I got a new router and never have had another issue again.

CommonCents

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2015, 01:37:20 PM »
I would try just resetting one the next time it goes out and see which one needs to be reset to fix the issue. I had this issue a while back and I got a new router and never have had another issue again.

haha.  Yes, that is obvious to try.  Sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees...

Spork

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2015, 01:39:06 PM »
It could also be the signal strength.  This could be either do to poor cabling in your house or upstream.  The cable company can likely tell you if you are getting sufficient signal just from looking at your account. 

If it is upstream... it's up to them to fix it.   If it is in your house, it's probably cheaper for you to track it down and fix it yourself.

CommonCents

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2015, 01:48:37 PM »
It could also be the signal strength.  This could be either do to poor cabling in your house or upstream.  The cable company can likely tell you if you are getting sufficient signal just from looking at your account. 

If it is upstream... it's up to them to fix it.   If it is in your house, it's probably cheaper for you to track it down and fix it yourself.

The cable company has been bugging us a while about getting new equipment so we can advantage of the faster upload/download speeds.  They want us to lease equipment from them so we've been ignoring them.  We stream tv (hulu plus) but don't download movies or anything where the speed has been an issue.

How would I track it down in my house if that's the case?  The prior owner was a bit of a mad computer wizard with cables running every which way in the walkout basement (where our modem/router is) that we largely ignore.  A computer friend of mine's eyes lit up when he saw it and he started talking about coaxial cables that are 4 or 6? can't really remember, but he seemed to like it (although it could be better).

forummm

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2015, 01:49:06 PM »
I had a faulty modem that did this. A new one worked great.

You should be able to tell which is the problem though. If you have the problem again and then plug your computer directly into the modem using an ethernet cable, and the Internet works, you know it's the router. If the Internet does not work, it's probably the modem.

forummm

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2015, 01:50:26 PM »
It could also be the signal strength.  This could be either do to poor cabling in your house or upstream.  The cable company can likely tell you if you are getting sufficient signal just from looking at your account. 

If it is upstream... it's up to them to fix it.   If it is in your house, it's probably cheaper for you to track it down and fix it yourself.

The cable company has been bugging us a while about getting new equipment so we can advantage of the faster upload/download speeds.  They want us to lease equipment from them so we've been ignoring them.  We stream tv (hulu plus) but don't download movies or anything where the speed has been an issue.

How would I track it down in my house if that's the case?  The prior owner was a bit of a mad computer wizard with cables running every which way in the walkout basement (where our modem/router is) that we largely ignore.  A computer friend of mine's eyes lit up when he saw it and he started talking about coaxial cables that are 4 or 6? can't really remember, but he seemed to like it (although it could be better).

If it's been working fine since 2007, it's probably not the signal strength.

If it's the modem, you can buy a brand new one for about $60. It pays for itself in about 7 months of rental fees.

Spork

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2015, 01:56:35 PM »
It could also be the signal strength.  This could be either do to poor cabling in your house or upstream.  The cable company can likely tell you if you are getting sufficient signal just from looking at your account. 

If it is upstream... it's up to them to fix it.   If it is in your house, it's probably cheaper for you to track it down and fix it yourself.

The cable company has been bugging us a while about getting new equipment so we can advantage of the faster upload/download speeds.  They want us to lease equipment from them so we've been ignoring them.  We stream tv (hulu plus) but don't download movies or anything where the speed has been an issue.

How would I track it down in my house if that's the case?  The prior owner was a bit of a mad computer wizard with cables running every which way in the walkout basement (where our modem/router is) that we largely ignore.  A computer friend of mine's eyes lit up when he saw it and he started talking about coaxial cables that are 4 or 6? can't really remember, but he seemed to like it (although it could be better).

Signal strength is easy to screw up over time.

My wild guess of likely culprits:
* bad or out of spec cable (not RG6).
* bad job of splicing end connectors at the end of cable
* cables run outside and subject to sun/rain/rodents/etc (or have nails through them)
* a bad or lossy cable splitter
* a connection that just isn't screwed down tight

I know cable companies are hated... but they do have some instrumentation here to at least test stuff... find out if it is their fault first.  They an also hook up a meter and see what the loss is right there at the modem.  (No idea if they'll charge for testing or not.)

If it were happening all the time, I'd take the cable modem out to the d-marc (where it comes into the house) and hook it in there and see what happens.  But with intermittent issues, that's not so easy.

But yes, a new modem is cheap.  And a docsis 3 modem will get you more speed (if you so desire).  I know where I live, the smallest plan they sell is 50mb downstream.  But it requires a docsis 3 modem to do it.  (In other words, here you'd be getting less speed and paying the same price.)

NathanP

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2015, 02:02:24 PM »
My past experience usually leads me to blame the router. After replacing a fried router that had worked flawlessly for 5+ years, I had frequent need to restart the newer, more capable router once a day or more. I knew it was going to be trouble when I saw an option in the router setup to program the router to restart at a certain time every day...

After tiring of the repeated trips downstairs to reboot the new router, I bought this $20 router http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR841N-Wireless-Router-300Mpbs/dp/B001FWYGJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435694109&sr=8-1&keywords=tp+link+router. I haven't had a problem since.

Another nice thing about this router that I haven't seen on many others is the ability to limit the bandwidth of each single device on the network. When our internet company was toying with the idea of a data cap, I used this capability to restrict our TV top boxes to 2Mbps to force them to use lower quality streams. This small change reduced our monthly data usage by more than 60%. This is great for controlling streaming services that don't allow you to select lower quality feeds (Amazon, Hulu .. ).

DEL

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2015, 02:05:35 PM »
Is it your wifi? Try changing the channel and see if that solves your problem. My internet also used to cut out regularly until I changed from the default channel (usually 1,6,11); I live in an apartment and there were a lot of "interference" or "noise" from my neighbors' wifi.

CommonCents

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2015, 02:06:01 PM »
If it's the modem, you can buy a brand new one for about $60. It pays for itself in about 7 months of rental fees.

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear.  We would buy, not rent from a cable company.

CommonCents

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2015, 02:06:44 PM »
Is it your wifi? Try changing the channel and see if that solves your problem. My internet also used to cut out regularly until I changed from the default channel (usually 1,6,11); I live in an apartment and there were a lot of "interference" or "noise" from my neighbors' wifi.

Ah, how do I do that?

We live in a house though.  We sometimes see one neighbor's wifi, but it's not like apartment living was.

deborah

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2015, 02:08:08 PM »
Try flushing the DNS cache the next time it happens before resetting anything (ipconfig /flushdns from the command prompt). It is just possible that it is the computer.

CommonCents

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2015, 02:10:33 PM »
Try flushing the DNS cache the next time it happens before resetting anything (ipconfig /flushdns from the command prompt). It is just possible that it is the computer.

Multiple devices (my laptop, DH's ipad and the chromecast) all go out at the same time so this probably isn't the issue.

DEL

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2015, 02:12:21 PM »
Is it your wifi? Try changing the channel and see if that solves your problem. My internet also used to cut out regularly until I changed from the default channel (usually 1,6,11); I live in an apartment and there were a lot of "interference" or "noise" from my neighbors' wifi.

Ah, how do I do that?

We live in a house though.  We sometimes see one neighbor's wifi, but it's not like apartment living was.


I did a quick Google search and came up with this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21132/change-your-wi-fi-router-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/

Basically, you log in to your router and change it from there. You can use the program mentioned in the article, WifiInfoView, to detect all wifis in range and see if the channel your router is using, is "crowded"

CommonCents

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #15 on: July 01, 2015, 02:18:15 PM »
Ok so last it cut out once last night.  I plugged in the Ethernet cable and it didn't work.  I restarted the modem and it didn't fix the issue.  I restarted the router and it did work.  I'll try it the reverse the next time it cuts out, to confirm it's likely the router.

forummm

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #16 on: July 01, 2015, 03:12:18 PM »
Sometimes the modems take awhile to come back online and provide Internet. Good sleuthing.

Spork

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Re: Internet cutting out
« Reply #17 on: July 01, 2015, 05:30:40 PM »
Ok so last it cut out once last night.  I plugged in the Ethernet cable and it didn't work.  I restarted the modem and it didn't fix the issue.  I restarted the router and it did work.  I'll try it the reverse the next time it cuts out, to confirm it's likely the router.

I think you are on the right track.

It is possible that plugging in an ethernet directly to the modem didn't work because the modem only allows a single MAC/IP address.  Your router probably had it... and it didn't have a second to give out to you.  This will vary by cable company and the cable contract they apply to you.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!