[lowthreeohz]

Every once in a while, or about every 12 hours, my computer just drops the internet connection and stops responding to any outgoing/incoming traffic. most of the time the activity light will quit completely, but a few times it's continued to xmit. Most of the time i can release/renew in winipcfg, but it takes me rebooting to get it to work properly. any ideas?

 

[AbecX]

unplug your cable modem for a few minutes, plug it back up.

 

[gilligan]

is your internet connections service a pppoe (have to use a athuntication) or pppoa (normaly dhcp) ? if pppoe that is just you servers retarting/lease ending and your cable co. shitty network, if it is pppoa i would reinstall your nic or at leat reinstall tcp/ip.

 

[lowthreeohz]

unplug your cable modem for a few minutes, plug it back up.

i did that already, jackass. it does it all the time, regardless.

 

[O2BQIK]

What OS are you using? If it's Windows 95 kernel, I would definitely uninstall and reinstall TCP/IP. It could be your IP lease expiring but it ought to grant you a new one automatically. You can use winipcfg (95 kernel) or ipconfig /all (NT kernel) to find out how long your lease is.

 

[FlowJack]

My entire network has been going down due to the same problem with my cable connection within the past few weeks as well. Never had a problem in the previous couple of years.

Unplugging the modem, followed by a release/renew is the only thing that has fixed it for me as well so far.

 

[chambers]

The other thing you might want to make sure of, is that your cable modem isn't getting too hot. I had an RCA that would drop due to heat.

 

[lowthreeohz]

Okay, i'm on winME on this comp (i know i know....) and it's a Motorola Surfboard cable modem connected via the USB. I've unplugged it, reinstalled the drivers for tcp/ip, and done tons of other things, and it still drops the connection at random.

 

[trey85stang]

ditch the usb.. try ethernet...

 

[lowthreeohz]

i changed it to ethernet today, and i'm still having the same problems.

 

[miketyler]

this is a common problem but you need to determine where the drop is occurring

It could be your modem is losing its connection to the broadband network. Your modem should have a cable light that indicates it is connected to the network. If it is flashing when you lose connectivity, then read on.

If you are convinced your modem is good, you need to have your provider check the line for signal strength and the signal-to-noise ratio. The modem will lose communication with the provisioning server and network if the line signal drops below minimum, or if there is excessive "noise" on the line.

Maybe there is a tech here that can correct me but I think average signal strength or "power level" is about 3-5dBmV and average noise-to-signal ratio is about 30dB

The problem that most folks find is that these numbers can vary and power levels can change without notice. My modem goes down, the tech detects high signal/noise ratio and puts a line filter on it effectively dropping the signal and putting it within the normal parameters. A bandaid fix if you will.

Two months later, a change is made on the network, new switch, router or other head end equipment and the excessive signal now is corrected to within the proper operating window, but because I have the filter still on my line, my signal strength is below minimum and I get signal drops again.

What you can do:
Try removing any signal splitters off of the cable as these will reduce the signal. Remove any line filters that have been installed previously as they may fix a condition that no longer exists (including any at the PED). If you have an older modem, (ie, 3-4yrs old) while it should still work you may find better performance and better fault tolerance with a newer model.

A performance tip: the suggestion about ditching USB is a good one. USB is shared bandwidth between any other USB devices you have. Go with Ethernet and you will see better performance and reliability.

Hope this helps

 

[gilligan]

yea first i would ditch the usb ( uses processor munching power and usb just do kinda suck ), next thing it to check the lights on the modem when you loose connection dose the modem reboot? if so that is not good time to contact the internet provider possable bad modem/lt card in the co. other than that make sure you don't have any halagen lights, florsent lights, high power devices like the cable line goes by your central air or something like that. and yea the "noise" 0-30 is the range 6-30 is good the higher the number the better the signal. instead of the noise i would be concerned about the attunition 0-60, 60 bad 0 good test the amout of availbe bandwith (internet connection speed). as you can probley tell i do dsl support lol to bad it wasen't verizon dsl i could hook that up.

 

[lowthreeohz]

Ditch USB. Check. Lights stay on when modem drops connection, sometimes it even says it's still xmitting, when it wont even ping.
I've been meaning to setup some software to see when it's actually dropping the connection, to see if maybe it's got something to do with my IP timing out or charter updating their system...? blah.

 

[gilligan]

ok cool do you know if you loose you ip address when you get disconnected? in winme go to start and run type in winipcfg and select you ethernet card. try to ping your ip, than try 127.0.0.1 (loopback should work regardless if your connected or not) if you have a ip address still and you can't ping 127.0.0.1 i would lean towards your computer if you can ping 127.0.0.1 than it is all you isp or comcast jacking you around time to call tech support. just out of a question are you part of any network? hubs/swithes/routers/gateways/ect..