Internet "Dropouts"

[Sakuya]

I'm having a problem with internet dropouts. By dropouts, I mean that I get intermittent outages where the internet would randomly not connect and give me a "Page not found" error. However, usually with 1 or 2 refreshes, it would instantly connect again at normal speed. During these outages, I'm still connected to the router with signal strength at 100%. The outages are purely random and occur throughout the day. During the outages, I only have AIM and Firefox running, no downloads at all.

I have cable internet from Road Runner. I have two computers. The main computer runs Windows XP and connects an Ethernet cable to my Netgear WGR614v5 router. My cable modem has an Ethernet cable connecting to the router also. My second computer running Windows 2000 (which I'm currently using) uses a Netgear MA101 adapter to connect wirelessly to the router. My intermittent outages occur on both computers.

I've already tried a power cycle, and on both computers, have tried disabling my firewalls (CA 2007 Security Center) during the outages. I've also deleted all browser cookies, history, and cache. I called Road Runner and while they managed to improve my speeds, because the outages occur randomly (and they didn't occur during my call), they could not help me. I've also done a tracert if that helps anyone.

Tracing route to Google.com [74.125.45.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 121 ms 120 ms 121 ms yx-in-f100.google.com [74.125.45.100]

Does anyone have any idea what causes this and could help me? This problem only started to occur these past 2 months and I did not change anything with the modem or router other than power cycles. Any help would be appreciated!

[lordsmurf]

Tech needs to come on site, check connection into house. I had a problem for 2+ months earlier this summer, signal dropped.. The issue was a few miles south of me. Took them forever to find it.

[Sakuya]

Tech needs to come on site, check connection into house. I had a problem for 2+ months earlier this summer, signal dropped.. The issue was a few miles south of me. Took them forever to find it.

If the problem was somewhere else, would that mean that other people in the same building would be having problems with internet, too?

[lordsmurf]

Maybe, maybe not. Call a tech to come out.

[Nelson37]

Remove the router from the equation, that is not Comcast equipment and they will blame that, as it could be the problem. Connect one PC directly to the cable modem (you will need to disconnect the power cord to the modem for about 30 seconds).

If it still drops out with the router removed, test with the other PC and then call Comcast. If the drops go away, get another router. Also worthwhile updating the router firmware, this often solves such problems.

Had a similar prolbem a while back, had techs to the house twice. The third time, the guy took one look at the pole, immediately got out the ladder and replaced a cable splice. Problem solved. Moral of the story is you have to eliminate all non-Comcast hardware, and complain several times - insisting on a reduction in the bill seems to be a good motivator - before they will replace exterior wiring.

[lordsmurf]

Yes, refuse to pay for time when service was down or crap.

[Sakuya]

Thanks for the help! I'll try the direct connection to modem first to make sure it's not my router. Just in case, I better ask this before I do it, if I connect a PC directly to modem, will I have to re-configure the settings to go on the internet? Will I have to restore the settings to my router settings once I plug it back the way it was?

[Soopafresh]

Check the RR forums at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cable,rr

[Nelson37]

If your PC's TCP/ip is set to "Automatically obtain", then no changes of any kind will be needed. Do not forget to unplug ALL cables from the modem and wait a minute or so. Most cable modems "lock on" to a single hardware address and will not connect to different hardware unless totally powered down.

You would follow the same power down procedure when re-connecting the router. Leave this until AFTER any company techs come to your home. Otherwise they'll just point to the router and say it's not their problem.

[Steve Stepoway]

I'm having a similar problem with my aDSL service from Verizon. Unfortunately, in my case, I'm pretty certain that it's the wire that comes from the demark on the garage wall into the wiring closet in the house. Ergo it's my problem, not Verizon's. If the OP's cable company is responsible for everything up to the modem, at least you can get the cable company to fix it. Eventually. But it does sound like a wiring problem.

Steve