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ryanghall
07-05-2005, 12:51 AM
Hi,

I just moved so I got a new cable internet service. In the first week, I've been disconnected 3 times already. Each time I phone them, they suggest that it's my wireless router (it's not wireless on my comp., as I have it plugged in - it's just wireless on my gf's). I don't think it is. Is it likely to be the router that's the problem? It is a Linksys 2.4 GHz Broadband router.

As well, the homeowner who we bought off said that the connection was too strong (anyone ever heard of this?) so he had a filter or something? How would I go about installing one of these?

Ryan

NateDog
07-05-2005, 01:00 AM
Who is your service provider? I've never heard of a connection being too strong. If you are ethernet wired to the router, and still having disconnects, it is likely a hardware/isp issue. Reset the cable modem, use a different ethernet port on your router, and give it another try.

hopp
07-05-2005, 01:46 AM
When it disconects how long does it go down for?

The lights may be different on your modem, but generaly you will have three lights, A solid Status light means you are conneted to the cable company, A blinking Link light means your router or computer is connected to the modem, and an Activity light that will light up whenever you send or receive data to/from the Internet. If the Status light goes off when you loose your connection then it is usually the cable company's problem (unless your modem is going bad, not as common though).

BroadBandReports.com (formaly dslreports.com) (http://www.broadbandreports.com/) is a great site for advice, reports, and tools. You may also want to download Ping Plotter (http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html).

Install Ping Plotter and play around with it a little just to get familar with it. If your connection goes down again, and your status light is on solid on your modem, then run Ping Plotter and see if it connects to anything. If you are connected to your router, the first hop (ip address) at the top of the list will be your router, the second hop will be your modem, and the third hop will be your cable company.

Tacjedi
07-05-2005, 01:55 AM
It is your router! I worked for a cable company doing tech support for 5 years, and I would say 9 times out of 10 the problem is was with the router. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it because day after week after month of people arguing with you about their fu**ing router will wear on the soul.

There is nothing physically wrong with the router. I suggest updating the firmware on the router.

hopp
07-05-2005, 02:40 AM
Tacjedi...I feel your pain.

I have had cable Internet since 1998 and have had very little problems with it, but then I know a little more than the average person about computers and networking. A few months ago my Internet connection went down for about 4 hours, after 3 hours I called the cable company and they had this automated voice response trouble shooting system. Once you get to the tech queue, it starts somthing like this, "While you're waiting for a tech lets check a few things...", and on it goes having you check all those basic things that I'm sure you had to do a hundred times a day. It was a little annoying for me since I had already checked all that. But I thought it was pretty slick and probably saved the techs a lot of repetitious work everyday.

BBill
07-05-2005, 11:27 AM
As well, the homeowner who we bought off said that the connection was too strong (anyone ever heard of this?) so he had a filter or something? How would I go about installing one of these?

What he meant here is that the signal strength is to strong. This happend in my neighborhood as Comcast was adjusting for all of the new subscribers.
The filter he is talking about ia actually an "attenuator" I installed a 6db attenuator on my cable and it helped with the connection problems. Later on I took it out.
If that is the problem an attenuator is only a few bucks and radio shack should sell them I believe.

Derek in NYC
07-05-2005, 04:05 PM
I had huge problems with two Linksys routers and got rid of both of them. Now I use a D-Link and have fewer problems.

W/r/t the router, I found that enabling the security features seemed to make the connection more stable, in particular MAC address filtering and WEP encryption. Before I enabled security, I would periodically find somebody leeching off my network connection... perhaps this made it less stable?

Other than this possibility, Im not sure why these would make a difference, but they are probably good security hygiene practices in any event. Also, while you're at it, remember to turn off SSID broadcast, change the channel, rename the router, and change the admin password.