Sorry I haven't been around for a couple of days, but my Windows box crashed, I think the motherboard has cracked up. Anyway I heard from my friend. He now wants to remove the router and just use a second static IP, because he thinks this was a port problem but today, after talking to a tech, he nows thinks it a cable modem issue. Thanks for all the help guys, and say hello to Bernie and Hansang.
Quoting...
As it turns out the problem is with the RF upload signal to my cable modem. It has nothing to do with my router or cable modem or network. So a tech will have to come out here and fix this.
So that's why packets are getting dropped and timing out. They reach my network fine but cannot be sent back. I discovered this problem myself and it was confirmed by a COMCAST technician over the phone while he was doing a remote diagnostics check on my modem.
SM