Nearly a year ago I installed a wireless network in my home; then, last April, I had Comcast come in and install their VOIP along with my Internet and Cable TV. After many problems, I still have one unresolved issue: I have a cheapo LinkSys WRT54GS router which performs adequately the house. I have a desktop running XP which is wired directly to the router (which in turn is cabled directly into the Comcast modem). I have a new laptop (Gateway) running Vista which has its own internal wi-fi card. Most of the time, everything works perfectly; while my wife sleeps in the bedroom with the desktop, router, and Comcast modem, I can work late into the night downstairs on the laptop -- well, almost late into the night. And here is the mystery: Many nights, often around 2 am, I lose both network and Internet connectivity. Not every night and never during the day or earlier than 10 pm. Going through the repair or reconnect routine never works; rebooting never works; using the "Trouble Shooter" never works. I simply give up and go to bed. When I get up in the morning (6 or 7 am) everything is back to normal. When this happens, I check my cable tv and my phone line, but they are always working fine. If Comcast had lost its cable or interupted the signal for some cable work, I should lose all three services, shouldn't I? And if the Internet goes down for whatever reason, shouldn't the home network continue working? Why both? And why is it back to normal the next morning? I don't think I can blame Comcast for this one. I think it's the LinkSys router, but I can't afford to go out and buy another one just now, and I don't understand why it should be happening consistently between midnight and 6 am. And it doesn't happen every night -- there is no pattern to the days of occurrence; it could be five days in a row, it could skip a day or two, it could be on Monday morning or Saturday morning or thursday morning. I'm baffled!! I know of no setup in the Linksys configuration that would cause this. But one change has occurred: until about three days ago, my taskbar icons would suddenly flash and tell me that network and Internet connectivity had been interupted, now they don't. I simply lose connectivity, but my network, Internet, and wi-fi monitors now claim that my signal is strong and that I'm connected, even though I'm not. So now I'm wondering if some geeky tech at Comcast is tweaking the system at a time when he thinks nobody will notice, or is some LinkSys witchery at play? I sincerely hope somebody has read this all the way through and has some ideas or even an answer, because I'm not going to get any sleep until I understand what's going on. TIA, Tim :confused:
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One year of screwing around with Comcast "problems" and now you're trying to solve this? Your patience is admirable.
What hardware version? Look on the serial number tag. Yes, it's important. Extra credit for the firmware version.
Which Comcast VoIP modem? Motorola, Arris, Scientific Atlanta, RCA, etc?
Oh-oh.
I assume the laptop is connected via wireless.
I'll assume you lose connectivity on the laptop. Have you checked for connectivity on the wired XP desktop when it goes out? The idea is to eliminate the new and wonderful Gateway Vista laptop as a possible culprit. Some of these go into sleep, standby, or hibernate mode, and don't really recover very gracefully. Usually a reboot will restore the connection. Have you tried this? Also, check if you still have connectivity with the wireless router by running: Start -> run -> cmd ping 192.168.1.1 If that's dead, then there's a wireless issue. If it works, it's something else.
Do any of these work?
Cycle the power on the WRT54GS.
Cycle the power on the unspecified model Comcast VoIP modem.
Punch the reset button momentarily on the back of the unspecified model Comcast VoIP modem. You can get the same effect if you unplug the modem and then remove the big backup battery for about a minute.
What are the lights on the front of the unspecified model VoIP modem doing? On the current RCA VoIP cable modem, all the lights should be green in order for things to work. Are any of the lights off?
Well, gremlins, goblins, poltergysts, and enchantments are more active at night. Maybe the cat is chewing on the wires or playing with the modem?
The cable TV does NOT go through the VoIP cable modem. It's possible for the channels (in both directions) used by the cable modem to be "impared" while the TV still works.
The RCA cable modem is weird. It generates dialtone internally. You can literally uplug the CATV coax connector from the modem, and you'll still hear dialtone. Try making a phone call to see if it works. However, even if it does, it's still possible for the Comcast router to ruin the internet connection, without affecting VoIP function or TV viewing.
Only if the cable were cut, unplugged, or mangled. More commonly, the unplated copper center conductor used in the common cable F connector gets corroded, resulting in a lossy connection. Some services will work (depending on RF frequencies) while others may be flakey. It's possible that water expansion caused by freezing at night may be causing the cable to move enough to drop the connection. Hard to tell from here.
However, you can do some troubleshooting. (So can Comcast support but they're often clueless). Connect your PC directly to the cable modem. Since you didn't bother to specify the model, I'll guess that it's at: http://192.168.100.1There should be a status page and a cable modem statistics page. The modem page will show the data rates, signal quality, and other useful measurements. Record what you see when things are working normally. Do the same when it craps out. If they're the same, there's something wrong on Comcast's end.
Yep. You can test that by unplugging the coax cable from the cable modem and see what happens to your home network. If it craps out, you may have something derranged, such as getting your IP addresses from the Comcast server instead of the WRT54GS. Without knowing exactly how you have things wired, installed, configured, and arranged, it's difficult to tell from here. However, in general, you're correct that unplugging the coax should have no effect on PC to PC (or printer) communications.
Because they're in series. If the internet goes away, it looks like BOTH the internet and wireless are dead. Try: ping 192.168.1.1 or: http://192.168.1.1 to see if you can still connect to your router. If yes, then it's the internet that's down. Your router is fine.
Well, the first stop to solving a problem is to blame someone. Comcast is the usual culprit, but if you are hesitant to assign the blame, perhaps the dog or cat might be a suitable replacement. Hint: Never blame your wife or kids. They retaliate.
I don't.
Can you borrow a different model wireless router? Find a retail store with a liberal return policy? Incidentally, there are wireless routers (Belkin My Essentials) that retail for about $35. Methinks you can afford that.
Kinda like the weather? Any correlation with temperature?
I'm entertained.
Good thinking. What else is in between your Vista laptop and the internet that might be causing problems. Hint: Comcast router Lots of coax cable and black boxes. Your house wiring. Splitters and directional couplers Your unspecified model cable modem. One short piece of CAT5 The WRT54G Start at your end and start testing or replacing each step.
It's Vista, which has a mind of its own. There's some setting that says something like "Notify me if connectivity is lost" in the properties for the network connection. However, in Vista, there are two of these. One for the wireless connection to the WRT54GS and another for loss of internet connectivity (even if the connection to the WRT54GS is still there). As before, it's hard to tell from here.
Use ping to be sure that you are (or are not) connected to the router.
Actually, that's possible. I've had customers cable connections go insane for a few minutes at random times. I eventually determined that someone was running a test (of something) and left the program running. This is very unlikely, but still possible.
Sleep deprivation has not been known to fix network problems.
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