Insanely Strange *** Net Problem...

[Element-Xero]

Approximately 70% of the time my internet is UTTERLY unusable. It happens totally at random and I have no idea why, and I have ruled out all the switches and the ethernet cables in the small home network setup. Randomly I will just get ABSURD packet loss and lag, some days it never comes, and other days it lasts all day and night, making my connection literally USELESS. This has become insanely maddening and I cannot figure it the frig out.

I have attached a pic of me pinging google so you can get an idea of how effing erratic it is when this happens. When the connection is good, its great, constant 20-200ms or so to most servers in the US, when its bad...well, its this:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/elementxero/whatthef.gif

(this is where I tried for an hour to get a stable enough connection to upload a whopping 33kb file)

Then, thanks to the ghetto swear filter that bleeped out my WTF, i had to spend another 20 mins trying to rename the file

That was actually a less-than-maximum-eratic pic. Only one 2300ms

The setup is this:

[NET] ---|> cable modem ---|> Router -----|> Router acting as Hub ----|> 50 ft. ethernet cable verified to be OK ----|> Comp

Any ideas? This is driving me crazy and LITERALLY an AOL dial up connection would be a GIGANTIC improvement.

Needless to say, that makes me depressed.

Horribly, horribly depressed.

 

[Fightingpiper]

I had a Toshiba cable modem go bad on me and it would give me intermittant extreme packet loss. It wasnt all the time but just enough to be a pain in the ***. After ruling out everything else I got a new surfboard and viola not another problem.....so try a new modem....

 

[bchur83]

Try a tracert to google a few times and see if it is local or your ISP.

 

[seadave77]

Is something getting to hot? Like your modem or router, or even your comp? That could be part of the problem.

 

[hibner]

Have you done the basics? ... reboot modem and routers, called isp, tried traceroute.

 

[Element-Xero]

Not getting hot anywhere, comp is well cooled and all the gear is in a central-air-conditioned environment.

Rebooted all pieces of the setup and its not the ISP, called them as well as tracert'd, plus my friend lives about a block away using the same ISP and has no problems. Plus, as crappy as Comcast is there is NO WAY they would have 40-70% DOWNtime.

I suppose it has to be the modem?

 

[Dreamstalker]

That would be my guess. I also have a Comcast cable modem, and it doesn't have to get all that hot before things start going screwy. Mine is now standing upright so all air vents are exposed.

Did you try the 4.2.2.2 DNS workaround that works for normal outages? If that also doesn't work, I'd definitely look at the modem. Can you borrow another one to test? If it was supplied by Comcast, I've had some problems with those.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I suppose it has to be the modem?

Symptoms like that probably are caused by the modem or the modem drivers!!!

I had symptoms like that, but with 56k. It was apparently because of buggy modem drivers.

Does Windows also report errors in received data with the tray icon?

I had the problem with a new 56k modem of the internet connection dying repeatedly, I would still be connected, (at least according to Windows) but all of a sudden, the browser gives me a domain name not found error or a time out error for all web sites until I disconnect and reconnect. When that occured, Windows would report errors in received data and the reported errors in received data keep on accumulating.

The cause was definitely software related, probably the modem drivers.

 

[Element-Xero]

One new modem and one phone call to my ISP to register it later and my net is now runnin' strong with no packet loss.

Thankee.