Baffling cable modem problem

[Nirvana1979]

I have Atnt Broadband, and I've been experiancing a very strange problem with my internet connection. Certain web-based applications such as Kazaa or the Zone will make networking capabilities of both our computers freeze from time to time. Once I re-set the modem, everything works fine again.

I understood disconnections on a dial-up modem, but the lights on my cable modem tell me it is still online. This lead me to believe that maybe those applications are screwing around with our systems TCP/IP protocol suite or someething. But the wierd thing is if one computer goes down, they BOTH go down which means the source has to be the modem. But I can't figure out how an application could crash the modem, and why the modem still indicates that it's online if it's crashed.

Do any of you techies have any idea what is causing this?(i mean technically speaking)

BTW: I did check to make sure we still had an IP address when our internet freezes.

 

[LiLithTecH]

A little more info is required.

Are you hooked directly to the modem or are you using a router?
What type of Modem (and router if in use)?
What OS?

 

[Nirvana1979]

I am connected through a switch. My modem is a Motorola SurfBoard, and I run windows xp pro on one computer, and win98 on the other. And only certain programs crash it like kazaa and the zone. Could the switch be over loaded or something? It was a sorta cheap switch, an 'Asound'.

 

[amdskip]

A router is required to split cable internet. This makes your connection look like one computer to your cable company. Are you sure this isn't a router with the built in switch?

 

[Hessakia]

When you put a switch onto a cable modem, you have to pay for 2 separate IP addresses (A router saves you from doing this)


Hess.

 

[Nirvana1979]

I am paying for two IP addresses. And I have checked to make sure my IP addresses werent' somehow being released, and I still had a valid IP address, and connection to ATnt's server(according to modem lights) but I can't go anywhere on the internet.