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[Connectivity] Problems with Comcast HSI & SMC 8013WG

P

Perfection

Member
Hi Everyone,

I have a tech. support question that I have been trying to solve for a couple of months now, but have yet to find a good solution.

Essentially, I am the network administrator for a large fraternity that houses approximately seventy guys and their computers. A year ago the house was running on one DSL connection that, while incredibly slow, was solid and up 24/7.
(At this point we were using some Cisco 678 Modems and Nexland 800Pro routers).

Well, we decided to switch to faster DSL, which led us to Qwest. We got two DSL connections and used the Nexland to load-balance them. Unfortunately, the Internet connection would drop quite frequently, and rebooting the network equipment seemed to fix the problems. However, this would happen sporadically, and multiple times (sometimes in the dozens) thorughout the day...needless to say it made my life very stressful.

So, in March we switched to Comcast, hoping that these problems would go away. The technician came out and supplied our rented SMC 8013WG router. However, we are still having the same problems that we had previously; at random times, the Internet on all the computers would stop. I couldn't even login to the modem via it's IP address to look at the log. It's been a while (I'm on vacation and haven't seen the problem for a few months), but I believe that when the problem occured, the green LEDs that correspond to the different ethernet nodes were all flashing in sync with each other and constantly. According to the manual, this means that the ethernet ports are busy transmitting data. We had the modem replaced to make sure that it wasn't faulty, but we still have problems.

So, I've sort of narrowed it down to a couple of issues that I think it could be; however, I'm not an experienced network technician and I'm sure there are a lot of potential problems that I have no idea about...so please let me know and give me any feedback that might be usable.

I called Comcast and at first they didn't have any idea what might be the problem. However, the latest technician in the area told me that it could be an issue (connectivity that is), if there are too many people in my neighborhood attempting to connect. Considering I live right near a major University (Oregon State), I can imagine many people in that area are using Cable and probably downloading a lot off of P2P. This could be an issue, and I guess there isn't any immediate fix other than Comcast fix their issue.

My other possibility would be due to too much network traffic going through the SMC Router/Modem. Not only does this Modem connect my network to the Internet, but two of the Ethernet jacks connect to some Dell switches, each of which have about 30 computers plugged into them. A third connection goes to my console machine, while the fourth ethernet isn't used.

This is a fraternity house, so I'm certain that lots of bandwidth is used for P2P downloading. However, people like to share music and videos from other computers; for example, people will stream a video copy of a TV show off of one computer onto another (at some points, I've seen over five videos being streamed at once...at that is just what I saw walking down one hall). I imagine that this could cause a lot of network bandwidth and am wondering if perhaps this could cause sort of a communication jamming at the Router/Modem, where it can't process all the data and just sort of overloads. Could asking the Modem/Router to process all of those network connections be too much. When you add in things like broadcast packets and all of the spyware and other Internet traffic that gets routed through that one device, is this a potential cause of my problem. **** The reason that I am skeptical of this is because we had no such problems (with Internet connectivity) a year ago on our old DSL connection, despite having the same number of users. All of the problems started when we went to the DSL, and then followed us to the Comcast; maybe we are asking too much of that device?

What do you think is the problem? Should I buy another router to put in front of the modem to handle all the intranet traffic (someone suggested a Linksys RV016 [i think]).

I really appreciate any help, as I am a stressed out college student and don't really have the credentials to be the network guy. Also, a lot of the guys play online poker, and I don't want to continue dealing with them for losing their hand cause the Internet went down (especially since some of them make thousands of dollars per month and play big tournaments).

Thanks in advance for any help.

- Jeremy
 
Your killing that poor router, lol. Try a man sized router. I use a Zyxel 334WT its supposed to have nice power and can even handle 2 internet connecitons. Try asking in the zyxel forum on broadbandreports.com.

'Broadband' routers are notorious for rebooting when they get loaded. ESPECIALLY by server scans from stuff like gamespy/quake, etc...
 
Post your configurations I?m curios to see how this is segmented and with what equipments.

Example.

DSL modem > router> dell switch> dell switch> pc

 
Actually, I'm currently living at home and so I don't have access to everything, but I think I still have most of the information memorized from when I tried to lookup stuff before (I want to get this fixed before the beginning of the school year).

Actually the current setup is as follows:

Comcast High Speed Internet (Business Account)
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SMC 8013WG Modem/Router (Leased from Comcast) [Has four ethernet ports]
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There are Two Dell switches hooked into two of those four ethernet ports. I am unsure of the model number, but they are Dell and have 48 Ports each. I didn't think that they were managed, but I don't see any unmanaged ones of that size on the Dell website. They were purchased approximately/within two years ago.
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Approximately 30 host computers plugged into each of the dell switches.



Currently, we don't have a wireless gateway setup, but I do anticipate getting one up in the future (and would like users on the wireless to be able to share files with the wired network if possible).

So, it is more setup like: dsl modem/router > dell switch > PC's.

Is it simply a matter of having too much traffic going over that one central router? The Internet goes down at seemingly random times, but with how we download files and watch streaming video, there can be a lot of data moving at any time.

Like I said, this didn't used to be a problem with our Nexland routers, but when we got DSL (and then Cable), they would lock up too, similar to how the SMC router is doing to us for Comcast.

Thanks for the input...I really appreciate it, and would gladly welcome more as to possible problems I could have, their solutions, and any recommended hardware I should look at.

Thanks

- Jeremy
 
It's a modem and router in one right? Doesn't seem like its that much better than any other consumer router available at best buy, etc. The switches you have are nice but you definately need some sort of better router. No way would that router be able to handle your load. College students are very hard on networks. I don't know anything more than basic networking so I can't recommend a better router. It's gonna cost you some money to get this fixed though.
 
First off, get rid of that SOHO router you have. An actual router doesn't have a modem built into it. From what I can see, you have atleast 60 computers on your network. That is far beyond a home networking situation. With that much traffic moving through that, you definately need an actual router solution. Secondly, instead of plugging both switches into a router, plug in one of the switches into one of the unused ports on the other switch then just have that router plugged into the router. That way ALL LAN traffic floating amongst the switches. The switches you have now are sufficient business class Dell switches. The main problem that you have though is your router. Switch the one you have now for just a cable modem from comcast, then get an actual router from a major company such as Dell or Cisco.
 
Thank you both for your input. I just find the whole problem fairly strange, since we had both switches plugged into the Nexland router (which was old), which then went to our slow DSL connection's modem...our internet was slow but it was stable and the network equipment didn't die. Nothing much has changed except for the introduction of faster internet (although, perhaps there were some settings in the Nexland that helped prevent traffic overload....funny story. The old network administrators left the fraternity, and took the router password with them. When I setup the DSL, I had the erase the router password and configuration to get access to the controls...and I just tried to set it up myself...anyways).

The more I think about it, the idea of that lil' router/modem being able to handle data from the Internet (including file sharing), as well as streaming video and broadcast packets across the different logical segments of the network, that this device probably just cannot take it. Does anyone have any suggestions of a router that would be powerful enough to keep us up and running without it costing an arm and a leg. Our fraternity dues are the largest on campus, and anything that I need to use for this takes away from the social fund 🙁 .

One of the rival fraternities is actually hooked up with three Comcast connections (which must cost nearly $500 per month), and they run it through load-balancing on a Linksys RV016, which looks promising, but I've seen some mixed reviews (Linksys is owned by Cisco right?).

Anyways, I really appreciate the help that I'm getting and hoping for just a little bit more advice about what sort of router would operate 60-70 hosts effectively (I don't see it ever getting to be more than 80 computers).

My goal is to eventually add a wireless access point as well, for those with laptops in the house...obviously a router with a built in wireless would be nice...but it's just an extra that can easily be replaced with other devices.

Thanks.
 
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