Game kills connection to internet, requires modem power cycle

[Essence_of_War]

I've been playing Heroes of the Storm recently, it's a really fun game, but about once a week or so, I'll drop server connection in the middle of a game and find my WAN connection is down.

I can access my router and reboot it remotely, or I can physically power cycle it, and neither of these fixes the problem.

What does seem to fix the problem is power cycling the modem.

I'm trying to figure out what the actual cause of the problem is so that I can mitigate or prevent it from happening in the future, any suggestions for troubleshooting tips?

The modem is a Motorola SB6141.
The router is a TP-Link Archer c7 v2 with the stock firmware.

My desktop where I'm playing is connected over 5 GHz, and usually there are a couple of other devices connected also: a roku view ethernet, a mac pro via ethernet, and a pair of cell phones on 5 GHz.

 

[Ketchup]

If you are leasing the modem, I would just call and see if the peivider will replace it. On my own network devices that have been on their way out , I usually would have to reboot them more and more often to maintain my connection.

 

[Gryz]

If you can solve the problem by rebooting the modem itself, then it has nothing to do with your WiFi or other devices. It's very unlikely to do with any particular game you are playing.

Do a little googling.
The first hit I saw in google suggested that the Motorola SB6141 is easily overheating. It's August now, so unless you are New Zealand, your problem might be just that. Check how hot your modem is. Maybe put a fan on it for a week, and see if you get more hangups during that week.

If you can find new firmware, and you can upgrade the modem, that might be worthwile too. Just a suggestion, no idea if it's possible or if it will help.

It also seems that some of these modems can't deal with a signal that is too strong. Check it, it shouldn't be over 50dB. Google for more info.

 

[Essence_of_War]

If you can solve the problem by rebooting the modem itself, then it has nothing to do with your WiFi or other devices. It's very unlikely to do with any particular game you are playing.

That's what I had thought, but I noticed that it only happened in this specific game, and never in any other game, nor when I'm just doing generic internet things.

The first hit I saw in google suggested that the Motorola SB6141 is easily overheating. It's August now, so unless you are New Zealand, your problem might be just that. Check how hot your modem is. Maybe put a fan on it for a week, and see if you get more hangups during that week.
...
It also seems that some of these modems can't deal with a signal that is too strong. Check it, it shouldn't be over 50dB. Google for more info.

The overheating certainly seems possible. I'm in a 1 BR apartment with window units, it is quite warm, and the modem is in the living room and we typically don't run the AC in the living room in the evening. Now that I think carefully about it, these outages have always happened when we didn't have the AC on.

I also looked into the transmit power. According to my ISP's speedtests, my transit power is EXACTLY 50 dB for both download and upload tests.

 

[sdifox]

You could just elevate the modem a bit to let it vent better.

 

[Ketchup]

You could just elevate the modem a bit to let it vent better.

Wouldn't you want to do the opposite? Unless you want it to get running hotter.

OP, put it on the floor and see if it's just a heat issue.

 

[JeffMD]

Since it is your modem that needs the reboot, your modem is the problem. Overheating? I don't think so. Chances are it is a a pretty shoddy/old modem that does not handle lots of address activity being handled all of a sudden. I have had both modems and older routers that would die out, if not outright reboot if I used something like a gamespy style game server program where the program pings hundreds, if not thousands of servers in a super short amount of time. Torrents would also make said modem reboot during the initial client discovery period.

 

[sdifox]

Wouldn't you want to do the opposite? Unless you want it to get running hotter.

OP, put it on the floor and see if it's just a heat issue.

I meant create a space between the modem and whatever surface it is sitting on. I use two of those high density foamcubes to jack up my ap to vent it better.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Since it is your modem that needs the reboot, your modem is the problem. Overheating? I don't think so. Chances are it is a a pretty shoddy/old modem that does not handle lots of address activity being handled all of a sudden.

I mean, I pointed out the modem above, it's a motorola SB6141, it's not an old or shoddy modem, is it?

 

[KillerBee]

I bet it's the shitty router ...can you do a test plugged straight into the modem

 

[mxnerd]

I don't play games, don't know if this post is related.

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/forum/topic/17999963349