I need your help to figure out what's wrong with this internet connection

[pitupepito2000]

Hi,

I have been having problems with the internet connection for a long time, and I am determined to solve it. My set up is the following. AT&T cable modem (brand RCA), connected to Linksys router (model BEFSR41) through a straight through cable that connects to the "WAN port" in the router. I have two machines connected to this router (one machine is running windows 98 and the other one is running windows 2000). The problem that I am having is that when I want to connect to the internet, the connection will go down, and it won't come back up. Sometimes what solves this problem is unplugging the power cable in the modem, and while the connection is down I can ping the router, and access the Linksys html setup interface, but I can't connect to the internet, through a browser nor can I ping any website. This problem comes and goes, there's days when it works fine, but other days it just won't work at all.

Last night I tried pluggint the ethernet cable from the modem to the back of my pc (the nic card), and the two LED's where turning on and off, and then windows 2000 was going back and forth between telling me that the network cable had been unplugged to that the network cable was fine.

I have researched this and I know a little bit about networking. Please help me.

thanks for all your help in advance,
pitupepito.

 

[lorlabnew]

From what you are saying, I'd think that you RCA modem is malfunctioning (have the same setup, attbi & RCA modem). Call them to come over to check out your connection ... I have this RCA as a replacement for older malfunctioning Motorola Surfboard (intermittent connections problems)....

good luck with that
dave

 

[pitupepito2000]

Thanks for your input. Does anybody else have a different opinion or suggestion?

Thanks,
José

 

[bigshooter]

If it says the network cable is unplugged, it is probably something wrong with the cable modem itself. If you lose your cable connection, it wouldn't say that the network connection is unplugged, you just wouldn't be able to ping any internet addresses. If you dont get this error when you plug into the router, then it wouldn't be your network card.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Do you guys know of any utility that I can use to test the network and the connectivity, reliability and other things in the network? Yes I don't usually get this "network cable unplugged" message when my computer is connected directly to the router, but I don't know why it would have given me that message yesterday. I tested the straight cable that I used for connecting the modem to the nic card yesterday when I got that message. The fluke cable tester showed no problems in map wiring or anything else in the cable. Is there a way that I can test the modem and its functionality with some kind of utility?

Thanks for all your input and keep it coming,
José

 

[pitupepito2000]

Can I get some more help?

Please!!!

 

[John]

Judging by what you've stated thus far, try hooking up the other PC directly to the cable modem and see what happens. If the problem persists, call your cable company.