Internet connection is screwy

[Eeezee]

Every so often my internet connection becomes slow or goes offline completely. Once it's offline, completely, it will eventually come back online after an hour or so.

I've disconnected my router just to get rid of that variable completely. I use Cox High-Speed, and should have a 6 Mbps download cap.

Early this afternoon, I did a speed test at Text and had a download of around 3Mbps. I can live with this. A few minutes ago I did the test twice and got around 550 kbps. I did it again recently and had 1203 kbps. I have not changed the amount of bandwidth usage (no torrents, downloads, etc., only the internet browser).

So right now my network is a computer hooked up directly to a cable modem (SB5100 Motorola) via ethernet cable. The cable modem is directly plugged into the wall with a coaxial cable. I decided to swap out coax cables as I have about 6 cables laying around, but I've had problems regardless of which cable I used, so I believe that is not the problem here. The cat5 ethernet cable is fine too, when I use the same cable on a router with other computers it performs fine. I believe that also rules out the computer itself.

Am I missing something, or does it appear that it's my modem that's screwing up?

 

[chuckywang]

Go to 192.168.100.1
That's the IP address of your modem.

 

[Zee]

post ure signal levels. look at the internal page of the modem (192.168.100.1?)

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Go to 192.168.100.1
That's the IP address of your modem.

Learn something new every day...

I clicked this thread because I've been having similar problems lately myself so it was of interest to me. Any idea of what normal readings are for signal strength and snr for cable?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

have you called your provider? because it could be something wrong with their network and not yours. i used to have this problem, i have dsl and sometimes the dsl and the phone would go out. and it turned out to be the connection between the station and my house that kept having the connection go out.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: RBachman

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Go to 192.168.100.1
That's the IP address of your modem.

Learn something new every day...

I clicked this thread because I've been having similar problems lately myself so it was of interest to me. Any idea of what normal readings are for signal strength and snr for cable?

I get an SNR around 34.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
have you called your provider? because it could be something wrong with their network and not yours. i used to have this problem, i have dsl and sometimes the dsl and the phone would go out. and it turned out to be the connection between the station and my house that kept having the connection go out.

They swear up and down that it's okay, mostly because the connection seems to work pretty well whenever they're on the phone There was one time that I caught the network screwing up while I had a tech support guy on the phone, but it cleared itself up while we were talking and he assumed it would be okay from then on.

Modem stuff:
Downstream
Frequency = 561000000 Hz
Signal/Noise = 32 dB
QAM = QAM256
Network Access Control Object = ON
Power Level = -3 dBmV

Upstream
Channel ID = 1
Frequency = 22000000 Hz
Ranging Service ID = 624
Symbol Rate = 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level = 45 dBmV

I tried calling Motorola and they gave me some numbers, and these are within "accepted values." What's worse is that I can't connect to the modem page at all when the little ah heck goes offline. What a mess

I think my next move may be a temporary change in modems to see if that fixes the problem. I still have my old SB1700 (hopefully it still works). If downgrading to the old modem gives me a stable connection for a few weeks, then I'll probably start modem shopping.

Can anyone else think of anything?

 

[Zee]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
have you called your provider? because it could be something wrong with their network and not yours. i used to have this problem, i have dsl and sometimes the dsl and the phone would go out. and it turned out to be the connection between the station and my house that kept having the connection go out.

They swear up and down that it's okay, mostly because the connection seems to work pretty well whenever they're on the phone There was one time that I caught the network screwing up while I had a tech support guy on the phone, but it cleared itself up while we were talking and he assumed it would be okay from then on.

Modem stuff:
Downstream
Frequency = 561000000 Hz
Signal/Noise = 32 dB
QAM = QAM256
Network Access Control Object = ON
Power Level = -3 dBmV

Upstream
Channel ID = 1
Frequency = 22000000 Hz
Ranging Service ID = 624
Symbol Rate = 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level = 45 dBmV

I tried calling Motorola and they gave me some numbers, and these are within "accepted values." What's worse is that I can't connect to the modem page at all when the little ah heck goes offline. What a mess

I think my next move may be a temporary change in modems to see if that fixes the problem. I still have my old SB1700 (hopefully it still works). If downgrading to the old modem gives me a stable connection for a few weeks, then I'll probably start modem shopping.

Can anyone else think of anything?

your levels are excellent. when you go offline, immediately check the lights on your modem. see if you have 4 solid green lights at that time

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Zee

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
have you called your provider? because it could be something wrong with their network and not yours. i used to have this problem, i have dsl and sometimes the dsl and the phone would go out. and it turned out to be the connection between the station and my house that kept having the connection go out.

They swear up and down that it's okay, mostly because the connection seems to work pretty well whenever they're on the phone There was one time that I caught the network screwing up while I had a tech support guy on the phone, but it cleared itself up while we were talking and he assumed it would be okay from then on.

Modem stuff:
Downstream
Frequency = 561000000 Hz
Signal/Noise = 32 dB
QAM = QAM256
Network Access Control Object = ON
Power Level = -3 dBmV

Upstream
Channel ID = 1
Frequency = 22000000 Hz
Ranging Service ID = 624
Symbol Rate = 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level = 45 dBmV

I tried calling Motorola and they gave me some numbers, and these are within "accepted values." What's worse is that I can't connect to the modem page at all when the little ah heck goes offline. What a mess

I think my next move may be a temporary change in modems to see if that fixes the problem. I still have my old SB1700 (hopefully it still works). If downgrading to the old modem gives me a stable connection for a few weeks, then I'll probably start modem shopping.

Can anyone else think of anything?

your levels are excellent. when you go offline, immediately check the lights on your modem. see if you have 4 solid green lights at that time

When I completely go offline, only the power light is solid green. At that time I am unable to access my modem page.

During times of slow connection all of the lights are solid

 

[Nebor]

Sounds like you're getting the Cox you paid for. Har har.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Sounds like you're getting the Cox you paid for. Har har.

Indeed! Although at my parents' house they never have difficulty and use the same model of modem. I'm almost 100% certain that it's the modem (or I have 6 bad coaxial cables)