Question: Cable modems

[Tremulant]

I have cable and from around 7pm to 1am, my connection is horrible (on all the PCs in my house). Every night, and all day Sunday. It sucks.

My question is: Would a new modem fix any issues? The one we have now is about 6 years old (it doesn't even have a reset button!).

Now, I'll be calling up my provider to see what's going on, but I thought I'd ask if the hardware on my side could be an issue.

Oh, and what's worse is that we're renting it from the cable company still (yeah, that's like $720 we've paid for it so far..). So, I'll probably be picking up a new one anyways, I was just wondering if it would resolve any issues.

Thanks.

 

[Markbnj]

Sounds like what you have is a prime-time neighborhood load issue. Try some ping tests to their gateway (you can get this information from ipconfig), and then call up tech support and beat on them for a few weeks. They can add additional bandwidth fairly easily.

 

[pikachu656]

Sounds like the cable company's equipment is overloaded. Call the cable company and tell them your having modem speed issues in the evening and try to schedule a service call as close to the time it's happening so they can see what's going on. I really doubt it's anything with your cable modem. Although I would consider buying one so you don't have to rent one from the cable company anymore. Plus it will save you money in the long run. I got a Motorola Surfboard 4200 for about 35 bucks used several years back from ebay and it's been working great.

 

[Excelsior]

Have you tried pinging localhost in the cmd screen? I had an old cable modem with TW (it was a motorola I think) that started giving me problems. When the tech came over with a new modem he told me that a lot of these older modems started developing problems (I forgot what he said exactly). Anyway, got the new modem, and it kicks the sh!t out of the other one.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Tremulant
I have cable and from around 7pm to 1am, my connection is horrible (on all the PCs in my house). Every night, and all day Sunday. It sucks.

My question is: Would a new modem fix any issues? The one we have now is about 6 years old (it doesn't even have a reset button!).

Now, I'll be calling up my provider to see what's going on, but I thought I'd ask if the hardware on my side could be an issue.

Oh, and what's worse is that we're renting it from the cable company still (yeah, that's like $720 we've paid for it so far..). So, I'll probably be picking up a new one anyways, I was just wondering if it would resolve any issues.

Thanks.

Can you define "horrible?" Horrible as in slow speeds, long pings or dropped connection? What brand of modem is it? If it a Motorola you can check the power levels by entering http://192.168.100.1 and clicking the "Signal" tab. If your S:N is below 30 then I would be suspicious of a crack somewhere in the line or possibly just bad levels on the feeder. If the receive is below -5 or the transmit is in the high 50's I would suspect a problem with either the number of splitters or the way the network is set up. These numbers aren't in stone but if you are within a dB of any of them your modem is getting close to the edge or falling off line or at least seeing some packet loss. That's a job for the cable guy to resolve. If you buy one go for a Motorola. Any new Sufboard model will be fine.

Hope this helps.

 

[insename2]

while it does sound like a busy neighborhood issue, i have heard of ppl getting max speeds @ primetime with the sb5120 so pick one of those up if u were planning to get one anyways.. (~$60)

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: Texun
Can you define "horrible?" Horrible as in slow speeds, long pings or dropped connection? What brand of modem is it? If it a Motorola you can check the power levels by entering http://192.168.100.1 and clicking the "Signal" tab. If your S:N is below 30 then I would be suspicious of a crack somewhere in the line or possibly just bad levels on the feeder. If the receive is below -5 or the transmit is in the high 50's I would suspect a problem with either the number of splitters or the way the network is set up. These numbers aren't in stone but if you are within a dB of any of them your modem is getting close to the edge or falling off line or at least seeing some packet loss. That's a job for the cable guy to resolve. If you buy one go for a Motorola. Any new Sufboard model will be fine.

Hope this helps.

Horrible as in all of the above. Posting the topic originally took 30 minutes because the connection died when I hit "New Topic" and again when I hit "Post"

I just checked all that and it seems fine, but it's 6:40am, so I'll check it again when I get home tonight.

My current modem is a General Instruments Surfboard (SB1000 I think, I'll check again later.. running late)

Edit: I'm pretty sure it's a network issue also, because it happens every night. However, it wasn't happening for awhile, but started up again recently.