Why would my internet turn off every half minute?

[KIAman]

I have cable modem surfboard4200 and recently I have not been able to surf the web or anything internet related since my internet keeps turning off.
My modem's lights are all on and the only way i can turn it back on is to release/renew my NIC ip address even though it gets the same ip number and DNS servers. Thats the only way to make it work for another half minute before it goes out again.
When it goes out, I cant even ping my isp or the router, but when I refresh my NIC again it works. My NIC keeps the same address everytime so nothing is changing. What is going on?

Windows XP pro sp1
SMC 10/100 NIC
Surfboard 4200 cable modem

Also, when i do a tracert to my ISP, it lists 3 things
localhost 127.0.0.1 pings 30ms 30ms 35ms <------is this normal for this to be so high?> what is localhost anyways?
then starstream 9ms 8ms 8ms
then another starstream 8ms 7ms 9ms

 

[OZEE]

localhost is your computer ... 127.0.0.1 is by definition "Your Computer"

This makes me think that you've got a proxy problem going. It's looking back to your computer for "permission", then going on to starstream.

I'm assuming system used to work. If it used to work, what has recently changed - either hardware (new surfboard, new router, ...) or software (proxy, os, ...)??? It's a different set of troubleshooting questions if it's never worked ... try a different computer on the surfboard, try your computer on a different surfboard, ...

Good luck

 

[Nirvana1979]

I have the same problem with my surfboard modem from time to time, but not as often as you. My network "connection" would always crash every other time I left a game room at zone.com. It would also crash periodically when my dad used Kazaa. Like yours, all the lights are on and I still have an IP address. I just can't get anywhere!

At first I thought that somehow certain applications were messing with the system's networking software, but if that were true, the network connection should only be failing on one computer, so it seems that the source is either the modem or the switch.

Perhaps the modem's analog to digital converter is failing, so it still is getting a signal from your ISP, but it's not sending a signal to your computer??

 

[Cashmoney995]

Maybe Signal strength, get the cable guy to come over and check signal strength on different points of your line.

 

[wake]

Call your ISP and tell them you've got intermittent connectivity, they'll fix the problem.

 

[KIAman]

Hmm thanks for the tips guys. I checked my signals and they all are within spec. Download SNR 36db, download power 0dbmV, upload 23db. I hooked the modem up to another computer and it works fine, so this means something is wrong with my computer. I ended up calling my ISP and they will just come and fix it on monday.
The only thing that changed was that I got the new .42 version of Overnet. But this is happening even with no overnet running. I tried running the modem through a switch and then to my computer. As soon as it connected to my computer no internet. Wierd.