Internet Diagnosis

[Jerry1]

Is there any way or anybody that can tell what’s going on with the (my) internet? I’ve done the simple things like rebooting everything and making sure everything is up to date. I just hate calling the cable company and talking to what is essentially a robot. I’m wondering if there is any way to diagnose the issue. I would really like to know for certain what’s wrong before I go any further. For example, my router is a nest router and only about 2 years old, but maybe that’s the problem. Of course I think it’s the cable company’s equipment that’s bad but I’d like to rule out everything that’s in my house before I go any further. Ideally, I’d like to point to a program and say with certainty that the signal is dropping out before it gets to my house.

FWIW, I’m getting intermittent dropping out of the internet. This manifests by stopping in the middle of a video, the spinning wheel when I click on a link, buffering when I’m streaming on my tv . . . When it’s working, it seems to work fine. If I run a speed test, I’m getting my contracted speed (about 200Mbps down and about 12Mbps up). But then for a minute or so on an intermittent and random basis, it just stops and does nothing. This lasts for a short period of time, maybe a minute or so, and then everything is back to “normal”. Until the next time. This happens often throughout the day and this started a couple weeks ago.

Any help, advise, would be appreciated.

 

[retire-early]

One thing I would check is for updated firmware for the router.
Are you using the latest DOCSIS 4.0 modem?

 

[pb4uski]

I can empathize with your dilemma... especially if you have your own modem and don't rent a modem from the ISP... they are always quick to blame customer supplied modems or routers... I've been there.

One thing you can do is to connect your computer to the modem via an ethernet cable and see if the problem persists... if it does then it is either the modem or the cabling... if not then either the ethernet cable from the modem to the router or the router.

Another possible source is the coax cable from the wall to the modem... I actually had one go bad once... swapped out that cable as part of diagnosing a problem and it was fixed. How does a coax cable go bad just attached to the wall and the modem?

If those fail perhaps you could test at the first point of entry in the house to eliminate your inside wiring as the culprit.

I had another instance where it ended up being wiring in a box on the street... the box would get moisture and my internet would go bad... they fixed up the wiring in the box and we didn't have any problems after that.

Also, do you have the problem with more than one computer?

Its all a trial-and-error and process of elimination game.

 

[Jerry1]

One thing I would check is for updated firmware for the router.
Are you using the latest DOCSIS 4.0 modem?

I did make sure the router’s firmware was updated.

I know nothing about the modem. It is the cable company’s modem.

 

[Jerry1]

One thing you can do is to connect your computer to the modem via an ethernet cable and see if the problem persists... if it does then it is either the modem or the cabling... if not then either the ethernet cable from the modem to the router or the router.

I’m trying to avoid this. I don’t have anything except an old laptop that has an Ethernet port. My desktop has it, but I’d have to get about a 50ft cable to get that from the office to where the modem is. Unless I set up my desktop near the modem for a little while. With a random problem, that’s a crappy option.

Also, do you have the problem with more than one computer?

I’m not sure on the desktop because I don’t use it that much, but it is doing this on my iPad, iPhone and my tv’s. The tv’s buffer enough that it’s not as apparent, but they’ll go into that pixelated look at times and they will sometimes even drop out completely and give the spinning wheel with the word “Buffering” on the screen.

Its all a trial-and-error and process of elimination game.

I know. I’m really trying to avoid this. In years past, I wouldn’t have put up with it this long, but this is something I now very much detest.

 

[skipro33]

What company cable? Xfinity login for me allows remote diagnosis for TV, internet and phone service I subscribe to. Since I also rent their router, which includes the modem, they seem to want to send out a tech the next day. Last time I found out that I was eligible for their newest router. If you have xfinity, then you should have their Xb6 series router. Google it and see if yours looks like that. If not, call and tell them you want to update. The cost is nothing since you rent theirs already. Set up is sooooo easy too! Plug in new router while leaving old router plugged in. Follow the youtube video they refer you to and watch as the machine updates from your old router to the new one including anything that was connected to the old router like cameras, Ring, TV, laptops, phones, etc. All there is on the Xb6 router is a tiny LED light. It changes color. When it turns white, it's ready! Nothing else needed to do than watch the LED change colors and then test things out when it turned white.
Good luck!

 

[pb4uski]

... I don’t have anything except an old laptop that has an Ethernet port. ...

Same thing here... new laptop doesn't have an ethernet port... I just fire up the old laptop if and when I need to.

I should buy a ethernet-to-USB adapter to go with my new laptop someday but the old laptop does the trick.

 

[Jerry1]

What company cable?

Spectrum. If I can’t get a diy solution, my next step is to talk the modem into their office and ask for a new one. They hand them out without question and the office is only about a mile away.

I tried their diagnostic app, but it shows everything to be working. Of course, it is working okay, when it’s working. When it’s not working, I can’t use the app. So, the app is not a lot of help. I need something that can test the connection (like pinging something) without having to log in, which their app requires.

 

[pb4uski]

Wouldn't attaching the old laptop directly to the modem eliminate the modem as the culprit? IOW, if the old laptop works directly attached to the modem then it would have to be something after the modem... and vice versa.

 

[cathy63]

I had exactly the same symptom with Spectrum a few months ago. It turned out our singal strength was borderline. It would mostly work fine, but sometimes we'd get dropouts. They updated us to the latest modem and installed a signal booster and it's been fine since.

 

[Jerry1]

Wouldn't attaching the old laptop directly to the modem eliminate the modem as the culprit? IOW, if the old laptop works directly attached to the modem then it would have to be something after the modem... and vice versa.

Likely yes, but I’d have to endure updates and other crap from the laptop. It hasn’t been used in a couple years so in order to trust it, I’d have to get it working again. Otherwise, I’d just be adding another piece of equipment to the list of things that might be the problem. I may do that, but downloading a program and running a test seemed like a better option if one exists.

 

[Jerry1]

I had exactly the same symptom with Spectrum a few months ago. It turned out our singal strength was borderline. It would mostly work fine, but sometimes we'd get dropouts. They updated us to the latest modem and installed a signal booster and it's been fine since.

Maybe I should just call them and get a tech out. I know they can test signal strength pretty easily. Just. Hate. Dealing. With. Them.

 

[target2019]

I did make sure the router’s firmware was updated.

I know nothing about the modem. It is the cable company’s modem.

making a network map will help. enter useful information like key settings for all devices.

usually there is a way to access the cable modem to view errors. same for router you have.

ping and traceroute are very useful commands.

hanging on to an old notebook and router pays off too!

 

[Bamaman]

Is there any way or anybody that can tell what’s going on with the (my) internet? I’ve done the simple things like rebooting everything and making sure everything is up to date. I just hate calling the cable company and talking to what is essentially a robot. I’m wondering if there is any way to diagnose the issue. I would really like to know for certain what’s wrong before I go any further. For example, my router is a nest router and only about 2 years old, but maybe that’s the problem. Of course I think it’s the cable company’s equipment that’s bad but I’d like to rule out everything that’s in my house before I go any further. Ideally, I’d like to point to a program and say with certainty that the signal is dropping out before it gets to my house.

FWIW, I’m getting intermittent dropping out of the internet. This manifests by stopping in the middle of a video, the spinning wheel when I click on a link, buffering when I’m streaming on my tv . . . When it’s working, it seems to work fine. If I run a speed test, I’m getting my contracted speed (about 200Mbps down and about 12Mbps up). But then for a minute or so on an intermittent and random basis, it just stops and does nothing. This lasts for a short period of time, maybe a minute or so, and then everything is back to “normal”. Until the next time. This happens often throughout the day and this started a couple weeks ago.

I'm in the same position with an internet that goes on and off. It's been driving me crazy, especially since I'm up much of the night online.

With so many people working from home and our local schools working online, it's almost like our cable internet system has been overloaded with useers. It's even worse on weekend nights.

I had the cable company out 2 weeks ago, and nothing improved after they checked out the system. I called them yesterday, and they did some remote analysis of the system--resetting the modem. It seems to be working better.

I found HughesNet satellite system to be cheaper than my internet service. I'm going to call back and ask for the "Legacy Dept." to complain about my poor reception and get them to lower the rate. Or, I'll go to satellite which is not as fast but more reliable. There again, I don't do anything but look at the internet--no downloads, etc.

 

[braumeister]

My guess is that the problem is not at your end, but just in case it is, a few things to try are:

• DNS settings. Flushing the DNS tables and updating your DNS records and name servers can sometimes make a real difference. Changing to different name servers has helped me in the past.
• Simply restarting the cable modem (and wifi router if separate) can be an almost magical fix.
• Improving the signal strength of your wifi connection (moving it, changing to a different router, adding an extender, etc.) is usually a fix for this common issue.

 

[Aerides]

So it sounds like your issue is intermittent drops - not basic speed and connectivity?

Have you tried running a perpetual ping test to something simple like directly to comcast? We were getting multiple drops per minute so we knew that was the issue.
It was very frustrating - we're gamers.

We diagnosed the problem as coming from outside the house by going out to the wire where it connects to the house and connecting a laptop there - same ping drops. So that helped us remove all internal eq from the issue. If you have a laptop I'd recommend you try that.

Of course, comcast still insisted on sending a tech for inside the house. That's no good those dudes are HW guys and will fixate on your modem/router. They will run a speed test and say "look it's good". One visit ended up with DH yelling expletives to get the &%$% out of our house. He never does anything like that.

Anyway, eventually comcast realized it was the main box off our house with old wiring which was overheating or something, and ta-da.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Jerry, is the TV wired or wireless? If it's wireless, do you know if you have only 2.4GHz band wifi or 5GHz, too? If you have neighbors nearby and use 2.4GHz wifi, you're likely to get interference, as there are really only 2 or 3 channels that can be used without noise or interference, and using this older band can often cause issues where the router has to bounce between channels.

 

[Jerry1]

Cosmic - the TV is wireless but is on the 5GHz band. However, you gave me an idea. On of my tv’s is by the modem and is connected directly to the modem with a wire. It may take a day of watching tv to see the issue (because the streaming buffers better than the computers) but I guess I could watch a couple movies on that tv. It’s not our main tv, but not a big deal to park out in that room for awhile. Thanks.

 

[Jerry1]

So it sounds like your issue is intermittent drops - not basic speed and connectivity?

Have you tried running a perpetual ping test to something simple like directly to comcast? We were getting multiple drops per minute so we knew that was the issue.
It was very frustrating - we're gamers.

We diagnosed the problem as coming from outside the house by going out to the wire where it connects to the house and connecting a laptop there - same ping drops. So that helped us remove all internal eq from the issue. If you have a laptop I'd recommend you try that.

Of course, comcast still insisted on sending a tech for inside the house. That's no good those dudes are HW guys and will fixate on your modem/router. They will run a speed test and say "look it's good". One visit ended up with DH yelling expletives to get the &%$% out of our house. He never does anything like that.

Anyway, eventually comcast realized it was the main box off our house with old wiring which was overheating or something, and ta-da.

Thanks. I’m going to look into this and may have more questions, especially about connecting outside with a laptop. The DH (me) yelling expletives is exactly what I’m trying to avoid.

 

[easysurfer]

Jerry, not sure if you are connecting wirelessly or wired.

I've usually connect wired and had intermittent drop outs before. I originally thought the internet or my system was acting up.

Ended up the ethernet cable that I created (I like to create my own to get custom lengths) was bad. I verified that by using a simple ethernet cable tester.

If you are connected by wire, do you have another ethernet cable to test with? As others have mentioned, getting things working a process of trial and error or calling tech support .

 

[Aerides]

Thanks. I’m going to look into this and may have more questions, especially about connecting outside with a laptop. The DH (me) yelling expletives is exactly what I’m trying to avoid.

NP, I'll have my DH on stand by if I can't remember. Assuming you have an ethernet cable you should be fine.

My pings to comcast, while this was going on looked like this, from both inside and outside the house. If you have anything like this in your normal setup, first go hardwire to your modem bypassing your wireless router, then proceed from there eliminating stuff:

 

[OldShooter]

Yes, PING and TRACERTE are important tools. In the past few months, my intermittent internet has been due to the Comcast mother ship losing its contact with the internet. So my signal gets to them successfully but then goes nowhere. The interruptions are fairly short; just at the time I am getting mad and ready to call, the situation is healed.

You can read about how these commands work. Also figure out how to connect to your router, which usually has an address like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.251. Default user will probably be "admin." and, if you're lucky, there will be no password. Otherwise (gasp!) you'll have to read the manual for default addreess, user, and pwd. You can muck around inside the router pages and get status information on your connection to the cable modem and other interesting stuff. My fairly-new Linksys router also has a "speed test" option that will probably be useful for trouble shooting some day.

I have a batch file called "ping_SCC.bat" on my desktop. It contains this text:

----------------------------
ping scc.net
ping 192.168.2.251
ping 204.246.77.77
ping 204.246.88.88
pause
exit
----------------------
and annotated:
ping scc.net *ping some server on the internet. whitehouse.gov and google.com are popular options. If the sever answers you connection is good.

ping 192.168.2.251 *ping the local router. If the router fails to answer the problem is local.

ping 204.246.77.77
ping 204.246.88.88 *ping a couple of DNS servers for good luck.

----------------------
The first thing I do if I suspect trouble is to double-click this batch file and see what happens.

 

[Jerry1]

Thanks OldShooter. You and Aerides got me going. next time it happens, I'll be pinging like crazy to see what information I can obtain. Will be reporting back.

 

[OldShooter]

Happy to help. I suggest you also figure out how to access your router now, while everything is working. I actually have a set of bookmarks for various system devices on my network. This makes it very easy to check on things:

​

This way I don't have to chase around for IP addresses and passwords; Firefox remembers them for me.

 

[Aerides]

Thanks OldShooter. You and Aerides got me going. next time it happens, I'll be pinging like crazy to see what information I can obtain. Will be reporting back.

We just setup a cmd prompt with a perpetual ping going in the background when we were having issues. It doesn't use enough bandwidth to add any real traffic or issues.