How to Troubleshoot Intermittent Internet Dropouts?

[iloveyoga]

I was having trouble with my Internet dropping for about a month. I don't know all the technical stuff like some of the other posters, but I did the troubleshooting that I could and then scheduled our provider to come out. I was not that optimistic, but it seems that they fixed the problem! I think the technician showed me a bad splitter that he had to replace.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

After several years of these issues and a desire to increase internet security, I shifted from commercial routers to a home-built PC-based one which I installed and service myself.

There are relatively cheap Celeron CPU-based boxes with dual (or usually 4 NICs). I only use 2 myself. The software is a toss-up for me between pfsense, Opnsense (an improved branch off of pfsense), and IPFire. I am currently using the latter but have used all 3 and have more or less the same satisfaction with all. I like IPFire as it is Debian Linux based which I already understand. I use the Internet provider router to get into the home and then run the home router for the network. I have 7 wifi routers around our property (all high speed and various brands) and have them all running as access points so they don't do any actual routing at all and merely act as smart switches. The main router does everything. Having an Intel CPU adds the built-in encryption features and is far more powerful than an ARM-based CPU usually found in off-the-shelf routers. With that, you can encrypt everything real-time. It is also easy to add anti-virus features, packet sniffing, etc. and none slow anything down at all. There are a ton of additional features that can be added. I also run two raspberry pi's one running AdGuard Home and the other Pi-hole which both in combination block advertising and pop-ups. This combination of home router and DNS intercepts gives me a safe and secure home internet and I can see what is happening in the router by merely going into its web page and observing traffic. I can also easily block devices and software reporting back to home everything. It is very simple to do and well worth the additional security. If you have an old PC lying around it can very easily be turned into an excellent router. If not these cheap (sub $250) boxes work very well. You don't need more than 4GB RAM and a HDD of 20 GB is sufficient unless you maintain logs of everything for long periods. Home users don't need to do that and I keep logs for 3 days only. With this setup it is easy to see what is going on in your network and if there are penetrations or intruders into your network.

 

[dklaus]

Earlier this year I was having similar dropout issues with Cox - signal levels were low on some downstream channels as reported on the cable modem diagnostic screen, but they seemed to vary over time. Turns out rodents had chewed through the coax cable outer shield outside the house, but the center conductor was still intact. This allows RF interference to get into the signal, and can cause intermittent behavior. Its actually a miracle that enough signal can continue to get through, considering how much of the cable was gnawed away. I replaced all the RG-59 cable that was damaged, and my problem was resolved.

FYI, the cable technicians have a device called a time domain reflectometer, which can measure the impedance of the cable (75-ohm transmission line), and will instantly tell them if you have a cable issue, and also will show exactly how far away from the meter the problem occurs. Any disruption in the characteristic 75 ohm impedance of a normal cable will cause reflections of the signal that reduce the signal amplitude that reaches your cable modem.

https://hvtechnologies.com/the-basics-of-time-domain-reflectometry-tdr/

 

[wlstreble]

You might want to check your router firmware version to make sure it is current. Mine is set to automatically perform firmware updates, but it is worth checking.