Cable connection problems, can anyone help?

[N.Bailey]

1st off, I am on cable. I keep losing my connection through the computer, but I know it's not the connection, because my son is playing Xbox Live. It's not that I only lose it though when he's sharing the connection, because I lose it a lot when he's not on too. Actually, until today, I thought it was the actual connection and I had planned a long phone call to the cable company! LOL Today was the 1st day that we've both been on at the same time.

Does this sound like it's a router problem, or maybe I have a bad Ethernet cable. Or, maybe it's a computer problem? I know you can't diagnose the problem from 100's of miles away, but is there anyone who might have a suggestion? Thanks!

 

[CRB#33]

Wow, I had that problem for months. The cable company was out three or four times replacing cables. The last time, someone finally got on a ladder outside the house and saw where the squirrels had been chewing on the cables. I haven't had a problem since.

But, it could be the modem, the router or the ethernet connection. Try bypassing the router and plugging directly into the computer. Then you can at least rule that out.

You may need to go into your broadband account settings and refresh them. Sometimes that helps.

Good luck.

 

[Mskanga]

I just had the cable company come out today and check my lines, I kept losing service but everytime I called they told me nobody had reported anything.
Finally the guy came out today and checked the lines coming off the poles, he noticed that I was losing half of the power from the pole to the house , somehow the wire had gone bad. He replaced it and now I am flying. The thing that ticks me off the most is that they rule out over the phone that is them because nobody reported anything , it must be my computer! They don't realize one thing, only three houses get cable from my pole , one is empty and the other one they are barely ever home, that leaves only one other house, and guess whose house that is?
Yeap, ME. No wonder why nobody else reports anything.

 

[JKanownik]

Originally posted by CRB#33
Wow, I had that problem for months. The cable company was out three or four times replacing cables. The last time, someone finally got on a ladder outside the house and saw where the squirrels had been chewing on the cables. I haven't had a problem since.

This just happened to us last month while we were planning our trip to WDW. Ours would be up and then down. It was such a pain in the neck. They were over to fix it 4 times and nothing. DH finally called a manager and said if it is not fixed, we are cancelling our service. The were over the next morning and replaced the outside cable. They said it was due to squirrels chewing the wire. We haven't had any problems since.

 

[N.Bailey]

Our service is new, meaning, cable just came to our town and anyone on cable internet are running on new lines. When I talk with the people in our local office however, they are all clueless. I cut them lots of slack, because I know it's new to them. Heck, they weren't even able to give me my account number. I had 3 different numbers on my invoice and they just said, try all of them, we're not sure which one you want! LOL

Knowing this though, I will try the suggestion that CRB#33 made to rule out the router. It's the router that I suspect to be the culprit anyway. I'm not ruling my computer out though either (it's 3 weeks old) but my daughter had a field day with it before I got things set up on it, and she did some damage! Well, actually I probably did the damage when I tried to get rid of all the stuff that somehow appeared on it after her and a friend were having their fun.

I really can't say that I believe it's the connection though. If it were that, my son wouldn't be playing Live while I sit here with NO connection.

Thanks everyone!

 

[emmagata]

You could have a bad port on the router. It's not that rare.

Try switching your connection with your son's connection. It really doesn't matter which port a computer is plugged into anyway.
You could also have a bad cable from the PC to the router.

You didn't say what the symptom was. Do you get an error page when you try to access a web site?

 

[N.Bailey]

Originally posted by emmagata
You could have a bad port on the router. It's not that rare.

Try switching your connection with your son's connection. It really doesn't matter which port a computer is plugged into anyway.
You could also have a bad cable from the PC to the router.

You didn't say what the symptom was. Do you get an error page when you try to access a web site?

I was hoping you'd see my post. I'd read lots of advice you'd given others and I had hoped....

Anyway...the only thing I get when I try to load a page is, page could not be displayed. There is no warning. It just won't connect. I also cannot check my mail during these times. It just keeps checking for a connection(Outlook), then I get that thing you always get if you're not connected, where it asks, should it keep checking?

I have tried changing the connections with my sons, but he still has Live, and I still have NOTHING! This does make me think though!

 

[N.Bailey]

Originally posted by N.Bailey
I was hoping you'd see my post. I'd read lots of advice you'd given others and I had hoped....

Anyway...the only thing I get when I try to load a page is, page could not be displayed. There is no warning. It just won't connect. I also cannot check my mail during these times. It just keeps checking for a connection(Outlook), then I get that thing you always get if you're not connected, where it asks, should it keep checking?

I have tried changing the connections with my sons, but he still has Live, and I still have NOTHING! This does make me think though!

OH, and I should add that if I shut the system down, unplug the modem and reconnect, I can USUALLY, but not always, establish a connection. I tried this tonight and HE had connection, but I still did not. It does work at other times though, but like I said, it was the 1st we'd both been on together, so I don't know if it would work all the time.

 

[emmagata]

What Operating system are you running and what cable company?

 

[N.Bailey]

Originally posted by emmagata
What Operating system are you running and what cable company?

Darn, I wished I'd seen that you replied earlier (this board moves so fast, doesn't it?). I am running XP media, and I am on Adelphia.

 

[Dan Murphy]

No help idea beyond what already, Bailey, but did want to add to try and use that 'Subscribe to this Thread' link on threads you want to keep track of, as yes, the board moves and you can lose one pretty quickly. Hope you get that cable resolved.

 

[emmagata]

Try this the next time your connection dies.

Click START->RUN.

When the box apprears, type CMD and press enter.

When the DOS window opens up type

ping www.adelphia.com (just like that with the space)

then press enter.

You should see the ping application trying to talk to the Adelphia server.

You will get one of three typical messages.

"reply from ..."

"request timeout ...."

"destination unreachable..."

If you get timeout, try typing (when the C: prompt appears)

ping 68.168.78.26 (just like that with the space and periods)

press enter.

If you get "response from", your internet provider had a problem with their DNS servers (that's a computer that matches IP addresses (68.168.78.26) with real world names (www.adelphia.com)

 

[N.Bailey]

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate your taking the time to get that all typed out. I've printed the info and I'll see what happens the next time I lose my connection.

 

[Straycat]

Get your cable company out there to check your wires...
Last place I lived in, the squirrels ate my wires causing outages that werent fixed till someone climbed the pole (this was after having them out a couple times)...
Now at my new place, I was getting dropped alot again.. got them out here and because the cable wiring in the building were of the old kind, I was losing too much signal strength. It took getting my outside wiring replaced by the cable guys and I havent had my computer connection drop since.