Resolved Cable service going in and out

I just bought a new wireless router, and am finding that my laptop (wireless) is now online a lot more than I was, but that occasionally, both laptop and desktop are shut offline. Those times, no matter how long it has been, when I unplug both the cable modem and the router, and then turn on the cable modem, and then after a few minutes, turn the router back on, I find that 99% of the time I'm back online.

This tells me that the problem is not with my cable service but with the cable modem. It does not have firmware updates (Surfboard 5101) but gets them via the cable provider, so there really isn't anything for me to upgrade there.

Is the modem likely to be the problem? Or is there something I'm overlooking? I would call Charter but of course they have always told me that their service is not having an outage, and that they can see my modem so that isn't the problem either.

I just bought this a year or two ago, and I'm ticked off that I have to do this a few times a day. I thought that I could get more than 1-2 years out of a Motorola modem.

 

Have you tried reseting the router by pushing the little button in on the back? May need a pencil or a pen to reach it. Hold it in for about 15 seconds and see what happens. Have you tried to ping the router?

 

I'm sure I can ping the router. I can log into the router via a web browser, and restart it from there.

I could reset it, but as I said in the OP I don't believe the problem is with teh router. Its rather new, and after rebooting the router I still can't get online until after unplugging and then restarting teh cable modem.

 

I have an SB5100 so probably similar to yours. When you lose the internet are the lights
on ,off or blinking. Are the lights on yours ,power -receive-send-online-pcactivity.
Should have first 4 on steady and pcact blinking.
If there are no lights on, maybe intermittent power supply problem's.
If you have already checked these let me know.

 

Catsend, almost every time I have gone offline, believe it or not all the lights are on. They are not blinking, but on solid. That of course suggests that its the router that is the problem, but as I said above, powering on and off the modem will almost always restore the connection. I find it unlikely that my cable ISP would have very short, intermittent outages. I could understand several hours occasionally, but nothing that would so often coincide with my powering off and on my modem.

Because I have a new router, and powering off and on the router itself doesn't do anything, again--I'm thinking its the modem.

Now I'm not sure about the last one--the top four are a light green, the lower one is yellow IIRC. That yellow one--I'm not sure if it blinks or not. But I know the top four are solid.

 

The yellow light shows PC connectivity ,so when there is no activity "light is steady"
and when online blink's at different rates.
Have you checked out Motorola's site for help.
Try this link (http://broadband.custhelp.com/app/answers/list/p/6,14) it's on Motorola's site .Seems to generic but might work.
I don't know if you have the user's manual for this modem so this link will get you to a page to down load a PDF of the manual.
(http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles...es/567778-001_SB5101UN_User Guide_English.pdf)
Let me know about the above.

 

Thanks for the links. The users' manual was 16 pages--I d/l it but it had no troubleshooting.

It did mention a few Windows options about obtaining an IP address automatically.

Every once in a while with the old router (not the new one), I would get a message saying that there was an IP system conflict or something like that.

Would tinkering about with the internet IP settings do anything for me here?

 

Have you had any changes to security such as firewall maybe antivirus up grade.
These could have changed some setting's.
Do try checking various settings, "but if in doubt" ask before changing them.
Have you tried just one computer with the other one turned off ,not standby or hibernate
to see if you go offline.

 

I power it off and then on again when the internet connection is lost; usually this brings it back immediately, which makes me think there is in fact something wrong with the modem.

The downstream signal levels are:
Frequency 645000000 Hz
Signal To Noise Ratio 37.2 dB
Power Level -7.8 dBmV

OK, but the desktop has been running Windows 7 and staying online (after the router was replaced) without a hitch.

 

We have made no changes to security programs. All I have on this laptop is MSSE; on the desktop, it is MSSE and Malwarebytes. Both are set to regularly update automatically.

I haven't tried turning the desktop off; it is shut down every night and I usually turn it on in the AM to be able to print (the printer is shared--only way to access it wirelessly--and the desktop needs to be turned on). I'll see if this problem is present before the desktop is turned on.

 

I also have the SB5101 and have read lots of positive reviews on it. I used to have a Linksys BEFCMU10 with Comcast that would always get dropped connection. I don't remember how I fixed it but I think it was Comcast's end that was the problem.

You could check dslreports.com forum and see if there are any recent threads from people with similar problem as yours. Maybe the problem is on Charter's end.

Why don't you try to remove the router for a few days and see if the connection still drops or not? When you do this also unplug the coaxial cable and power wire for 5 minutes then plug it back in and do a wired connection for internet. Keep it like this for awhile and see if your internet connection still drops or not.

Are you using any kind of P2P software? Some routers are picky about P2P software and will drop your internet connection when using P2P software.

 

Last few days, the connection has been very very good.

No P2P software here.

 

So did you unplug the router or same setup as before? Most likely Charter is the problem.

 

For whatever reason the problem seems to have resolved itself. If I get the modem going out I will try turning off the router, and calling Charter. Thanks.