SHAW internet problems lately?

[StupidWade]

For the last week or so I've been having this problem where SHAW won't stay connected for more than an hour and a half at a time.

If I look at the modem after the internet fails, it shows all four green status lights being okay and the orange traffic light is still blinking (this is the vertical, dark blue motorola modem) but the web and email won't work on the PC.

If I power cycle the modem, then everything goes back to normal for about an hour to an hour and a half and then the same problem.

I'm running Vista Home Premium on Shaw Extreme-I and I'm in Tuscany.

Anybody else having similar problems, or is it probably the modem starting to crap out?

[dj_rice]

I've had that happen before, call Shaw and ask them to check the modem on their end to see if its fine, if not they'll send a tech

My problem was my router causing the modem to do that

[badatusrnames]

I've had connectivity problems on and off for the last few weeks. Usually it goes down for 20 mins to an hour, although it was about all of last night from about 6:00 until when I went to bed around midnight, when I woke up this morning, it was working fine.

In my case, resetting (unplugging) my modem and router doesn't do a thing, it just appears to come back on its own.

The modem itself is about 4 months old...

[Grogador]

dropping offline after an hour or so is sometimes caused by routers or firewalls blocking DHCP IP address renewals. Call 310-SHAW and book a free s/c or msg me your HFC MAC ID.

[StupidWade]

DJ_rice: I made a call last week while the internet was down and the tech said that he couldn't contact the modem at that time. Then he advised me to unplug and re-plug the power of the modem and it came back to normal for a while.

He (and Grogador's comment below) suggested that it might be a router problem but it's odd that the problems would start more than a year and a half after I set up the router/modem combo.

badatusrnames: I think the problem I'm having is different, but thanks for the comment.

Grogador: I'll give it a couple more days and then call it in again.

One day when I was having trouble, the neighbor's Shaw (basic) cable TV was also out. Could have a coincidence, but who knows.

Maybe sometime when it's particulary bad (ie failing often), I'll try hard-wiring the PC straight to the modem and see if that makes any difference. It's just a pain in the ass running 100 feet of cable from the top floor to the basement.

[Grogador]

If the neighbor's TV was out then your internet wouldn't work either. Modem has to be online for them/me to check signal levels. Next time it craps out, try going into your router and doing a DHCP release/renew on the WAN interface, also check the router's firewall logs. Could be lots of things really...

[msommers]

I've been having problems like this as well. It either goes extremely slow or just drops all together. Grog, how do I change my DHCP IP address renewal settings? Is this the same setup page where I have my password protection?

[heavyD]

I've been having on and off issues for a few months now.

[mdeluxe]

^ +1 our wireless goes down a few times per day

[anarchy]

I thought it was just my router, and it may very well be.

Basically I have a Belkin router and it'll just cut off. It's not just wireless because its wired to my PC which also won't respond. The only way for me to get it to work is to unplug my router for about 5 minutes, then plug it back in and it'll work.

Any ideas on why this might be?
With my Linksys router i could just unplug it and plug it back in instantly and it would work.

[snowboard]

Originally posted by mdeluxe
^ +1 our wireless goes down a few times per day

same
for no reason
i get pretty fuckin frustrated because of it.
all my illegal downloads have to re-seed or whatever hahahaha

[kenny]

If your wireless is going down often for short periods of time often, its probably a neighbors microwave or cordless phone.

[Grogador]

Originally posted by msommers
Grog, how do I change my DHCP IP address renewal settings? Is this the same setup page where I have my password protection?

Depends on the router but it is typically under some kind of "status" or "WAN" section... basically wherever it shows your Shaw IP like 65... or 72... there should be a big Release button, which will cut off your external internet (0.0.0.0) then turns into a Renew button which should get you the same IP back, and everything should be hunky dory.

Routers are a pain in the ass, especially wireless (try changing channels on the router or forcing it to slowass 11b). Torrents will easily overload routers with 100s of open sockets*. Obviously the first thing to try is a direct, wired connection into the modem, followed by tossing your $20 Linksys down the stairs. Not sure what else to say, I can keep guessing about the state of your coax cabling, but those questions are easily answered by a TSR looking at your modem's signal levels, SNR, errors and modem-locked-in-time, then booking a free servicecall if necessary (assuming they can interpret the little numbers on the screen, many TSR1's don't have a fawking clue).

Only one guy has sent me his HFC MAC ID, everyone else seems to think I can see what filthy pr0n they're leeching... If you wanna try to see part of your signal levels yourself, unplug your modem and before it locks in (goes "four greens"), visit http://192.168.100.1/ (doesn't matter what router you have, as long as it's *not* on the same subnet) and keep hitting refresh as it locks in and tells you the signal levels and SNR. Optimal conditions for these modems are a Receive level around +5dBmV, although anything from -15 to +15 may suffice. The downstream SNR should be better (higher) than 30dB. Your transmit level should *not* be approaching 55dBmV, anything around 35-50 will do. This is a basic check: you can't see the upstream SNR or link-level error count, which is really the important stuff.

* Side rant: torrents suck, not just for network behavior but also privacy. Next time you're leeching, do this: Start... Run... "cmd" and in the window "netstat -a" those are all your peers/seeds, encryption or not...

[StupidWade]

My connection was fine all day yesterday. I'll wait until it starts acting up again and then test a few things. Thanks for all the input, guys.

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by kenny
If your wireless is going down often for short periods of time often, its probably a neighbors microwave or cordless phone.

I've been wondering the same thing, does anyone know if a CRT TV put out RF that will interfere with wireless? I've got a TV next to my router...

Regardless my internet has still been going down for at least an hour at a time (including last night for about 2 hours). It isn't a problem with my router as plugging the ethernet cable off of the modem and directly into my computer solve nothing.