Separate router and wireless access point?

[rmiller1959]

Signal strength and additional information

When I returned home, the Internet had been dropping frequently throughout the day, according to my daughter, and it went out again as I watched the cable modem lights all turn off except for the power light. It cycled through a couple of times for about a minute or so before it was back up again.

I immediately disconnected it from the router and I connected a PC directly to it. I kept it connected like that for about an hour without incident. I then disconnected it, unplugged both the router and cable modem, and then reconnected the cable modem to the router and powered everything up.

Since then, it has hiccuped for a few seconds a couple of times, but otherwise has been stable. I'm not convinced it's the cable modem, so I will return the one I purchased, but now I'm wondering if the router is the weak link in the chain.

Regarding the signal strength, the upstream power level is 38 dBmV, the signal-to-noise ratio is 38, and the downstream power is 3 dBmV - 4 dBmV. From what I've read, these numbers are supposed to be good.

 

[stevech]

I chose to not own my cable modem. No finger-pointing.
On Time-Warner, the price is about the same as Cox and the modem is owned by/maintained by them at no cost.

 

[rmiller1959]

I may have found the problem

I went into my router settings and reviewed the general system log. I found 127 instances of "RT-N56U: udhcpc starts" in the log in just two days. According to numerous threads on the Internet, the frequent and random WAN disconnects are a problem with the ASUS RT-N56U. Some report that update firmware fixes the problem, but I have the latest.

 

[rmiller1959]

Here is one SmallNetBuilder thread about the problem

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=6183&highlight=RT-N56U

 

[tipstir]

I chose to not own my cable modem. No finger-pointing.
On Time-Warner, the price is about the same as Cox and the modem is owned by/maintained by them at no cost.

I second that advice, also most of what is sold will only stay current and can get outdated in speed. Let the ISP give you their latest one and sure they'll charge you a monthly fee but they'll replace it.

 

[rmiller1959]

Since I already own my Motorola SB6120...

...and I now suspect it's not the problem, I think I'll hold on to it until it breaks or reaches its "end of life" with Comcast. The local Comcast service doesn't even exploit the cable modem's DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities to their fullest yet. In Maryland, I routinely reached 50-60 Mbps under their Extreme broadband service (best was 64.30 Mbps), but here in central Virginia, the best they offer is their Blast Plus which only reaches between 20-30 Mbps (best to date is 36.28 Mbps). That's still fast enough - when it stays connected!

 

[tipstir]

...and I now suspect it's not the problem, I think I'll hold on to it until it breaks or reaches its "end of life" with Comcast. The local Comcast service doesn't even exploit the cable modem's DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities to their fullest yet. In Maryland, I routinely reached 50-60 Mbps under their Extreme broadband service (best was 64.30 Mbps), but here in central Virginia, the best they offer is their Blast Plus which only reaches between 20-30 Mbps (best to date is 36.28 Mbps). That's still fast enough - when it stays connected!

Each market is different. Best I can get here it 35mbps down. Up is only 5mbps. Frankly this house was completely re-wired with new coax, and new drop service line from the house to the main cable junction box year at their expense. First tech made a mess. I had two service managers out here from Comcast out here. They had sent their best tier 3 service tech who had taken pretty much the entire day to complete the job. What they should have done is sent out two guys. In all I am happy with the service, but not the price I have to shell out each month for it!

I should have had them ran a new line into my UTLS where the new Comcast box is located it's huge counted 10 drops going into it. Suppose to support DVR service too. The closer that cable modem is to the box outside the better your connection is.

 

[thetoad30]

I second that advice, also most of what is sold will only stay current and can get outdated in speed. Let the ISP give you their latest one and sure they'll charge you a monthly fee but they'll replace it.

I must disagree.

You can pay for a cable modem in about a year or less of "rental" charges.

Chances are unless you bug them everytime they upgrade their service, they won't keep you up to date.

I had a buddy who rented a modem and he was three years behind their newest modem. He finally called and it took multiple attempts for them to finally relent and upgrade his modem.

Comcast and other dealers can be forced to using customer service with the words "then I'll cancel and get a competitor out here". That ought to remove the $85 "fee".

 

[rmiller1959]

Competitors are...

... non-existent where I live. Verizon's DSL service pales in comparison, and FIOS is a long way from coming. We moved from a rural area south of Washington DC to a city in central Virginia that has as many people as the entire county in which we lived, but the rural area has more Internet options and higher speeds than we do here in Lynchburg!

 

[stevech]

You can pay for a cable modem in about a year or less of "rental" charges.

Time Warner cable here in Sandy Eggo, CA, last time I checked, does not permit customer-owned cable modems. There's no itemized fee for modem rental on bills. I've been OK with this as there's no finger-pointing. Their pricing for DOCSIS 2 seems about the same as others'. But of course, thanks to deregulation, there is but one monopoly cable provider I can choose.

 

[rmiller1959]

Bought a new router...

...and that seems to have eliminated practically all of the dropouts. The very few that have occurred in the past 4-5 days - 3-4 in that entire time span - lasted for only a few seconds and could be considered "normal." I will monitor the connection to see if the problem occurs again, but so far, so good!

 

[rmiller1959]

Comcast found the problem...

After a couple of weeks with a new router, I also replaced the cable modem with a Motorola SB6121 because I wanted to be sure to eliminate the possibility that the dropouts I experienced previously were hardware related. When I provisioned the new modem with Comcast, however, I started having connection problems that prompted the technician to schedule a service appointment.

I'm glad they did. The technician found that the outside coaxial cable leading from a utility pole across the street to the roof of the house had worn through at the point where the cable entered into the house. The technician said that would explain the random nature of the dropouts, and he planned to come back and fix the cable, and set it so it wouldn't wear through again.

I just wanted to close the loop with everyone on this topic. I hope the thread has been useful!

 

[stevech]

After a couple of weeks with a new router, I also replaced the cable modem with a Motorola SB6121 because I wanted to be sure to eliminate the possibility that the dropouts I experienced previously were hardware related. When I provisioned the new modem with Comcast, however, I started having connection problems that prompted the technician to schedule a service appointment.

I'm glad they did. The technician found that the outside coaxial cable leading from a utility pole across the street to the roof of the house had worn through at the point where the cable entered into the house. The technician said that would explain the random nature of the dropouts, and he planned to come back and fix the cable, and set it so it wouldn't wear through again.

I just wanted to close the loop with everyone on this topic. I hope the thread has been useful!

On the cable modem: Take your browser to 192.168.100.1. View the signal strength web page. The numbers here tell you if there are coax signal loss problems. Wiggle the coax at the suspect point to confirm.

Downstream should be -5 to +5dBmV or so. Higher is better
Upstream should be 35-45dBmV or so. Lower is better.

Of course, the number of splitters between the modem's coax input and the entry coax should be 1. And it should be a two or three port. If there's an amplifier in the path to the modem, be sure it has an amplified return path. The cable tech. should know this.

 

[tipstir]

Make sure you get the D3MODEM called UBEE DDM3513 port on that is not set to auto it's set to 1000 Mbps/Full duplex where as I have my SMB router port now set to match that speed. Bump it up to 50mb now since Comcast has throttle-down Blast and Blast Plus accounts to some odd 20-25mb for downs and for ups are awful 1-3mb.