Comcast / Wireless Router problem

[ggprotect]

I've been using a Netgear MR814 Wireless router for the past 12 months with my high speed connection through Comcast. I connect my PC and Vonage VOIP box via ethernet cables to the router and use the wireless occasionally with my laptop from work. All was going just fine until a few weeks ago.

Suddenly, I began to experience a significant "lag" everytime I tried to go to a web address. Pages that normally started loading instantly (like Yahoo, Google, etc) are now taking 4+ seconds to load and even timing out sometimes. The connection became completely unusable. I've found, however, if I connect my PC directly to the modem, all performance is back to normal and connection is great again. Of course, this is how COmcast made me test and they concluded that there are no problems on their end. Sucks for me because now I don't have phone service, lol.

Another strange thing - if I use my work laptop and connect to my work network via VPN, I no longer have the lag/latency issue that I described above.

When this first starting happing, my first though was Comcast was having DNS problems. Now it seems that the problem must be my Router. But I've changed no settings to cause this and the router is less than a year old.

Any ideas on what the problem could be? Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot? Thanks in advance!

[lenwest]

Have you tried to reboot the router - unplug the power, wait and replug it in?
You could try to reset the router to default settings. With cable, there's not likely any setting changes you made that you need to keep. If so, put them back in after you try the reset.
Sure sounds like it's in the router if you can connect fine directly through the modem.

[ggprotect]

Thanks for the input. I just tried your suggestion lenwest and still got the same results. Any other ideas? Are there any utilities to help track down where the delay is coming from? Could it be a firewall issue?

[lenwest]

If you're running IE, go to Tools/internet options/connections/lan settings and ensure there's NO check mark in "automatically detect settings"

[shyamp]

I am experiencing the exact same problem. I have done more digging and here is what I found -
I have the Netgear MR 814 v2 router. It is the gateway for my home network and is attached to the cable modem from Comcast. As you mentioned, there seems to be no problem when I attach one of my PCs directly to the cable modem but as soon as I connect through this router, the speed is terrible and it is very hard to do any web surfing.
What I noticed is that even when all my PCs at home are disconnected from the router, the internet light on the router is continuously blinking, suggesting that there is a lot of incoming traffic from the cable network. I then installed some utilities on my PC to see what these packets were. It turns out that there are many ARP requests coming from the cable network that are making the router very sluggish. I tried explaining this in detail to the Netgear technical folks but I was very frustrated since they did not seem to undertsand the issue at all. I am certain that the broadcast ARP requests coming in are causing the router to choke and hence the bad performance. Any one have any ideas on how to solve this problem? If it means that I need to replace this router, any one have any suggestions on what might be a good cheap router to work well with my cable modem?
Thank you

[ggprotect]

I no longer have the same setup (switched to DSL to bundle with D* and phone), but I was able to resolve this problem. I logged into the router setup menu and changed the DNS settings from Auto/Dynamic to specified values. I don't recall how I got the DNS addresses, but I think when it's on Dynamic it shows the primary and secondary values in disabled text fields. Just write those down and then use them.

I was worried that Comcast would change the DNS server addresses frequently, but I never had a problem. Making this change made all the difference in the world.

Hope this works for you too!

[ArboristSite]

Same deal as you guys. This is how my system is set up though. My whole house is wireless and I don't have a computer hardwired to the router what so ever. As soon as I hook the laptop up to it all the other computers work perfectly. I soon as I pull it they don't. Weird think is it worked for me for 2 years. Also purchased a new router think it might be it. It wasn't so don't waste your time there. DSL not available in my area. So I am stuck with this. There must be something to configure to make work. They will all point fingers to who's problem it is.
Question: Is it normal to have the DNS Server, DHCP Gateway, and the Default Gateway all with the same IP address? Just seemed to me to have too many of the same numbers on here. If doesn't look right. How do I fix it?
Thank you,
Darin

[chi_frank]

Does Comcast make change to prevent user to use router from home?

I have Comcast HSI service with router (LinkSys wireless router) setup on my home network from 2003. It works perfectly until two weeks ago. The cable modem reset itself and the router cannot reconnect to cable modem. I test router on my company network, it work fine. Comcast swapped a new cable modem (Motorola SURFboard) to me. It works when I connect my PC to cable modem directly. But when I switch from PC to router, the problem come back after couples of day. Why? I don't believe this is modem or router problem? Is Comcast do something change on the service? How can I find out?
Thanks

Frank

[YeOldeStonecat]

No they don't. You can change routers a hundred times a day if you want, I change my internet setup very frequently. The modem will memorize the MAC of the first device it connects to. If you change devices (such as a router, or the NIC of another PC)..it will not hand a public IP address to that device until you power it off for a few minutes. This allows it to "forget" the MAC of the device it had memorized..and learn the new one.

So power off modem for several minutes, plug in your router..routers WAN interface must be set to "obtain auto"...have router powered on. After a few minutes of being powered off..power up the modem. Once the modem "synchs up"...(takes a minute)...power cycle your router..and then release/renew (or reboot) your PCs.

Should be good.

Does Comcast make change to prevent user to use router from home?

I have Comcast HSI service with router (LinkSys wireless router) setup on my home network from 2003. It works perfectly until two weeks ago. The cable modem reset itself and the router cannot reconnect to cable modem. I test router on my company network, it work fine. Comcast swapped a new cable modem (Motorola SURFboard) to me. It works when I connect my PC to cable modem directly. But when I switch from PC to router, the problem come back after couples of day. Why? I don't believe this is modem or router problem? Is Comcast do something change on the service? How can I find out?
Thanks

Frank

[Burningbear]

I've had frequent problems with Comcast causing my home wireless network routers to reset. But just a couple of days ago a new situation hit.

Everything had been working fine and then I got up one morning and had no internet connection. I thought perhaps there was some power surge in the night and my main wireless router off the cable modem had fried a port or something.

After confirming with Comcast that I still had Internet connectivity by connecting to a single desktop sans router, I switched wireless routers (Belkin) and tried to get it up and running. I could get the router set fine but every time I would try to set the WPA or WEP security, the router would lose the internet connection. I worked with the Belkin tech support but they were unable to resolve the issue and their level 2 tech support gave up almost immediately and said I would need to exchange the router for a new one. Guess the cost of a new router is cheaper than paying someone to actually help me resolve the problem.

Anyway, I started thinking that my original Belkin router did *not* have a problem and possibly I could at least resolve the issue to the point of having wireless connectivity until I could get the other router replaced. After working through the process to get the original router reset, something made me think to check the firewall. Sure enough, it had been turned on. Okay, I know you need to have a firewall but if you have WPA or WEP security set and only open a few ports for a web server or such *and* you don't broadcast your SSID, you should be fairly protected from the drive by pirates that may be looking for an open network to hack in to.

I turned off the router's firewall and, low and behold, everything started working again just as if there had never been a problem. The only thing I can figure is Comcast sent some signal that caused my router to flip on the firewall. My suspicion is that 1) Comcast sell home networking service which pretty much amounts to renting you a wireless router and then charging you a fee for a technician to come out and set it up for you, 2) they occasionally want to make sure all their rented routers have their firewalls turned on so they don't get sued if someone gets hacked and has their identity stolen or some other disasterous situation, 3) they send this signal uncaring of those of us who have simply set up our own home networking with our own routers as they would prefer to be charging us more money to have their home networking set up and installed.

Of course, Comcast would never admit to doing anything like this. But if you ever have a router that all of a sudden just stops connecting to the internet, be sure and check if your router's firewall has been unceremoniously turned on without even a "by your leave." Flipping it back off should clear the problem.

Damn Comcast! I'm certainly no fan. I'm considering working through the process of setting up my own mail server on my personal DNS I have registered. This will allow me to break free of Comcast (and all the email addresses I have set up using that domain).

Good luck to everyone who has to deal with them.

-jay j. (aka, burningbear)

[YeOldeStonecat]

They don't mess with your routers....they don't do anything which would switch a routers firewall on or off. Disabling SSID does very little to make your network more secure..the tools the "war drivers" use will still see you anyways, disabling SSID only prevents the very amateur wanna be hacker 5 year old kid trying to sniff a wireless network for his very first time from seeing you. If you use WPA or WPA2 security..you're good.

[guht]

Comcast came out last week to swap services. One of our roommates moved out, service was in their name, and in order to get service in my name they had to turn in their hardware. The cable modem was mine, and I kept that. So basically comcast just came out and swapped the cable boxes.

However, after the install, I have not been able to get wireless to work! They only tested it on the wired desktop connection, which is right by the cable modem, and wireless router.

I have since bought a new cable modem, and registered the new cable modems MAC address with comcast thinking that might be it. It wasnt!

I also bought a new usb network adapter for my laptop thinking that might be it. It wasnt!

I also bought a new wireless router thinking that might be it! It wasnt!

It is affecting both my laptop, iphone, and girlfriends laptop. None of these devices work on our home wireless network. However, both laptops, and iphone have NO PROBLEMS connecting to other wireless networks. I have tried several wireless networks including airport, starbucks, and friends, and I have no problems connecting to any of them with phone and laptops.

I have tried two cable modems, and two wireless routers also!

Of course comcast says they dont support additional hardware such as wireless routers, but its quite obivious at this point that its something to do with comcast.

Has anyone else had a similar problem, and can offer any suggestions? I have tried everything I can think of and Im ready to lose my flipping mind! I use to do this for a living, and now I know why I dont anymore! Ughhh. Someone help please!

Thanks!

[YARDofSTUF]

Comcast came out last week to swap services. One of our roommates moved out, service was in their name, and in order to get service in my name they had to turn in their hardware. The cable modem was mine, and I kept that. So basically comcast just came out and swapped the cable boxes.

However, after the install, I have not been able to get wireless to work! They only tested it on the wired desktop connection, which is right by the cable modem, and wireless router.

I have since bought a new cable modem, and registered the new cable modems MAC address with comcast thinking that might be it. It wasnt!

I also bought a new usb network adapter for my laptop thinking that might be it. It wasnt!

I also bought a new wireless router thinking that might be it! It wasnt!

It is affecting both my laptop, iphone, and girlfriends laptop. None of these devices work on our home wireless network. However, both laptops, and iphone have NO PROBLEMS connecting to other wireless networks. I have tried several wireless networks including airport, starbucks, and friends, and I have no problems connecting to any of them with phone and laptops.

I have tried two cable modems, and two wireless routers also!

Of course comcast says they dont support additional hardware such as wireless routers, but its quite obivious at this point that its something to do with comcast.

Has anyone else had a similar problem, and can offer any suggestions? I have tried everything I can think of and Im ready to lose my flipping mind! I use to do this for a living, and now I know why I dont anymore! Ughhh. Someone help please!

Thanks!

How is the router setup? Wired connections work from the router?