Cable Dies...Reboot Required...HELP!

[j3rseyBoy]

I just signed on with Comcast@Home a week ago (great timing, huh?), and have had this same problem non-stop since then. My connection will be humming along great, whether I'm downloading, gaming, or just surfing, and then it will all of sudden die. The OS itself (WinME) is fine, however I lose all ability to access the Internet.

I went through all of the charades with tech support (Tiers 1 & 2), but got tired of people reading off of a screen at me, telling me things that I had already tried. Except for the bright fella who told me that I should "refresh" my operating system. :rolleyes:

The modem is still connected (per @Home and the modem lights), but it's configuration pages are inaccessible. I used a dial-up connection on my laptop to check things; I was still logged on to AOL IM, and my IP was still pingable. On reboot, I check my modem config page, but the logs indicate no disconnection or reboot.

The freeze-ups mainly happen during a high bandwidth download (e.g. Bearshare), but not exclusively. I tried reinstalling the modem drivers, and the TCP/IP protocols, to no avail. When I run winipcfg, the IP address still shows, but the program freezes when I try to release all.

Any ideas? It gets real annoying having to reboot every 30 minutes or so. Thanks in advance...

[CableDude]

How is your cable tv reception?

[HalfLifer]

Open up a dos prompt and type: tracert www.comcast.com

then post the results here.

[aykutc]

Hi j3rseyBoy

I had the same problem a while ago. I was also using Win ME.

Do you have any spyware software installed. I heard that they are screwing the windows registry. Try installing the latest version of AdAware, check your system and delete all the files it finds. It worked for me, hope it works for you too.

[xeroed]

I work for Insight@Home. I am not a contractor, I am actually employed by the company to do installations and trouble shooting for our customers. The problem you are having sounds very much like a stolen IP address or simply a bad account. tier 1 or 2 will not be of any help to you on this because they will walk you through all kinds of things and keep you on the phone forever. Eventually they will refer it to your local office. If they have already said they would, don't count on it, because a large portion of our customer service tickets never get sent to us.
Anyway, the first things I would do to confirm that this was or wasnt the problem as a tech is to go to start, run, and type winipcfg. In the drop down box, select your network device (Ethernet or USB). When the info pops up you should see your IP, DNS, Gateway, etc. if these are all zeroes, or something like 192.168.something, then there is a problem either with your network device or with DHCP (the server that actually assigns you your IP). If the info is all there, click on MORE INFO and then click on release all. After it all goes to zeroes, click renew all. Do they come back? If not, we are back to a possible hardware problem or possibly network settings.
If they DO come back, you should be able to surf. If you can surf but you lose connection in, say, 5 to 7 minutes (or less), repeat the winipcfg/release all/renew all proceedure. Can you surf now? If you can and you lose connection again after a couple of minutes, then either your account info is corrupted or your IP has been stolen. @Home says this can't happen, but it happens all the time. Up until a few weeks ago, we could simply assign you a new ip or rebuild your account. Now all we can do is rebuild your account (both cable and @home) which can cause you problems like changing your billing cycle, prorates...etc. Comcast may still be using the old system, so they might be able to help you better.
Final word, to prove beyond a doubt that it's your IP and not your PC, find a friend who is on the same router as you (on your account info it may says something like 4/0/0 somewhere or 5/0/1. If you have a friend connected to the same card (the first number) put his DNS name into your pc (have him shut his down first!) and reboot. If you can surf with no problems then it is the account of the IP. Guaranteed. Hope this helps.

[poak]

um, try alot of comcast@home's dns servers are down, try bringing up a website by ip addy??Or like the other dude said, if you unplugg your modem and your ip is still pingable your ip is stolden and your sol, cause they will have to reprovsion the account and that could take day's unless you ask for a supervisor then it will be done asap

[j3rseyBoy]

Thanks for all the input...

CableDude: TV reception is fine. All the modem power levels are fine before it freezes (-1 dBmV up, 53 dBmV down), but the page is inaccessible afterwards. 53 on the downstream side is a bit high, but has yet to be a problem (Modem: SB4100).

HalfLifer: Check the next post for the tracert results...interesting...

aykutc: I run Ad-Aware on a fairly regular basis, but I hadn't since getting the Comcast@Home. I updated Ad-Aware's to the 11/24 reference file, ran it, and came up with only one registry key, "Alexa," which is built in to IE 5.0 and above. But I deleted it anyway...

More to follow...

[j3rseyBoy]

Here's the ping and tracert results. Although I can get to www.comcast.com in my browser, the ping and tracert results are suspect.

First the ping test:

---------------------------------------------------------
C:\WINDOWS>ping www.comcast.com -n 10

Pinging comcast.com [38.144.10.98] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 38.144.12.114: Destination net unreachable.

Ping statistics for 38.144.10.98:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 8, Lost = 2 (20% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
----------------------------------------------------------

And the tracert:

----------------------------------------------------------
C:\WINDOWS>tracert www.comcast.com

Tracing route to comcast.com [38.144.10.98]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <10 ms 14 ms 14 ms 10.114.108.1
2 <10 ms 14 ms 13 ms r1-fe1-0.norr1.pa.home.net [24.18.63.161]
3 <10 ms 14 ms 14 ms 216.197.151.105
4 14 ms 14 ms 27 ms r1-ge3-0.plymth1.pa.home.net [216.197.151.17]
5 <10 ms 14 ms 14 ms r1-ge5-0.wyn1.pa.home.net [24.2.5.1]
6 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms bb1-srp2-0.rdc2.pa.home.net [216.197.151.81]
7 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms c1-pos4-2.phlapa1.home.net [24.7.72.9]
8 27 ms 14 ms 14 ms c1-pos6-0.cmdnnj1.home.net [24.7.65.225]
9 14 ms 13 ms 14 ms c1-pos2-0.bltmmd1.home.net [24.7.65.222]
10 28 ms 14 ms 14 ms c2-pos1-0.washdc1.home.net [24.7.65.89]
11 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms 24.7.70.186
12 27 ms 14 ms 14 ms se.transit.tier1.us.psi.net [154.13.2.47]
13 27 ms 28 ms 27 ms 154.13.87.130
14 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms 204.6.150.25
15 27 ms 14 ms 69 ms 38.144.126.194
16 27 ms 14 ms 14 ms 38.144.12.114
17 38.144.12.114 reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.
--------------------------------------------------------

Any idea why the destination net(work?) is unreachable? To me, that looks more like a problem on their end, not mine, like a server being down.

[j3rseyBoy]

xeroed:

Thanks for the advice. When I am connected, and can access everything fine, I can release/renew IP's until the cows come home, maintaining my ability to surf.

After the connection dies, winipcfg still shows the proper IP, gateway, DHCP, etc., however when I push "Release All," sometimes it releases and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't release, the application freezes, and I have to hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to kill it. When it DOES release, hitting "Renew" causes it to freeze, and I have to kill it. It both cases, it doesn't freeze immediately, but rather tries for about 5-10 secs and then freezes.

I tried pinging my IP from a different machine when my connection dies, but the requests time out with no response. Throughout all of this, the modem says I'm still connected, and tech support confirmed that.

Is it possible that the modem itself might have a problem?

[Brianchurch]

I understand you are set up dynamically. That is good and keeps your service from being interupted during any changes to the network. The problem is one of 2 things backround software or OS.

1St and easiest is to go into msconfig and reboot in selective startup mode after unchecking unnecessary apps under the startup tab. Release and renew should happen immediatly when running a winipcfg. If no freeze ups occur, ad back to the startup one program at a time until you find the offender.

2nd (and most likely)- is to have customer service help set you up statically. This is almost never done. The reason you need it done is to test your computer to see if the OS is unable to obtain an ip address automatically once the lease to the ip has expired. Yes you run an ipconfig all the numbers are ther but if the lease is expired you have no way of knowing it. (leases are drastically shorter due to network conversions, and poss interuptions planned by excite@home) If static configuration stops the freeze ups its time for Windows Xp.

This is not a case of a BAD IP ha or STOLEN IP ADDRESS.

[Storm90]

Sounds more like you need to reinstall your Nic, Then some one stilling your Ip. I also have worked for the cable company to. Plus try repairing your Explorer, If you are running a firewall ,make sure it is setup for the Ip release and renew of the IP leases. Then after you do all this then try what has all ready been suggested . If none of this works. Your modem may need reprovisioned. Just a thought! Also make sure your explorer properties are setup for Lan Settings, Plus your mail to. GoodLuck!:)

[j3rseyBoy]

I don't think it's ZoneAlarm, since everything there seems to be set up correctly per their website.

As suggested, I ran through every single startup program listed in MSConfig, but it didn't make a difference. It still runs for a while and then crashes, never at the same interval. My IP is NOT pingable when this happens

I'm getting the feeling that there's a program that runs intermittently that's causing this, since the intervals between the machine booting and the connection dying are never the same---sometimes it is immediate, and sometimes an hour. I checked with "Scheduled Tasks," but found nothing there.

Is there any way to "log" what programs run at what time? I'm going to comparing System Info before and after, but if it's something that runs once and disappears, it won't show up that way.

I'm dying here...:(

[andrewe77]

How about reinstalling Windows? That would narrow down your problem considerably.

[j3rseyBoy]

How about reinstalling Windows? That would narrow down your problem considerably.

Unfortunately, I think that's where I'm headed. I've got a copy of Win2k sitting here, waiting for me to get the time and new hard drive to do a clean install. Or maybe it might be easier right now to rename the Windows and Program Files directories and then install...then I could ssssllllloooowwwwlllllyyyyyy figure out which piece of software is the problem, piece by miserable piece.

Fun... :cry:

[striker157]

Having the same problem with RCN and I am using a 3com modem. I have upgraded to win xp and that didnt help the problem. I am also using a linksys router and the only way I can get my connection to resume is thru Release and Renew in the router config and then I may have to do this over and over until it finds it. I have been banging my head trying to fix this for months and no one in tech can seem to help. I am starting to think this is caused by a faulty modem?

[andymbody]

j3rseyBoy,

I have not read the entire thread to see if someone has offered an effective solution yet or not. But I wanted to jump right in and try to help.

I had the same problem for over a month. Tried everything under the sun.

The last thing that the advanced techs did was assign a new IP address to my account. It fixed the problem immediately.

You may have recieved the defective IP address that I gave up. I don't remember the number off hand.

Hope this helps... AMB

[eddiec]

When it goes squirrely, and ONLY then, unplug the modem, call tech support, have them ping the IP. If they get a return, that's all you need to know. Some other genius set up a static IP on his/her box and just happened to get yours. Now, tell the poor, overworked, underpaid support person that you need a new IP. They may argue, but just explain how you came to this conclusion. They will assign the new address and give you a new DNS name. Reboot and in a couple minutes you should be rockin. Don't clue them in about your suspicions until after they do the ping.
Sometimes this problem will be evident only during certain hours. For instance, I saw one that was fine on the weekend and after 5 PM, but kept crashing during business hours. It was traced to some dingbat admin that incorrectly set up his statin IP.
And excuse me for wondering, mr. xeroed, but just what the h*** does being a contractor have to do with qualifications?

[j3rseyBoy]

I assume that Comcast doesn't have a different "ping" than I do...

I've tried this before to see if a stolen IP was the case, however, once it disconnects, my IP is unpingable. I checked from a different machine on a dial-up connection with no success. Once I rebooted the cable machine, it was once again pingable, so I think a stolen IP is the case.

I'm going to reinstall ME tonight and install software one piece at a time...maybe that will help. Wish me luck!

[andrewe77]

Windows 2000 is great! Better than 98SE and a vast improvement over NT and ME.

[j3rseyBoy]

Grrrr....I installed Win2K last night, finally got it functioning this morning, and I'm still having the same disconnection problem. Looks like it's time to request a new IP....

[j3rseyBoy]

Well, I requested that new IP, but with no luck. My connection is still dying. They scheduled a truck to come out on Monday. I'm leaning towards the modem itself being bad now.

FYI, when I asked for a different IP address, the Tier 1 guy told me that it would be "a few days" before that could be accomplished. However, if I wanted to try it right away, I should go the member services page for @Home, and request an additional IP. Then call tech support back and request that they remove the first IP address from my account. If anyone is looking for a way to try another IP without the hassle of tech support, that's it.

[andymbody]

Just a suggestion...

Did you happen to verify that the new ip address took affect? When I ran WINIPCFG after the change, my address had indeed changed.

I didn't know that you could request an additional IP address unless this is a direct result of asking for an additional "computer name". I have two "computer names" as a result of my experience and can use them both but my IP address doesn't change when using either of them independently. I believe that the IP address points to the cable modem (correct me if I am wrong).

Anyway, just something to think about and test for yourself.

Good Luck, I know how frustrating this can be...
AMB

[j3rseyBoy]

You're right, I did request a new "computer name," and with that came a different IP address. About 2 minutes after I requested it, I watched the modem cycle, so I assume that's when it happened. When I reconfigured my machine, I did indeed have a new IP address (ipconfig /all), so I don't think it's necessarily specific to the modem.

[grimreaper]

just fund this tweak if you are running XP

With some ADSL/Cable modems (especially USB) you may have a problem with getting disconnected after a few hours, here are two ways to fix that.

Disable Hibernation
Right click on your desktop, click the screen saver tab, once there you should see a power button at the bottom of the display properties dialog, click that, ones dialog appears click the hibernate tab, and uncheck enable hibernation.

Disable Windows Messenger
Go to your start menu, click run.
In the Run dialog type gpedit.msc
Go to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Messenger
Once there right click Do not allow Windows messenger to be run, go to properties.
Check the box next to enable.

That should fix the problem.

[pharrg]

A few thoughts for some of these posts that may help.

First, download the latest drivers from your NIC vendors. Many people are running the built in Windows drivers for thier nics, and it's amazing how many problems go away when you install the newest drivers from the NIC vendor like 3com, Linksys, etc. I often see performance gains too.

If you're loosing connections under XP, check the Win XP DNS thread. There's a fix there that's working for folks on the new AT&T Broadband networks.

For those running ME, I've heard there are issues with ICS (Internet Connection Sharing), even if you aren't using it. Make sure you have all the latest windows updates and search threads for mentions of ICS. I don't run ME, so I'm not familiar with the details, just keep hearing about it.

I've also seen many references to compatibility issues with some segments of @home and Linksys routers. Thier switches work fine, but in many areas the routers do not. It's due to recent changes to thier networks. I've talked to many who used Linksys routers for a long time, then suddenly they stopped and every time the problem is traced to @home, not router malfunctions or configs.

Also, beware of 3com cable modems. Many IPS's stopped deploying them due to numerous issues. I hear good things about Motorola Surfboard SB4100's, and the Toshibas.

Hope these help.

[grimreaper]

I am having the same problem with dropping connection.

I spoke to a friend who is a network specialist for rogers@home a cable provider in toronto the problem is with their dhcp servers. they cant keep your ip and keep droping it and assigning it to someone else thats why if you were to ping your ip from someone elses connection you would get a reply even if you unplugged your modem.

we have one solution ditch cable and go with adsl or sdsl

[j3rseyBoy]

Phew....it's finally fixed!!! :D In the process of converting from WinME to Win2k, and doing all of the setup, updates, new drivers, etc. that 2k requires differently than Me, I got a notice on Windows Update of new drivers for my SB4100 cable modem. It showed up last night for the first time, despite numerous updates over the past few days. Rather than download from the Windows Update site, where you can't physically save the file to your disk, I went to Motorola's site, got the newest Win2k USB drivers, and the problem was solved....thank god.

I've now been connected for about 8 hours straight and it's wonderful.

As an aside, I updated ALL the drivers while I was running ME, so who knows whether there's a new ME version that would have fixed the problem...although frankly, who cares? Also, I was gonna go buy a $10 NIC card this weekend to see if that helped, and it probably would have.

Thanks for all your help and ideas. This thread can finally die...

[Bay Area Guy]

Being that u have Zone Alarm I would try un-installing it completly. I know your thinking well its been working fine thus far, but ZA wigs out, you can un-install it by following ZA directions @ http://zonealarm.com/services/support_install_Me.htm. See if that helps. Also I would try blowing out the stack- Client for Microsoft, Nic, and tcp/ip. Those are the only 3 things u need in there. If tech support is telling you that u r pingable but you cant browse then its Zone Alarm or a Winsock32 issue. Or when you re-start and tech support see's u pingable for 3-4 pings and then times out, then it is Zone Alarm. I had the program before and it worked for awhile and then started acting up so i removed it. For those tracert results it shows that it goes off the @Home backbone on the 11th hop and @Home has no control over routers that they dont own. Also try deleting cache, history, and cookies they could be corupt. Also in ME it has a feature called Restore u can run that and pick a date before the problem started. Hope this helps.

[VRFlyer]

Uhmmm... I've been experiencing some browsing outages on my LAN sporadicaly on my PC's (for the past 4 months approx).

I've got (2) Win XP Pro's & (1) Win98SE Pc on the LAN (keep ON all day). No matter which PC I use throughout the day at some point (inconsistenly 1hr or maybe 3hrs or even 20min after browsing) while browsing the web, the PC loses it's connection to Internet and unable ping outside it's own LAN ?

Then what I do is, get up move to the next computer and continue my web browsing from there. (while other pc reboots)

Now all pc's have been rebuilt recently, they all connect through a NEW (bought 3 months ago) "SMC" switch that replaced a 10/100 "3Com" hub that went bad.

I use my Win98SE (No "ICS", but using Winroute Pro "NAT") with (2) NIC's as my GATEWAY (Its' been like this since 2000). This "Gateway" PC has been rebuilt approx 10 months ago. (again problem just started 4 months ago or so).

NOTE: I've had the same IP address since 2000 1/2, weird ?
I've tried releasing/renewing all, etc.... When the Win98SE PC was rebuilt the 2-NIC's were replaced in favor of 3C905x/NEW NIC's; however the NIC's are not the problem since the problem just arose 4 months ago and I do not looss internet connectivity an all (3) PC's. :rolleyes: