Modem Problems

[Aries]

My house was struck by lightning about a week ago. My computer was on during the time. My cable modem froze up (Surfboard 3100), and I turned off the surge protector. Later on that day when I turned everything back on, the cable modem wouldn't connect (half the indicator lights came on), and my dialup modem wouldn't get a dial tone.

I replaced my internal 56k with a US Robotics 56.6k modem, and I had the guy from Adelphia replace my cable modem. Both can connect to the internet now.

THE PROBLEM:

Both modems are constantly disconnecting me. The dial-up modem drops me after 10-20 minutes constantly, without relent, and the cable modem is doing the same thing. I'll be fine playing an online game, or looking at websites, and then it just disconnects me and I have to reboot the modem to re-establish a connection. How can I find the problem? This is driving me insane. I cannot maintain a steady connection for longer than 20 min on either modem.

Help Please.

Thanks.

[mnosteele52]

Welcome to Speedguide:D, are your cable modem lights staying on or flashing when you lose your connection? It could be your motherboard (PCI slots are fried), it could be your wires in your home are fried (cable & phone). If you lose signal on your cable modem itself then it's most likely a line problem, if you have a good signal but lose it then it could be your hardware. Are any of your phones in your house having problems?:)

[Aries]

When the cable modem loses connection, the indicator lights are still on. The activity light still flashes, I just have no connection. The phones themselves are working fine. I haven't noticed anything wrong with them. (Aside from the Dialup modem doing the SAME thing as the cable..constantly disconnecting after 15-30 min) The phone guy and the cable guy were over a few days ago. The phone guy tested all the lines and left when he restored connectivity to all of 'em.

When my cable modem is working, my connection is fast and fine, it's just that it won't stop disconnecting me every 15 minutes or less.

[mnosteele52]

It sounds more like a hardware problem with your pc. Try replacing your NIC and see if that helps, if you lose your signal your modem lights would go out and since that isn't happening I would lean more towards a hardware issue on your end.:) ;)

[Aries]

I posted on a few other boards, and a friend suggested to have the Mother Board looked at because a friend of his had identical problems. I don't know much about computers or their hardware, so does that sound like the problem to you? Since the lightning DIRECTLY hit my house, I'm under the impression that anything's possible--surge protector or not. If it took out my dialup modem, then logically it could have done even more.