Bad Modem or Router?

[Whiterobe33]

Ok so for about 2 months and suddenly about two months ago I have had intermittent internet connectivity issues. I game quite a bit and for no reason my ms shoots up to unplayable levels. This also has affected streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, etc.

I have contacted my ISP (Cox) and they ran a diagnostic and are saying that the connection to my modem is very slow and they were unable to even run the diagnostics. So they are blaming my modem. However, they did not even ask me to disconnect the router and plug the modem into my Desktop directly.

So my question is how can I determine if what they are saying is correct? Is my modem not working correctly or is it my router? How do I test this? Both my modem and router are less than two years old.

 

[aquielisunari]

The router is not theirs nor is it their responsibility. Any issues with the router need to be addressed by the router's manufacturer. That is normal. They need to eliminate any extraneous hardware that is not under their control. If they leave the 3rd party hardware in place it can easily skew results. If everything was fine with the modem then they might suggest you contact your router's manufacturer.

It is broke and Cox's responsibility. Don't overthink this. Let them come out and fix it.

Consider my troubleshooting list over here.

They might ask you to remove the router from the picture and connect directly from modem to PC to remove any variables outside of their control.

is exactly what I expect from an ISP.

 

[bill001g]

You should be able to log into the modem and look at the diagnostic screens yourself. There should be a page that shows all the signal levels for all the channels. you can search for what the recommended values should be. The recommendation vary a bit based on things like number of channels bonded etc. It is not worth me putting it in this post.

What will be most telling is most modems have indicators that show number of packets with errors that were corrected and uncorrected. You always get some but if these numbers increase fairly quickly it indicates a problem.

The modem itself is not normally the problem it is most times issues with the cabling. A tiny bit of water in a connector someplace can cause massive issues. You want to check all the cabling in your house after that really only the ISP can check. They have special equipment they can hook to the port in your house that will quickly tell them for sure if it is the modem or if it is the connection. There is no way for them to say 100% for sure remotely.

If it is their modem then it is their problem to figure this out. If it is your modem then you take the risk of having to pay a service call if they come out and the modem is the problem. In most cases it is not the modem but up to you, modems are kinda expensive so buying one and it not being the problem is wasted money also. Even if you buy a new modem you can not just swap it the ISP need to put the serial number on your account for it to work.

 

[Whiterobe33]

You should be able to log into the modem and look at the diagnostic screens yourself. There should be a page that shows all the signal levels for all the channels. you can search for what the recommended values should be. The recommendation vary a bit based on things like number of channels bonded etc. It is not worth me putting it in this post.

What will be most telling is most modems have indicators that show number of packets with errors that were corrected and uncorrected. You always get some but if these numbers increase fairly quickly it indicates a problem.

The modem itself is not normally the problem it is most times issues with the cabling. A tiny bit of water in a connector someplace can cause massive issues. You want to check all the cabling in your house after that really only the ISP can check. They have special equipment they can hook to the port in your house that will quickly tell them for sure if it is the modem or if it is the connection. There is no way for them to say 100% for sure remotely.

If it is their modem then it is their problem to figure this out. If it is your modem then you take the risk of having to pay a service call if they come out and the modem is the problem. In most cases it is not the modem but up to you, modems are kinda expensive so buying one and it not being the problem is wasted money also. Even if you buy a new modem you can not just swap it the ISP need to put the serial number on your account for it to work.

There was water in the line behind our house. He checked and since the lines were underground, he found a good 4 to 5 drops of water in the line.