"Cable broadband" connection dropping but modem shows all good.

[costanza]

For the last week, usually in the evenings (but not always), my internet connection will drop momentarily, but repeatedly. I have 30Mbps service, and my speed (according to speedtest.net) usually does hover around 20-30 Mbps. What happens is that I will either notice that my wifi on my phone will become unresponsive or very, very slow, or if I try to load a video from one of my three apple tv's (wired with ethernet cable to router), I will just get a spinning wheel on the screen. That's if the app (youtube, netflix, etc) is already open. If it isn't already open and I click on it, I will get a message like "error in loading this content" on the tv. After a minute or so, everything will be fine and back to full speed, as if nothing happened, but a few minutes later it will happen again. Up and down, up and down. You get the idea. When I try to run speedtest.net on my phone while I'm having the dropout, It will go to the flashing "preparing" screen for what seem like forever. Sometimes it will say it failed to connect and other times the signal comes back up and it completes the test, which will show full speed. All the lights on the modem and routed stay "green" during these dropouts. My isp has replaced my modem twice, replaced the wiring from the street, right up to the modem, and I have tried two different rounters (an older DlinkD601 and a newer TPlink Archer C8). My isp says my modem shows a good signal and hasn't gone offline in over a month. This dropping may happen just a few times or it may go on all evening. Any ideas? This is very frustrasting!

 

[smorizio]

try using google or open dns for a bit see if it there hardware that bad.

 

[costanza]

smorizio, Can you please elaborate on what you mean. I'm just an average Joe...not an IT guy Thanks!
And just to repeat, my internet was flawless for months until this started last week.

 

[Shaun o]

Depends what cable company you are with.

But do bear in mind that most cable company's tend to do system maintenance on the network from time to time.
When and what time they do it if so, is up to them, but most company's do that in the late hours of the day from 11 pm
to the early Am hours of the next day as to create as little disruption for users of the service.

And it can last for as long as a week costanza.

If not the case.

Then I would check that both routers are cool enough, and have good air flow around them.
A router can overheat, and when it does it often causes slow speeds or often has trouble when loading webpages.

Even if the Wi-fi is reporting a good strong signal from it when you are connected via it.

 

[frank_hnd]

he means changing the DNS address provided by your ISP to google's public DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4)

is the modem provided by your ISP a router as well? having 2 routing devices on the same network is really not a good idea.

also, cable connection share bandwidth at the streetbox with other users, obviously at night when everyone is home the connection will become unstable specially if your ISP is overbooking users.

 

[costanza]

The two routers I've tried are out in the open. No overheating issues.

I had 3 cable co. tech's (1 was a supervisor) checking everything today. If it was a maintenance issue, they would be aware of it.

Cable co. provides modems. I've tried two different arris models. Wifi on them is turned off.

One day when the dropouts started, I actually took the router completely out of the loop and
I was still getting dropouts.

As far as I can tell, all hardware is working fine 90% of the time. These repeated dropouts usually only span a few hours.

I think it is something going on with the signal before it gets to my house. The problem is the cable tech's r not here when it happens and from where they are at, they say the modem isn't having issues and is getting s good signal.

 

[frank_hnd]

of course there is no problem when they come to check and they won't ever admit to using subpar equipment and overloading the cabinets with users...
you could test the quality of your internet connection during those times with a website like this one:
http://freeola.com/line-test/ (there are many others you can try)