[SOLVED] Ethernet Cutting Out Repeatedly

[Jemerson]

I have a problem where every 10-15 minutes my ethernet will cut out for 5-10 seconds and then come back. This kicks me out of games and can be really frustrating. It has disconnected me from Valorant, Apex Legends, and Discord calls. I am on Windows 10, and am connected to an Xfinity XB6 Modem (Realtek PCIe GBE Family controller) via ethernet. I usually get a download speed of around 90 mbps and an upload speed of 9 mbps. I have tried doing a network reset through windows, but it didn't fix the problem. I have also turned off the power management setting that windows automatically enables. I have downloaded the most recent driver as well. Here are some of the settings that I have changed (in Device Manager -> Network Adapters -> Family Controller -> Properties -> Advanced) in trying to fix this problem:
-Set Auto Disable Gigabit to Re-Link, Battery or AC
-Disabled Energy Efficient Ethernet (and Advanced Energy Efficient Ethernet)
-Disabled Green Ethernet
-Set Speed & Duplex to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex

My PC specs are:
-Ryzen 5 3600 6 core
-MSI B450 Gaming Plus Max
-Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 Gigs VRAM)
-16 gigs ddr4 RAM
-EVGA Bronze 700w PSU
-Crucial 1tb SSD

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[bill001g]

Does it actually go down so you get a red x indicator or does it just not work.

You want to leave the setting on auto. I am surprised they still let you set duplex on gigabit since in only runs full duplex. In any case if you set one end to some fixed value the other end may get confused because it it not receiveing the auto negotiation. Consumer routers and switches only run auto which means you need to leave the pc on auto.

If you are actually getting a disconnect ....ie it says media disconnected on the ipconfig command.... it almost has to be a bad cable. You have already made sure on the power/green garbage that could cause issues. The ports themselve almost never go bad so that leaves the cable. It is pretty cheap to try another one. Note be sure you are not using a fake cable. It must be pure copper (no cca) and have wire size 22-24 (no flat or thin cable). Also bad ethernet cables can be strange they can work in one machine but not another so do not assume because it works on one machine means the cable is not defective.

 

[Jemerson]

Does it actually go down so you get a red x indicator or does it just not work.

You want to leave the setting on auto. I am surprised they still let you set duplex on gigabit since in only runs full duplex. In any case if you set one end to some fixed value the other end may get confused because it it not receiveing the auto negotiation. Consumer routers and switches only run auto which means you need to leave the pc on auto.

If you are actually getting a disconnect ....ie it says media disconnected on the ipconfig command.... it almost has to be a bad cable. You have already made sure on the power/green garbage that could cause issues. The ports themselve almost never go bad so that leaves the cable. It is pretty cheap to try another one. Note be sure you are not using a fake cable. It must be pure copper (no cca) and have wire size 22-24 (no flat or thin cable). Also bad ethernet cables can be strange they can work in one machine but not another so do not assume because it works on one machine means the cable is not defective.

I was told (on youtube) that with Auto Negotiation enabled the network would switch back and forth and could cause disconnects. I only set it at 1 gig full duplex after this problem started. I'm also pretty confident that it is not the cable, given the nature of the problem. Connection only cuts out for short periods of time and not very often. If I can't find another solution, I will go for a new cable though.

 

[SamirD]

Run packetlosstest.com and post the results. I betting it's something with your connection versus anything else.

 

[Jemerson]

Run packetlosstest.com and post the results. I betting it's something with your connection versus anything else.

https://imgur.com/a/QpXMbuF

View: https://imgur.com/a/QpXMbuF

 

[bill001g]

That just means the problem did not happen when you tested. Random outages are really a pain to find.

Why do people believe random youtube for technical stuff. Youtube has people that want to be famous on it you seldom see extremely technical discussions. Computer tech stuff is way too boring for most people to watch and it takes more than 3 minutes so they switch.

Anybody that has taken even very basic networking classes knows what happens when you set one side to auto and the other to a fixed rate. It is a question that appears over and over on certification tests. Sound like you so called youtube expert has never actually studies networking or he would know very basic stuff like this.

Again we are back to why do you say the "ethernet cuts out". Do you get some kind of indicator that the ethernet is fault or are you just saying that you can not use your browser or other software. There is a huge difference.

 

[Jemerson]

That just means the problem did not happen when you tested. Random outages are really a pain to find.

Why do people believe random youtube for technical stuff. Youtube has people that want to be famous on it you seldom see extremely technical discussions. Computer tech stuff is way too boring for most people to watch and it takes more than 3 minutes so they switch.

Anybody that has taken even very basic networking classes knows what happens when you set one side to auto and the other to a fixed rate. It is a question that appears over and over on certification tests. Sound like you so called youtube expert has never actually studies networking or he would know very basic stuff like this.

Again we are back to why do you say the "ethernet cuts out". Do you get some kind of indicator that the ethernet is fault or are you just saying that you can not use your browser or other software. There is a huge difference.

I have changed it back to auto negotiation, thanks for letting me know the technical side of things. I don't know how I can tell whether the ethernet is at fault or if it is on my pc's end. Is there some sort of diagnostic test that I can run for ~30 minutes so that I can catch a disconnect and see what is happening then? In other words I don't know how I can catch a disconnect if I cant run the ipconfig command in the short span of time that I disconnect for. I'm pretty sure that I don't get a red x or yellow "!" next to the network icon. Thank you so much for your help.

 

[bill001g]

You can see in the event monitor if a ethernet port goes down. It might also give you a clue to other types of failures.

The best test first test is to leave a constant ping run to your router IP in a back ground cmd window. You should be able to switch over quickly and see what it says. If this shows ping times but internet does not work then the problem is either in your router or the ISP network. Many times the internet connection to your house actually goes down. This would affect all machine in your house at the same time so it is clue if that is happening or not. A actual internet outage is much more common that a random intermittent failures in a ethernet cable.

Now if the ping actually fails the message you get may give you a idea. A simple timeout generally means the port is up but does not work for some reason. You get stuff like transmit failures or other strangeness when the port itself goes down.

 

[Jemerson]

You can see in the event monitor if a ethernet port goes down. It might also give you a clue to other types of failures.

The best test first test is to leave a constant ping run to your router IP in a back ground cmd window. You should be able to switch over quickly and see what it says. If this shows ping times but internet does not work then the problem is either in your router or the ISP network. Many times the internet connection to your house actually goes down. This would affect all machine in your house at the same time so it is clue if that is happening or not. A actual internet outage is much more common that a random intermittent failures in a ethernet cable.

Now if the ping actually fails the message you get may give you a idea. A simple timeout generally means the port is up but does not work for some reason. You get stuff like transmit failures or other strangeness when the port itself goes down.

I restarted my modem/router and the problem has fixed itself for now. I have set up a continuous ping loop using cmd and have it running in the background, and will add an update if I find anything interesting. I also logged into my router to try to see the system logs, but couldn't get to them. Xfinity for some reason doesn't let you see the system logs so I can't troubleshoot there.

I did some digging and found that someone had a similar problem with a "sync timing synchronization error" that they found out about through the system logs. If this is my problem I'm not sure how I can fix it given that I can't even see the system logs. Here is that thread. I have no idea if I have the same problem, but I definitely have similar symptoms. Thank you for your help, and I'll update if I find a solution.

 

[SamirD]

A "sync timing synchronization error" would be a signal issue, so if you have it only xfinity can fix it.