I'm Looking for Utilities/Tips to Troubleshoot a Sporadically Problematic Internet Connection

[Jackson413]

Hi! For the past year, I have been experiencing weird network problems 3-4 times a day in which my packet loss and ping spike extremely high for around 10 minutes. Sometimes I lose connection entirely. If I restart my router (Linksys WRT54G), my modem (Cisco 2203C [Provided by Time Warner]), and my switch (Linksys SRW2008), it seems to rectify my issues, but having to do this multiple times a day is just plain awful.

I should also mention that it isn't just my computer that experiences these issues. I have confirmed that this happens to other devices on my network and also ensured that someone isn't just hogging tons of bandwidth by downloading something, etc.

As of late, these problems are happening more and more, and I'm getting frustrated. I have a few programs running on my computer that don't like it when they lose internet connection. Not to mention that it makes GTA Online unplayable if I disconnect during a heist, losing all of my progress.

I've looked a little bit for articles that cover more than just "hurr durr unplug it for X seconds and replug it." I consider myself a power user and am looking for some kind of full-featured guide of where to start and how to start eliminating factors to what might be causing my issue.

I should lastly mention that I am completely fine with spending money in fixing this problem as long as it actually gets fixed.

 

[Jackson413]

This is my network configuration: cable goes into my house and goes into my modem. Router is connected to modem. My switch is in one of the ports of the router. Is that optimal or should I have Modem>Switch>Router?

 

[nigelivey]

It has to be modem - router - switch.

 

[bill001g]

You have some very old equipment, the manual for your modem talks about using winxp and win2000. Your router is not that current either. Still they both should still work.

I am not sure if you can get into your modem while it is behind a router or not. They say the ip is 192.168.100.1 so I suppose you could try that. What you want to do is get into the log screens and see if there are any messages about it disconnecting from the cable network or having other errors.

The other thing you can just try is to carefully inspect all the coax going from the modem to outside your house. You need to be sure all are tight and have no dirt or water in them. Also inspect the cable for damage, rats or other things may have chewed on the cable.

Pretty much you do not need any fancy tools for most problems. You want to run tracert to some common ip like 8.8.8.8. Then open multiple cmd windows and leave ping running to hop 1 and hop 2 in the trace as well as to the final address like 8.8.8.8 What you want to do is when the problem occurs quickly switch to these windows and stop them. If the loss in in hop 1 then your router has a issue. If it is ok in hop 1 but hop 2 has issuse then it is in the connection to the ISP. If it is ok in both those but still has issues to the final location it is deeper in the ISP network.

What you want to do is call the ISP and show them that it is ok to your router but has issues going to theirs.

 

[Jackson413]

You have some very old equipment, the manual for your modem talks about using winxp and win2000. Your router is not that current either. Still they both should still work.

I am not sure if you can get into your modem while it is behind a router or not. They say the ip is 192.168.100.1 so I suppose you could try that. What you want to do is get into the log screens and see if there are any messages about it disconnecting from the cable network or having other errors.

The other thing you can just try is to carefully inspect all the coax going from the modem to outside your house. You need to be sure all are tight and have no dirt or water in them. Also inspect the cable for damage, rats or other things may have chewed on the cable.

Pretty much you do not need any fancy tools for most problems. You want to run tracert to some common ip like 8.8.8.8. Then open multiple cmd windows and leave ping running to hop 1 and hop 2 in the trace as well as to the final address like 8.8.8.8 What you want to do is when the problem occurs quickly switch to these windows and stop them. If the loss in in hop 1 then your router has a issue. If it is ok in hop 1 but hop 2 has issuse then it is in the connection to the ISP. If it is ok in both those but still has issues to the final location it is deeper in the ISP network.

What you want to do is call the ISP and show them that it is ok to your router but has issues going to theirs.

Most of my line is buried. It comes up from the ground a couple feet and then goes into my house. From there, there are no obvious problems.

I'll run some more traces and get back soon!