Broadband connectivity problems.

I’ve had cable internet since July in my apartment, shared between 3 of us roommates. The service is through Insight Communications in West Lafayette, Indiana. The connection is shared using a D-Link DI-604 router which is connected to the 3Com 3CR29220 cable modem leased from the cable company.

Till 5 weeks ago, connectivity was normal (i.e. great). Then, on 1 Friday evening, it all went downhill. Sites would take minutes to load. The browser would display “Connecting to www.straightdope.com” for a minute, then maybe “Waiting for www.straightdope.com” and even then there was no guarantee that the page would load. Initially I would powercycle the devices in the following order: switch both modem/router off, wait a minute, power on modem and wait for handshake to get established, power on router. This would be a hit-or-miss affair. Sometimes service would function as earlier, but would detoriate soon enough to the status quo. Other times, there would be no improvement.

When contacted, the cable company said that they were getting “some new equipment” which they were expecting in a couple of weeks. Those couple of weeks passed by without any change. Surprisingly or rather not, my friends across the street enjoyed no hiccups in their service. Upon registering a second complaint, the cable company agreed to send someone over to have a look. With all due respect to that gentleman, I probably knew more about the possible issues than he did. He seemed like a cable TV technician, sent through a cursory crash course in broadband installations. Anyway, he tampered around with the jacks on the wall, checking for signal strength. Having satisfied himself that there was nothing wrong with the signal or modem (I’m not sure how he concluded the latter), he expressed his remorse at our, now strange, connectivity problems. Before he left, he alerted us to the cable hookup in the “boiler closet” where the cable from outside connects to the circuit inside the apartment and advised us that the cable was too close to the metal rods from the boiler and that their proximity to the heat might interfere with the signal. However, in the 5 weeks that we experienced this problem, never did the cable modem lose the signal handshake. Just that the speed was excruciatingly slow to the point of being non-functional.

The visit was yesterday. Since then, I’ve occasionally tampered with the position of the hanging cable in the closet so as to distance it from the rods, but with mixed results, indicating lack of any demonstrable effect of the “heat effect”, perhaps. Googling indicates that the modem I have leased has “polarity problems” with routers and the like and that I may have to buy a polarity adapter to correct that.

But, it’s not clear. Sorry for the long post, but does anyone have any idea, what could be wrong here?

Have you disconnected the router and tested the connectivity with the modem hooked up to just one computer? That would rule out a router issue.
I can offer you no help other than to also try the DSL Reports Forums and post your problem at the Insight Forum. Lots of people there that are knowledgable and they may have heard of this problem previously. Insight Forum

I had a connection problems with my cable back a few years… they (cable) said it was me and I said it was them. They sent their chief (only) engineer out to my house with a lap top and a router… his computer worked great! My computer still had connection problems. He suggested reloading Windows… that fixed my problem. I don’t suggest reloading Windows but do post your problem HERE.

I agree with Toddly. You need to isolate the problem. I recently had a bunch of connectivity issues pop up in my home network. Tested the modem straight into my PC and all was fine. Turns out my router (Linksys BERSR41) was crapping out on me. Installed a new router and all is well again.

I remember a few years ago I kept losing connectivity for stretches at a time. Three calls to the broadband support line later, I found out that the modem I had (the original one from 1997) did not support DHCP, which the broadband provider had just implemented. Turns out my original static IP was being dynamically assigned to some other user. Would have been a lot better customer service if they would have notified users with older modems of the need to upgrade.

Hey, you’re lucky. A couple years ago when I had a problem with my cable Internet, they sent a guy out who swapped the modem. That’s it. That’s all he knew how to do. When that didn’t work, he just left. It took a couple of angry calls to get someone who knew what he was doing to come out.

That said, the first thing you’ll want to do is follow the advice of everyone else in this thread and remove the router to help isolate the source of the problem. Switches and especially routers from companies like D-Link and Linksys sometimes work great. Other times… Well, you get what you pay for.

If you’re using a wireless router, something “new” in your area may be causing the interference - something as simple as another wireless receiver in the same general vicinity. Are any of the computers working satisfactorily?

Are you or one of your roommates using peer-to-peer networking like Kazaa? PTP allows others to access files on a computer’s hard drive which can eat up bandwidth. Just having PTP open can interfere with bandwidth.

If you are wireless, weather (i.e., rain), as well as the indoor air quality (i.e., humidity) and temperature can be a factor. The reason I mention these factors is, depending on where you live, your weather and indoor conditions may have changed recently - like about 5 weeks ago?

Finally, your cable company may simply be over-subscribed which is the reason they are installing new equipment. Access has reached “critical mass” so to speak. Is there any improvement in the “wee hours” when not so many people are using the service?

Last question: Have you moved computers or other “stuff” around recently? Especially with a wireless system, you need to make sure that the pathways between computers are as clear and as short as possible. Too many walls, other electronic devices, etc., can deteriorate the signal to the point where you’ll experience the problems you are having.

Thanks for the replies so far…

I’ve tried connecting my computer to the modem directly, no improvement. I’m not using a wireless router. Thing is, I asked the technician whether other people in the vicinity were also having problems. He said No, make of that what you will.

Anyway, I’ll try the Insight forums.

You probably need to make another call and ask that they send out someone that will test the line itself. They should check the house and the connection at the pole. I scanned the Insight Forum and one thing that was mentioned was that users must register their modems with the company. I wondered if maybe your problem is there but that was just a WAG. Let us know if it gets resolved.

I reregistered my modem and it went smoothly (if slowly).

I also visited my neighbours above me, who have the same service, and their service is working normal. So, it doesn’t seem to be a line problem.

Today evening, I’m going to use a friend’s cable modem and test.