My Internet connection has begun to fail regularly. This began about 2 weeks ago, and has been getting worse (4-5 times so far today). I will get a popup saying that the connection has failed and at the same time, the connection lights on my Internet modem will go out and my Local Area Connection in the system tray will anounce “a network cable is unplugged”. Sometimes, I can fix it by openin the Local Area Connection Staus window and clicking on Repair, other times I have to turn off the power on the Internet modem and wait a few minutes before turning it back on again.
I am running Windows XP Home SP3 with automatic updates enabled, my NIC is built-in on the motherboard, and I have a practically brand new Thomson SpeedTouch internet modem. DSL Internet connection from Primus.ca. No router, my phone company checked the phone lines a few months ago for a previous problem and found no issues, I have tried switching out the line to the phone jack and the connection to the NIC with no effect. The modem seems to become pretty warm when operating - I don’t know if there can be an overheating problem which would have this effect?
Any suggestions as to what is the problem and/or possible solutions? Bad modem, bad NIC, bad settings?
While there is a chance that it’s the modem hardware, that’s not where I’d put my money.
The phone company’s initial tests are not very good, especially if they do voice tests for DSL problems. They say “no problem” for many things that are a problem. First thing I’d try, if possible, is to connect directly to the network interface device (“the NID” in phone company parlance), and see if you still get the problem. This will involve opening the NID on the side of your house (could be as simple as lifting a cover), disconnecting the house wiring (important for the test to be useful), and wiring in a phone jack where the house wiring just was.
If the problem goes away, your house wiring has developed a problem (or you have removed the DSL filters somewhere). If the problem remains, you can call them back and insist that the problem is on their end and that they should send someone.
I’ve gone through this song and dance more than once with DSL providers. It has so far always been their problem. You’ll be amazed how quickly you can move up the support chain by telling them, “I connected directly to the NID and the problem remains.” The typical response: “gasp Oh, my. Well, in that case, I’ll need to get you to Level Two support” or “Oh, we’ll send a technician out to check the lines the tomorrow.”
I had a modem go out and got a replacement modem. It worked fine for a little while, then started acting up in essentially the same way as the old modem. The serviceman who then came asked about the power supply. Though the replacement modem came with a new power supply, I had not changed it because the old one worked. He advised me that sometimes the power supplies go bad in such a way as to cause overheating in the modem. Installing the new power supply solved the problem.
Don’t rule out the wiring. I would try replacing one or more of the network cables, one at a time and see what happens. Sometime network cables can kink, or the pins in the connectors might be warped, and it’s not clearly visible. You can buy a decent length of cable for 10 or 15 bucks, and usually you can return it if necessary.