HELP! Intermittent internet connectivity

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:12 am

Fucking verizon dsl is really pissing me off. Do any of you internet experts know what this could be? When my conncection has been up for a while, say an hour or two, my connection will drop out so that I have no incomming bandwidth. I still have outgoing bandwidth so I can upload but I have no downloading bw. What solves the problem almost every time is turning the modem off for a few minutes then rebooting my pc. Thats the one thing I learned from the verizon help site thats actually worked. Problem is Im doing it constantly and its driving me nutz.

I broke down and actually called the dipshit tech support. They tested my line just like they do every time Ive ever called them about anything and just like every other time they find I have limited connectivity on my line. Well thats been true since I installed the DSL and its been working fine even if not up to the 80K/s they say I should be maxing at (more like 40-50 max). I dont care about that. I just want to have it stop dropping out. Could my modem be bad? They wanrt to send people out but I dont want someone comming out when Im never here anyway.

BashCoder · Post by **BashCoder** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:38 am

Yeah, your modem could be bad - or at least not good enough to handle your connection situation. This kind of connectivity issue sometimes happens when you're too far from a central office. It's funny, the guy on the phone should say, "Sir, we see you have limited connectivity. We'll get right on that and fix it." Instead, DSL subscribers often hear, "I'll be danged. That looks pretty bad. Oh well..." If you have limited connectivity, you should pay a limited fee!

I highly recommend internet via cable, where available. Comcast is good, and cable has the fewest technical issues, in my experience. I'll ask one of my networking guys at work what you should do about the modem.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:46 am

I can just see trying to argue with them to send me a new modem. Ive been with them for 6 years now at $45 a month and a new friggin modem is just too much to accept.

BashCoder · Post by **BashCoder** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:52 am

So have you had the same modem for 6 years?

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:01 am

Actually no. They did have some kind of changeover and I got a new modem but that was about 3 years ago.

Post by **VelvetGeorge** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:02 am

You're due for a new modem. Or at least a firmware upgrade. They upgraded mine remotely when I was having all that trouble.

Internet problems suck! You should see me when it disconnects, I'm like a fish out of water.

george

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:17 am

Its just been getting worse for months and now its every frickin day.

BashCoder · Post by **BashCoder** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:46 am

Yeah, I'd definitely try a new modem.

NitroLiq · Post by **NitroLiq** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:49 am

I've had to replace my cable modem twice. Try doing some ping tests to see if you have packet loss (tech support may have had you do this already):

1. In windows, go to Start > Run

2. Type "cmd" without quotes into the Run text field to launch the DOS shell.

3. type the following: ping www.metroamp.com and hit enter. Try a few other websites.

4. The results will give you times and if there's any packet loss. If there's packet loss, you're losing data. This is what happened to me....I had like 75% packet loss when my modem was dying and the times were either ridiculously high or would time out completely.

Another thing you can look at is if you're using a Firewall....I had serious problems with Zone Alarm bogging down my connections.

Last thing you could look at if none of the others turn out to be the culprit is some kind of virus whose sole task is to clog your ports.

Pete