Comcast connection dies

Well, I had a slightly similiar prolem with my Cox cable internet before. But, it would happen at wierd times, not neccessarilly when downloading. And sometimes resetting the modem would work, and other times it wouldn't. It drove me crazy... Anyway, probably not related, but it was a problem on Cox's end with regards to some connection settings or whatnot, which I had to sort out with customer support.

So, you should probably contact your ISPs customer support, they might be able to fix it over the phone.

edit - You are talking about cable internet? If not, disregard. If so, if your cable connection light on your modem is going from solid to blinking, then it is indeed a problem on the ISP's side, or your cable wire going to the modem. Last thing would be a bad modem... But that would be my last choice. Perhaps some new firmware update is availiable and might help.

Quote:

Original post by pjcast If so, if your cable connection light on your modem is going from solid to blinking, then it is indeed a problem on the ISP's side

So if the binker is going blink blink when I am "disconnected" then it is the ISP's problem? If it is not blinking and I'm disconnected then it's a problem on my end?

If your light is solid, and you have no connection to the internet, than you have something wrong with your network configuration...

If your light goes from solid (connected - and internet is working), to blinking (searching for connection), then it is either:
1) Bad cable wire to your modem
2) ISP problems
3) Bad modem - in which case firmware upgrades may help...

My thoughts on it anyway :)

I used to have a nearly identical problem sometimes. For a few months it would be bad, and then fine. Now it doesn't seem to happen anymore.

I'm betting my money it's your modem. My faithful modem "died" during the summer. I couldn't do anything other than talk on AIM or load a few webpages before my connection would die. Any transfers larger than a few kb would result in loss of connection. It took several frustrating calls to OptOnline before we figured it was my modem on the verge of death.

Get a new one. Luckily, my service lets you exchange your modem for a new one completely free.

There are 2 likely problems:

1.) Equipment failure. I'm leaning towards the Cable Modem (especially if it's one of the shitty RCA/Thompson modems that Comcast likes to shill off on people)

2.) QoS. Comcast (and most other cable providers) have a habit of cutting your connection speed down (via the CM's TFTP file) when you start hogging the bandwidth for an area for prolonged periods of time. 9 times out of 10, this forces a CM reboot -- thereby dropping your connection. There are ways around this, but I'm positive it will violate Comcast's ToS, and I'm fairly certain it's illegal as well.

You can call Comcast if you want, but I'll tell you right now that their tech support is horrible, especially if you live in an area that they purchased from AT&T last year. They'll be worthless to you. Your best bet is to try to limit the bandwidth that you're using; I'm assuming that you've got the standard 3Mb connection, so your best bet is going to be to limit the maximum number of connections that are made to 20 or so; try to make it so that you're never using more than 1-2Mb at once.

Youc an switch providers, but DSL companies are doing the same thing. There's a reason why you can get a 3Mb connection for only $50 a month -- it's the same reason why you can get 25GB hosting accounts for $9.95, or a GB of free email storage; they don't expect you to be using it. The only way you'll ever avoid these problems is if you feel like footing the bill for a T1 or something similiar. Good luck affording that.