Router problem?

[leechlake]

For the past few months all devices in our home have been losing the internet connection. iPads, iPhones, PC's, Mac. I made a call to our internet provider Mediacom and they said the connection to our modem has been working for over 90 days without any disconnections.

My thought its that our router is the culprit. It's about 3 years old. Mediacom said I should test it by hooking a computer directly to the modem and test it out. Problem with that is I'd have to sit in a tiny room that our modem is in in our basement and wait to see what happens.

It seems the connection is lost every 10-15 minutes. When it happens on my Mac I turn the WiFi off and then turn it back on and it then works. Any advice?

[Jim43]

Have had to replace routers 4 times in 14 years, Belkin routers have the best for us so far. Many times, its as simple as. Un-plugging the power supply to the router and hooking it back up will restore the connection.

[delcecchi]

For the past few months all devices in our home have been losing the internet connection. iPads, iPhones, PC's, Mac. I made a call to our internet provider Mediacom and they said the connection to our modem has been working for over 90 days without any disconnections.

My thought its that our router is the culprit. It's about 3 years old. Mediacom said I should test it by hooking a computer directly to the modem and test it out. Problem with that is I'd have to sit in a tiny room that our modem is in in our basement and wait to see what happens.

It seems the connection is lost every 10-15 minutes. When it happens on my Mac I turn the WiFi off and then turn it back on and it then works. Any advice?

I have had sort of similar problems in the past, and new router fixed it. You could try checking to see if the firmware in the router needs to be updated, but for the price of new routers....

Or go to wallyworld, and buy one. Use it for a few days and if problem persists take it back.

Or it could still be the modem. Router swap that made no difference would finger that. Modem could stop communicating with router for some reason, or line could be dropping too many packets. Next time you talk to mediacom, ask them about packet loss. Modem can be connected but many packets getting lost somewhere.

In my case it was a corroded connector, and once a tiny piece of the foil shield (that Charter had installed) intermittently shorting out the cable to the pole.

But swapping routers you can do without arguing with anyone.

[upnorth]

who owns the wireless router? If it is yours, I would upgrade the firmware like has been suggested. If not ask mediacom to see if it needs an upgrade. I had one in the past where even tho the firmware was upto date refreshing it cured the problems I was experiencing.

[fishnowworknever]

When you lose connection how are you verifying your connection is lost? Are you attempting to get out to the internet?

Do you have 2 separate pieces of hardware- Modem and Router

or

One combo = Modem/Router?

Next time it happens, see if you're able to ping the router.

From a command prompt:

ipconfig /all

The router will be your "default gateway"

Then type: ping 192.168.0.1 (or whatever your default gateway is)

If the connection from your PC to your router/modem is good, you'll get a reply back. If the connection is not there, you'll get a "timed out".

I'm betting like stated above that it's your router and a firmware update might fix the problem if one's available.

[leechlake]

2 pieces of hardware, modem and separate router.

[upnorth]

I would look at upgrading the firmware on the router. Or refresh it.