UPC brodband loosing connection

GarIT

Every 10 to 15 mins my laptop looses connection to the internet, I troubleshoot the problem with windows and it says that the cable modem or router has lost connection to the internet and to reset it. When I reset it it works for 10 to 15 mins again. The phones are fine if that makes a difference. Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

Steviemak

GarIT wrote: »

Every 10 to 15 mins my laptop looses connection to the internet, I troubleshoot the problem with windows and it says that the cable modem or router has lost connection to the internet and to reset it. When I reset it it works for 10 to 15 mins again. The phones are fine if that makes a difference. Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

I rang UPC about a similar problem and they said it was an issue they were having with the routers. They won't be charging me until it is fixed. Works fine if you directly connect. At least it does for me.

jor el

If it's the Internet connection that is dropping, and not the Wifi signal to the modem, then you need to contact UPC. Could be a cabling issue, either inside or outside your house. Either way, you're not going to fix it without them.

irishguy

I have noticed something similar also. The internet would just drop out about every 30mins for about 1-2mins. Its really annoying.

GarIT

I'm actually not sure which it is, sometimes I still have connection to the router with no internet and sometimes I loose the connection completely. I'll get onto them tomorrow, this is bad from a company that is supposed to be the best. Hopefully they sort it soon.

sgarvan

I have had this issue since getting it installed two weeks ago. Ended up cancelling today as I just couldnt put up with the intermittency

vibe666

with UPC, *usually* if you have the phone with them too the phone will drop out when the broadband goes down as it's all part of the same system.

if you are getting regular connection dropouts, but the phone is okay then it is most likely caused by wireless interference from other 2.4Ghz devices in your vicinity.

2.4Ghz wireless interference can come from many many things, some of which will be outside of your control (if you read that link you'll understand what i mean), but some you will be able to work around by doing a simple wireless survey inside your home.

first things first though, if you take a look at your modem/router whenever the connection drops, you'll see an LED light that says 'Internet' which will be lit if your modem/router is still connected.

if it is, then you will need to do a wireless survey to find out what is causing the interference. 9 times out of 10 it's other wireless networks clogging up your bandwidth and causing your wireless connection to drop out, so you need to find a quiet part of the 2.4Ghz spectrum to use which will hopefully minimise your interference levels and prevent dropouts from happening too often.

download inSSIDer and install it on a laptop and once you have it running and start to see wireless networks showing up, walk around your house/apartment to all the windows and stop at each one for a minute or two to see what wireless networks you can 'see' and look at the chart at the bottom which shows where each network uses bandwidth on their respective channels.

you'll notice that each channel overlaps slightly with others around it, so what you're looking for is a wireless channel that has no other wireless networks on it and preferably with no other networks on adjoining channels that will overlap with yours.

now you'll need to log in to your router and change your own wireless channel to the empty one you (hopefully) found in your wireless survey and try and reconnect to your wifi and see how it is.

there is a small chance that you won't be able to reconnect to your wireless at all, so you should keep a network cable to plug into your laptop to connect directly to the router so you can change to another channel and then try and reconnect again.

i've lost count of the times i've had to change my own wireless channel now, to the point where i now live on a combination of wired ethernet, 5Ghz wifi & 200mbps powerline adapters and leave the 2.4Ghz to everyone else to fight over.

GarIT

I've tried every channel as well as auto, and the laptop I'm using has a wireless n card so I think thats 5GHz anyway.

dub45

vibe666 wrote: »

with UPC, *usually* if you have the phone with them too the phone will drop out when the broadband goes down as it's all part of the same system.

if you are getting regular connection dropouts, but the phone is okay then it is most likely caused by wireless interference from other 2.4Ghz devices in your vicinity.

2.4Ghz wireless interference can come from many many things, some of which will be outside of your control (if you read that link you'll understand what i mean), but some you will be able to work around by doing a simple wireless survey inside your home.

first things first though, if you take a look at your modem/router whenever the connection drops, you'll see an LED light that says 'Internet' which will be lit if your modem/router is still connected.

if it is, then you will need to do a wireless survey to find out what is causing the interference. 9 times out of 10 it's other wireless networks clogging up your bandwidth and causing your wireless connection to drop out, so you need to find a quiet part of the 2.4Ghz spectrum to use which will hopefully minimise your interference levels and prevent dropouts from happening too often.

download inSSIDer and install it on a laptop and once you have it running and start to see wireless networks showing up, walk around your house/apartment to all the windows and stop at each one for a minute or two to see what wireless networks you can 'see' and look at the chart at the bottom which shows where each network uses bandwidth on their respective channels.

you'll notice that each channel overlaps slightly with others around it, so what you're looking for is a wireless channel that has no other wireless networks on it and preferably with no other networks on adjoining channels that will overlap with yours.

now you'll need to log in to your router and change your own wireless channel to the empty one you (hopefully) found in your wireless survey and try and reconnect to your wifi and see how it is.

there is a small chance that you won't be able to reconnect to your wireless at all, so you should keep a network cable to plug into your laptop to connect directly to the router so you can change to another channel and then try and reconnect again.

i've lost count of the times i've had to change my own wireless channel now, to the point where i now live on a combination of wired ethernet, 5Ghz wifi & 200mbps powerline adapters and leave the 2.4Ghz to everyone else to fight over.

From the frequency and similarity of posts here it seems virtually certain that this is an equipment issue.

Friend of mine got UPC bb a couple of weeks ago and within 30 minutes of the installer leaving the wireless problems started - constant disconnects, resets.
There's no problem with the Ethernet connection.

Also the UPC router appears incapable of holding a particular wireless channel - he has reset it many times - and keeps reverting to 'auto'

Incidentally he had dsl with utv previously and never had any wireless problems. The UPC router is in the same position as the dsl router was previously so that would appear to rule out local interference as the cause.

vibe666

GarIT wrote: »

I've tried every channel as well as auto, and the laptop I'm using has a wireless n card so I think thats 5GHz anyway.

wireless N & G both come in 2.4ghz and 5ghz varieties, some will do both at once, other will only do either one or the other at a time (such as the thompson router UPC use for the 50mbps and 100mbps connections) but the default is usually 2.4Ghz unless you specifically change it in the settings to 5Ghz.

it's possible there just isn't any free channels to use, but without doing a wireless survey locally, it's hard to say.

i haven't been around the broadband forum as much as i used to, so i haven't seen that many issues with the thompson router, but dub45 is practically part of the furniture, so i'll take his word for it that there are issues with the thompson.

i actually don't use the thompson wireless (or anything else on it) myself, i just use it to connect to my own router via an ethernet cable, so for me it's just a giant great big fecking huge (seriously, it's like an ironing board ffs!!!) dumb modem.

i have heard people say that it gets very hot though, so maybe it just needs a bit more ventilation to keep it cool? maybe something small under each foot to give it some more clearance underneath and making sure there's nothing sitting on top of it so it gets good air flow?

dub45

vibe666 wrote: »

wireless N & G both come in 2.4ghz and 5ghz varieties, some will do both at once, other will only do either one or the other at a time (such as the thompson router UPC use for the 50mbps and 100mbps connections) but the default is usually 2.4Ghz unless you specifically change it in the settings to 5Ghz.

it's possible there just isn't any free channels to use, but without doing a wireless survey locally, it's hard to say.

i haven't been around the broadband forum as much as i used to, so i haven't seen that many issues with the thompson router, but dub45 is practically part of the furniture, so i'll take his word for it that there are issues with the thompson.

i actually don't use the thompson wireless (or anything else on it) myself, i just use it to connect to my own router via an ethernet cable, so for me it's just a giant great big fecking huge (seriously, it's like an ironing board ffs!!!) dumb modem.

i have heard people say that it gets very hot though, so maybe it just needs a bit more ventilation to keep it cool? maybe something small under each foot to give it some more clearance underneath and making sure there's nothing sitting on top of it so it gets good air flow?

Antique furniture no doubt! The problem with turning off the router/wireless functions is that for a lot of people it turns off the phone. There are workarounds posted here but again for a lot of people they would be quite complicated.

If there is a a genuine equipment issue known to UPC as Steviemak posts above then they really need to communicate much better with their customers because as several people have posted here it is an issue which is designed to drive people to distraction (and I can imagine that UPC must be inundated with complaints)

GarIT

Just to clarify its a Cisco modem and a 25mb connection, I'll get the model number when I'm back from work. I'll also call UPC and see how that goes.

vibe666

dub45 wrote: »

The problem with turning off the router/wireless functions is that for a lot of people it turns off the phone.

that's a bit odd, i didn't have any issues with the phone when i did it.

i know someone had been mentioning firmware issues and different firmware revisions on the same model routers, so maybe its related.

it never ceases to amaze me that even with the best broadband product in the country they can ruin it for themselves with so much mis-management of the product, their other services, their billing and their treatment of their customers.

touch wood, i haven't had any issues for quite a long time now, but going by what people have said here and even people i know having various issues, they're just a complete shambles.

dub45

vibe666 wrote: »

that's a bit odd, i didn't have any issues with the phone when i did it.

i know someone had been mentioning firmware issues and different firmware revisions on the same model routers, so maybe its related.

it never ceases to amaze me that even with the best broadband product in the country they can ruin it for themselves with so much mis-management of the product, their other services, their billing and their treatment of their customers.

touch wood, i haven't had any issues for quite a long time now, but going by what people have said here and even people i know having various issues, they're just a complete shambles.

Its the Cisco model that seems to be causing the problems - have a look at the main thread on it above.

vibe666

dub45 wrote: »

Its the Cisco model that seems to be causing the problems - have a look at the main thread on it above.

aah, that's the one thing i never had. i went from the old sci. atlanta modem straight to the thompson with the 100mbps so i never had to deal with the cisco and for some reason i'd forgotten about all the issues people had been having with it. i blame impending fatherhood turning me prematurely senile!

dub45

vibe666 wrote: »

aah, that's the one thing i never had. i went from the old sci. atlanta modem straight to the thompson with the 100mbps so i never had to deal with the cisco and for some reason i'd forgotten about all the issues people had been having with it. i blame impending fatherhood turning me prematurely senile!

So no time at all to use your 100mbs connection!:D

vibe666

dub45 wrote: »

So no time at all to use your 100mbs connection!:D

what about all the HD baby video's i'll have to upload to youtube?