[RoyalJosh]

Alright, so I tried sifting through many other similar posts to try and fix this problem to no avail and I am now starting my own topic.

About a month ago I started having an issue with my internet connection where for 3-5 minutes at a time I would get the "Problem Loading Page" "Server Not Found" message. After a period of time it will go away and pages will be found and load normally, but the problem comes back multiple times per hour. Switching browsers (IE, Fox, Chrome) has no effect. I have 3 different computers that I run through my modem (Motorola Surfboard SBG6580 Wireless Cable Modem Gateway) using cords and wireless and they all have the same problems. I have restarted the cable modem well over a hundred times and about the same for the computers. I have tried only having 1 computer connected to the gateway at a time and had similar results. If I am downloading files I do so at full speeds and if I am playing any kind of online game I never notice any kind of issue. I've also disconnected my main computer and brought it to a friends house and hard connected to his router and had perfect internet for over 4 hours.

I have comcast cable internet and like I said about a month or so ago I did not have any of these problems.

If I can successfully connect to speedtest.net and run the test I consistently get results of 10 ms ping, 25 Mbps download, and 3.3 Mbps upload. The only time I can't produce these results is when I am in a "Problem Loading Page" time and the speedtest.net page won't load.

If it helps, there are also times where I can successfully connect to a page but not all of the pictures will load, as if I half-connected to the page.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I am more than happy to adjust settings and provide any more useful information!

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Sounds like a DNS issue for the most part.

Try changing your DNS to 8.8.8.8


1. Click "Start," click "Control Panel," click "Network and Internet Connections," and then click "Network Connections."
2. Right-click the network connection that you want to configure (the one you use to connect to the Internet), and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab (for a local area connection), or the Networking tab (for all other connections), click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", and then click "Properties."

4. Click "Use the following DNS server addresses," and then type 8.8.8.8 in the Preferred DNS server and 4.2.2.1 in the Alternate DNS server boxes.

5. Click "OK"

Above is probably for XP. May be different for other versions of Widows but you get the idea.

Ron

[RKinner]

Sounds like a DNS issue for the most part.

Try changing your DNS to 8.8.8.8


1. Click "Start," click "Control Panel," click "Network and Internet Connections," and then click "Network Connections."
2. Right-click the network connection that you want to configure (the one you use to connect to the Internet), and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab (for a local area connection), or the Networking tab (for all other connections), click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", and then click "Properties."

4. Click "Use the following DNS server addresses," and then type 8.8.8.8 in the Preferred DNS server and 4.2.2.1 in the Alternate DNS server boxes.

5. Click "OK"

Above is probably for XP. May be different for other versions of Widows but you get the idea.

Ron

[RoyalJosh]

I tried this change on two computers but it didn't seem to fix the problem. The only slight difference I noticed was that when I am in a "good" connection time each new page I visited took a tiny bit more time to initially be found.

[RKinner]

Are you using encryption on your wireless links? If not a neighbor could be stealing your service and perhaps he is maxing out your link? Have you reset your router or just turned it off? (Only reset it if you know how it's configured. There is usually a button on the back or a hole you can stick a stylus in marked Reset. You hold it down for 30 seconds and it should reboot and revert back to factory standards.) Do you have a password on the router? If not a neighbor or malware can take it over.

It's also not impossible that all three of your PCs are infected with malware. If one is a laptop can you try it at a friend's house or at the library or other hotspot?

Ron

[RoyalJosh]

The router is encrypted and I've also tried disabling wireless at times to see if that makes any difference. I actually brought my entire desktop to another friends house and had none of these problems on his connection.

[RKinner]

Does this happen more at certain times of the day? I've heard of cable systems being oversubscribed so that at times too many people were trying to use them and they would bog down.

Have you tried logging on to the router and running a ping or traceroute to something like 8.8.8.8 when it acts up? I'd do it when it was working first so I would know what to expect in the way of times. http://broadband.cus...WQveDRPQWdkSGs=

Do you see any change in the lights on the modem when the problem happens?
http://broadband.cus...17377/related/1

Ron

[RoyalJosh]

The time of day makes no difference, I pretty much have the same results in the morning, afternoon, evening, and late night.

I ran the ping test when it was acting up. The first 3 times I tried to run the test it said Timed Out and then the 4th time it had 3 separate replies from 8.8.8.8 that all said bytes = 64, time = 80 ms. I also ran the traceroute but I don't understand the results. It listed a selection of (12) IP addresses with ms's after each one and then after them all at the bottom it says Traceroute FAILED.

The lights on the modem do not change whether I am getting good speeds or bad speeds.

[RKinner]

If the ping from the router stops working then that is a sign that the network is down on the cable side. When you do a traceroute what you are seeing is the path that a packet has to take. The first step is going to be your cable company's equipment. If you note that down you can do a ping to it instead of 8.8.8.8. If that works when you are having troubles then the cable people have a routing or other problem that they need to fix. This is what a good traceroute looks like:
C:\Windows\system32>tracert -d 8.8.8.8

Tracing route to 8.8.8.8 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.11.1 <==My router
2 16 ms 17 ms 18 ms 98.125.68.1 <==Centurytel router (my DSL provider)
3 16 ms 16 ms 19 ms 209.206.160.4
4 19 ms 19 ms 19 ms 208.110.249.212
5 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms 206.51.69.141
6 17 ms 17 ms 18 ms 206.51.71.70
7 123 ms 82 ms 18 ms 209.85.249.34
8 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms 66.249.94.201
9 29 ms 28 ms 26 ms 216.239.46.204
10 26 ms 25 ms 24 ms 216.239.48.165
11 * 37 ms 34 ms 72.14.232.6 <==Google's network router the * indicates a missing reply. This is a common result when going through a Cisco router.
12 25 ms 27 ms 26 ms 8.8.8.8 <== Google's free DNS service

Trace complete. )


The traceroute doesn't have to complete to give you some good information. Sometimes you will get a traceroute that repeats itself going from one ip to the next and then back again. That indicates a routing loop. Other times the traceroute will go a step or two and then stop. That indicates that there is trouble between the last step that worked and the next step. If the first step fails on the traceroute (but that step works when everything is working) then the connection between your router and the cable company's equipment is faulty.If it doesn't work then I think you need to call the cable people and complain. They can look for errors in their equipment logs and perhaps they will want to change out the router. I believe it was probably furnished by them?

[RoyalJosh]

Here is what mine looked like traceroute to 8.8.8.8, I didn't type in the IPs that it listed, but I can if you think that will help?

1 50 ms 30 ms 20 ms
2 10 ms 20 ms 10 ms
3 20 ms 10 ms 10 ms
4 10 ms 190 ms 20 ms
5 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms
6 30 ms 30 ms 20 ms
7 30 ms 40 ms 20 ms
8 60 ms 60 ms 60 ms
9 160 ms 60 ms 60 ms
10 70 ms 60 ms 60 ms
11 ***
12 80 ms 80 ms 90 ms
13 209.85.253.145 90 ms 209.85.253.133 90 ms 209.85.253.145 90 ms
14 80 ms 80 ms 80 ms
Traceroute Complete

Almost everytime I run this traceroute my number 13 only comes back with a star and the traceroute says FAILED, but this one time it came back with a reading for 13 (why I typed the IP in for it) and the traceroute said complete at the end.

I had an old comcast router, but I bought my own motorola surfboard that is only about 6 months old and was working flawlessly up until a month ago, but I suppose it could be the router that is at fault. I guess that is what I am really trying to figure out, if its a problem with my router, my service provider, or something else.

[RKinner]

Some routers have been told not to respond to pings and traceroute requests as a security thing. That's why you get the * * * for number 11.

No idea why 13 sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If 14 works then it doesn't matter. Perhaps the request was low priority and got dropped because 13 was busy. Odd that there is no matching IP addresses in your list.

You can do the traceroute and pings from your PC. That will make it easier to copy the results.

Start, All Programs, Accessories then Command Prompt (Vista or Win 7 must right click on Command Prompt and Run as Admin.) Then type:

tracert  -d   195.69.153.8  >>  \junk.txt

(Run this while it is working then leave the command window up but minimized.  When it fails, go to the command window, hit the up arrow and the same line should appear.  Hit Enter.  After you have a good one and a bad one then: )

notepad  \junk.txt

I use two spaces in the code box so you can see where one space goes.
Copy and Paste the text from notepad into your next post.
195.69.153.8 is f1.com (F ONE . COM). It's just a site in Europe I know that only has one IP address and responds to pings and traceroute requests.

Ron

[RoyalJosh]

Alright, you are right, that is way easier to copy and paste. Here is what I got:


Tracing route to 195.69.153.8 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 29 ms 20 ms 19 ms 71.196.220.1
2 8 ms 9 ms 24 ms 68.85.107.145
3 8 ms 9 ms 9 ms 68.86.179.142
4 13 ms 14 ms 16 ms 68.86.103.41
5 12 ms 10 ms 12 ms 68.86.95.245
6 25 ms 26 ms 24 ms 68.86.88.118
7 29 ms 26 ms 41 ms 68.86.86.150
8 26 ms 26 ms 26 ms 64.125.13.185
9 50 ms 27 ms 26 ms 64.125.26.209
10 32 ms 32 ms 32 ms 64.125.26.130
11 86 ms 60 ms 60 ms 64.125.29.38
12 63 ms 64 ms 59 ms 64.125.29.22
13 132 ms 133 ms 137 ms 64.125.27.58
14 132 ms 136 ms 133 ms 213.152.240.6
15 132 ms 133 ms 133 ms 195.69.153.8

Trace complete.

[RKinner]

We started on the router so as to rule out the link between the PC and the router. Now that we know the problem is from the router to the network we can go back to the PC and do it the easy way.

The tracert you gave me appears to be a working one. Can you get one when it is not working?

Ron

[RoyalJosh]

So it is not alot different, but this was during a "bad" time, pages were being not found and pages that were could not fully load all of the pictures. The only thing different I can notice is that all of the ms's that were somewhat low are now alot higher? Here is what it looks like:


Tracing route to 195.69.153.8 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 160 ms 174 ms 172 ms 71.196.220.1
2 135 ms 150 ms 136 ms 68.85.107.145
3 111 ms 101 ms 94 ms 68.86.179.142
4 97 ms 110 ms 119 ms 68.86.103.41
5 102 ms 94 ms 95 ms 68.86.95.245
6 135 ms 147 ms 166 ms 68.86.88.118
7 135 ms 130 ms 85 ms 68.86.86.150
8 155 ms 146 ms 188 ms 64.125.13.185
9 187 ms 209 ms 95 ms 64.125.26.209
10 108 ms 146 ms 124 ms 64.125.26.130
11 181 ms 158 ms 158 ms 64.125.29.38
12 183 ms 177 ms 166 ms 64.125.29.18
13 212 ms 241 ms 221 ms 64.125.31.185
14 232 ms 245 ms 223 ms 213.152.240.6
15 260 ms 260 ms 223 ms 195.69.153.8

Trace complete.

[RKinner]

1 160 ms 174 ms 172 ms 71.196.220.1

This increase in time on your first hop may indicate that something is using the bandwidth.

Right click on the clock and select Task Manager and select Networking. After a while you will see a graph appear. I expect you will see that the network is very busy when you have your outages.

Download, Save and Install the free version of Online Armor from
http://www.online-ar...n-software.html

It will block traffic in and out of your PC unless you approve it. Be careful what you approve. Check the networking graph before and after you authorize a program. If it suddenly shoots up and stays up you may have just authorized the problem.

We may need to switch you over to the malware forum. They don't let me run scans in this forum.

Ron