Its been happening for about a year if not more, and its getting really annoying. When im on the internet things will go from normal speed to super slow and then pages will not load. I get the server not found or timed out error and usually refreshing 5 to 6 times will load the page. Sometimes pages will only load halfway, meaning that you get just text, no images, no css, etc. For example a youtube video page will load, but you may have to refresh 10 times before the video loads. But this problem happens randomly at different times during the day, sometimes it works fine.

Heres the weird thing, anything thats already downloading will still be going fine. For example I have a streaming radio station going and it never stops to buffer while my internet isnt loading. Or, i will have a file downloading and its speed will be unaffected at the same time my internet is timing out.

This happens on all my systems, ranging from Windows 2000 to Windows 7. I keep em clean and up to date as well as using firefox so there shouldnt be any infections on them. This also does happen in IE, i decided to check.

I tried changing DNS servers in my router and this didnt help my situation. I changed back to the ones from my ISP since they seem a little bit better.

I called my ISP and they either say its my computer, i tell them i have several and it happens on all of them, or they say its my router. I didnt buy my router from them, they have overpriced ones you rent for $10/month. Why would i do that when i can buy one for not much more. I have a netgear WGR614 v5. Its a few years old, but why would that be an issue. Roadrunner tells me its my router, but it worked fine for a few years and now it doesnt? It has the latest firmware. Id buy a new router if it was the issue, but i dont think it is.

I did get them to send a cable repair person once. They checked the cables signal, they ran RG11 from the pole outside to my house, and then RG6 to my cable box from the splitter. He complained to me about how old the infrastructure is in my area. Hasnt had any work on it since cable first came to my area in the early 90s.

I would love to just switch ISPs but my cable rates would go up since im on one of those all in one package deals. Also, being out in the country there isnt really much else for high speed internet. There is fringe DSL out here, but i suppose that wouldnt be much better.

Youbhappen to be using your file sharing sites?

If your saying downloads are running fine, how do you know that there are no firewalls or anti-virus stopping webpages from loading, have you tried restarting all of your network hubs/ routers & computers?

i often have same problem mate
its all on ISP fault, but when i complain they always send stupid "technician"
that always and i mean always come to see "error on modem/router"

its never-ending story...
also i am too on very old infrastructure, think its from 1970's lol,
but they are too cheap to change it all...

I have tried unplugging and replugging my router/modem and it works for a while but then randomly it restarts. Some computers have a wired connection, others are wireless. I have 3-4 computers/laptops connected so i dont think im overloading it.

I have AVG, turning it off does nothing to help. Besides that i have windows firewall on my XP and newer systems, and no firewall on my 2000 system, except for what the router provides.

The fact that it randomly happens, and happens on all systems at the same time makes me think its something beyond the computers. Is my router failing? That could be a quick fix, and may be an excuse to get a fancy new wireless N router.



Cant wait til it gets cold, then the cable starts acting up too. It was so bad last year i was stuck on snowy analog cable for almost 2 days since digital completely went out. Then they adjusted something in the lines and it worked for the rest of the winter. Until it got hot in July, then they had to come do it again. Cable guy told me the temperature does something to the signal and since the lines are so old in my area they have to manually adjust signal or something like that.

That's odd, my grandmother just bought a router from RoadRunner for like, what? $20.00usd, She doesn't have to pay rent for the router, just the connection.

@spunker, have you tried replacing the coaxial cables in your house?

you could check the ping and where on the route it's the slowest with tracert.

May I recommend :

http://www.speedtest.net/
http://www.pingtest.net/

With tracert you can pinpoint where your connection fails of slows down.

Maybe the router thing is old information then...
Yes i said above everything from the pole to my modem has been replaced.



I get excellent results right now since my isp is working fine. But as soon as it starts randomly acting up, i wont be able to even get the page to load to do the test. It will act up for sometimes as little as 30 seconds or maybe a few minutes, but then after that it will go back to normal speed until it happens again. Any downloads or media streaming in the background, even a youtube video will continue loading as long as their connections were established before, when the internet was working fine.

Ping and tracert via command prompt are often a better way to do a ping test versus those websites since i can load up a ping test without a steady connection.
The standard ping test without the -t parameter will do four pings. When my internet is acting up it varies. Sometimes all 4 pings will go through, other times only half, and then times when the internet is really acting up no ping tests will go through. It will fail to get the IP address when this happens. This is usually when the internet connection icon in my system tray gets a yellow ? on it. Tracert will do the same thing as ping. It will time out when the connection gets really bad.

Conditions vary so much its hard to tell whats going on. Usually when the connection starts acting up, waiting a few minutes fixes things. I can also reset my modem which helps, but then my digital phone is taken off line while the modem resets. Another thing i forgot to mention, my digital phone even though its voip has no issues, since its already established a connection.

When it starts acting up, run this in a command prompt:



It will ping the BBC website 200 times. At the end you will get a reading of packet loss. If you are getting packet loss then you have connection issues.

Another thing to try is to borrow a router from a friend or relative for a few days and see if it happens with that one. That will rule out the router if it still does it. My friend has a very similar issue to this and we have a new router coming tomorrow which will hopefully solve it (he needed a new one anyway, only the wifi worked, none of the ports did).

aerfgr789u 67n-

Did you try to plug a computer into the modem directly? Does someone else have a router you can borrow to test? Do you use torrents or any other file sharing applications? Is your wireless encrypted?

lmgtfy

Yes i have plugged into the modem and it usually works fine, but Ive never tested it long enough to see if it will start acting up. I guess this would be important to do.

I do have another router sitting around, but its a cheapo and probably wouldnt be any better than my netgear. I guess i could try it and see if it starts acting up too.

My wireless is not encrypted, i dont see a need for it. Being out in the country, my house is far back off the road and my neighbors are well out of wifi range. My wifi signal fades away long before my land boundaries, i have tested it before.

Its your router, my friend had the exact same problem.

His remote desktop connection would be fine, however webpages would randomly not load for a couple of mins. A quick google revealed a lot of people with this router had the exact same problem, no firmware upgrade was available. I forget the model now it was a Linksys Wireless N router that isant supported by DDWRT yet.

We plugged the modem in to his pc for a few days and it worked fine, after that we got him a new router and his internet has never been better.

Ok im gonna try out plugging in the ethernet cable directly from the modem to a computer the next time this issue happens.

My router's latest firmware is from 2005, so i think its unsupported by Netgear.
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/785

Its a great router though, for range. If it turns out my router is dying, any suggestions for a new brand/model, something with decent range thats also a good price. My house is all on one level but its pretty spread out.

windows key + R = run box | nslookup | type the domain of the website your trying to get to aka betaarchive.co.uk

*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.92: Non-existent domain (ignore this part - My AD Servers doesn't show its name)
Default Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.92 - Yours should be your ISP's DNS Servers

> betaarchive.co.uk
Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.92 - addy of the DNS Server being queried

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: betaarchive.co.uk
Address: 94.23.233.10 - You should get an IP Address back if not you are have DNS Resolution Issues

I ported my DNS Queries over to open DNS:

http://www.opendns.com/

Thanks, but I have already ruled out DNS servers. I have tried third party ones with the same results. I am begining to think its my old router crapping out on me. I am currently bypassing the router and it works great.

The only issue I see is on pingtest.com i get anywhere between a B and a C for a grade, speedtest is great though.

I will suggest it once again, when you get the issue again, do an tracert so you can see it what part of the connection it fails, You, your router, your modem, your ISP or the ISP routers can be the fault.

Just type in CMD : Tracert www.google.com or when your DNS wont respond : Tracert 74.125.53.100

It will just say host not found, it doesnt even get to step 1. Its either all or nothing. DNS either responds great or not at all.

But, ive been surfing without my router on a wired modem to computer connection for about a half hour now and no problems. So im going to have to say its the router thats doing it. Its 4 years old and was pretty cheap even when it was new. With the cheap price for routers nowadays, Im going to try a new router.

I also noticed i get almost a MB or 2 faster on speedtest without my router, and i was testing my router on a wired connection with it being the only computer connected. So i think this things going bad.

I just installed my new linksys wrt54gl router, since it had great reviews and is linux powered. So far it working great, nothing is timing out, I get better signal than my netgear router on wireless, and I even get 3-5 more MB/s than I did with my old router. The ping test is also giving me an A. Over wireless several rooms from the router i still get full speed and 4/5 bars signal. With my old netgear the signal would be low, 1 or 2 bars out of 5.

This router also supports custom firmware since its linux based, but for now im staying with the linksys firmware because i want to see if my old router really was bad. So far I think it is.

Get DD-WRT firmware. It is absolutely great firmware and I use it on my own router. Rock solid and never crashes, and offers a lot of configuration options.

go to
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

get build 13,064

Don't do what is said above. Check the site yourself and make sure you get the correct version for your router. There are several versions of the GL model router, so make sure you check the sticker on yours before downloading, and check the compatibility list for the one you can fit on your router. Not all can have the best one available.

Yes i will check several times out of parnoia to make sure I have the right firmware. It would be quite an expensive brick to make if i flashed the wrong firmware.

But since im pretty sure DD-WRT voids the warranty, Im going to wait a month or so just to make sure the router is in good working condition.

DD-WRT doesn't void the warranty, and you can't 100% brick a Linksys router. There are always ways to recover it, but it's a horrible process to have to go through so it's best to get it right the first time.