mapper,
You're likely dealing with a dealing with a Layer 1 issue, involving your physical connections! You said that both the 2 wireless computers and the single wired computer all have a solid connection to the router, which means it's more than likely not an issue with the router which is good. You also said that all three computers consistently drop the connection; normally I would suggest taking a look at the NIC's on each computer, however the fact that one of your computers is directly connected to the modem (not the router) and continues to drop it's connection as well, it is unlikely that the problem involves the NIC's. Not to mentioned the odds that all three NIC's are faulty is pretty low. Based on all of that information, I'm fairly confident that the problem is with your physical wiring from the modem to ISP.
Unfortunately, many physical layer issues will require you to call your ISP so that they can send a tech out to your house. I do however have a few ideas of what the problem might be. NOTE: these are just best guess!
1. Sometimes when a modem continuously drops it's internet connection, it may be an indication that you have too many splitters or substandard wiring. A great to check if this might be the problem is to check the Upstream power levels of your modem. Acceptable power levels should be anywhere between 30 - 52dBmv however less than 50dBmv is ideal. To check your upstream you will have to login to your
Modems web interface. For me I did the following:
-
http://192.168.100.1
- I have a Ubee modem and the default user/pass was user/user
- Once logged in I can view all of the statistics for my modem
If your upstream is too high figure out how many splitters you have including the splitter that the cable techs connect to cable running from their cable box outside. The more splitters you have the weaker your signal will be typically a splitter will have 3.5dB loss on each port. Each additional splitter weakens the power levels of your cable. For example a splitter is supposed to equally divide the signal from the input port amongst the output ports (i.e. splitter 1 receives 100% signal and splits it up equally so that both output ports have 50% each. The problem starts once additional splitters are added to the mix. Example a 3-way splitter has an additonal 2-way splitter that's connected to one of the output ports from splitter1. As before, splitter 1 takes 100% signal and distributes 50% on each port; splitter 2 thats connected to one of those ports splits the 50% from it's input and distributes 25% on it's two ports. As you can see the signal loss starts to rack up pretty quickly as splitter 2 has 7dB loss per port (bc it split the 3.5dB loss into 2 making it 7dB) and the second port from splitter 1 still has 3.5dB loss.
This can sometimes be fixed by installing a distribution amplifier, however it's important to make sure that the cable companies techs install the amplifier the correct way, which is
Before the
first splitter. Sometimes they have no clue what they're doing and they install the amplifier after a splitter (or two) and all it's doing is amplifying an already weak signal rather than amping a strong signal like it should.
2. Router is too close to the modem. If the router is too close to the modem it may cause uneven signals and cause the connection to be dropped. This isn't quite as common as some of the other's but still possible nonetheless.
3. Make sure that you follow the proper process when connecting directly any device to the modem
- unplug modems power cord
- connect the computer and modem via ethernet
- plug modem back in
- restart computer
*Whenever you directly connect something to the modem that wasn't previously connected to it when the network was first set up you will likely run into issues. It's important that you follow the proper steps to avoid config issues. Cable modems
only recognize new connections upon restart, which is why you unplug it first.
It is also possible that the modem has gone bad so look into that as well.
Unfortunately you may just have to set up a tech visit; sometimes physical layer issues are completely out of our control which is good and bad.
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