Home network woes...

[MartyS (Gromit)]

The ethernet ports on my router died, so while I was getting a new router I figured I would update my modem as well since it's had to be at least 6 years old.

Went a little over budget on both the router and the modem, got a Netgear CM1000 and an Asus RT-AC88u.

Hooked up the modem and got the login page to activate it, all seemed to go well except speed tests were coming up way short, it was stuck at 100Mbps (was getting 350 with the old modem).  That particular speed made me suspect the ethernet ports weren't going to 1000Mbps but both the router when plugged in and a laptop both said the speed was 1000.

So waited an hour and rebooted and reset the modem a few times to get a new config but still stuck at 100...

Went into chat with comcast and wasted about 10 minutes answering questions about stuff I already tried (after saying up front all the stuff I had tried), then the guy kept trying to reboot my modem and nothing was happening, he never once asked for info about the modem so I gave him the model and mac address and that finally got the modem rebooted with the correct provisioning.  He said it wasn't correctly set up on my account, he also took my old modem off the account.

Moral of that story: just tell the CSR what to do.... 

I am kind of upset that the router failed just short of 2 years old, it was an Asus RT-AC68, looking for fixes I found quite a few posts about the ethernet ports failing on those.  Hope the new one lasts much longer, the Asus router I had before the 68 was still working fine but had gotten so old there were no new firmware updates for it, and it still worked fine for a day while I got the new stuff.

And to add to the annoyance of setting everything up some of my wireless devices connected fine at first but then quit, worst one was my thermostat, it would refuse to pull an IP address from the router, had to turn on the guest network and it would connect to that, then use the IP address it got as a manually assigned address on the normal network, since then it's been working fine.

Why is it that what you think is going to be a quick and easy hardware change on the network or on a PC always seems to eat up many hours?   

[ihavemyreasons]

Was having issues with cable TV freezing and internet service dropping for about a couple of seconds every 15 minutes or so (would dump the TV if the wife would let me or I had another provider for internet service). Decided to run new RG6 cable from the cable junction box on the side side of the house into the house. Was hoping for an increase in internet speed as a bonus. No speed increase, but fixed my drop out problem (old cable was probably 30 years old).

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Was having issues with cable TV freezing and internet service dropping for about a couple of seconds every 15 minutes or so (would dump the TV if the wife would let me or I had another provider for internet service). Decided to run new RG6 cable from the cable junction box on the side side of the house into the house. Was hoping for an increase in internet speed as a bonus. No speed increase, but fixed my drop out problem (old cable was probably 30 years old).

There should be a web page someone on your modem to give you signal levels, and also usually a page with error messages.
Downstream is fairly forgiving and should be in the -10 to +10 dB range, upstream is less forgiving, if it starts getting up near 50 dB you usually start getting disconnects.  Internet will usually disconnect before TV, so if TV is out the signal is pretty bad.

Water getting into the core of outside coax can mess up the insulation, along with heat/cold cycles, if the drop from the street is the same age you may want to call and have that replaced.

Also check for lose connections, and try to use the least number of splitters, each split drops the signal about 3 dB.

[Darth Geek]

I've been having internet dropoff issues with my home Wifi as well. The router is from Comcast and it's about 5 years old so I figured it was starting to die.

[ihavemyreasons]

Was experiencing need to frequently reboot my 3+ year old router - like once or twice every day. Didn't think I really needed a mesh network, but found a good deal on a triband router and 2 mesh units. Wow. Download speeds not any quicker (isp service is what it is), but full strength signal everywhere in house and no video buffering that I used to experience in basement office (was quick stutters here and there, not like years ago youtube or Netflix buffering, but now no stutters).

[ihavemyreasons]

My HTPC wasn't connecting to my new mesh network. Let Windows 10 run a diagnostics check and for the first time in as long as I can remember Windows diagnostics actually fixed something.

[ihavemyreasons]

Have new router set up to automatically reboot in middle of night 2 nights a week, but have not had to manually reboot it a single time.

And while it would be nice to have a faster ISP service, at least my service doesn't have a data cap because it is amazing to check my data usage since starting to work from home. Not sure what my normal was in past or what a typical normal is, but 750 GB in last 30 days (the majority of that probably isn't work related, but almost always have something streaming in addition to all the video calls these days).

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I also have my router setup to reboot but only once a week, I think in the last few years I've only needed to reboot it manually once.

Comcast recently increased the speed for the blast package to 600Mbps, with over provisioning I'm getting 710 on speed tests.  Glad I upgraded my modem a few years ago, it's crazy downloading games from Steam so fast, a 2 gig update only takes a minute....

I've only gone close to 1TB in a month once, usually I'm around 500GB.  My house has FIOS cables run to it so if I ever do start getting charged for too much data I can switch fairly easily.  FIOS was always more expensive for the same download speed so I stayed with Comcast when I moved but now the price seems to be about the same.

[ihavemyreasons]

Just figured out what a lot of my data usage was. Hard drive that had all my old MST3K episodes on it crashed. Has long been a fear and a couple of years ago I had paid for 1TB of lifetime encrypted personal data locker service and unloaded them all there. Took weeks to upload them. Downloaded them all to new harddrive last Sunday.

[ihavemyreasons]

Have an ISP competitor coming to town. Area phone company that currently offers terrible DSL service expanding into fiber. Gig plus TV service that will be about half of what I'm paying now for nowhere near gig speeds. Supposed to hit my neighborhood Q1 of 2023.

[ihavemyreasons]

Internet speeds slowed to a crawl the last couple of days. Rebooted modem a couple of times. Didn't help. Found diagnostics in admin settings and there were a whole string of error messages. Then found the modem hot enough to fry an egg. Great. Gonna need a new modem. Went to check the latest list of acceptable modems on my ISPs website and learned they're back to providing free modems again if you upgrade to a higher speed plan.  Talked to 3 different customer service people who all gave me varying stories about pricing and what service was available at my address (none of which matched the website). Eventually changed a few things on my TV service, updated my internet tier to 300mps service (which may or may not be the best they offer at my address depending on which customer service person you talk to). Paying the same as before. Went and picked up new modem and exchanged 2 year old cable TV boxes for the latest versions. Now getting 300 to 350 down vs previous 60 to 80.

[RVR II]

Our ISP provides Arris modems and they seem sketchy at times..
Had to replace my router that was limited to 100mbps to a 1000mbps a couple years ago but I'm paying $75/month for the lowest tier 'Standard speed' Internet (400Mbps x 5Mbps) and I've hardly ever gotten the speeds I'm supposed to be paying for..
Checked my internet speeds and I'm only getting around 360mbps download speeds so yeah I'm still not getting what I'm paying for

[ihavemyreasons]

Came home after a week away to no internet. Cable modem OK, but less than year old router wouldn't connect. Old router worked, but quickly remembered why I replaced it - drops connection frequently. Hard reset was a pain in the ass with having to rename SSID and reset password, but newer router working again for now.

[ihavemyreasons]

Not really a woe as far as service, but finally, finally, finally have a choice in internet service providers. Have had a cable tv / internet package since moving here. Rates go up every year and scumbag cable company won't give long time customers same rates as new customers any more. Ditched the cable TV today and went with fubo.tv (has what I want for sports channels) and new fiber isp service with twice the speed for half the cost (with no contract, 2 year price lock, and first 3 months free) scheduled for install in 2 weeks. Figure if new fiber isp sucks, I'll switch back to cable and get the "new" customer pricing they won't give me as an existing customer.

[ihavemyreasons]

Reached out to cable company today to see if they would cut me a deal on ISP service since I've been with them for TV and internet for 20 years. Customer service online chat said call customer service phone number. Customer service on phone said take deal you're getting from new isp to local store and they'll match it. Local store said FU, go to your new ISP. So I am.