Internet Access Goes Down

[Dean]

We have several computers sharing a router, but when my daughter uses her
computer, we all occasionally (once every few hours) lose internet access,
and I have to reboot the router and cable modem. She only uses AOL,
internet explorer, and AOL Instant Messaging. I am virtually sure the
problem is related to the latter, which is what she mostly uses. When her
computer is not active, there are no such problems.

Though I know someone will suggest getting rid of junky AIM, this is really
not an option, as both my kids (and all their buddies) use it extensively.

Strangely, we had very similar problems with her old computer connected to
our old router. When both were replaced (for other reasons) the problems
went away for about a month, but now they are back, which is either one heck
of a coincidence, or a common issue associated with AIM.

Does anyone have any direct experience with AIM and internet access
crashing? Or can you tell me where to find it? Does it make sense to try
to uninstall and reinstall? Do you think AVG Free may be having a problem
with it?

Thanks!
Dean

 

[Charlie Tame]

Much as I dislike AOL's instant messenger because of their general
"Attitude" I can't say I have reason to suspect it's causing your problem
specifically.

You mention when her computer "Is not active"... is this a sign that maybe
it the PC being turned on rather than when she is using it?

One thought I have is related to peer to peer systems. Specifically a
utility called shareazaa or similar. I tried that a while back (It's about
the only one that has no spyware) to see what it was like and by the
following day we were virtually swamped by searches and traffic. I've not
tried it again since (no time) so I cannot confirm this but our normally
reliable cable was down to a crawl.

Rebooting the modem might get you another IP address in which case the mass
of hits would stop and normality would return.

This is JUST an idea but might be one avenue to consider, I can at least say
been there and done that

Charlie

 

[Dean]

I believe there is no problem if her machine is on, but not being used.

I am confused by the rest of your answer. Are you saying that I should make
sure that she is using no peer-to-peer systems as those invite problems? If
so, I tend to agree, as I know we had problems with Kazaa and maybe even
limewire, even profiles on myspace, in a prior life. But from what I can
tell, her access has been only to AOL and AIM and yahoo.com when the problem
has been happening. I guess I could recheck our spam situation.

Any other thoughts, anyone? Anyone have similar experience with AIM?

Thanks!
Dean

 

[Jason Teagle]

Just a thought, do you have ZoneAlarm as your firewall by any chance, and
has it upgraded to V6 recently?

 

[Dean]

In case it helps, I figure I should post my findings. It appears that the
problem was simply related to my cable modem being too close to my wireless
router, at random times when one of the wireless computers was busy. This
would drop internet access to all computers, usually requiring a reboot.
But it continued to recur.

After moving the separation distance from 2 inches to one foot (3 feet was
recommended), the problem disappeared. Too bad nobody at the router company
thought to mention this potential cause until after months of
troubleshooting!

What confused me (into thinking it was AOL IM) was that I had almost the
exact same symptoms with the predecessor computer used by my daughter and my
prior router, just weeks earlier, when I was not wireless. I replaced that
router with a wireless router and the offending computer with a new one,
connecting it wirelessly.

I assume the solution above only makes sense if there is a wireless router,
right? So, the cause, with the non wireless configurations, must have been
different, despite the exact same symptoms. Do you agree?

Thanks!
Dean