No Internet Access

[tom88]

I’m not sure this is the correct group, I’m sure someone will be kind
enough to tell me where to go if it isn’t :>)

Quite often I have no internet access. Switching the power off /on to
the modem fixes the problem.

I have Verizon Fios but the same problem existed with DSL.

The problem arises with far greater frequency if my daughter is using
her computer. It can be as simple as her opening a browser or clicking
on a link. I have connected her computer with both cable and wireless,
there seems to be no difference. I have also experienced the problem
when her computer was powered off.

Sometimes weeks pass without a hangup, other times it can happen several
times a day.

I’ve had a number of sessions with Verizon support and it’s easier to
live with the problem than deal with them, that may be by design.

When I had DSL we replaced the modem, removed all computers but 1 from
the network (I had 5 at that time), and rewired the house. Nothing changed.

When the problem reappeared with Fios I bought my daughter a new
computer and removed the other computers from the network except mine,
which has worked flawlessly at another location for a year.

Both computers are running XP-Pro SP3 and FireFox, although I believe
this problem existed with IE also. I’m going to switch back to IE and
see if there is any change.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Big_Al]

I’m not sure this is the correct group, I’m sure someone will be kind
enough to tell me where to go if it isn’t :>)

Quite often I have no internet access. Switching the power off /on to
the modem fixes the problem.

I have Verizon Fios but the same problem existed with DSL.

The problem arises with far greater frequency if my daughter is using
her computer. It can be as simple as her opening a browser or clicking
on a link. I have connected her computer with both cable and wireless,
there seems to be no difference. I have also experienced the problem
when her computer was powered off.

Sometimes weeks pass without a hangup, other times it can happen several
times a day.

I’ve had a number of sessions with Verizon support and it’s easier to
live with the problem than deal with them, that may be by design.

When I had DSL we replaced the modem, removed all computers but 1 from
the network (I had 5 at that time), and rewired the house. Nothing
changed.

When the problem reappeared with Fios I bought my daughter a new
computer and removed the other computers from the network except mine,
which has worked flawlessly at another location for a year.

Both computers are running XP-Pro SP3 and FireFox, although I believe
this problem existed with IE also. I’m going to switch back to IE and
see if there is any change.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

You really need to break this down to small pieces. You gave us some
info, yet not much more than something don't work. I think we need
specifics to respond better.

When your internet stops, can you see the router?
When your internet stops, can you see other computers on the network?
And yes, don't use wireless if you can, its just one more thing to cause
a problem. Stay with wire for a while to troubleshoot.
If you can't seen the router, open a 'cmd' prompt from 'run' and type in:
ipconfig /all
and do you have valid IP address and gateway info.

If any of this is over your head then reply and ask, give us some more
info. Someone will assist you. If you get more facts, someone may be
able to address the problem a bit more. Also you've talked to
Verizon, I have them too and I know they are a bit robotic, but do they
give you any excuse or diagnosis.

You have this with both DSL and FIOS, (I'm not sure why you are paying
for two things that do the same, but I'll leave this alone.), so this
makes me think its something internal to your house. You might want to
put all the equipment on a UPS? If you have a hub between your router
and PC's you might have bad equipment there, you might have a bad cable
even.

You could/should try just plugging one PC into the Verizon router with a
wire.

I know all this is hell on life but if you really want to fix it, it may
be hell to fix too. I had an issue where I got poor service (speed)
on my old cable modem and swore it was the modem or cable company and it
turned out that the linksys and netgear routers failed to work with the
built in 1 gigabit network card on my motherboard. I switched
everything, wires, routers, etc. As much as it was my PC problem, it
effected my wife's PC too. And that I don't understand to this day.
When I bought a 10$ 10/100 nic card and put it in my PC, all fixed
itself. 2 years later I got verizon and of course a new router/modem
and I have switched back to the internal gigabit card and all works
fine. It was the cable modem failing to work with my nic card. But
it was intermittent and it took me 2 months to find it. Somehow the
traffic from my pc and that card caused the modem to just go off line or
start dropping data packets giving me unreliable communications.

 

[tom88]

Thanks for your response.

I’ve been through many sessions of support with Verizon. I’ve
ipconfig’d, pinged, removed all computers from the network but one,
connected directly, replaced all the cables, rewired the house, replaced
the modem, and anything else you can think of.

At some point in the troubleshooting process we reset or power cycle the
modem and the problem is fixed. It may be hours or weeks before we have
another chance to troubleshoot.

This is not my area of expertise but as a layman this seems like a
foolish way to troubleshoot. It seems like nobody really knows anything
and we’ll just keep trying this and that until the problem goes away.

Why isn’t there a diagnostic tool to pinpoint the problem, such as the
modem is waiting on a response from the computer or the computer is
waiting on the modem and this is the reason why?