2:32 PM Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Just spent a couple of weeks trying to clear out my internet. I have internet through the cable. After trying all of the tips and tricks for renewing the IPs, resetting the winsock, and running just about every repair option and scanner built into Windows, I gave in and called the cable company.
The cable company can run tests on their end to determine if the problem was on my computer or not. It turned out to be a cable modem issue. They came down and discovered it was a lose wire.
After they went back, I again developed the same problems which included pages loading very slowly or nothing at all, I couldn't download any files - they would just stop with no indication of any error.
I assumed something was seriously corrupted on my hard drive and decided to format my drive and reinstall Windows. Unfortunately it didn't help. So again I called the cable company. This time they replaced the splitter that was on the connection inside the house.
Still no difference - but the cable repair guy suggested that it may be where there is a single connection that is split to cover two separate apartments on the outside of the building. After calling them a third time they finally decided to run a separate wire from my cable modem to a connector on the outside of the apartment building that wasn't being used.
Seemed to work until I decide to put a Router on my network. For years, since I had the internet, I was sharing the internet through a Switch. For this setup to work I had to put two ethernet adapters in my Main or Host computer. I connected one adapter to the cable modem and the second one (a crossover cable) was connected to the Uplink port of my switch.
The second computer or my Client would then just plug into the switch. Even after clearing up the main internet problem I still couldn't get the internet connection to work on my Clint computer. That's when I assumed that the Switch had gone bad and just a week or so earlier someone gave me their old router.
I set it up. Then the same problems started popping up on my Main computer. Slow page loading, downloads would not finish - but when I unhooked my host computer from the router - and plugged the modem directly into my computer everything was working fine again.
I first assumed that both my Switch and Router where CRAP! So I decided to go online and try to find the answers on what to do.
I even took out the two ethernet adapters from my computer and put two others back in. No Luck! My relatives are on Windows Live Messenger all the time on my Client computer so I wanted to get the internet on both computers. If I had a long enough crossover cable I could of just used that but I didn't have one and NO computer store here in town meant I had no opportunity to go out and buy one.
I decided to give the Router another shot. It was a Belkin wireless G Router, after doing some research online, I don't know how many pages of repeatative info that didn't help I read online until I came across two solutions that I decided to try.
To upgrade a routers firmware using my own router has an example:
Go into your router settings - for me that meant opening my web browser and typing 192.168.2.1 for the web address. This will take me to my router setup options. Do a search online with your browser name and model to find out how to access your router settings.
On my router settings page, down the left hand side of the page, under the Utilities section is the option for Firmware Update. I click on it and of course the first thing its going to ask me is my password. If you haven't set a password here just type in the default password listed - mine request you to not type in anything but just click on the Submit button.
Then I have a button to Check Firmware - when I click on this a small window opens and it seems to keep refreshing itself, so I canceled it and decided to do a manual upgrade. First I went to www.belkin.com to find the firmware updates.
To find the proper update you will need the router model and version. You find this by looking under your router. Listed on mine is:
model number - F5D7230-4 and ver - 6000tt
This is a direct link to the download page for the firmware for my model: www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&pid=F5D7230-4&aid=5027&scid=221
Then I scrolled down the list for the version listed as : Version 6xxx Firmware (the sticker at the bottom of my router said version 6000tt so ignore the tt at the end). Then there was a little downward pointing arrow on that web page clicking on that would start the download, save it to somewhere on your hard drive.
When finished downloading I had a small file called f5d7230-4_us_8.01.21.bin, then I went back to the router page for updating firmware and clicked on the Choose button and locate the downloaded file - just follow through with the instructions from there, basically the router will install the update and then reboot itself.
NOTE: You might want to look for the option to Save/backup Settings before updating.
My patience was wareing thin trying to fix these internet problems, so I found a simple setting that I could change as well on my adapter - this one involved going to the control panel - in WinXP, click on Start then Settings and control Panel or just Control Panel (depending on how your computer is set up). Vista just refers to it as the Start orb and Control.
Look for the icon called System (if you can't see it look down the left hand menu for the option to switch to Classic view, makes things easier to find.
In the System Properties box click on the Hardware tab and the Device Manager. Find your adapter in the list of devices under Network Adapters (just click on the little plus sign on the left).
Then right-click on your Adapter name, select Properties from the menu then click on the Advanced tab and look for a listing called Speed and Duplex - click on it and change the setting from Auto to 10mb/half duplex - on my adapter it is listed as 10 half mode - then OK.
I don't know which one of these worked but I finally got some decent speed back from my internet again.
Sometimes I have to scroll through dozens of links and pages to get this information, jotting notes here and there unfortunately, I don't always remember the web pages addresses - so thanks to all sources who came through google - you know who you are.
JUST AN UPDATE: 9:48 PM Monday, March 09, 2009
After doing all of this the internet trouble continued. I went online to try to find more info - didn't want to call the cable company again. I did find out how to check the modem settings.
I have a Motorola cable modem and by opening my web browser and typing 192.168.100.1, I can check out my modem status. By clicking on the Signal button on the left-hand menu I can check out the signal strength. I'm still not sure what is supposed to be but I beleive the Signal To Noise Ratio is more important.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it has to stay above 30dB. Mine was just barely there and most times down in the 27-28 range. My Downstream Power Level was down to 1.2dBmV (decibal millivolt) and it even went as low as 0.7dBmV.
My Sister was also having problems and so where others in the area. So she phoned in and the cable company told her that there was a ...transformer gone bad somewhere and it was interfering with the internet. The next day a cable truck was just a short distance from where we live, the cable and internet where blinking on and off all morning and after that - The Internet seems to be back on track again.
Current reading: Signal To Noise Ratio - 37.2 dB; Downstream Power Level 3.0 dBmV
All these weeks I blamed my computers, switch, modem, wires, and router - in the end it something on the wires up the road that was draining my internet signal.