at the end of my rope.

wcfurious · 09-25-2009, 09:31 AM

good morning all. I have been struggling to find the problem with my playstation 3 (or my network) over the last three weeks. I've spent several hours on the phone with my isp, and tried many different combinations of hardware in order to try and find the culprit, but I'm at a loss as to what is wrong.

Before moving into the place I'm in now, I had the same service from my ISP at my previous location. Shaw's extreme internet. No issues the entire time I was there with my ps3, which was connected wirelessly to my network. Never had an issue with losing connection. Since I've moved and had Shaw hooked up at the new place, I've had nothing BUT issues.

Here's what happens:

three of the games I play use p2p connections - Madden 10, NHL 10, and Fat Princess. All three of these randomly disconnect quite often. In all cases, the error that is displayed is that I have lost my connection, not the person I am playing against. Sometimes it's so bad I can't connect to the servers, sometimes I can play a full game and then disconnect in the following games.

Here's what my network looks like:

shaw extreme cable, motorola modem (without a firewall, and is not a router)
d-link dir-615 with latest firmware, currently my ps3 is behind the firewall with UPnP directing the ports (I've tried dmz and port forwarding, but I'll get to that)
ps3 connected either wirelessly or wired (have tried both repeatedly) to the router
dell xps m1730 laptop wirelessly connected to router

the laptop does not lose connection and I've had it running world of warcraft as a test while on the ps3, or sometimes I've had the router statistics page open on the laptop to see if I lose packets when I disconnect on the ps3. I will sometimes disconnect from the playstation network when I lose connection in the game, sometimes not. Sometimes when I'm watching a movie using my laptop as a media server I will lose connection to the playstation network, but not the media server. Sometimes not.

Things I have tried to fix the problem:

used two different shaw modems while online with their tech support - no change
bought a second ps3 (returning it today for refund) to see if it was my ps3 - same errors on the new ps3
tried three different routers: linksys wrt160n, wrt310n, d-link dir-615. all with the same errors
tried different cat5e cables when ps3 was a wired connection, tried connecting wirelessly as well - no change
had router next to modem, moved router across the room, it's about 10 ft from the modem now, and about 5ft from the ps3. No change
tried directly connecting the ps3 to the cable modem after power cycling both. No change - sometimes the ps3 wouldn't take an IP address, although my ISP could see one had been assigned
I've tried setting the ps3 with a static IP address and then putting it into dmz on all three routers - no change
tried forwarding the ports needed for the games to the ps3 and leaving it behind the router - no change

I'm at a loss as to what is causing the problem. I have no idea why I get errors with the media server but not every time, I don't get disconnected from the games every time, but once it starts, it seems to get worse unless I power cycle everything. Sometimes that makes no difference either. Seems to be worse in the evening but my ISP said it looked on their end like I had a perfect connection. I've had a tech come out and look at the line they installed, and it was a poor signal but it's been fixed for a week and nothing has changed.

I'm confounded and not looking to find if it's my isp at fault or not, I just want to find the problem and fix it so I can actually enjoy myself while I'm home.

any suggestion?

09-25-2009, 09:31 AM	#1 (permalink)
wcfurious Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1 OS: windows xp/ps3	at the end of my rope. good morning all. I have been struggling to find the problem with my playstation 3 (or my network) over the last three weeks. I've spent several hours on the phone with my isp, and tried many different combinations of hardware in order to try and find the culprit, but I'm at a loss as to what is wrong. Before moving into the place I'm in now, I had the same service from my ISP at my previous location. Shaw's extreme internet. No issues the entire time I was there with my ps3, which was connected wirelessly to my network. Never had an issue with losing connection. Since I've moved and had Shaw hooked up at the new place, I've had nothing BUT issues. Here's what happens: three of the games I play use p2p connections - Madden 10, NHL 10, and Fat Princess. All three of these randomly disconnect quite often. In all cases, the error that is displayed is that I have lost my connection, not the person I am playing against. Sometimes it's so bad I can't connect to the servers, sometimes I can play a full game and then disconnect in the following games. Here's what my network looks like: shaw extreme cable, motorola modem (without a firewall, and is not a router) d-link dir-615 with latest firmware, currently my ps3 is behind the firewall with UPnP directing the ports (I've tried dmz and port forwarding, but I'll get to that) ps3 connected either wirelessly or wired (have tried both repeatedly) to the router dell xps m1730 laptop wirelessly connected to router the laptop does not lose connection and I've had it running world of warcraft as a test while on the ps3, or sometimes I've had the router statistics page open on the laptop to see if I lose packets when I disconnect on the ps3. I will sometimes disconnect from the playstation network when I lose connection in the game, sometimes not. Sometimes when I'm watching a movie using my laptop as a media server I will lose connection to the playstation network, but not the media server. Sometimes not. Things I have tried to fix the problem: used two different shaw modems while online with their tech support - no change bought a second ps3 (returning it today for refund) to see if it was my ps3 - same errors on the new ps3 tried three different routers: linksys wrt160n, wrt310n, d-link dir-615. all with the same errors tried different cat5e cables when ps3 was a wired connection, tried connecting wirelessly as well - no change had router next to modem, moved router across the room, it's about 10 ft from the modem now, and about 5ft from the ps3. No change tried directly connecting the ps3 to the cable modem after power cycling both. No change - sometimes the ps3 wouldn't take an IP address, although my ISP could see one had been assigned I've tried setting the ps3 with a static IP address and then putting it into dmz on all three routers - no change tried forwarding the ports needed for the games to the ps3 and leaving it behind the router - no change I'm at a loss as to what is causing the problem. I have no idea why I get errors with the media server but not every time, I don't get disconnected from the games every time, but once it starts, it seems to get worse unless I power cycle everything. Sometimes that makes no difference either. Seems to be worse in the evening but my ISP said it looked on their end like I had a perfect connection. I've had a tech come out and look at the line they installed, and it was a poor signal but it's been fixed for a week and nothing has changed. I'm confounded and not looking to find if it's my isp at fault or not, I just want to find the problem and fix it so I can actually enjoy myself while I'm home. any suggestion?