Very confounding problem!!!

frogger626 · 07-13-2007, 02:05 PM

Hello again. My home has cabe internet, which is fed to a BestData CMX300 modem, and fed to our router, a Linksys Wireless-G WRT54GS. We have three active computers: A new laptop, A new desktop, and a 5-odd-year-old desktop. The laptop and new desktop operate wirelessly, but the old computer operates on a CAT-5e wired connection. Both the router and the two new computers are less than 6 months old. Our old computer has had constant problems with internet connections. The new ones have uninterrupted internet connections, but about 1/2 the time our old one is dissconnected. I am, of course, writing form the new desktop. The old computer has been without a connection for at least 24 hours. We are wondering if our several-year-old modem is the problem. The lights that indicate power, cable, LAN, and TX are on (TX is flickering slightly) but RX is barely flickering. Any ideas?

byroz · 07-13-2007, 02:51 PM

I doubt that the problem will lie with your Modem, as if it was having trouble then neither your Laptop nor New Desktop would be able to use the internet.

The most likely problem from the info you provided would be the Cat 5e cable that connects the old computer to the Router, if that has a broken cable or faulty connector on it, it could be causing the intermittent connection.

There are three things you could try, firstly, if your laptop has a network socket, connect it to the router using the cable that plugs into your old PC and see what the connection is like, if it's stable then you know that the cable is not the problem.

If the problem persists on the laptop, then you could try plugging the network cable into a different socket in the router, just in case the one it’s using is faulty.

If the problem is still present, then I would suggest trying an entirely new cable and seeing if that does anything to resolve it.

If none of the above have any success, then it would seem that something on the Old PC is causing the connection to drop out.

I would suggest next time you are on the old PC and the connection drops out, click on Start, go Run and type in "CMD" (no quotes) then press enter, that will open a command Prompt. In here type "IPconfig /all" (no quotes) and make a note of what it says against "IP Address and Default Gateway" and then do the same on one of your other computers and compare them.

The Default gateway should be the same, and the IP address should be similar, usually just the last set of digits that will be different.

If you are still having problems the above information would also be useful to include in your next post.

07-13-2007, 02:05 PM	#1 (permalink)
frogger626 Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Location: Salina, KS Posts: 25 OS: Vista 64bit, SP1 desktop: Vista 32bit, SP1 laptop	Very confounding problem!!! Hello again. My home has cabe internet, which is fed to a BestData CMX300 modem, and fed to our router, a Linksys Wireless-G WRT54GS. We have three active computers: A new laptop, A new desktop, and a 5-odd-year-old desktop. The laptop and new desktop operate wirelessly, but the old computer operates on a CAT-5e wired connection. Both the router and the two new computers are less than 6 months old. Our old computer has had constant problems with internet connections. The new ones have uninterrupted internet connections, but about 1/2 the time our old one is dissconnected. I am, of course, writing form the new desktop. The old computer has been without a connection for at least 24 hours. We are wondering if our several-year-old modem is the problem. The lights that indicate power, cable, LAN, and TX are on (TX is flickering slightly) but RX is barely flickering. Any ideas?

07-13-2007, 02:51 PM	#2 (permalink)
byroz Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Manchester, England Posts: 75 OS: Win XP Pro My System	Re: Very confounding problem!!! I doubt that the problem will lie with your Modem, as if it was having trouble then neither your Laptop nor New Desktop would be able to use the internet. The most likely problem from the info you provided would be the Cat 5e cable that connects the old computer to the Router, if that has a broken cable or faulty connector on it, it could be causing the intermittent connection. There are three things you could try, firstly, if your laptop has a network socket, connect it to the router using the cable that plugs into your old PC and see what the connection is like, if it's stable then you know that the cable is not the problem. If the problem persists on the laptop, then you could try plugging the network cable into a different socket in the router, just in case the one it’s using is faulty. If the problem is still present, then I would suggest trying an entirely new cable and seeing if that does anything to resolve it. If none of the above have any success, then it would seem that something on the Old PC is causing the connection to drop out. I would suggest next time you are on the old PC and the connection drops out, click on Start, go Run and type in "CMD" (no quotes) then press enter, that will open a command Prompt. In here type "IPconfig /all" (no quotes) and make a note of what it says against "IP Address and Default Gateway" and then do the same on one of your other computers and compare them. The Default gateway should be the same, and the IP address should be similar, usually just the last set of digits that will be different. If you are still having problems the above information would also be useful to include in your next post. __________________ “Contrary to what you might think, techs rarely need a hammer”