# Bad Modem symptoms?



## Brandon G (Jul 7, 2010)

Alright, so a little while ago (roughly four months) I began to experience internet disconnections. I am running Charter cable high speed internet through an Ambit cable modem hooked up to a Dynex router. My modem is roughly four to five years old. I currently am using a wired setup utilizing about four Ethernet cords to get the job done. I split my internet only to my computer and my Xbox 360. Well as I stated before I started experiencing internet disconnections where the ready light on my modem would begin flashing and not stay stable. At first I thought it was just random, but after continuous disconnects I decided to do a direct connection from my modem to my computer. I still began experiencing problems. I proceeded to contact my ISP and they told me everything was fine on there end. Recently My internet has gotten much worse. It now disconnects daily and at times it will slow down to a grind. I am at the end of my wits with this thing. Charter is telling me nothing is wrong with the internet stream into my house. I have tested countless different Ethernet cords utilizing a direct connection, but the disconnects and slowed internet won't stop. I would really like it if someone could shed some light on my situation.


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## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

Hello and Welcome to TSF!

See if Power Cycling helps, if not proceed to the next recommendation.

1.	Save all your current work, close all open applications, then shut down your computer. Wait for a minute. 
2.	First, turn your Router off and wait for a couple of minutes. 
3.	Turn off your modem. 
4.	Disconnect all the ethernet cables that are connected to the router and modem and the PC. 
5.	Reconnect them and ensure that there are no loose connections in between them. 
6.	Now, switch on your PC and let it boot. 
7.	Switch on the modem first and after it gets initialized, switch on the router. 

=============================
You may update your router's firmware to the latest and resetting your router the factory default then re-configure everything. If that didn't help at all, 
since you have tried a direct connection to your modem and still experiencing disconnection, maybe it's time to replace your Modem if it's 5 yr old.

Please post update.


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## Ollid (Oct 28, 2011)

Hi Brandon,

I'm new to the forum, so I apologize in advance if I am transgressing any rules by replying to such an old thread. However, I saw that your problem was almost exactly the same as mine (I also initially thought the modem was broken), and thought that I might be able to help others by posting what steps my family took to try and solve the problem.

We live in a large condo building in Chicago and have been enjoying high speed cable internet from Comcast and satellite TV from DirecTV for a few years without issue. In these last few months we started suffering random, sudden deterioration of internet speed (to the point where web pages never load). These episodes would last for hours, but recently they have been getting worse and lasting for days. Strangely, the modem has all solid green lights, and direct connection of the PC to the modem via two different ethernet cables doesn't help.

We called Comcast, and after some investigation the technician deduced that DirecTV had installed a special splitter that allows us to use their satellite TV service along with Comcast's cable internet service (in more detail, he said that the splitter splits the single main cable - which carries all of the building's signals into our unit - into two separate high and low frequency cables, the higher one being the satellite signal). He told us that Comcast doesn't deal with DirecTV's special splitters, and that we need to contact them for a new one as the current one had apparently broke and is causing data distortion of the internet signal.

We didn't really buy the "defective splitter" argument, so we called DirecTV for help. Their explanation was totally different. They said that using a splitter to enable both Comcast and DirecTV services is generally problematic, and admitted that they ignored potential long term problems when they installed their tv service. They said that Comcast has recently altered their cable signals (apparently to sign on more customers?), and that these changes have disturbed some necessary balance of signals in our building's cable room. As a result, both our tv and internet connections have deteriorated (indeed, we have recently noticed that our tv was having some intermittent connectivity issues).

So the bottom line is, having different internet/tv service providers can sometimes lead to nasty interference in the cable room, especially when the frequencies are so different (satellite frequencies are unilaterally higher than cable frequencies). In the end, we decided to go with DirecTV's satellite tv and AT&T's phone line internet service - therefore, the two signals would be on separate lines. Our switch from Comcast hasn't occurred yet, but we are optimistic!


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## Ollid (Oct 28, 2011)

With a little more internet research, I learned that our setup is much like the one described here: Using a diplexer with cable internet and sattelite TV - Tech Support Guy Forums

Apparently, what I referred to as a "splitter" is actually the second of a pair of "diplexers." It seems that the success of this setup depends largely on what frequencies the cable service provider uses. If this is true, the change in Comcast's signal/service (that the DirecTV technician referred to) could indeed have caused our "unique" cable internet setup to fail.

Interestingly, disconnecting the satellite tv cable from the second diplexer (the one in our condo), and leaving the modem's cable attached, restores a lot of our internet capacity. It is still not at maximum speed, but it is extremely noticeably improved.


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## Fred Garvin (Sep 4, 2010)

Olli, this thread is over a year old and the OP has most likely resolved his problem by now.


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