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[Trikein]

Tell your brother we send our congrats! 

I will, Thanks!

What could be causing the computer to display I still have an internet connection (i.e. not saying "Local Only"), but still being unable to get to a website or log into a game?  Would that be the modem?  I know that Time Warner has the Motorola modem, should I request a tradeout?

Well I can say whats causing it technically. A "discovering Network" is when it cant reach or aquire the default gateway. A Local only, Limited or no connectivity, or 169, is when it can't get a IP. And when it can get a IP, DNS and DNS suffix, it will show a internet connection. However, if you obtain those things and then the connections faults, it doesn't know it cant use what it has. It only check the connection during startup of the connection. No doabt if when it happened you disabled the connection and enabled it, it wouldn't work.

As for what is "causing" that to happen, don't know yet. Could be a problem with DHCP renewing the IP lease, but if the IP is set with a DHCP reseveration, then DHCP on the LAN doesn't play a role for that computer. Could be a DHCP failure on part of the ISP on IP renewal of the router's IP, or a DHCP failure on the routers part. I think its the former, because thats probably when the modem resets and looses sync. Boots up, tries to renew or confirm the lease on the IP the modem is giving out and fails. You reboot the router, it tries again, this time with it releasing the IP so it forces a renew(as compared to a lease check) and it aquires. But all of this is quess work. It could be countless other things. Maybe the router won't release the IP when the modem asks(without a power cycle) to renew because it has active sessions via the WoW torrent that it can't close?  Improper handling of PSK and ACK? I just don't know :-(

[Mogorain]

Ok... new information I've obtained.  My router shows hardly any issues when I lose connection -- which is happening incessantly now -- but my modem does.  Take a look.  This is only a small part of the log.  Keep in mind that this was at about 8:30pm Fri Oct 29.  The time on the modem is WAY off, by about 15 hours or so.  It reads from bottom to top (newest on top).

Last Time                            Priority               Description
Sat Oct 30 04:30:47 2010   Info (7)        Authorized
Sat Oct 30 04:30:46 2010   Info (7)        Registration complete!
Sat Oct 30 04:30:46 2010   Info (7)        We registered with a DOCSIS 1.1 config file!
Sat Oct 30 04:30:46 2010   Info (7)        Received a REG-RSP message from the CMTS...
Sat Oct 30 04:30:46 2010   Info (7)        Sending a REG-REQ to the CMTS...
Sat Oct 30 04:30:46 2010   Info (7)        CableModem SNMP configure complete
Sat Oct 30 04:30:46 2010   Notice (6)     TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
Sat Oct 30 04:30:43 2010   Info (7)        IP init completed ok
Sat Oct 30 04:30:43 2010   Info (7)        CableModem TFTP init ok
Sat Oct 30 04:30:40 2010   Info (7)        CableModem DHCP client init ok
Sat Oct 30 04:30:40 2010   Critical (3)    DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Sat Oct 30 04:30:29 2010   Info (7)        MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Sat Oct 30 04:30:04 2010   Critical (3)    No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Sat Oct 30 04:30:04 2010   Info (7)        MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Sat Oct 30 04:30:01 2010   Critical (3)    No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Sat Oct 30 04:30:01 2010   Info (7)        MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Sat Oct 30 04:30:01 2010   Critical (3)    No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Sat Oct 30 04:30:01 2010   Info (7)        MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Sat Oct 30 04:30:00 2010   Critical (3)    No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Sat Oct 30 04:30:00 2010   Info (7)        MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Sat Oct 30 04:30:00 2010   Info (7)        Downstream sync ok
Sat Oct 30 04:30:00 2010   Info (7)        Beginning initial ranging...
Sat Oct 30 04:30:00 2010   Info (7)        downstream time sync acquired...
Sat Oct 30 04:30:00 2010   Info (7)        Downstream sync ok
Sat Oct 30 04:29:59 2010   Info (7)        starting ds time sync acquisition...
Sat Oct 30 04:29:59 2010   Info (7)        Received a UCD message!
Sat Oct 30 04:29:57 2010   Info (7)        Locked on the downstream. Waiting for UCDs...
Sat Oct 30 04:29:57 2010   Info (7)        Downstream lock ok
Sat Oct 30 04:29:56 2010   Info (7)        Sync Start
Sat Oct 30 04:29:55 2010   Critical (3)    Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no
                                                        Un...
Sat Oct 30 04:29:55 2010                     Reset downstream scanning state!
Sat Oct 30 04:29:23 2010   Critical (3)    Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No response received..

This exact sequence appears in the modem every time I lose connection and have to wait for it to reacquire.  While googling the "T3 Timeout" and "Broadcast Maintenance Request no response" I came across a thread with many people experiencing this.  Someone who claims to have been a Senior Tech for a cable company (I think Charter, if I'm not mistaken) said that happens when there's a problem with the line somewhere.  It has nothing to do with my router or modem, though the cable company will insist it does.  What's your take on this, Trike and/or Furry??

[FurryNutz]

Ok, really looks like them logs are capturing the signal loss and the modem logs are reporting whats going on afterwards. Seems like the Ranging is not getting a response for a period of time. Have you showed the ISP these logs?

First thing I would do is check the Cable going into the ISP modem and make sure it's good, no breaks or cracks in the line. Then make sure there are as few to no cable splitters as possible as these will degrade the signal the more you have on the line, if you have any.

2ndly, I would get the ISP to send out a tech guy. Most of the CS people only look and the surface and aren't much help. Demand a tech to come out and so you can show him and he can look and see and test everything.

All this that your saying is pointing to the signal on the lines and the ISP modem. Once the signal can be stabilized then all of your disconnect issues should go away. Let us know how it goes. Hope they find the issue.

[Mogorain]

Disconnects are happening more frequently. I do have a splitter because I have cable TV as well, and it's in the other room.  There's only one cable outlet in this apartment and it's not possible to get one elsewhere without permission -- which would be a battle to obtain -- so I'm stuck with the splitter.

However, I called Time Warner and they checked.  Found errors on the modem that they cannot correct remotely, so a technician will be sent out on Tuesday.  They also do not believe it's the modem, but the lines outside that are causing the constant issues, so they'll be testing those as well.  Score!

[Trikein]

T3...::Scary music::. Now your talking my man, how deep do you want to go? Lets get started with some links.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/signal.html

"Fundamentally, a T3 timeout occurs when the cable modem fails to receive a RNG-RSP from the CMTS within 200 msec (after sending a RNG-REQ).  A T4 timeout occurs when a cable modem fails to receive a RNG-REQ transmit grant MAP from the CMTS within 35 sec on the downstream channel (after receiving the previous RNG-RSP).  There are number of reasons that these could occur and I will list a couple below for each and help guide you the root cause, but understand this is not and exhaustive list."

Quote from http://bradyvolpe.com/docsis-101/docsis101_station-maintenance/

So what does that all mean? Think of your modem as a record player, and your internet like the music, and the signal coming in through the cable wire like the record. Now, a T3 is like the music skipping. It could be a scratch in the record(signal issue), the record player wobbling (modem firmware), a issue with the needle (modem hardware), or someone bumps the player (electrical). Now like in real life, the most likly cause is a scratch in the record or someone bumping the table. So is the most likly cause of T3 electrical or signal. Much more so with modems, its likly to be signal. Now that isn't really accurate when it comes to the complexity, because as you see in the links, DOCSIS is a pretty heavy, and doesn't translate all that well into simple talk. (Not that anyone here is a laymen, just going into the thick of it would only complicate things)

Anyway, yes, I agree, likly signal related. To be honest, I think its going to take them a couple trips maybe to find the problem. Unless you get a above adverage tech on the first try, or unless you get lucky and its something straight forward like signal ingress from a splitter outside or something. Because if its not that, its probably something that going on your street's amp, and they won't see that unless they rule everything out first (and rightfully so). So fingers crossed, your on the right track, let us know how it goes or if you have any specific questions.

[Mogorain]

TL;DR --  We can rule out the router!  Yay Dlink

Time Warner came out today.  They swapped out the modem because they were getting some errors from it, and figured it was better safe than sorry... same modem type though; an Ambit.
He first tried to tell me it could be my computer's network card or my router, but I argued that the router is between the network card and the modem -- so if the router can't ping out it's not involving the network card. Besides, even with the router off the modem was displaying those issues.  He was going to show me that the line was fine... but his tests weren't responding.  hehe

Turns out their first problem is the main console outside.  It's giving serious fluctuations in the tests, so he has a service call in to repair that.  He also conceded that it must be the lines somewhere, and they may not have completely solved it with just this first step.  Thank you guys for giving me at least a basic knowledge to prevent being told to replace something that didn't need to be replaced! 

The IT guy at Time Warner was only able to detect that I'd lost connection five times in five days (which he still said was way too often), but I showed the service tech the records I had of it happening every ten or so minutes, and he forwarded that.  They're pretty interested in resolving this now.

[FurryNutz]

YAAAAAAAAAAAA 
Good to hear man. Sounds exactly like my buddy on his ATT DSL last year...They saw the disconnects on there side of the modem. They fixed it.

Good to hear man. Good to hear. Then this is resolved for you?

[Trikein]

Wooohooo. Glad to hear man. I didn't know you had a underground drop though, so yea, pedistool is likely the issue. They can be a real mess sometimes. A bit of advice, unless you actually see someone out there working on it, call back in a day or two to see if a ticket or something was actually put in to get it fixed. Sometimes there will just be mention of it in the notes on your account or something, other times theres a actual ticket number you can reference to keep on top of it. Sometimes it gets overlooked though. The tech means well..puts it on his mental to do list to call it in, but doesn't.

 Also, keep in mind we were having some issues with WoW in the beginning, and now that the big problem is being worked on, they might show their ugly face again. No reason to loose focus now that were in the home stretch. :-) Glad things are working out though. Wooot!!!

[FurryNutz]

 

[Mogorain]

>.>

<.<

Ya just had to rain on my parade, Trike.  :p   Yeah, I know there's still the underlying issue of the router and WoW.  But now that we get the big issues resolved, the little ones will be easier to track since they're not being lost in the glare of the larger problems.

I got home from work (a second time) today, and my girlfriend said we're still getting internet drops, so they haven't come out yet.  I'll call tomorrow and make sure they don't forget about it. 

[Trikein]

::ducks::

Its just when I sense the upcoming victory, THATS when I am driven to mercilesslyhunt down every little problem until the issue is dead. ::nod:: Take no prisoners!! For the muthaland!! Hehe

[Mogorain]

Yay, our old friend is back!

I have remained online for the entire night... my girlfriend hasn't been so lucky.  In fact, when we logged into WoW is was most prevalent (since WoW is very unforgiving with dropped packets and such).   I stayed online while she repeatedly dropped connection from WoW every 30 seconds or less.  Some disconnections happened even before she could become fully connected.  She would log in, handshake, drop...

I have changed no settings in my router. There were no specific settings in her computer that should be changed because of a new modem.  There are no rules in the router... so nothing there is at fault.  The router's log doesn't show anything, nor does the Ambit modem (since it isn't disconnecting)...

Hmm... upon looking at our past messages I must've missed some things when I did the factory reset.  I have a few questions.

• Is Unicasting or Multicasting preferable?

I noticed that in the modem logs when it has errors it says "Init unicast blah blah" but that doesn't have anything to do with the router and my girlfriend's wireless. What's the difference between the two?  I'm sure I could look it up but Trike's analogies are easier for me to explain to my girlfriend after I get it.  hehe

• What is WISH and should it be on?

I could've sworn that I had read in one of the threads a suggestion to turn it off, but can't find it for the life of me.  Would that affect her connection?

[Trikein]

Well the second question is easy enough, if theres two wireless computers, and when you use one the other slows down(or otherwise doesn't work correctly), WISH can be used to adjust that. If its one wireless and one wired, its better to use gamefuel. The reason alot of people disable it is if your not using it,  then by default, any wireless HTTP(Website) traffic gets priority. So if your on the laptop playing WoW, and your girlfriend starts watching Youtube, it slows down your WoW more then usual. However if left enable, you can priortize your traffic. We will go over that if needed, but first I have to look back (like you did) and see how your network is set up to see if its even needed.

As for your second question, about Unicasting vs Multicasting. I thought I knew the answer right off the top of my head, but it looks like it may be a bit more complicated then I thought. So I will have to do some more research and see exactly what the Pro/Cons are when in reference to WoW. Think of Unicasting as a IM while Multicasting is a chat room. Unicasting assumes the reciever of the information sent is correct by default based on the medium. With multicasting though, it must announce who it is and where the information is going on each broadcast. A modem is a unicast connection. The ISP and Modem are constantly checking to make sure that connection is stable, and when it isn't you get those T3 errors we were talking about before. Once that connection is established though, the modem doesn't have to broadcast who you are and give your username and password and stuff, the ISP just knows your allowed on. The question is, are those settings for the WAN or the LAN? Are they talking about the connection type of your internet or the network transmission type of the WoW server? If the latter, I will have to research exactly how WoW network connection work. Do you know of any support site for this? Maybe something with some real technical stuff on it? I don't know the WoW site as well as you probably do. Also, It would be helpful is there was a way to check the error logs of the game. Theres probably somewhere in the game files that will tell why she is having problems connecting.

Oh and speaking of which, if you have reset your router to default, you may have to go back in there and set up all the rules and settings we were working on before.

[FurryNutz]

Before you reset the router, Save off the current configuration to file. So you can go back later on if you need to and not have to manually configure everything.