Weird internet error

[Blue]

Alright, my internet will periodically just "shut off". It's high speed internet (meaning not dial-up cause I'd be damned if it was high speed) and I'm told the company's name is Alphacomm. But the modem we are using is Comtrend which is apparently their modem. When it shuts off, its for as little as 30seconds at a time, all the way up to 30minutes at a time. It seems to shut off more when I'm multitasking or in the middle of big downloads.

I just moved to Wallace Michigan (meaning the middle of nowhere), in which they have very limited internet, and apparently spending more than $30 for this shit is a total crime, so I don't got much to work with.
I'm pretty sure its less than 1mb dl and less than 300kb upload (20kb/s dl). And they recently came in a installed the shit, fixing it for a second time.

I was wondering is this an ISP problem?
A wiring problem?
A faulty modem?
Or am I limited to how much I can do?

[schmidz]

i'm guessing it's modem/router problem

Are you using wireless?

[KPax]

I dunno exactly what you mean by shut off... But my internet used to do something somewhat like that. What it would do is take a long time to load, or a short... And sometimes it wouldn't at all. I also have a Comtrend modem (It is actually used by a lot of companies)... Anyways, the problem was in the phone line for me. What it would do is send out the signal and at the telephone pole it would sometimes mess up. Instead of sending the information out, it would cross lines and send the information back at my computer. The fast times were when it leaked a little bit, the slow times were when it leaked but still had enough information going through to get the desired site, and the non-loading was when majority, if not all, got sent back to me...

If it is the same problem as mine, you will need a person to fix it for you... Unless you are into climbing up poles and playing with wires...

[Blue]

It's not wireless.

What I mean by shutting off is on the modem (everyone should know about the lights) is that out of the Lan, Internet, USB (which is unimportant to this one and is always off), ADSL Link, and Power light, all of em stay on but the internet, and then the internet will go red and try to reestablish the connection.

Sometimes it takes 30mins to reestablish it, sometimes it reestablishes it right away.

[Nethran]

Most cable companies supply you with shit routers. I suggest getting the product name from the router, and it's model number, and doing a google search with it and see what pops up. Most people on the internet like to complain about things, so if it's your router, there should be a massive outpouring of enrages cable customers. There was with my crappy netgear router.

If that's the case, go grab a Linksys. Wireless N is the best, but it's a tad more expensive, too. G is the best after that. And I'd also suggest getting a seperate modem and router. Probably just a personal preference, though.

[schmidz]

I heard D Link was really good


either way Nethran is right:

Most cable companies supply you with shit routers.

I just helped my friend get a new router and modem for his computer, cost him around 250 bucks. I convinced him to get some of the more expensive stuff so he can't blame me kicking his ass in duelz in wow/d2 on lag.

[erizoe]

it's also entirely possible that your ISP is having some bugs right now and will just suck for a week. it happens in places where there are few ISPs and they can afford to take a break on that error everyone's getting.

i'd call the ISP and see if there is an outage before investing in a new piece of hardware that might not even save your problem.