Router Trouble?

[Will Rickards]

So I recently moved my computer, cable modem and netgear MR814v2 router downstairs. I had to run a cable for the cable modem. So I have less use for the laptop, since I can just use the desktop.

What I was noticing on the desktop got much worse on the laptop when I tried to use it for the first time on the network since I moved everything. On the desktop the internet connection seemed to stop working for short intervals. Hitting Ctrl + R in firefox didn't fix it. The sites would just not seem to respond as if they were unavailable.

I normally browse through my bookmarks on the laptop by opening them in tabs. So I open a lot of tabs all at once. Only the first one would load. The rest gave me that problem.

I don't know what the issue is here. I may go look back at the router instructions and cycle the power on cable modem/router in the order it suggests.

 

[Will Rickards]

I forgot to mention why I think it has something to do with the router or DNS.
I fixed the problem by connecting to my work's VPN and then opening the browser. That worked fine and fast.

 

[blakerwry]

Your symptoms sounded like packet loss until you mentioned you could connect via VPN and browse fine... if it were packet loss you probably could not maintain the VPN connection.


A constant ping should verify whether there is any packet loss
c:\>ping google.com -t


Given that this is a different computer, this could also be possible that you may have a virus or somesuch flooding your connection now. On a fresh boot I would run the following command from command line
c:\>netstat -s


Take note of the number of active opens. This is the # of connection attempts your PC has tried to establish to other computers... Run the command again and compare numbers... If this number is above 100 on a fresh boot or changes rapidly I would suggest you have a virus trying to propgate itself.


And, the easiest... DNS. Just specify some other ISP's DNS servers.
204.117.214.10
199.2.252.10

 

[Fushigi]

I concur on the different DNS, although I use the Verizon ones Merc posted as they're easy to remember: 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.4. I also use FastCache to locally cache DNS lookups.

 

[Will Rickards]

When I was in secaucus NJ at a hotel for like two months using their WiFi connection I had the same sort of issue but less frequently. At the time I thought it was just a crappy wifi connection that would drop out occassionaly or some sort of bandwidth restrictions. I solved that by the VPN trick too.
I'll investigate more tonight.

 

[Will Rickards]

Well some power cycles didn't seem to fix it at first.
But when I hooked the laptop directly up to the cable modem and restarted it worked fine. So I got the idea to disconnect all cables from the router during the power cycle. So the router was connected to the cable modem but nothing connected to it. Both were off. Then I turned the cable modem on and waited for the lights to stop flickering. Then I plugged in the router. Since, everything seems fine.