I’m trying to figure this out remotely for family. Over the past 2 years I’ve replaced the computer, modem and router. Their internet would drop out for a few minutes then reconnect.

Now it seems it had been going out and staying out until they restarted everything. I don’t know how long it’s been going on. At this point I’m thinking the coax cable coming into the house is bad. It’s only for internet not tv.

Anyone else have a similar problem and find that was the cause? I’m not able to test anything in person.

Intermittent going out and coming back with no intervention suggests a potential outside cable problem. Particularly if it's more prone to happening during wet or windy weather. In my case it was found a squirrel had chewed a small hole in the coax from the phone pole to the back of the garage. Comcast replaced that and the problem went away.

Outages requiring a modem reboot suggests to me the cable modem. I had that happen, too. In my case it was because my cable modem was very old, way past EOL, and the cable protocol changes to support the newer, higher speeds were sending it off in the weeds. Since I'm on Business Class with a static IP I have to use Comcast's modem, so the upgrade to a newer one cost me nothing additional.

In my area I see on Nextdoor people posting issues with their internet service and its pretty often in older neighborhoods with cable and equipment dating from the 90's. What I also learned is that if enough people in a certain neighborhood complained frequently enough, the old lines/equipment were replaced and the problem was solved.

Common thread is Spectrum/Comcast as they were here well before ATT with high speed internet.

I should add their cable line is buried from the pole to the house and the area is prone to flooding. I would guess the cable line is 10-15 years old at least.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
I should add their cable line is buried from the pole to the house and the area is prone to flooding. I would guess the cable line is 10-15 years old at least.

Then Comcast probably installed the bury-rated stuff that's gel-filled. (Whatever they do, they should not mess with that cable, such as trying to re-terminate their end, which is what on-line "experts" sometimes recommend trying.)

Really, what they need to do is stop guessing. Each time it goes out: Call Comcast and ask them what they're seeing. Usually they can tell from their end what's likely going on.

(Of course: Being on Residential Internet service, I assume, I can't speak to the likely success of working with Residential Customer Support. I've heard horror stories. That's one of the several reasons we're on Business Class. Different class of tech support entirely.)

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo Jones:
In my area I see on Nextdoor people posting issues with their internet service and its pretty often in older neighborhoods with cable and equipment dating from the 90's.

I can't speak to your area, but, in my area, Comcast has upgraded all the cable to support the newer speeds. That's where they haven't replaced it with fiber.

My modem has logs where it keeps track of issues connecting to the cable company’s equipment. It also has a page in its interface that shows connection quality numbers for downstream and up stream channels. Perhaps theirs does as well?

In my case, I noticed an increase in incoming power on the downstream channels and significant variation between channels as well as an increase in power required on the upstream channels whenever we had connection issues. Then, when it rained, all the numbers improved as did our connection. My theory was heat with the cable company’s equipment at the pole were to blame.

This is not Comcast - an out of state cable provider.

It’s a new Arris Surfboard modem with a newer Netgear router.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
This is not Comcast - an out of state cable provider.

Sorry. Got your post conflated with Jimbo Jones'.

yes.

I have cable internet. There is a box in the front of my yard. 200 Mbps

For a couple weeks signal was dropping in and out randomly. sometimes for a few hours

After a lot of troubleshooting, it was determined the signal from the box to my modem was too high .

The incoming signal has a minimum level and a maximum level for the modem to operate properly.

They adjusted the signal at the box to lower the signal level. Problem went away.

This box also drives a number of homes. Everyone was experiencing the drop out problem till the cable company adjusted the level down.

quote:

internet drop out

Just to be clear ~ is this happening on wired or wireless connections?

Have you done any 'tests' with cmd tools like ping, traceroute, nslookup (dns) or others?

Any connectivity issues can be anywhere in the chain from the host (website, server, etc) and the client (desktop, laptop, phone, etc).

Not saying you are right or wrong in your assumption but for me I don't have enough data to make that determination.
Everyone always assumes it is the premise equipment but there can in many cases be other factors.

I presently have a cable placed across my front yard, from the drop to my neighbors yard where the next drop is that feeds my house. Cable from the drop to my house is good. Been waiting since September 15 for the cable construction crew to bury the cable. I am the only house on my feed. Cable has been buried since 2001 and finally gave up completely on September 1st.

^^^^^^^^
They will be using heavy equipment and show up after days of rain. That was my experience when I had cable.

I had what I thought was a buffering issue when I switched to streaming TV.

I replaced the router but the issue persisted. Spectrum came out, did some testing and replaced the cable that ran into the house to a small box mounted on the house, that went to the street (it was about 20 years old) and the problem was solved.

That’s a very short explanation for about 3 or 4 months of aggravation.