Wifi woes

[JPetroski]

Well folks I had the internet company here for 3 hours earlier to no avail. For some reason totally unknown to me, 2 days ago our wifi suddenly started cutting out every now and then. It seemed to get worse over the past two days, with it cutting out every 2 or 3 minutes today. Now that the tech has gone, its completely out.

He replaced our modem with a new one and even ran a completely new cable from the outside in. I dragged out an ethernet cable and it works great (blazing fast) buy not a single device in the house is working with wifi any more.

With a new modem and new line directly tied in to the source I'm at a complete loss for what is going on as was, apparently, the tech who did his best to help over 3 hours on Xmas eve.

Do any of you folks have any idea what might be the culprit? I'm about to hire an electrician to do some complex snaking (if its even possible) to just hard wire the darned place but if this is something I'd rather not....

Any ideas?

 

[leif erikson]

The terminology can be confusing? Does your new modem have wireless capability or do you have a separate wireless router?

If the new modem does have wifi, it is usually called a gateway, and if it is new, the first dumb suggestion is to ask if the wifi is turned on in the gateway internal menu and is it set to DHCP?

If you have a separate wireless router, is it old enough to replace? Might want to try a new one?

Without knowing more, it is hard to make suggestions, so I made the obvious ones first. Sorry if they seem dumb.

 

[JPetroski]

So we just have one modem/router combo (from Comcast, if that helps as I see you're also in New England). It still wasn't on this morning so I unplugged the thing and left it unplugged for maybe half an hour this time, thinking "why not." It's on (for now), and hasn't cut out testing a game download (figure that will be long enough that there would be errors) though my desktop is for some reason refusing to recognize the stronger, external USB antenna that I bought since I had such weak signal before and is instead using what I believe to be a damaged internal intel one (the antenna "paddles" won't screw on tight and I'm not getting consistent signal.

I'm not sure exactly what a "gateway internal menu" is but from what I can see on my end (on the PC) DHCP is selected.

Even though it appears to be working for now, I'm a little concerned however because much of the first paragraph deals with one device yet yesterday NO devices worked including cell phones, the kids' i-pads, the work computer, or two home computers. This was after the tech:

1. Gave us a brand new router/modem combo;
2. Bypassed a splitter in the basement that we weren't using as we have only one TV and just tied directly in;
3. Ran a brand new coaxial cable above ground from the street to our home in case that was an issue, and called in a dig request to have another one put in underground.

It is a little perplexing that with #2 and #3 both having been done, and with my verifying extremely strong strength and speed when I run the wire from the living room upstairs to my office (over the couch, through the doorway, not a long term option with little ones running around!), one would think that the issue is with the end device itself. Yet to have all of these devices malfunctioning, including one (work computer) that has never been "connected" to the others at all? It's odd.

I appreciate the help and don't worry - anything obvious is very likely what I've goofed. I'm great at that.

 

[JPetroski]

Annnnd everything cut out in unison again. Was running work pc and home pc (and phone) to see how long it would last. All dropped at the same moment though the router/modems one light says it is "fine."

 

[leif erikson]

This is not good news, but I found this article in Comcast forums.

I am a networking amateur, so please understand I try things and then continue checking if they do not work. Mostly checking things by typing in the problems I find in search engines and seeing what solutions are offered.

You should be able to get into the gateway settings by opening a browser and typing 192.168.1.1 while you are connected with an ethernet cable. Hopefully they gave you and admin login and password. If not it is usually something like admin and admin... Once you are in, you can look to see if anything is amiss. It should show you what ip addresses each of your devices were assigned and whether there are errors in the connections. Just be careful what you do...

edit - This might help you?
Perhaps this will assist you?

 

[IglooDame]

Troubleshooting starts with checking individual legs or components. One thing that would clear things up, "wifi" is not the same thing as "internet' (to someone familiar with networking).

So one step is, have you plugged anything into the router with a network cable, bypassing the wireless leg?

 

[JPetroski]

I had the cable guy come over and we went through everything that could be the issue.. we learned that an adapter we were using on one device "blew up" the wifi for the rest of the house, for lack of a better term. As soon as it was selected everything went offline. So, that's in the trash and I'll have to get a hard wire to that particular device someday, but at least the house is operational now.

Thanks all for your help!

 

[leif erikson]

Glad to hear you got it repaired. Just one device...