Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Estes on November 07, 2011, 11:31:28 AM
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It's starting to look like my router is on the fritz. Last night, I was playing xbox with a friend, no problems at all. Then we took a break from xbox, and got on skype and skype kept dropping connection (not completely but it was flashing the icon saying I was offline, and it was saying internet connection issues hold while we get the call back) so I unplugged the modem, let it set for a bit, plugged it back in, then plugged the router back in. Everything seemed ok after that, then we got back to playing xbox and I was constantly getting disconnected from my party chat (not the game, sometimes it would disco the game too, but mostly the xbox live party chat and occasionally xbox live completely) over and over again.
I called the cable company, the first guy I talked to said the modem was giving a bad return, he did whatever he did, and it seemed to fix the problem for ten minutes or so, then it started doing it again. So, I tried plugging the xbox into a different port on the router, no luck. It's worth noting that while this was going on, as far as I know the computer wasn't getting internet drops as trillian was staying connected. Usually if the internet drops or something, one of the services (Yahoo, AIM, etc) would say it's disconnected.
So, I tried a different ethernet cable for the xbox, no luck. Finally, I bypassed the router and plugged the xbox straight into the modem, and the problem went away. Cable guy is coming out today, and I figured I won't cancel just so he can double check things that I can't check. Signal and everything else they can check, to verify if it is in fact the cable modem or router, both of them, or a bad coax cable that runs from the pole to the house.
The second time I called back (they said call back if you still have problems) he took a look and said everything looked ok, and that guy said something to the effect of "That's not always the problem, that sometimes it will say that even if there isn't a problem", in reference to me mentioning what the first guy said about the modem giving a bad return. And since it's my modem and not rented from them, I don't think they would be covering their own bellybutton by saying it's not their modem that's bad. It's also worth mentioning that the modem is relatively new, http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SB6120-SURFboard-eXtreme-Broadband/dp/B001UI2FPE (http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SB6120-SURFboard-eXtreme-Broadband/dp/B001UI2FPE)
So, let's say that it turns out to be the router that needs to be replaced, I currently have a netgear NG600. As I'm not too familiar with the routers of today, some insight as to what to avoid and what not would be greatly appreciated. I'm currently using a netgear NG600, (I tried looking for a link to it but can't find anything, the only netgear NG600 I seen is apparently the next generation of the one I currently have.) At this point, wireless/wifi is a feature I can go without, seeing as how I never use my current wifi capability. Years ago I had problems with Linksys routers, LAN ports going back in particular. But, they may have improved in that area since then. I think at one point I used a dlink router, but don't recall if I had problems with it or not.
I'm also kind of leaning towards it might be a signal issue by a bad coax cable that goes from the pole to the house or something, as it's kind of off and on, but I have digital tiling issues, and audio getting out of sync with the video on some of the HD channels. Now, as far as Aces High is concerned, I haven't been discoed from the game (but I also haven't been able to play much lately), but I have been getting bad lag spikes where everything is fine, then it acts like it freezes up for a second or so (all the planes around me just stop in their tracks, and then everything warps around and plays "catch up" causing the lag spikes I mentioned.
I'll attach a picture of a ping plotter result, and I apologize for the huge post, but any insight that can be provided would be greatly appreciated. One last thing, and this in regards to the ping plotter image I'm going to attach, the 2nd hop (right after it leaves the router) is showing this weird IP that makes no sense when I look at it compared to the other IP's and everything, so I thought I would mention that, and since some of you guys are internet wizards, I thought maybe this could be explained.
(http://death.innomi.com/uploads/nettroubles.jpg)
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For the most part home routers are not very robust. I have had them last as little as 8 months, some as long as 2 years. I have used may brands and seem to have better luck with linksys which is now Cisco.