WoW disconnects at random, sometimes takes the whole network with it

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This is going to be a long post, so I apologize in advance. I have Comcast as my ISP and I am using a Touchstone DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem hooked into a D-Link 4500GL router with 1.15 firmware installed. About a year ago, I started experiencing random WoW disconnects, where I would d/c once or twice an hour. I had Comcast replace the modem with a RCA modem and that completely fixed the issue, never had a d/c again.

Well 3 months ago, Comcast had some promo going on where if I added their voip service, it would save me $45 a month off my bill, so I decided to do that. Well, they had to replace my reliable RCA modem with a Motorola in order to do the voip. It worked fine for a month, then I started getting random disconnects, about once or twice per hour. I always have vent running, and usually, vent stays up and works fine while WoW disconnects. Although sometimes, as soon as WoW disconnects, I will lose all internet connectivity on my machine and also on my wife's laptop. Interestingly enough, when that happens, the cable modem and the router both still show that they are connected. This only lasts a few seconds from start to finish.

So thinking that the Motorola modem Comcast gave me was bad, I had Comcast come out and replace it with a Touchstone DOCSIS 3.0 modem. My random d/c's continue to happen and if anything, they've gotten worse now. I thought maybe my router might be the culprit, so I bought a Netgear WND3700 over the weekend and gave that a shot. That actually made things much worse. Instead of like 1 - 2 d/c's an hour, I was getting closer to 5-6 d/c's per hour. So I returned it and tried a Linksys/Cisco E3000 router and same thing, 5-6 d/c's per hour. So now I am back to my D-Link 4500 GL router.

At this point, I'm not sure what is causing my issues. I'm going to guess that based on past experiences, I've got a bad modem but I'm wondering if it could be something else too? Maybe my NIC is bad? I've got an Intel NIC on the way from Amazon to test that out and also have Comcast coming out tomorrow to replace the modem. I just really want to get this issue fixed.

Are there any tests I could be running to help me figure out just what exactly is going on?
 
This is sort of a shot in the dark, as I am unfamiliar with WoW, but how much bandwidth does it take up at a given time? My other question would be, when you encounter the d/c, is anyone using the phone/phone call coming in?
 
CiscoInside said:
This is sort of a shot in the dark, as I am unfamiliar with WoW, but how much bandwidth does it take up at a given time? My other question would be, when you encounter the d/c, is anyone using the phone/phone call coming in?
Click to expand...

Actually, WoW uses surprisingly little bandwidth. Most of the time it's around 3-4 kilobytes per second. No calls coming in when this happens, we rarely use the voip phone.
 
I kind of doubt it's WoW that's bringing down your network.
I'm doubtful it's your Router as well if you were still DCing with your new one. Same with your modem, try going back to the Motorola and run one of your PCs straight off the modem, no router in between your PC and modem. If it continues, use a different modem. If it still continues I'd start checking connectivity beyond your modem for instance there might be a problem from outside your house to Comcast's side.

I'm pretty sure your D-Link is fine.

When you experience a disconnect again, check your router's WAN connectivity in the WEB gui and refresh it's status page to check that you're not looking at old data.
Try a WAN release / renew while you're experiencing the outage.
 
Kaiga said:
I kind of doubt it's WoW that's bringing down your network.
I'm doubtful it's your Router as well if you were still DCing with your new one. Same with your modem, try going back to the Motorola and run one of your PCs straight off the modem, no router in between your PC and modem. If it continues, use a different modem. If it still continues I'd start checking connectivity beyond your modem for instance there might be a problem from outside your house to Comcast's side.

I'm pretty sure your D-Link is fine.

When you experience a disconnect again, check your router's WAN connectivity in the WEB gui and refresh it's status page to check that you're not looking at old data.
Try a WAN release / renew while you're experiencing the outage.
Click to expand...

I was more leaning to a QoS situation with the VoIP, if that was even possible to cause such a large disruption in service.
 
Kaiga said:
I kind of doubt it's WoW that's bringing down your network.
I'm doubtful it's your Router as well if you were still DCing with your new one. Same with your modem, try going back to the Motorola and run one of your PCs straight off the modem, no router in between your PC and modem. If it continues, use a different modem. If it still continues I'd start checking connectivity beyond your modem for instance there might be a problem from outside your house to Comcast's side.

I'm pretty sure your D-Link is fine.

When you experience a disconnect again, check your router's WAN connectivity in the WEB gui and refresh it's status page to check that you're not looking at old data.
Try a WAN release / renew while you're experiencing the outage.
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention that on Sunday I was connected directly to the modem and still d/c-ing, which is why I was thinking maybe my motherboard's NIC was bad or something. I don't have a different cable modem to test with atm as I lease my modem through Comcast, but this issue has become enough of a problem for me that I will buy one to test with.
 
If your whole network is going down then It probably isn't just the one NIC on your desktop.
All I'm looking at right now is the possibility of an unstable internet connection. Ask Comcast if they can disable your VOIP for a day and then see what results are done there.
And CiscoInside has a point, at my old job we used to see VOIP soak up bandwidth (which is why we ran our Shortel machines on a seperate network).
 
Check your signal levels.

Most modems will allow you to access the docsis diganostic page via http://192.168.100.1

What to look for:

SNR: This should be in the mid 30's ideally but low 30's is usually okay. ~29 is usually the threshold where disconnects will begin to occur with most hardware.

Upstream Power Level: You want this to be as low as possible since it will only be as strong as it needs to in order to send the return signal. Higher upstream power levels generally means too many splitters or bad quality cable. Each splitter will usually raise your upstream power level by about 3 DBmV. Mid to low 40's is ideal here, once your upstream power level gets into the 50's you are getting very close to the limit of what the modem can handle. Max power according to spec is 55 iirc, if you are anywhere near that you will have issues.

Downstream Power Level: This should be anywhere between 15 and -15, but you want it to be as close to 0 as possible. Splitters also have the greatest effect here as each splitter will decrease the downstream power level by about 3 DBmV. If the signal is too low comcast can install an amp but an easier solution (assuming your issue is too many splitters) is to split the cable modem connection off from the others before the other splitters.
 
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GotNoRice said:
Check your signal levels.

Most modems will allow you to access the docsis diganostic page via http://192.168.100.1

What to look for:

SNR: This should be in the mid 30's ideally but low 30's is usually okay. ~29 is usually the threshold where disconnects will begin to occur with most hardware.

Upstream Power Level: You want this to be as low as possible since it will only be as strong as it needs to in order to send the return signal. Higher upstream power levels generally means too many splitters or bad quality cable. Each splitter will usually raise your upstream power level by about 3 DBmV. Mid to low 40's is ideal here, once your upstream power level gets into the 50's you are getting very close to the limit of what the modem can handle. Max power according to spec is 55 iirc, if you are anywhere near that you will have issues.

Downstream Power Level: This should be anywhere between 15 and -15, but you want it to be as close to 0 as possible. Splitters also have the greatest effect here as each splitter will decrease the downstream power level by about 3 DBmV. If the signal is too low comcast can install an amp but an easier solution (assuming your issue is too many splitters) is to split the cable modem connection off from the others before the other splitters.
Click to expand...

I checked and all my cable modem stats were spot on according to your post. Yesterday, I had 6 disconnects (each d/c would kill the entire network for about 30 seconds) in a 90 minute span and feeling pretty frustrated so I went down to the local computer store and picked up a Visiontek Killer Network Card 2100 (don't hate me) just to see if it would make a difference.

I'm happy to report that with 4 hours of play on the new card, I didn't have a single disconnect. So I decided to switch back to my onboard NIC and sure enough, I had a d/c within 20 minutes that took the network out with it. Switch back to the Killer and everything is perfect. . .I don't get it, but I'm happy as long as everything works I guess.
 
If it is in fact your NIC- which is sounds like it is, you will be fine with a $30 Intel NIC instead of that $125 piece of marketing
 
StarTrek4U said:
If it is in fact your NIC- which is sounds like it is, you will be fine with a $30 Intel NIC instead of that $125 piece of marketing
Click to expand...


Are you referring to: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033

If so, I was thinking of upgrading to this. Will it work with AMD based systems? Sounds like a stupid question but the reviews I'm seeing are talking about intel's EXSi thing-a-majig for intel based systems. Basically I'm running an AMD system and want to use this
 
Yep, that was one of the ones I was thinking of- as long as you have a PCI-E slot open that should work fine for you.

NICs are independent of the CPU you use, so it will work fine with either an AMD or Intel system.
 
That's what I was under the impression, but I don't see why everyone said it boosted their INTEL system. Just confused me..
 
Well the D/C's started happening again, about once per hour. This time, I was a little smarter about things and I had a couple of DOS Prompts open, one constantly pinging my router, one constantly pinging my modem, and one constantly pinging my own computer. Sure enough, whenever there would be a D/C, the pings to the modem would start timing out, even though all the lights on the modem were on (downstream, upstream, online, link, etc.). Looking at the modem log, it doesn't show anything unusual happening while the modem becomes unpingable. Any ideas?
 
When the modem is becoming unreachable, how is the router doing in that ping dialog you have running?
 
Well, seeing that you even tested with your PC hooked directly to the modem, its now a problem with your provider. Either the modem is just junk, or well I don't know much about how the provider's modems work but either call them in or swap a new modem in.
 
Have you tried to upgrade the router firmware? 1.12 sounds pretty old I have a DGL as well, but most of my disconnect problems were of the wireless variety. Latest upgrade fixed everything. Also be aware of heat. If the router is flat, try using the feet and stand it up on its side. Also, do you have maybe electric issues? A UPS will condition the power and keep the flow stable...
 
Nasty_Savage said:
Have you tried to upgrade the router firmware? 1.12 sounds pretty old I have a DGL as well, but most of my disconnect problems were of the wireless variety. Latest upgrade fixed everything. Also be aware of heat. If the router is flat, try using the feet and stand it up on its side. Also, do you have maybe electric issues? A UPS will condition the power and keep the flow stable...
Click to expand...

He tried connecting his computer directly to the modem I believe and had the same problems.
 
CiscoInside said:
He tried connecting his computer directly to the modem I believe and had the same problems.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hooked directly into the modem for a few days, which is why I was thinking maybe my network card was bad.
 
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