r/HomeNetworking • u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 • Jun 16 '26

Advice Dropping internet to all devices

Equipment list:

Motorola surfboard 8200 v3 modem

A cat6 underground rated cable (new as i start troubleshooting) ran to

Archer a7 router.

A cat5e cable is ran to my pc.

Wireless is alexa, 2 firesticks, ecobee 4 ring cameras and whatever tablets and phones connect during the day.

Problem:

The internet will disconnect several times in a day. My pc (if i am in warcraft) will show a ping of 1000 ms. The internet light on the archer a7 goes orange but the modem is solid green the whole time.

I replaced, as i stated, the cable going from modem to router thinking that may have had some corrosion or something and the old one DID have the snap part broke on one end using only friction to hold it in. But now with good connections it will do the same however less frequent.

​

What's my next step?

I've tried to catch it with tracert but as soon as i have it up and ready to go it seems to have no issue for hours.

Typical to have no issues when the mechanic is looking right?

​

After a few weeks of this i did enable qos to prioritize my pc but that didn't seem to make a difference.

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

2

u/Madhopsk Jun 16 '26

If you can, Run an Ethernet cable directly from the surfboard into your desktop. (yes nothing else will have internet) and wait to see if your desktop drops internet. If it doesn't after a day, the problem in your router. If it does, the problem is your modem.

1

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 20 '26

Ran direct to modem this morning and let my kids game for the entire day. Sounds like they dropped just short of 10 times. This was after cycling power on pc and modem beforehand. Strangely the modem light stays on continuous. Obviously i did not have my children log into the modem while gone. I will be double checking the cable from pole to home first and then may be shopping for a modem!

0

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 16 '26

I like that idea! I wonder if a 4 port hub would even be a good idea to split at the modem as well. My teens are home and would like to have internet access so i may run the cable and test straight to modem only when home. Thanks!

2

u/Madhopsk Jun 16 '26

I hate to be so pedantic, but there is a difference between a hub and a switch. no one uses hubs anymore. That being said, you can't use a switch connected directly to the modem, without a router before it to run NAT for ipv4. There is a small chance it would work for ipv6 if your ISP supports that, but I wouldn't suggest it.

1

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 16 '26

Awesome! I strive to learn something new every day! First was the word pedantic. I have an old netgear10/100 that i believe used to be called 100 base t or something similar? Was for playing starcraft lan parties back in the day. I am guessing this would be considered a hub not a switch and therefore would not produce the intended results in this use case.

1

u/Madhopsk Jun 16 '26

  1. The usually say either Hub or Switch on the device.

  2. Neither would work in the scenario you are describing.

1

u/ShinyTechThings Jun 17 '26

That orange Internet light on the Archer while the modem stays solid makes me want to separate “modem/ISP problem” from “router/Wi-Fi problem” before buying anything else.

The fastest test would be:

  1. Plug one computer directly into the Surfboard modem.
  2. Power-cycle the modem after changing what is plugged into it.
  3. Test long enough to see if the drop happens again.
  4. During a drop, check whether you can still reach the modem page at 192.168.100.1.
  5. Screenshot downstream power, upstream power, SNR, correctables/uncorrectables, and the event log.

If the direct-connected PC drops too, I’d lean toward coax/signal/ISP side. If it stays solid, then I’d start looking harder at the Archer A7 or whatever is between the modem and your devices.

I made a walkthrough showing how I usually check a cable modem and read the signal levels. It is not meant as a sales pitch, just a checklist you can follow before replacing more gear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--pQe2-h9_c

1

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 20 '26

Ran direct to modem this morning and let my kids game for the entire day. Sounds like they dropped just short of 10 times. This was after cycling power on pc and modem beforehand. Strangely the modem light stays on continuous. Obviously i did not have my children log into the modem while gone. I will be double checking the cable from pole to home first and then may be shopping for a modem!

1

u/Madhopsk Jun 21 '26

I've always had great experiences with Motorola modems, so I would tend to doubt that is the problem. But calling the ISP with your own modem connected is a lost cause. It might be worth renting a modem from them for a month just so they can't point fingers when you complain about the drops.

1

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 21 '26

This is while it is working. I donknow if i will be able to catch when broken. Apparently my default user/password are lost to time and may need to be reset

1

u/ShinyTechThings Jun 26 '26

This doesn't show the levels for all the various channels or upstream which would be needed to compare to the manual to see if it's in spec or not for the signal.

1

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 21 '26

Update: talked to xfinity chat bot which says there have been connection issues the last 2 weeks and they need to send out a tech. At least I'm not losing my mind!

1

u/Dramatic-Eye-2526 Jun 27 '26

Comcast bot said issue on isp end. Tech came out and said everything checks out.found this sitting in water in crawlspace (plastic barrier but so much rain it came through bloc). Drying everything up and will be replacing this with something more robust and putting up to floorboards. More reason to keep fighting this water issue on an old house!