A friend has cable, with a linksys wrt54g2 router and Motorola SB5101 cable modem.
At 16:12 every day both their pc's connections drop.
We have set their pc clocks forward an hour and rebooted the pc's at different times, it didnt change the disconnect time so it doesnt look like theres anything running on the pc's causing it.
I can still access their router when they disconnect so the cable seems to be fine.
ipconfig shows their lease does not expire or renew at that time.
Their connection to irc, games etc drops at 16:12 every day.
[EDIT]
May be barking up the wrong tree, they are now saying both PC's lock up, where as before they said they were offline. Looking at the IPCONFIG results they were still online.
Their connection to irc, games etc drops at 16:12 every day.
[EDIT]
May be barking up the wrong tree, they are now saying both PC's lock up, where as before they said they were offline. Looking at the IPCONFIG results they were still online.
Agreed; still looks like a good connection to the router.
It's really difficult for me to believe that a computer "locks up" at exactly the same time each day, much less that two do so at exactly the same time. Have you asked them how they know that "Their connection to irc, games etc drops" if both their computers are locked up? I'm assuming that "lock up" means "freeze," that it does not respond to keyboard or mouse or any stimulus. For that matter, how did they or you get the ipconfig /all with the computer locked up?
Agreed, it is odd. However I have had both their PC's on IRC several days at this time, the irc clients on both PC's disconnect from the network at this time and reconnect.
I've asked them further, the pc that ipconfig was ran on doesnt freeze, the other pc does lol
Sorry for any confusion but they are seniors and I don't have physical access to the pc's so can only go on what they tell me.
Ya sure you wanna be caught in the middle between them and me?
Except for the "lock up" or "freeze" part it sounds to me more like the router losing communication with the modem, or the modem with the ISP.
That modem (I have the same model) should have four solid green lights and the fifth one down ("activity") should be blinking amber. Have them watch those LEDs at the witching hour. Also, the router probably has a WAN (or Internet or Modem) LED that may change at the magic time.
lol, I'll tell you how bad it can be! They bought a new pc in a nice black case and called me because it wouldnt work. They were all set to send it back after arguing with the supplier when I asked for a photo of the case.....
The power button was black on a black case and they hadnt turned it on!
You said the lease does not expire or renew at that time. Is that the lease the router's WAN gets from the ISP?
My current and previous routers do not show the lease period, so that question may not be answerable directly.
They probably won't care for this, but I think it's time to try a computer connected directly to the modem to see if the daily disconnect still occurs. Remember to remind them to power cycle the modem when switching the device connected to it.
Disable the wireless on the router (set the wireless mode to 'none' or 'off'). If it still disconnects I think I'm stumped. If it does not disconnect then we (probably) have an interesting wireless interference issue.
If it's wireless interference happening exactly once a day at the same time I'm guessing it's something on a timer or somebody who is very punctual and regular. For example, a 2.4 GHz baby monitor that is turned on by timer for the night or somebody who gets home at the same time every day and whose garage door opener remote is using the exact "right" frequency.
Perhaps it actually has something to do with the lease from the ISP expiring or being renewed half way through the period, but recovering quickly. They don't do anything to regain connectivity, do they? When they switched from the router to a computer connected to the modem they would have gotten a new lease. Then when they switched back to the router it would have received a new lease, and the bewitching hour would have changed.
If the router's WAN section shows the lease obtained and expires times (mine doesn't) see if the new disconnect time coincides with the expires time or is half way through the period.
You're welcome, and many thanks for reporting back with the solution. Guess we'll never know what kind of goblin got into that router, but it sure was strange. Those folks are very fortunate to have you looking out for them.
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