Erratic Network Connection On New PC

Hello,

I'm on a brand new Dell Inspiron 530. I unpacked it late last week, and have since had a problem with the internet dropping out continually for a few seconds at a time. So far Dell tech support has been far less than helpful (wanting to charge me to speak to someone about the problem!) and Google hasn't done much either. I'm at my wit's end here.

First some specs:

PC: Inspiron 530

OS: Vista SP1

Modem: Motorola Surfboard SB5101

ISP: Comcast



The PC is connected to the modem directly via ethernet. The old PC works just fine hooked up in this same way.



Here's what we have tried:

Completely restored PC to factory defaults (as a last ditch attempt...it was already pretty much at factory defaults.)

New modem (same model as before, but purchased rather than rented from Comcast.)

Turned of IPv6 both in the registry and connection properties.

Connected to modem both via ethernet and USB...same problem either way.



So, my conclusions are since another computer works with the modem, it's not the modem. Since the problem is the same for both either LAN and USB, it's not a problem with the LAN adapter. That means it's either some software/firmware setting, or perhaps (though I think unlikely at this point) a hardware issue with the motherboard.



To further illustrate the problem, here are some pings that I did. Each of these were taken successively, all within a matter of about 2 minutes. 192.168.100.1 is the IP of the modem.



C:\>ping 192.168.100.1

Pinging 192.168.100.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 76.27.109.62: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.100.1: bytes=32 time=1044ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.100.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.100.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.100.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 1044ms, Average = 349ms

C:\>ping 192.168.100.1

Pinging 192.168.100.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 76.27.109.62: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.100.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),

C:\>ping 192.168.100.1

Pinging 192.168.100.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 76.27.109.62: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.100.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.100.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.100.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.100.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 13ms, Average = 5ms









C:\>ping dell.com

Pinging dell.com [143.166.224.244] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=76ms TTL=239
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=85ms TTL=239
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=239
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=239

Ping statistics for 143.166.224.244:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 73ms, Maximum = 85ms, Average = 77ms

C:\>ping dell.com

Pinging dell.com [143.166.224.244] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=91ms TTL=239
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239

Ping statistics for 143.166.224.244:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 75ms, Maximum = 91ms, Average = 80ms

C:\>ping dell.com

Pinging dell.com [143.166.224.244] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 143.166.224.244: bytes=32 time=98ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 143.166.224.244:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 98ms, Maximum = 98ms, Average = 98ms




You can see how erratic it is. It will go from working perfectly one second, to timing out the next, and then being unable to reach the destination host, almost randomly. So what I can do about this, besides send the computer back and get a HP? I wish people would listen to me about where to get their new computers from...rolleyes

TIA!

--Fligg

 

Ok 192.168.100.1 is the internal page of the modem, The modem ip's with comcast start with 10. Which you can get by going to 192.168.100.1 username should be admin or administrator password Motorola or vise versa although I'm not sure if you need that.

Have you tried running a tracert to an ip address and seeing where you are timing out? Also I would try a different Ethernet cable and blowing out the Ethernet port on the back of the PC.

Now if the other PC works with no issues it might be a NIC driver issue or the on-board NIC could be sketchy and for using USB on Vista its ALWAYS sketchy with modems and I'm not sure that Motorola is even putting out Vista drivers for their modems although i have come across some XP drivers that have worked but again VERY unreliable and i wouldn't trust any results from testing with that.

Let me know what your tracert returns and ill try to help you narrow down your issue.

 

Fligg...

Same problem with my new Dell, Comcast, and SB5100 cable modem. Same exact ping logs. I struggled with it for two days. Tried every tweak listed for Vista networking, including shutting off IPv6, setting the autotuning...hundreds and hundreds of different settings...even stood on my head for some. Rebooted the modem, pc, interface hundreds of times.

Nothing helped, and I finally gave up. I set everything back to the way it was, and tried hard wiring it to my wireless router (Linksys WRT54GS), which I was going to do anyway. Once I did that, internet connection is working awesome. I suspect the problem is in some compatibility issue with the cable modem, which is now masked by the router. I don't have the patience or time to figure it out, so I am leaving it.

BTW, I did wire it directly back to the modem just to check my sanity and had the same errors come back -- so I can recreate it. Maybe Comcastic has some idea.

Good luck.