Losing connection 10 times a day...

I have actually been experiencing connection issues with my net ( or router according to my ISP) for a about 3 months now.

Except the first months the connection would only be lost about once a week, then it progressed to a couple of days a week, every other day, and now its a problem where i lose connection on average about 7 times a day and up to 10 sometimes.

I called my ISP and they ''tested'' the connection and said everything was fine and that there seemed to be no issue with the connection itself. Then i mentioned to them if it was the router and if it indeed was that if they could send me a new one.

My ISP actually gave me a router when i signed up with their services so i figured ( considering what they told me) that i could probably receive a replacement for free. That however was NOT the case and they informed me they would charge about $60 for the same one i have.

The router i currently have seems cheap but it was working fine for a little over a year. My concerns are is it really a router issue and not the connection itself? The way i get my connection working again is by flipping the power switch on the router OFF waiting a bit and then flipping it back ON. This method usually fixes the connection up until it gets lost a couple of hrs later.

If i do need a new router can someone recommend some for around $60 or less?

Also i am not sure if this has anything to do with the recent connection problems i have been having but for the last 2 days when i am online sometimes my computer says '' both of your firewalls are currently turned off''.

I have never had this issue before at all, and when i check my windows and AVG firewall are off and i have to turn them back on. This alerted me because i thought maybe i had a virus or something of that nature but i scanned my computer about 15 times already and everything came clean.

10 times in normal windows using : superantispyware portable, malwarebytes, and avg virus scanner.

And about 5 more times in safe mode using the same scanners , everything came back clean. Could be be possible that someone may be trying to hack our connection. My brother in law is pretty careless , rarely does scans on his system , goes to random websites, downloads things without proper research etc..

I scanned his pc a couple of days ago and the spyware anti portable found 350 traces of ad ware, 1 trojan horse , and some tracking cookies which i proceeded to remove. I scan his pc the next day and yet again i see more adware ( 20 traces) and half of it is from google and some other thing called ''liveagent'' something. His pc is the one manually connected to the Ethernet since his pc desk is the closet to where the router is.

Everyone else in the house just gets the wifi signal transmitted into their devices or pcs ( i use a usb wifi connector).

Sorry for the long read i just need help on the connection issues because its rather annoying losing connection when i am doing something important and have to restart the connection and lose my spot. Alternatively if my in laws pc is the one causing all the problems to our connection its probably best if he pays for his own ISP that way he can do and search whatever he feels like without affecting to rest of us who also use the connection.

Thanks to whoever takes the time to read and reply to my message

 

Does the cutout happen at the same time on his PC?

If it is fixed by cycling the power on the router then it does sound like a router issue.

 

Your progression of connection problems mirrors mine from a few years ago when my router was going bad. Same situation where the diagnostic on my connection was fine but the cutouts increased in number and duration.

In my case I use Verizon and at the time Comcast was really pushing to get people to try cable internet. Verizon insisted I could only use their router and had to pay for the replacement. This made me mad that I was locked into their equipment, was paying for their service plus had to pay for the equipment maintenance. I told them I was just going to give Comcast a try since I would pay the same and get a new router so go ahead and cut my service since it was doing me no good. They switched me to the disconnect/customer retention person and they immediately said they would replace my router for free. I don't know if that is still relevant today but you might want to verify that you can use a retail router before going too much further in your search. (I believe if you use cable then cable routers are readily available.)

I think most routers feel cheap because mostly they are an empty box with just a circuit board inside. The size of the case is is so the connections can be made but the actual electronics inside are very small and light.

I would think testing your connection for dropouts with your BIL's computer turned off would rule out a malware connection.

 

Does the connection loss happen to parent's comp also? If all comps, then definitely router would be suspect.

Agreed - try next level if possible.

A couple more avenues -
Update driver for network adapter.
Hook computer up to modem without the router and see if same schedule of connection loss holds.

 

Its just a router believe

The brand is called Actiontec, model: GT-704-WGB

Ironically from what sach posted i as well have verizon, but i didn't have problems before with connection or router. However that was a couple of years ago and i had FIOS now i pay nearly exactly the same as before and just have standard internet because no FIOS is available in the current area i am In.

When i lose connection every device ( phone, ps3, tablet etc..) or other pc accessing the connection gets kicked off the net , the main pc connected to the Ethernet doesn't instantly lose connection like the rest but it eventually does about a minute or 2 later.

Can someone comment on what i mentioned about my firewalls randomly turning off? It keeps doing it and i can't get it to stop , it wasn't doing this before only up until 2 days ago.

 

The firewalls from my computers turn off not from the hardware.

Not sure why it was doing that but it doesn't seem to do it now anymore, i uninstalled AVG and put Mcafee and now it seems the problem was fixed ( hopefully).

As for the drivers i think the only one i see available was installed when they ( my ISP) setup my whole internet.

The router just keeps getting worse today i could barely even manage to use the net at all. And then myself being a cheap person i am reluctant to pay for a new router because i know my ISP could easily give me one but they are persistent about charging me for it.