Shaw support has tried to solve the problem but nothing has worked. I don't think it is my computer since I just upgrade my computer and the problem persisted on both computers.

The problem: every 5-10 minute the connection gets dropped. I still have a valid IP (IP config) address but I cannot get to the net either via Firefox or Thunderbird until it attempts to repair the connection. Sometimes it will start to work on its own.

The set up. I have no router so the compter is connected directly to the modeem. The cat5 cable is quite long (about 25-30 feet) but this issue is being resolved tomorrow by having the cable modem moved closer to the computer.

The signal seems to be quite strong. I am also having hang up problems with my 6412 (P3) cable box so it could well be a signal issue.

Any recommendation for diagnostics of the problem?

One possibily is that the cable line running into your house has been damaged at some point and moisture is now causing problems. Are you in a new area? My first house always had a very similar problem with cable internet and I always had snow on my analoge cable. Shaw ran a new line and it cleared up the problem.
Another situation at my new house was shaw had to add a powered signal booster my line. I had issues earlier and the power booster cleaned it right up. I would have to check what exactly it is called as it does siganl modulation as well so its not "just a booster". I can check tonight and repost the model and its description.

Any recommendation for diagnostics of the problem?
Not sure how technical you are, so please forgive me if it sounds like I'm talking down...because I'm definately not.

When your internet goes down, do an ipconfig, and see if you can still ping your default gateway*. If you can ping your default gateway, it's definately not your setup, it's a problem on their end. You could try pinging your primary or secondary DNS servers, but it's possible they might not respond regardless of whether they're up or not (they might have echo turned off).

I had an issue similar to this a few months ago where ever 20-30 minutes my service would drop for a minute or so, but I could still ping the default gateway, just nothing further. Thankfully, when I talked to Rogers, I got someone who didn't make me jump through their hoops, and realized that if I could ping their gateway, it obviously wasn't my setup.

(* go to a command prompt, type ipconfig /all look at the number beside Default Gateway, and then type ping #.#.#.# and see if you get replies instead of timeouts)

Not sure how technical you are, so please forgive me if it sounds like I'm talking down...because I'm definately not.

When your internet goes down, do an ipconfig, and see if you can still ping your default gateway*. If you can ping your default gateway, it's definately not your setup, it's a problem on their end. You could try pinging your primary or secondary DNS servers, but it's possible they might not respond regardless of whether they're up or not (they might have echo turned off).

I had an issue similar to this a few months ago where ever 20-30 minutes my service would drop for a minute or so, but I could still ping the default gateway, just nothing further. Thankfully, when I talked to Rogers, I got someone who didn't make me jump through their hoops, and realized that if I could ping their gateway, it obviously wasn't my setup.

(* go to a command prompt, type ipconfig /all look at the number beside Default Gateway, and then type ping #.#.#.# and see if you get replies instead of timeouts)

Nathan: I am not all that technical but I am not afraid of technology. I will try you suggestions and report back. Thanks.

I have eliminated a number of Firefox extensions to see if they are causing a problem (faster Fox, spell checker, quicknotes, no script and a few others). I have also installed Shaw Secure recently and uninstalled Zone Alarm and Avast hoping to remove another excuse from Shaw CSRa as to why my setup is not working.

I live in a 96 year old house and the cable in to my house is about 2 years old. I believe Shaw installed a power booster a few years ago. They had to come back about a year ago and got rid of the power booster because the signal was too strong and causing some other problems.

I am able to ping my DNS as well as any other site such as yahoo.com. I exchanged my modem today but the problem persists.

So far I have removed ZA, Avast and replaced it with Shaw Secure (default settings) and I have moved my modem closer to the computer to reduce the length of the CAT5 cable.

I recalled today that the connection started to act up soon after I installed Azerous. Azerous is a bit torrent software. I have since discovered that Shaw shapes bandwidth and constricts bandwidth available for bit-torrent (speculated and hinted at by Shaw management). I wonder if there is something on my account that screws up my connection?

I could be time for a change. Life is too short for this type of trouble.

PS: to curtail the flames...I do not download copyrighted materials.

by any chance are you running azureus 2.3.0.6? and are you running azureus when your connection dies? The reason I ask is there seems to be a bug in the updated version. I have been using azureus for a long time without any problems until 2.3.0.6 came out and I upgraded.

My connection would be fine and then after a few minutes degrade to the point where there is no connection at all but I still have an IP address. The only thing I could do was reset the modem and router and everything would be fine up until I ran azureus again.

I downgraded back to 2.3.0.4 and everything has been fine. You might want to do a clean install of the program...
http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/index.php/Clean_install

I am able to ping my DNS as well as any other site such as yahoo.com. I exchanged my modem today but the problem persists.
Unfortunately, it sounds like it's probably something on your end. It's possible it's not, but most likely it is.

PS: to curtail the flames...I do not download copyrighted materials.
Doubtful you'd get any flames anyways. :)

Try what atong mentioned, it's quite possible it could be the problem, but I couldn't tell ya.

I have Shaw cable TV. No problems.
I used to have their internet but dropped it a few years ago because it appears a few of my close neighbors do a lot of downloading at times that slowed my internet to a crawl. I don't know if this is still a problem with Shaw but at times it appeared that my connection had stopped but in fact one of my neighbors was doing a large download.
I switched to Telus and no problems since.

I learned one thing about Shaw after dealing with them for the past 10yrs or so. If you have a problem, to get them to act a person has to harass the hell out of them. My neighbor was angry after Shaw dug up the alley behind his house and did not properly repair the pavement. He started complaining daily and got Shaw to repair the mess within a week. Other digs by Shaw further up the alley remain unrepaired after two years.

I would think that Shaw should send someone out to check the problem and find a fix, especially if the problem happens every 10 -15 mins.

I exchanged the modem and it too had the same problem for a while. Shaw CSR tried to flush out the modem and mother-board by shutting down the computer and the modem. When the computer rebooted I ended up with and IP address that belongs to a router (198.168.1.1) and I am not using a router. Now this IP address from my computer will not go away.

Where is this IP address coming from? I took out the router a few weeks ago when I started having this problem. Now the modem cannot get an IP and I am without any net (other than my neigbours' wireless that is open and shows good signal). Hmmm, maybe I don't need an ISP afterall!


Shaw is coming on the 28th to check out the signal.

When the computer rebooted I ended up with and IP address that belongs to a router (198.168.1.1) and I am not using a router. Now this IP address from my computer will not go away
That's a bit odd. In theory, there's not really any good reason why anything should assign your computer a 192.168.1.1 address unless you have some internet connection sharing software on your PC. I think MS's version uses 192.168.0.1...so I doubt it's that. (I mean, you *COULD* have that IP, but it's rather non-standard)

Hmmm...well, OK. Assuming your setup is a basic cable type system with no fancy-shmancy set up by the ISP, you could try the following (these are XP/2000 instructions, if you're using something else, they probably won't work):

Go to a command prompt again, and type ipconfig /all again.

You'll get a portion of it that looks like this:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Super Cool 10/100 Ethernet Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : BA-DB-EE-FB-AD-CA
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 24.24.24.24
50.50.50.50
10.0.0.1

The part I put in bold, normally it's just Local Area Connection, but there might be a number after it (Local Area Connection 2, Local Area Connection 3) Make note of the name, and then type the following substituting the name above with 'Local Area Connection'.

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

Then you can reboot, or disable, and re-enable your network connection, whichever you feel like.

When the machine comes back up, make note of what IP address you have now by doing another ipconfig (don't need the /all this time)

If it's a 169.254.something.something, and you have a netmask of 255.255.0.0 then your machine didn't successfully get an IP address from Shaw and instead it picked an 'automatic private address' for itself that won't interfere with anyone else.

I can't guarantee any of that will do any good, but at least it should get rid of the 192.168.1.1 problem. If for some reason you still have a 192.168.1.1 address, and when you do an ipconfig /all you see this line:

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

then something on Shaw's network is seriously buggered up. :)

Sorry for the technobabble, hopefully some of that made some sense.

I hate to say it but how about trying a new fresh install of Windows? I had a similar issue and I did a clean install and all problems went away. I know it's a pain in the ass but if all else fails......

I hate to say it but how about trying new fresh install of Windows? I had a similar issue and I did a clean install and all problems went away. I know it's a pain in the ass but if all else fails......

Thanks for the suggestion hdtvman but this is my second computer with which I have the same problem. I upgraded my computer a few weeks ago with a fresh XP install. I did move over some Firefox and Thunderbird profiles as well as some documents. So, it is possible that I moved over some nasty virus or something. I ran Shaw Secure and I did a scan to make sure there was nothing virulent on my HD. Nothing was reported. I am also running MS anti-spyware as well and nothing nasty has been reported. The fact that I have the problems with my modem and DCT suggests to me that there is a network problem.

I will try what Nathan has suggested and I will report back.

I hate to say it but how about trying a new fresh install of Windows? I had a similar issue and I did a clean install and all problems went away. I know it's a pain in the ass but if all else fails......


By the way, fresh XP install is not the end of the world. I have a spare 80 Gig HD as a slave that I can use for backing up key documents and then do a fresh install of the OS.

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be my Cat5 cable run. Try a shorter run and/or make sure that your cable isn't running across any other cables. You could also try plugging your router into the same power bar as your pc to eliminate grounding problems as the source (maybe try running a longer coax instead of a Cat5).