It seems as if my cable connections slows to a crawl, sometimes as
much as severl times a day. The only thing that "cures" it is if I
unplug my Motorola SB4200 modem. Then it works just fine. If I look
at the logs of the modem, I see several instances of it dailing to get
a DHCP lease.

Is the problem with my modem or my ISP?

"Joe Sitko" <ciscokidnospam@ptdprolog.net> wrote in message
news:ha6ak0lnui6cj5vlsk823sfefpd6235jch@4ax.com...
Log into your modem and check the signal levels when this happens.

http://192.168.100.1/signal.html

Receive: -15dbmV to +15dbmV
Transmit: 30dbmV to 55dbmV
Signal/Noise Ratio: >30dB

If they aren't within that range, or if they change significantly, then you
might want to have the cable company check your line. FWIW, I had a SB5100
that was doing the same thing to me, only the signal level was fine and
never changed. The problem was solved by replacing it with a Linksys
BEFCMU10 V.3 cable modem. -Dave

Dave C. wrote:

Yes. Replacing the modem fixed the line problems.

You still don't see how it was coincidental that you switched modems at
the same time other problems were fixed, do you, Dave. You're still
convinced that you're the one who fixed it all.


Joe Sitko wrote:
There's not enough information to tell. While checking the info page to
compare what's happening when things aren't working to how they are when
things are working can give you more information, it's still not enough
to make a diagnosis.

What I will say is that it is highly unlikely that a modem works
sometimes, and then only partially works at other times. It's far more
likely that if the modem is the problem, that it won't work, period. And
in the few cases that it might perform poorly until "fixed" by
resetting, if the it's the modem, the fix will become less and less
effective on an exponential curve.

What's far more likely is that it's a problem someplace between you and
the CMTS. There are far more points of failure, with far more ways that
they can fail causing signal problems that your modem can't recover from
without a manual reset.

The odds are 10,000 to 1 that a new modem won't fix things. The odds are
closer to even money that whatever is wrong in the HFC network will be
discovered and fixed within a month, making it about a 50 to 1 shot,
with the odds getting better as the month goes on, all the way down to
about 2 to 1, that if you went out and bought a new modem, it would
appear you fixed it by buying a new modem. And if you don't understand
that you don't have the ability to troubleshoot far enough, you could,
like Dave, believe that you fixed it.

Your best move at this time is to contact the cable company, and
convince them to roll a truck out so they can find the real problem.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Cooking with Intense Heat
http://www.holzemville.com/community...eat/index.html

Oh I see. You think I fixed the cable company by replacing a modem.
Gotcha. -Dave