A friend just signed up with Comcast. He set up the modem, and now has some
problems. One of the problems is the Pcactivity light is flickering
continuously, even when the PC is powered down. This is a stand-alone home
computer. No router. Ethernet connection. This doesn't seem to be normal.

Another issue is that he can make an internet connection, but downloads are
slower than dial-up. His cable throughout the house is old coax he installed
many years ago, and the signal is split two, maybe three, times before the modem
connection. Would this cause downloads to crawl almost to a stop?

Thanks.

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:26:48 GMT, Bob Skinner wrote:
Mine is constantly sending arp reqests. Makes the activity led useless
for getting feel for what is going on.

Modem coax should come splitter on outside of house to cable modem.

Without modem model and stats from modem's web page there is not much
other trouble shooting can be done.

"Bit Twister" <BitTwister@localhost.localdomain> wrote in message
news:slrncocm4c.448.BitTwister@wb.home.invalid
Modem is a Motorola SB5100.
Can you tell me how to access the modem's web page?

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:44:44 GMT, Bob Skinner wrote:
on my Motorola SURFboard sb4220 it's http://192.168.100.1

Other problem might be settings in his OS or 10/100 nic mismatch and
has lots of rx/tx errors.

Best guess, he needs a straight coax back to first splitter from the
pole drop. That will be the first fix a tech will want to install.

Bob Skinner wrote:

Mine does the same thing. I find it annoying as it's useless for watching
traffic. I guess it's watching all traffic on the cable. On my previous
Terayon modem, there were two lights, one for each direction. With those,
you could do something, see it go out and watch for the return data.
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James Knott wrote:
If the light stops blinking, but everything else looks normal, that
would be a good sign not to release and try to renew your lease. The
lack of arp traffic would indicate that there will probably be a problem
if you do this.

But more importantly, your typical home user, the one who knows
absolutely nothing about what the lights may or may not imply, is more
impressed when they see a blinking light. That's what you see whenever
they show computers in those old sci-fi movies!

--
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: Black & Decker Landscaping Tools & Parts:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blackanddecker

Warren wrote:

My previous modem had a sync light, which went out, if there were problems.

OK, so long as there's a valid reason for it. ;-)

Incidentally, several years ago, I used to maintain mini-computers for a
large company. On one occasion, a TV crew arrived to film our computers in
action. The tape drives weren't busy enough to suit them, so we had to run
diagnostics on them, so they'd look busy.

Also, ever notice how those TV computers make noises you never hear with
real computers and come up with some highly unlikely message diplays?

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