Charter internet: a tale of woe and router frustration

Hewn

Dear Penny Arcade, I call to you for help with the internets.

I just bought a new ASUS RT-N56U router. It's super new. It's pretty cool and pretty fast. Except my internet doesn't always want to connect to it... and ironically, the reason I upgraded my Linksys WRT54GL (with Tomato) is because the internet didn't always want to connect to that. Oh sweet irony.

So when the net works, like now, it works great. Fast connection, super stable, everything is wonderful. But when the modem loses power for any reason (storm or just unplugging it due to moving my desk) it takes anywhere from 1 hour to 8 hours to regain connection. The old Linksys Tomato firmware often told me my DNS was "disconnected" and would take hours to reacquire. I would release and refresh it via the firmware to no avail. So I thought, enough of that noise, I'm getting a new router.

Fast forward and I'm having the same exact problem now. Chrome tells me I the DNS server has failed and my router constantly tries to run the first boot internet wizard to reestablish a connection. I do that, cycle the power on the modem, and it doesn't work. Then, magically after hours of cycling the power, it will work one time. I don't do anything different, so who knows. New router, same issue. Coincidence?

So Charter consistently claims it is the router. However, keep in mind any power cycle ALSO screws up the direct line from the modem to the PC. I can typically get that running faster, but it can take 30 minutes to an hour of cycling the power for it to finally connect - again, with no explanation as to why trial 5 worked instead of trial 4.

Supplementary info: We also have Charter phone which uses another modem. Each time I talk to a tech they go, "We're getting a good signal!" and it is usually the signal from the phone modem. That old modem USED to serve as a dual internet/phone in the same package, but we now have upgraded internet (3.0) which required a new, separate modem. Most (not all) of the problems with this have begun after splitting the modems, and when I mention this, the tech always says, "Well you did get it working eventually, right?" Oh you scamp you!

In summary: when my modem loses power I can't reconnect to the internet for a long time. I have two routers that both fail miserably at working in a timely manner after this happens. It usually regains connection slightly faster if I hook it up directly to the PC. DNS failure messages are common on both routers.

Let me know if you need more information and please, you're my only hope.

Inquisitor77

I ran into this problem recently, and finally figured out that it was the interference on the automatically-designated 2.4GHz channel that was causing the random disconnects. In terms of connection reliability, all it takes is one more network to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I managed to fix the problem by manually setting the channel on the router to a slightly less-clogged one, but in all honesty the best solution is to move to 5GHz instead if you can do so.

SeñorAmor

I had the same issue not more than a week ago. My modem would randomly drop its connection. Power cycling it would sometimes work; oftentimes not. I requested Charter test the signal quality at my tap on the telephone pole and again at the box on the side of my house. The technician informed me there was no signal loss, so I had him test at the wall jack into which my modem is plugged and work backwards until the signal was solid. Turns out one of the ports on one of the splitters in my house had some signal issues and was causing my disconnects. Once we swapped it out, everything came back up and I haven't had a problem since.

The tech that came out also replaced my tap at the telephone pole "just in case" but I get a feeling that it was also part of my problem. I would suggest having a tech come out and work backwards from your modem until he can find the where the (likely) signal loss starts.

Hewn

I like both of these suggestions, since they point to actually solving the problem rather than blaming every wireless router I'll ever own. Thanks, guys. I'll try to get a move on both. It's been up for over a day now, so of course I can't request a Charter tech just yet, but oh, I'll be waiting...

The problem is they always tell me I have good signal from their end. One time, after the tech told me to unplug my modem, she said it was still showing up on the system. I said, no, I unplugged it since I'm good at that. And she said it wasn't and I should make sure I didn't unplug something else. You get the picture and that's why I asked you all for help.