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I'm hoping someone can help me. I moved about 6 weeks ago - roughly one mile down the road. At my old house, I had Comcast for 8 years and it was great. I moved in to the new house, and Comcast is great aside from one major problem - multiple times a day the internet goes out for 10 seconds to 5 minutes.

When the outages occur, the WAN gets a strange IP address - 192.168.100.4 I think - and then shortly after it gets the same IP address back that it had before and the internet is back up.

The only variables that have changed are my house, and replacing an aging PFSense box with a Pakedge RK-2. My neighbors on both sides of me have Comcast and have never had any issues. Comcast has "reset" or "sent signal" to my modem multiple times to fix the issue, and sent a technician out who just added a splitter because the signal was too high, and left. The problem has persisted through all of these things.

So - I'm in the process of trying to switch to a Fiber provider, but they're extremely difficult to deal with (slow) and expensive - I'd rather just have my Comcast connection be stable. While I wait for these Fiber guys to get their shit together, is there anything I can do (short of swapping out the Pakedge with the old PFSense box, which would be a MASSIVE hassle) to verify that it is in fact a Comcast issue and not a problem with my router?

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Sure, buy your own modem would be the best solution as it will rule out the crap that Comcast gives you.

From what you're describing, sounds like the comcast supplied modem is changing from bridge mode back to router mode.  Then fixes itself, I guess.

Typically, Comcast public IP's are in the 172.x.x.x range.  When its in router mode, they come stock at 10.1.x.x range.

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10 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

Sure, buy your own modem would be the best solution as it will rule out the crap that Comcast gives you.

From what you're describing, sounds like the comcast supplied modem is changing from bridge mode back to router mode.  Then fixes itself, I guess.

Typically, Comcast public IP's are in the 172.x.x.x range.  When its in router mode, they come stock at 10.1.x.x range.

I should have mention that I have my own modem, and have had so for years. It's the same modem I had at my old house. I disconnected it for roughly 4 hours before hooking it up at the new house.

I agree with you on the Comcast supplied crap. I've furnished my own modems for more than a decade.

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The question is where the odd WAN (192...) comes from. I doubt that's the Pakedge doing it.

Just because something worked for xx years in one place, doesn't mean it'll survive a move, even if it's walking distance.

I'd still say try a different modem.

 

Not a 'fan' of Pakedge either, but I've had next to no issues, and certainly nothing like this one.

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3 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

Then I'd say it's your Pakedge router causing the problem.  If your neighbors don't have this issue, which are all tied to the same trunk, then you can only look internally.

Never been a fan of Pakedge for a reason.

Can you give me an idea as to how I can sniff the problem out? I'd love it if there's something in the router that is configured incorrectly. I have the WAN setup on DHCP, and am using Google's DNS servers. There is a value in the "Override MAC Address" field, and the SIP ALG Enable box is checked. There are no DNS forwardings and the Rebind protection is unchecked. Those are really the only options in the WAN settings.

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2 minutes ago, Cyknight said:

The question is where the odd WAN (192...) comes from. I doubt that's the Pakedge doing it.

Just because something worked for xx years in one place, doesn't mean it'll survive a move, even if it's walking distance.

I'd still say try a different modem.

 

Not a 'fan' of Pakedge either, but I've had next to no issues, and certainly nothing like this one.

I can certainly try a different modem. The one I'm using is on the Comcast recommended list. I don't know enough about networking and ISP's to chase this down any further.

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Is the 192.168.x.x address that you see when this happens the same as your local LAN?  That address scheme is typically used for small private networks up to 254 devices.  Comcast is one big network over the country.  They use both Class A and B networks.  Your home runs a class C network.  In conclusion, I highly doubt you're receiving that 192 address from Comcast.

Only way I can think of watching the problem, is to open the WAN config page on Pakedge to see if it changes live there.  I'm not even sure if Pakedge shows you live values either, just guessing.

How frequent does this happen?  If its an every other day thing, I'd try swapping the modem out first.

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22 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

Is the 192.168.x.x address that you see when this happens the same as your local LAN?  That address scheme is typically used for small private networks up to 254 devices.  Comcast is one big network over the country.  They use both Class A and B networks.  Your home runs a class C network.  In conclusion, I highly doubt you're receiving that 192 address from Comcast.

Only way I can think of watching the problem, is to open the WAN config page on Pakedge to see if it changes live there.  I'm not even sure if Pakedge shows you live values either, just guessing.

How frequent does this happen?  If its an every other day thing, I'd try swapping the modem out first.

I could be wrong about the IP, but it was noticeably different than it typically is and it was also NOT the same as the LAN IP. 
 

It has been happening multiple times a day. Next time it happens and I’m at home (that’s part of the challenge - I travel a lot) I’ll hurry and check the WAN IP. In the past, the WAN IP would be different. It doesn’t last long though, so I have to be fast. 

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What's interesting is that before, I know my IP address was 73.20.91.X

That was what it was when it was super flakey. I had them shut it off, but the new provider is taking their sweet time running the fiber line, so I had Comcast turn it back on temporarily. They did that yesterday afternoon, and since they did it the internet hasn't cut out once. My new IP address is 174.52.146.XX.

I wonder if the WAN IP address being drastically different has something to do with the stability?

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Well, I downloaded a LOG file and a System Report, but they're not files that I can read - at least not anything I can figure out how to read. The LOG file is a bunch of unreadable characters and the System Report is a .bin that unpacks to a .cpzg, which unpacks to a .bin, and repeats over and over. If anyone has tools to read these things I'd love an assist.

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2 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

Sounds like either a crap modem or crap feed from comcrap

Yeah - I think I may snag a new modem today and see if that solves the problem. What's weird is that the modem worked fine - right up until the day that we moved. The modem is on the recommended list from Comcast.

I've got these Fiber guys setup to come run conduit and get the fiber connection to the house - but it's quite a bit more expensive than Comcast and if it's a problem with my router I'd hate to spend the money on the fiber installation and service only to have the problem continue. I'm trying to eliminate as many variables as I can. If I replace the modem, then it's either the ISP or the router - and the ISP works great for my next door neighbor. As much as I despise Comcast, I think it's really come down to either the modem or the router. Amazon is going to deliver the new router tomorrow so we will see if that solves the problem.

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Alright - so it just went down again. When it goes down, the WAN IP address goes to 192.168.100.10, Netmask is 255.255.255.0 and the Gateway is 192.168.100.1.

It stays that way for a short period of time, then it resets back to what it normally is and the internet works again.

I'm going to run down and snag a new modem today and see if that improves things. I welcome any other ideas.

For what it's worth, at one point I did try setting the WAN up with a STATIC IP instead of DHCP. The Uptime never reset, but the connectivity still cut in and out.

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I can assure you, it’s just a modem. There’s not much you can do when you access it - just firmware updates really. It’s a Zoom 5341J. Worked flawlessly at my old house for years and the problems started the day I moved here (also the day I setup the Pakedge). I went out today and bought new Netgear CM1100. 
 

6 hours in and it’s been so far so good. We’ll see how the overnight and tomorrow goes. 

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10 hours ago, msgreenf said:

you have a surfboard modem?

Zoom 5341J. Recently replaced with a Netgear CM1100. So far so good. That said, the old one went nearly 24 hours from Friday to Saturday this week - then started dropping every 30 minutes or so. 

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2 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

I would really have them check the line. It almost sounds like a bad feed to your house or bad fittings on the line.

They assure me that isn’t the case, and have sent a technician out. All the technician did was add a splitter because “the signal was too high”. I don’t know what he did outside but that’s all he did inside. 

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11 hours ago, msgreenf said:

Too high a signal is a real problem. But a splitter probably wasn't enough. Probably need to add filters.

Yeah, the problem didn’t change after he did that. We’re knocking on the door of 20 hours and still going strong. I’m cautiously optimistic that the new modem has solved the problem. That said, the old setup made it this long a few times too.
 

If it does turn out to be the modem that’s a CRAZY coincidence. Just happened to go bad in the 4 hour window that it took to unhook it, move it over and hook it back up. In fact, it was probably more like a 1.5 hour window. 

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