hav's profile

Contributor

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1 Message

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 5:33 PM

My 2wire modem/wifi keeps resetting

we noticed this a while back. never really cared for it, but now its getting annoying since i just bought a new modem thinking that there was something wrong with the old one. i dont know exactly whats going on.....it works fine for about 30 minutes then it just resets. streaming movies, playing online games and even browsing the internet have become a hassle....pls help!

Tutor

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3 Messages

12 years ago

I have a Dell laptop running windows vista business....same laptop I have had before the phone line was turned off.  We  have a router in my sons part of the house, with an ethernet cord ran from thier end to the 2wire dsl modem. 

I have had my modem checked at the att store and they said it was fine and working properly.

After we had the phone line turned off, and the tech came out and installed some new box or something, my son had to re register my laptop.  Do you think this is a problem connected to my laptop?

 

And by the way, thank you for any help you provide!

Employee

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442 Messages

12 years ago

based on what you are describing, I would say yes. 

 

what you might try is this. 

 

try a wired connection to your laptop and turn off your wireless. This should give you a clue if the problem is in the wireless, or the operating system. 

 

Least then if you get it narrowed down that far, you will know for sure. 

 

Another way to confirm would be to go to like wal-mart/best buy/local computer store and buy a USB wireless NIC and test/confirm. All you would need is say a 802.11b/g nic to confirm. 

 

If the one you have stays up and running and doesn't crash the 2wire, via wireless- then you will have nailed it down to the wireless built into the laptop. 

Tutor

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8 Messages

12 years ago

We too are having the same problems many of these other people are having with our 2wire gateway. Our problem started late saturday night, early sunday morning (october 29th into 30th 2011) while watching Stargate Universe on Netflix, in the day or so since the problem has excalated to happening ANY time ANY wi-fi connection initiated.

 

When I turn on my Xbox 360, the wireless connection connecting to it immediately crashes the modem (I've stood in the room with the modem, turning on the console from across the house, watching the modem die as soon as the 360 turns on).

 

When either myself or my roommate turns on either of our 3DS' the wi-fi connection crashes the modem (same as the with 360, I've stood in front of the modem and watched it happen as soon as the connection starts).

 

If the the devices, or the wi-fi connection coming out of them, isn't turned off the gateway will continuously cycle as if it can't find any internet or DSL signal, or any of the connections to the computers we have wired to the modem by way of Cat-5, only the Wi-fi light stays on. The night this began, before we figured out it was the wi-fi causing this crash, I stayed on the xbox playing offline (but with wi-fi still being on within the console) for at least 4 hours before I turned the 360 off for the night, and only then did the modem properly cycle and the internet was restored. When the Wi-fi connection IS severed the modem cycles and restarts as if the the power went out, or I forced a reset.

 

The modem is absolutely fine when the wired computers use it, this only happens when a wi-fi connection is made.

 

Seeing as this is happening to a few of us, across the course of a months time, I'm not sure if we can really call this an isolated incident.

 

Also, we do not have U-Verse, it isn't even offered in our area (despite living in a fairly major city) we have the 3mbps Legacy DSL plan, which is the highest plan we can get in this area.

Tutor

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8 Messages

12 years ago

I wanted to add to my above post that I just got off the phone with a service rep (after being directed to call from the online chat rep) and was told by the rep (whose name was Michael) that "there was nothing he could do" but could charge us $100 to replace the modem.

 

After inquiring as to why I should have to pay a $100 charge for the modem very suddenly not working with our wi-fi connections he said "because it isn't on warrenty any more". I then I inquired about why I was given this modem at no charge by a technition who had come to my house at least 2 years ago to fix a completely seperate issue that reoccures (and still reoccures, even after the tech gave us the new "more powerful" modem, so we could -in his words- "even bother to get enough of a singal to even use the service at all") in the spring time, yearly. The customer service rep informed me it was free because it was included in my service, where I reminded him that, no, the first modem I was given that Tech said was far too weak, was included with our service, not this modem. 

 

All the rep could answer is "I understand" and told me I'd still need to pay $100 for a replacement. Considering I've been a reliant customer for years now, and can't use the service AT ALL without a modem, I still fail to see why it isn't as included outragous price I'm paying for such a low speed service, in my area.

 

I then inquired if he had access to the forums to see this thread, and I was told "no we don't have any access to that information". I then informed him that this thread had many people with the same, or similar issue, and it couldn't possibly be a coincidence that this suddenly happens to so many people in a months time. He said "I understand" (Again) and said "but I don't have access to that information, so I can't help you there".

 

He then went so far to inform me that I haven't had an issue since 2009 (when the tech gave me this modem, and told me what I've already repeated here twice), in which I had to inform him rather bluntly that I have had many issues since 2009, but I've weathered absolutely every one of them without calling because I'd get the same exact "I can't help you" response he's given. Sending techs out to my house has obviously not fixed any issues, and AT&T isn't willing to dig any deeper into a --begrudgenly-- loyal paying customers problem past a certain point -so why bother calling any more. I went on to tell him that the only reason I bothered calling at all tonight was because this is a COMPLETELY new issue for us in this household, where as the other issues we have (constant, random, crap speeds and disconnects) are ALWAYS in the spring for some reason, though after 5 years they've never once been able to isolate any of the problems and do any thing about them.


So yeah. I'm pretty close to being done with AT&T's service completely, and will be spending tomorrow looking into my options, if I get no where tomorrow night both calling the AT&T sales department and being called by Tier 2 support (if they even call. I've been stiffed by AT&T support who say they'll call back the next day at least 4 times before) I'm 99.9% sure I'll be leaving this company.

Expert

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24.3K Messages

12 years ago

You should also contact David here.

 

 

 

Employee

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442 Messages

12 years ago

When the wireless fails does the log show any errors like "err_dma" ? 

 

Tutor

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8 Messages

12 years ago

Where is the log your talking about? The only thing that resembles a log is the broadband link statistics page with its list of accumulated errors over a period of 24 hours. (but its not a text list, its more like headcount of the errors ect. -none of which look like the one your asking about)

I just reproduced the same crash that I've been able to almost (more on that in a moment) consistently reproduce in the same way for days now and nothing like err_dma shows, probably because I don't even know where I'm supposed to be looking for it. However, the crash completely reset the broadband link statistics page, so any insight that might have from over the last 17+ hours is now gone.

Also want to mention again that when the wireless fails, the whole modem goes dead, then comes back up with ONLY the wireless light on. I have zero access to the modem during that time. Just a few moments ago when I reproduced the crash to see if I can find what you were talking about, I had to -like I've also mentioned before- go on and shut down the xbox before the modem would even cycle correctly and allow me back into the modems interface.

Reason I said "almost" in 2 paragraphs ago is because last night, after I posted that last bit above about my time on the phone with the rep, I went into the living room and turned on the xbox to at least play something offline and unwind a little, and the connection --for whatever miraculous reason-- stayed connected and didn't fall flat on its face. So between 10pm to 1am I couldn't do anything but crash, while From 1am to 5:30am, the modem didn't crash and I get disconnected from Xbox Live due to a low signal (or any other reason I could be d/c'd).

 

I also just got finished running another test where I turned off every internet using item in the house (xbox, all 3DS', DS' and computers) and then turned on ONLY my 3DS. While it was connected to the modem alone, the modem didn't crash. When I turned on my roommates 3DS, in addition to mine still being on, the modem crashed immediately. Apparently, whatever is causing the crash can't handle the draw from multiple wi-fi devices, nor can it handle the draw from a single wi-fi device when a wired computer is also running (like the first reproduction I did tonight).

 

This seems pretty congruent with most stuff I found today while digging into this. While looking around for answers I found a treasure trove of information in the exact last place I'd ever think to look for it: The bestbuy.com customer reviews for this exact same gateway modem -an item Best Buy sells over their website. I want to say a good 90% of the reviews all recount pretty much the same issue myself and -at least- Cakewzd have brought the the attention of this forum: Went to go connect to our favorite wi-fi devices and had the modem crash, rinse and repeat. And some went as far as to say they did what I did:  called AT&T, were told they couldn't be helped and were pressured into immediately spending $100 to replace this proprietary modem before ever exploring other avenues.

 

Many of them claim the problem is the modem's powersupply, that the supply just fails. Most of those same people say that there's a replacement cord (or something of the sort) that they were only able to find through AT&T (go figure) that helped the issue. Some even said they had to go so far as to get the cord and replace a resistor within the modem -and even that seems to be only a temporary fix.

 

Some of the people reviewing the modem had actually gone through multiple replacements before altogether giving up on AT&T and its shoddy hardware. Some having to pay in full for new modems even though they were still under warranty -as AT&T wouldn't honor it, and one guy telling a story where HE had to pay out of pocket for the technician to come to his house to check out the situation before anyone ever figured out it was the modem's powersupply. And the consensus from most of the people who have seen these issues with the modem is that  AT&T knows these gateways are sub-par and can't handle much more then a year of use, gave it its warranty according to that, and that the reps know this, yet don't tell the customers the problem -stringing them along till they feel like they have no choice but to spend $100 on the replacement.

 

So, I'm still completely willing to work with you on figuring this out, but I've become pretty positive that its the modem's powersupply and not something within the setting, or suddenly something having to do with the devices trying to connect to it.

 

 

I'd love to hear otherwise, however. So lets please continue troubleshooting for the time being.

Employee

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442 Messages

12 years ago

Here you go. Some more stuff to try. 

 

 

Try this one or confirm if this is on the DSL diagnostics page first... you will want to have the 2wire's interface (dsl diagnostics up when you turn on your friends DS) if this is what's causing it, you should see it briefly before the 2wire dies. You could also just go in and change it to WPA or WPA2 and power his DS on and if it stays up, then you may have nailed the problem down at that point. 

 

Err_DMA  fix:

As far as err_dma, from reference I got it had something to do with on the dsl diagnostics page.  Under the "Exit code" 

 

http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/1675143~63d3160610e6da5c0978788df8371698/080411.png

 

What seemed to fix it was the following... 

 

Point  is do not use dual WPA/WPA2 authentication mode (also known on the 2wire as "WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK") on 2WIRE 2701HG-B. Leave it at WPA2 or WPA, or (God-forbid) WEP, only. 

 

 

 

This one could help as well, maybe you are interfering or the modem is interfering with another more powerful wireless signal. Now if there is no one nearby or you are out in the middle of nowhere, this can be probably the least of the solutions to try. This one typically would be more popular if you are in a city setting or in an apartment complex. 

 

Try a different wireless channel-

I had one guy that was having this similar problem and he had 35 devices  all on channel 6. He changed to a different channel and that seemed to alleviate his issue with the 2wire.

 

This is what he used to find a "Quiet" channel, and told the 2wire to go to that channel. There is only 13 channels in the united states.I think he found no one in his immediate area on "channel 9" so he took that one. Said his wireless cleared right up. 

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

 

or 

 

 

 

This one might be a good idea none the less based on just the sheer number of devices talking on 192.168.x.x these days. I would do this one just to simply and solve some wired and or wireless network problems. You might be quite surprised how well this one works. If you have any devices arping your 2wire to death, via wireless, this might come to an end. 

 

Changing the base IP address: 

I solved another one just by changing the base IP address from 192.168.x.x to 172.16.x.x.  This one seems to solve quite a bit of wired and or wireless problems. Since about 99.9999% of devices made today talk on 192.168.x.x flavors there might be confusion as to which local network to listen to. THis change would alleviate this problem. As more win7 and macs remember what IP address they had under their connection settings, this can resolve those problems. 

 

To change the 2wire IP address range follow these instructions below


  1. While connected to your wireless network, go to http://gateway.2wire.net/ or http://192.168.1.254, http://192.168.1.1, or http://172.16.0.1 .  You’ll have to enter a password or two.
  2. The 2wire main page should come up
  3. Go to the “Home Network” tab, click “advanced settings
  4. Go to “private network”
  5. Click 172.16.0.0
  6. Click Save
  7. Reboot the 2wire and any desktops, laptops, phones, game consoles, etc. as these devices just became disconnected and will have to be issued new addresses as they come online from the 2wire. 

 

 

This one may alleviate some issues with game consoles, and macintosh systems. 

 

 

Disabling Packet flood and enabling strict udp session control.

 

Note: this may also resolve some connectivity issues with Macs that may have a problem keeping a connection. This may resolve some gaming console issues.

 

  1. While connected to your wireless network, go to http://gateway.2wire.net/ or http://192.168.1.254, http://192.168.1.1, or http://172.16.0.1 .  You’ll have to enter a password or two.
  2. Go to “Firewall” and select “advanced Settings”
  3. Check the following checkboxes/radio button dials
    1. “Strict UDP session control (check if unchecked)
    2. Uncheck “Packet Flood (SYN/UDP/ICMP/Other)”
  4. Click “Save”
  5. Reboot the 2wire unit and reconnect

 

 

 

Truthfully if it is a power supply problem, it should  be present whether wired or wireless. Not just wireless and not when you turn on a specific device. Otherwise the first device you turned on via wireless should have failed too. 

 

 

 

Contributor

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1 Message

12 years ago

I am having this same problem which began late last week AFTER having residntial phone service reestablished back at my house. We have had only DSL for over a year and no problems. When I had a local phone line reconnected last week, it started kicking me off every time I  connected wirelessly with my Gateway Laptop. AT&T tech support has been no help on this for the past two days. I am review the latter posts of this thread and hoping some of your suggestions will help.

Employee

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442 Messages

12 years ago


@bmi1965 wrote:

I am having this same problem which began late last week AFTER having residntial phone service reestablished back at my house. We have had only DSL for over a year and no problems. When I had a local phone line reconnected last week, it started kicking me off every time I  connected wirelessly with my Gateway Laptop. 


 

I would make sure you are not losing sync, from what it sounds like, it sounds as if it's a dsl sync drop problem. DId you put the filters back on the line? 

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