Must reboot or restore PC to get service?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 01, 2008 Posts: 2

I apologize first of all that I cannot post everything asked for in the sticky. I can't get my internet access working at home at the moment.

I have Comcast cable internet, with a Terayon TJ715X, a Linksys WRT54G wireless router, and a Motorola VT2442 Device for the vonage.

A while back, my Phone 1 light went out. (I don't have a phone 2.) It took me a very, very long time to figure out, but it turns out that the free McAfee antivirus software that Comcast gave me was somehow corrupt. I ran the patch and it seemed to work fine. A couple months later, it happened again. I finally uninstalled McAfee completely, and that worked for a while too. Lately, it's been happening more and more, and the only way I've found to fix it is to either reboot the PC, or run a system restore back a day or two. Now that doesn't work anymore.

I should also mention that when the phone 1 light is out, so is my internet connection, although the modem indicates that the internet is running. This is weird, because I have the system wired like this:

Cable -> Modem -> Wireless Router

Out of the wireless router, I have one ethernet cable running to the PC, and one running to the Vonage device.

If the Vonage device was causing the problem, why would the internet go out? And if the modem was the problem, why are all the lights indicating a good connection?

I've tried calling both Comcast and Vonage, and each blames the other.

Is there a known communication issue between these devices? Is my PC to blame? Is one of the devices to blame?

I'm at the end of my rope. I love my Vonage, but it has to be working.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Posts: 4630 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4630

This doesn't sound like a Vonage problem, since you're losing both internet service and phone service. (I assume that when the light goes out, the phone doesn't work. Is this correct? The lights on the VT2442 are known to have problems that don't affect phone service.)

Assuming that you've lost both phone and internet, the problem could be with the wireless router or with the modem. Start by removing the wireless router and plugging the PC directly into the modem. Can you connect to the internet now?

Posts: 1064 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1064

have you recently installed a 3rd party firmware on your wrt54g? installing a 3rd party firmware will erase the MAC address unless you take certain precautionary measures. This can cause the problems you are encountering. Ask me how I know...

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 01, 2008 Posts: 2

Okay, I'm back.

I had the cable company come out and remove a splitter and rerun some cable, and my internet doesn't go out so much anymore.

I still have the same issue though, as described in my original post. But I've seemed to narrow it down to automatic updates from Windows. Are there any known issues that might be causing this?

Posts: 369 · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject:

Did you bother to try Steve's suggestion a while back? It sure seems like a problem with your linksys router. If your cable modem is indicating that it is connected and all the lights are solid expect the blinking activity light and your phone light is out on the Vonage device it means that the internet is getting lost between your cable modem and Vonage device. When you say your internet goes out what do you mean exactly? The lights on the modem are blinking or you can't access the internet from your computer or use Vonage? I hate to rain on your parade but nothing software or computer related or windows update is going to make you lose your internet connection or your Vonage service. Your computer could be so screwed up or virus infected that it might make your internet nearly unusable on your computer. Also, viruses or trojans could be sucking up your bandwidth and cause the call quality to be bad but it won't cause you to lose the internet. Your problems are hardware related. And from your descriptions the Linksys looks like the culprit. It's either going bad or if you have played with the settings, something could have gotten messed up like Mundy eluded to.

Posts: 521 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 521

I assume the IP subnet for the WRT54G is the default range of 192.168.1.1-255 and the default IP of the VT2442 is the default range of 192.168.15.1-255

Posts: 4630 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4630

I think the default range for the WRT54G is the same as for the VT2442. Check and change one if they're the same.