I have no experience with time warner. My wife's parents have time warner for TV and Internet. Their internet regularly seems to drop out. What I mean is you can be surfing online fine, then suddenly a page won't load. Wait and refresh, then it will load. This happens a lot. The router is the Ubee modem/router combo. Time warner has sent someone out multiple times and can't solve the problem. Anything I can do on the router? Or would a different router and modem be better?

Wifi or copper? That alone can be a HUGE hint. If they're using wifi, force them to use a wired connection for a week and see whether the performance is different.

Usually you can hit the IP address of the cable modem and see status, logs, etc. The log might show what's going on. Also there might be a 'signal' page that will show you the RF signal levels, etc, that might help see what the issue is. My cable modem is on that network at: 192.168.100.1 but I'm sure that IP will vary depending on brand and cable system.

Wifi on multiple devices. I noticed it on my phone and on a laptop. I was trying to download some iTunes movies on the laptop. I would start the download, then check it in about 10 minutes and the wifi icon in the bottom right tray would have a yellow triangle on it, indicating a limited connection. Turn off the laptop's wifi, then turn it back on and reconnect, and downloading would start back. But in about 10 minutes or so I would notice the yellow triangle was back and I had to do it all over.

Somebody told them that copper is not needed because everything is going wireless these days. A lie wrapped around a technical truth.

And in an enterprise system, pretty expensive for the average home, that can be true. There's no way that a piece (O S) from Time Warner can be blameless here.

You nailed several of the problems. Average home, around 2500sqft and built in the late 70's. Phones are probably daisy chained pot wire. But on top of that, even if I could retro cat, phones and tablets don't have Ethernet jacks. They call time warner instead of a network guy. Time warner is never going to blame their POS router.

I might could convince them to get just a time warner modem and a seperate router, but I'm a couple hours away, so I can't run over and set it up.

Here's a couple of questions.

When this issue happens, is it network wide or does it happen on one device or same devices of like manafacture?

What do the lights do on the modem/router. Do they change color to indicate a problem? (Have your parents video record it for you when it happens.)

Was there something changed or added to the system lately?

KOT

Sounds like either a WiFi issue, or a packet loss issue. However it really has to be observed on a wired connection first to rule in or out WiFi.

It's been an ongoing problem for some time. So hard to say if any changes caused it. And for the most part, it all happens quick enough, and there's not enough people online at the same time to be able to provide answers to the first to questions. That's why I was hoping someone with more time warner experience might have knowledge on a common problem

I stumbled upon this thread. Find it interesting a DNS server could've been an issue.

Though this guy had a problem over wifi and cat5. Whereas your in laws may have it over wifi, with out having them plug in we don't know.

[Link: forums.timewarnercable.com]

KOT

Buy your own Sb4121 modem for $59 AT Walmart. Put in a new router of your choice. Save them $6.95/month. See if the problem still happens. When I first moved into my house, I kept loosing my Time Warner Phone, cable and Internet. They eventually had to replace some hub thing about 1 mile away from my house.

Do not know which Ubee you have. The 3201b which is a common model with TWC currently has a firmware bug with intermittent wifi connectivity and latency. Firmware fix is currently being tested. You must check wired. If it is going out the modem is going ofline. Typically caused by a return level which is too high or alot of noise entering your cable system. Both require the cable guy to visit. You may also have a connection issue such as a loose siezure screw at the tap feeding residence or connection somewhere on your side of tap. Both of those cause problems with the low band. Does not like to jump gaps. Again the cable tech should have software that can show the signal flucuation trend with the modem.

I have a client with an Ubee DDW3611 that began experiencing similar issues in mid-Spring after a couple of years of stable performance. I'm headed down next week to replace and reconfigure the modem, though I suspect they're dealing primarily with the side effects of massive head-end changes at TWC in preparation for their new upgraded WAN speeds rolling out in many markets this month.

A senior field tech in Chapel Hill, NC told me approximately 8 weeks ago that their system servers and software had changed to such an extent that his field service terminal could no longer log in to customers' modems remotely. He also said that phone pool tech support agents had no idea what head end changes were being made or how when or where those changes might affect service. Neato.

The modem is the DDW365. I'm going to test a hardwired connection, but it does look like its a problem with the time warner DNS servers. The link posted above was from Nov 14, and they mentioned in it that the problem then was at least a year old. Looks like the solution is to bridge the modem and use your own router that lets you modify the DNS server

I can verify the DNS problems with TWC. I have had massive instability issues with our clients using their service. It shows up as very high latency and moderate packet loss. I started using the Google public servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), and have seen much better performance.