Hi. I haven't posted in the tech forums in a long time, but this problem I've been having with my internet has me frustrated and baffled.

About a month ago, I went from having a pristine connection with an old WRT54G linksys router, to the internet randomly going down completely for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour, then reconnecting and being completely fine for anywhere from 30 seconds to a week (or anywhere in between). Typically when it starts disconnecting, the internet will be extremely volatile for hours, then randomly become stable for a few more hours.

My computer is a newer Macbook Pro, but I've connected my phone to the router as well, and when the internet goes down, my phone can't connect either (but can using its built-in wifi), so it can't be my computer.

My ISP is Time Warner. I've called them, and at first they tried blaming my router, so I came into possession of two others (one a newer linksys, one an apple) and they both experience the identical issue. When I ruled out my router (I tried changing its channel, too, to no effect), I called TWC and they sent a tech out who thought the problem was a bent cable line, causing packet loss. That wasn't it. Internet worked for a couple hours after he left, then started spazzing out constantly again.

Called them again, and insisted they replace the modem this time, since I thought that was the only common denominator. The new modem appeared to work fine all weekend, then on Monday the internet began going down constantly yet again. I'm really, really annoyed at this point.

Today I've been disconnecting a lot, like always, but even when I'm not totally d/c'd, the connection has been really bad, which is new. I ran a few traceroutes to my WoW server's IP:

Spoiler: show

traceroute to 206.18.98.208 (206.18.98.208), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 2161.345 ms 1739.863 ms 1139.343 ms
2 cpe-075-181-000-001.carolina.res.rr.com (75.181.0.1) 830.575 ms 892.770 ms 632.859 ms
3 cpe-024-074-253-173.carolina.res.rr.com (24.74.253.173) 3007.767 ms 2143.394 ms 1739.697 ms
4 ae18.rlghncpop-rtr1.southeast.rr.com (24.93.64.4) 1542.228 ms 1471.031 ms 1865.568 ms
5 107.14.19.20 (107.14.19.20) 1563.827 ms 1330.351 ms 1512.357 ms
6 ae0.pr1.dca10.tbone.rr.com (107.14.17.200) 2302.285 ms 1714.642 ms 2431.685 ms
7 ix-17-0.tcore2.aeq-ashburn.as6453.net (216.6.87.149) 1773.362 ms 1404.857 ms 1749.618 ms
8 192.205.34.245 (192.205.34.245) 1183.636 ms 1765.744 ms 4926.821 ms
9 cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net (12.122.134.186) 3882.522 ms 1633.189 ms 1758.677 ms
10 cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.18.21) 2149.192 ms 2741.868 ms 2261.418 ms
11 gar18.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.99.21) 1944.563 ms 1578.558 ms 1997.394 ms
12 12.122.251.14 (12.122.251.14) 2169.535 ms 1656.448 ms 1675.913 ms
13 63.240.130.202 (63.240.130.202) 1249.313 ms 575.766 ms 395.388 ms


Spoiler: show
traceroute to 206.18.98.208 (206.18.98.208), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 678.518 ms 451.004 ms 391.188 ms
2 cpe-075-181-000-001.carolina.res.rr.com (75.181.0.1) 95.001 ms 133.511 ms 42.834 ms
3 cpe-024-074-253-173.carolina.res.rr.com (24.74.253.173) 32.545 ms 52.484 ms 285.966 ms
4 ae18.rlghncpop-rtr1.southeast.rr.com (24.93.64.4) 405.609 ms 618.841 ms 304.418 ms
5 107.14.19.20 (107.14.19.20) 483.070 ms 606.744 ms 117.073 ms
6 ae0.pr1.dca10.tbone.rr.com (107.14.17.200) 231.747 ms 36.369 ms *
7 ix-17-0.tcore2.aeq-ashburn.as6453.net (216.6.87.149) 27.137 ms 39.034 ms 32.011 ms
8 192.205.34.245 (192.205.34.245) 36.929 ms 35.585 ms 45.046 ms
9 cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net (12.122.134.186) 180.331 ms 72.648 ms 64.223 ms
10 cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.18.21) 71.964 ms 60.426 ms 63.609 ms
11 gar18.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.99.21) 82.805 ms 69.691 ms 71.079 ms
12 12.122.251.14 (12.122.251.14) 63.184 ms 68.225 ms 60.452 ms
13 63.240.130.202 (63.240.130.202) 65.603 ms 68.517 ms 100.075


Spoiler: show
traceroute to 206.18.98.208 (206.18.98.208), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 73.448 ms 84.477 ms 64.999 ms
2 cpe-075-181-000-001.carolina.res.rr.com (75.181.0.1) 63.614 ms 41.165 ms 79.463 ms
3 cpe-024-074-253-173.carolina.res.rr.com (24.74.253.173) 242.468 ms 339.555 ms 282.643 ms
4 ae18.rlghncpop-rtr1.southeast.rr.com (24.93.64.4) 176.296 ms 51.237 ms 32.493 ms
5 107.14.19.20 (107.14.19.20) 38.827 ms 42.374 ms 32.076 ms
6 ae0.pr1.dca10.tbone.rr.com (107.14.17.200) 27.826 ms 32.475 ms 115.865 ms
7 ix-17-0.tcore2.aeq-ashburn.as6453.net (216.6.87.149) 162.556 ms 31.267 ms 32.168 ms
8 192.205.34.245 (192.205.34.245) 37.486 ms 40.299 ms 32.734 ms
9 cr2.wswdc.ip.att.net (12.122.134.186) 53.801 ms 47.216 ms 52.274 ms
10 cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.18.21) 47.445 ms 47.468 ms 53.829 ms
11 gar18.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.99.21) 58.318 ms 47.711 ms 68.169 ms
12 12.122.251.14 (12.122.251.14) 96.549 ms 47.617 ms 79.185 ms
13 63.240.130.202 (63.240.130.202) 51.943 ms 47.122 ms 50.389 ms


I'm kind of at my wit's end. I guess I should also mention the obvious: I'm not downloading anything, and the connection problem persists whether my wifi is locked or unlocked, on whichever router. Any ideas? Do I need to post anything else?