Need help pinpointing a network problem

[Corrderio]

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but since my ISP is being worthless I have no clue how to figure this out.

About some time in early or mid January my connection would randomly fail on me. FFXIV would kick me off and trying to load an internet page would result in a time out. I tried removing my modem from my network but still the issue happened, so decided it was my modem at fault. I called up my ISP after a week of having random network failures to have a tech come over and look at my modem to see if needed to be replaced, however earlier in the morning when he was supposed to come up he said there was maintenance going on somewhere that could be the issue for it, sure enough my cable went in and out for a bit then came in, no issues so I thought everything was fine and told him that.

Last week however the issue came back so I called again and talked to a rep about it, they scanned my connection and said my connection was dropping data, and he told me it was more than likely the modem and scheduled a tech to come out the next day. However a tech didn't come up and when I called up about it they told me they upgraded my priority to the higher ups, later that day they called me up saying the line was getting "noise" from an outside source and they'd look into it.

However earlier today I had the same issue happen, this time worse since I was losing my connection about every 5-10 min. and my ISP's rep was worthless telling me to unplug the modem and refused to look further in it.

Anyway since my ISP's support is worthless as hell I'm hoping someone here who's good with networks would know if there's a way to find out if it's my modem or this so called "noise" I was told about earlier and how I can fix it. I'm pretty much stuck with my ISP since no other one can service me out here due to regulations or some BS excuse.

[Ohemgee]

Make sure your connection isn't being throttled.

Make sure your cables coming in are direct and not split to different parts of the house (might need to be re-calibrated)

Change ISP?

Cable sucks. I have comcast, and its true that the bandwidth drops off the face of the earth sometimes.

[Corrderio]

Sadly I'm stuck with my ISP.

Anyway I did try to change cables and look at the connections and no go. Brother says from how it sounds they need to find and fix the problem themselves, and unless I keep on their ass they probably won't fix it any time soon.

[Bloodfire]

Who is your ISP? This can help me pinpoint some issues, maybe.

I call bullshit, on requiring a tech to go all the way to your house to SEE if the the modem needs replaced. Ask them to send you a new one or go to your nearest ISP building and ask them if they will give you a replacement.

Does your connection drop at specific times of the day, or at random? Remember the common weakness of Cable is, if 20 people are online at once in your general area, your connection is much worse than if it's just 2 or 3.

If you feel the ISP's rep is too stupid for his or her job, I personally say something along the lines of, "Sir/Miss may I don't feel you are able to solve my issue can you transfer me over to a supervisor, please?" Always be polite to the rep even if they are total morons. I know that sounds weird but, it works.

I don't know anything about this "noise" they speak of but If the lines buried near your house are degraded then that can create issues.

I personally would ask for a discount on the service your unable to get due to their shoddy systems.

[Corrderio]

My ISP is Knology, they're a small business that services around here.

I drop at random times, earliest I've seen it was 6 AM, latest was past midnight.

Here's a quick list I made with my best estimates of when I was DCing between 1/18 to 1/19. Sometimes I'd stay stable for a few moments but didn't include that.

18th
7:00 AM
9:00 AM
6:50 PM - 7:37 PM
10:49 PM - 10:50 PM
11:16 PM - 11:16 PM
11:20 PM - 11:42 PM

19th
12:00 AM - 12:04 AM
12:11 AM - 12:13 AM

I stopped since I went to bed shortly after the last recorded one and then the tech called me about the maintenance thing in the morning so I didn't think much of it. As you can see it's pretty random and it's not on a daily basis so I don't think it's due to peak times or anything.

[Callisto]

Have you by any chance seen if your neighbors have the same service and are having the same issues if they do? I'm guessing by your location you can be spread out a bit from your closest neighbor, but it would maybe help to know if it's literally only your house having the issue.

[-Ant-]

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with your issue, but ever since the february update in FFXIV, I too have lost connection randomly.

It never happened pre-patch, I'm wondering if SE did something to how the game connects to the server

edit: What I did for a temp solution was make sure I reset modem/ISP before I would play. So far it's been working and I can stay on for a few hours without any problems, but it varies

[Corrderio]

It's not just XIV. I can't load webpages either and when I tried to get on TF2 today when it was happening I'd play fine but then I started to get very frequent, but minor lag spikes (My character jerks around and whatnot, if you played an online FPS with lag you know what I mean), but then it kept getting worse to the point I was frozen in the same area with nothing happening, took about a min. before I got the "Disconnecting in # seconds" message.

@Calli, I have a friend that uses the same ISP, I'll ask him when I see him on.