Frequent disconnects

[Tirrock]

For the past week I've been disconnecting every 30 minutes or so. It's not a sudden disconnect either, but slow. On FFXI I'll r0 for a couple seconds occasionally, then I start having trouble opening websites, having to refresh the page to get it to load. Then I start r0ing for 10 seconds, pages get harder to load. And after 5 minutes from the first signs of trouble I can't do a thing online.

The only way I know how to get my connection back is to unplug the router and modem, powering them down and letting them sit for a few minutes, then plugging the modem back in, letting it sit, then the router. The whole process takes too long, but it's the only way I know how to get back online.

I've also did what I could to make sure that I don't have a virus or some spyware that's making me disconnect. Scanned my computer with an updated Ad-Aware and Avast. Zonealarm firewall is set to not let anything I don't know access the internet. My other computer has the same problems connecting, and so does my Wii, so I'm pretty sure a virus/spyware/worm/etc isn't causing this.

I've tried plugging in directly to the modem, but it won't let me connect to the internet like that. It may be something I did while setting up my router. I'm not very good at setting up broadband connections.

I don't know if anything short of having my ISP come out can fix this. Getting Mediacom to show up on time and actually get the job done has never happened in all the times I've had them come over. This month is bad for me and I'm too busy to wait 4 hours for their repair guy to show up and screw around on my computer for a couple hours. So I'm posting this as a last resort before I have to try to get them to come out during a time I won't be asleep or about to go to work.

[Cephius]

Not sure how much you know about routers and modems, but make sure only one of them has DHCP enabled (this is what assigns IP addresses to the computers on the network - having both doing this will cause conflicts) perferably your router. Have only one of them firewalled. Depending on what router you have I might be able to help you do this. The other thing you can do is take note of your settings and reset them to factory defaults, then set them up again. Be warned though that you'll have to know all your info for connecting to your ISP or it won't work, and you'll end up calling them anyway.