Cable internet behaving strangely

TF100 · October 19th, 2009, 06:34 AM

Hi!

I've had my laptop for just over 2 years now and used it for 1 year with cable internet and 1 with wireless, and had no problems at all. I'm now living in a place with cable internet again, which was fine for about a month, but for the past week or so the laptop is behaving very strangely, refusing to connect at all unless I place it in a certain position, which seems to change every day, which involves moving it around inch by inch until it settles on somewhere it wants to connect... then the internet will stay connected for up to an hour before disconnecting again and it can often be difficult to get it back. I've tried using a different cable, but the result is the same. This is becoming increasingly frustrating as its behaviour seems to get more erratic by the day. I'm guessing it may be something to do with the port itself, but I'm not that way inclined at all so I have no idea how I'd go about finding that out. Any help would be much appreciated!

**GroundZero3** · October 19th, 2009, 06:37 AM

When you do your testing of the internet, are you connecting through the wireless? If so, plug your laptop directly into the router and do your testing!

What is the make and model of your router?

TF100 · October 19th, 2009, 06:39 AM

I'm living in a building with communal internet, there is no wireless internet here whatsoever. Unfortunately I don't know much about the router either, all I have is the cable slot in my wall to attach to my laptop, the router is elsewhere offlimits to me..

**GroundZero3** · October 19th, 2009, 06:41 AM

Ah okay, well when you plug into the port and you get an internet connection error open up a command prompt and just ping a random website to make sure its nothing with your browser. If you get time outs still, and you have replaced the cable then you need to talk to whoever is responsible for managing that building/network.

TF100 · October 19th, 2009, 06:43 AM

It doesn't even get as far as giving me an error, it just acts as if the cable hasn't been plugged in at all. Nobody else is having any issues with it here so it must be something on my end.

PoonDoggy · October 19th, 2009, 11:50 AM

Could be that your NIC is starting to go bad, since you have swapped the network cable. It could also be that particular port on the router is going bad or its between the router and the aprtment. Talk to the people in the office there and get them to check to check it.