I've been having a problem with my internet. At first I thought it may be a fluke. But this is the 4th time it's happened this year.The problem is my connection speed/ping. For instance, normally I run a 50ms ping to the Twin Cities site I use for testing. But four times so far this year it has jumped to 150-190ms. The bad ping/slower internet browsing won't go away until I've completely reset my modem and router (by that I mean unplug everything and slowly re-connect it all). I have Charter cable, 5mbps down, 1.5 mbps upI run a Motorola Surfboard 5120 modemand a Netgear WGR614 v8 wireless routerBoth my PC and my wife's PC connect to the router. Our Wii and PS3 also sometimes use the wireless connectivity.So, is something broken on my PC? But if so, why does it only happen after some time? I've searched for spyware, viruses (NOD32), and nothing comes up, and the PC is behaving normally, minus the internet issue.Suggestions appreciated.

I've been having a problem with my internet. At first I thought it may be a fluke. But this is the 4th time it's happened this year.The problem is my connection speed/ping. For instance, normally I run a 50ms ping to the Twin Cities site I use for testing. But four times so far this year it has jumped to 150-190ms. The bad ping/slower internet browsing won't go away until I've completely reset my modem and router (by that I mean unplug everything and slowly re-connect it all). I have Charter cable, 5mbps down, 1.5 mbps upI run a Motorola Surfboard 5120 modemand a Netgear WGR614 v8 wireless routerBoth my PC and my wife's PC connect to the router. Our Wii and PS3 also sometimes use the wireless connectivity.So, is something broken on my PC? But if so, why does it only happen after some time? I've searched for spyware, viruses (NOD32), and nothing comes up, and the PC is behaving normally, minus the internet issue.Suggestions appreciated.

I think its just your ISP. Maybe its shared bandwidth with other customers with same Gateway IP, which might be why you get better performance when you reset your modem, sine your IP address are reset. If you have cable, DSL, satellite (I doubt you have this whith a 50ms ping) then this might be very true. In the future you can try fiber optics network that do not have a shared bandwidth for the area, and have a direct connection to your house (single family home, town house, etc) or apartment building. Also try www.speedtest.com and check your pings, the speed tests you are using might be unreliable or loaded at certain times of the day.

When this happens have you ever connected a PC to the modem directly to isolate the problem?

Apart from checking the router (and modem), this sounds to me much like a software problem. I have met couple of times a virus/worm which slowed down the connection partially or completely... I might be mistaken, but what explanation else if when you reset everything, speed is back - then it's not traffic or ISP...

I think its just your ISP. Maybe its shared bandwidth with other customers with same Gateway IP, which might be why you get better performance when you reset your modem, sine your IP address are reset.

Can you expand on the Gateway stuff. Networking is NOT my thing heheipconfig gives me an IPv4 Address. Does that mean it's saying I'm on port 4 of the router??? What's with the "tunnel" adapters?Could people in my neighborhood be on my gateway?

Ryan,IMO the best advice you got so far is from TechguyMaxC. Is your problem caused by the router or by the modem/ISP-connection?

I did once connect to the modem from my PC (it took some setup because I can't just swap cables - I have to reconfigure it that way) and it was still slow. I'm beginning to think it is our ISP. Last night it happened again, but went back to normal around 9pm CST. In Duluth we have a few larger colleges and they are back in season so it could be increased traffic. I may have to think about swapping ISP's....though we don't have very good selections here sigh

ryanbatcund IPv4 means Version 4 IP address, not port 4 :( IP address is an address for a device that uses the network so that TCP can send packets to a specific device. IPv6 is a different form of IP networking too, none relate to how much performance you get though, unless you have too many people on your gateway address.Let me give you an example. When we had cable at our house with a modem connected to a cable line which goes direct to a network hub for the neighborhood, we all had the same gateway IP address. The Gateway IP address is usually the IP address of the device that links you to the internet such as your modem or router, or network hub for the neighborhood etc. Since you are on a router your network hub IP address is 192.168.1.1, which is the IP address of your router. If your PC were directly connected to the modem, and your modem wasn't a router as well your IP gateway would be the IP address for your network hub in the area. If you go into your router you can see the IP address gateway, on the first page. I am also on the WGR614 (V6) so i think its not the router as my internet works perfectly with fiber optics. Oh about the gateway thing, if you get a direct connection to your house with cable, fiber optics, etc you will have a network hub for your residence only which means no one else can use up your bandwidth even at the busiest times of day. For example when we got FiOS we had a fiber line installed to our house then we have a network hub at the back of the house with a backup battery, so since we have our own network hub/switch we have our own gateway IP address that is only for this house and no one else can eat up our bandwidth! I remember when we had cable without a direct connection internet would get as low as 900 kilobits per second and then at normal times it would be about 5500 kilobits (we were supposed to get 6Mbits), so sometimes its the ISP, but I lived with it, and it actually wasn't too bad most of the time in my honest opinion, but if any ISP provides a direct connection at a the same or cheaper price go for it!Here is a example of the FiOS ONT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_FiOS#Technical_details