jmerola

Q: Airport Extreme / Motorola Surfboard 6141 Disconnecting

I am having intermittent (very frequent) issues with the intenet being disconnected.  The issue started a month ago, out of the blue.  Any help would be much appreciated.  Cable company can't seem to figure out what's going on.

 

ISP - Time Warner Cable

Modem - Motorola sb6141

Router - Airport Extreme (most recent firmware)

Computer - iMac

 

Internet seems to drop and reconnect after a minute or two.  Happens multiple times per hour.

When disconnected, the Airport Utility shows the Internet as "Disconnected"

 

Lights on Motorola Modem show:

 

Power - green solid

Upload - blue solid

Download - blue solid

Internet - green solid

Connection - blue flashing

 

Light on Router:

 

Solid green

 

THERE ARE NO CHANGES IN THE LIGHTS WHEN THE INTERNET DROPS.

 

Thanks very much for any advice on how to fix.

 

Jason

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 20, 2013 5:31 AM

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Q: Airport Extreme / Motorola Surfboard 6141 Disconnecting

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  • by Bob Timmons,

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons Aug 25, 2013 7:56 AM in response to Jay Yoo
    Level 10 (105,079 points)
    Wireless
    Aug 25, 2013 7:56 AM in response to Jay Yoo

    Netgear CMD31T with Time Warner has been flawless for several months here....not one single connection drop....so your statement that it is incompatible with an AirPort Extreme is a bit puzzling.

  • by Jay Yoo,

    Jay Yoo Jay Yoo Aug 25, 2013 8:12 AM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 25, 2013 8:12 AM in response to Bob Timmons

    The one I bought (and the one I got in exchange) both will not "handshake" with Time Warner. Somehow the firmware is not matching up with Time Warner's network configuration and the registration fails resulting in the network denying access.  I will send a screen shot for you to see.  I am sure that, if the CMD31T can get online, it will work.

  • by Bob Timmons,

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons Aug 25, 2013 8:25 AM in response to Jay Yoo
    Level 10 (105,079 points)
    Wireless
    Aug 25, 2013 8:25 AM in response to Jay Yoo

    The one I bought (and the one I got in exchange) both will not "handshake" with Time Warner.

    Not my experience at all, so I'm not going to be able to do much troubleshooting when things are working fine. But, maybe another user can help.

  • by Jay Yoo,

    Jay Yoo Jay Yoo Aug 25, 2013 8:35 AM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 25, 2013 8:35 AM in response to Bob Timmons

    Here is a screen shot. I removed the MAC and Serial #. As you can see network access is denied with the CMD31T. This is a pretty significant configuraiton problem between TWC and Netgear. I have a Tier 3 tech looking into at TWC and they admitted it had to be a configutation problem on their end. It would be interesting if you bought a new CMD31T in Texas and tried to get it to work. Perhaps it is a bad batch that is isolated to the Best Buy in Highland Hts, OH.  I don't know, but it definitely is not working...  Ubee is online and very stable.  Once TWC figures out what is going on, I will swtich to the CMD31T. The SB6141 is for sure not the way to go.

    2013-08-25 11.24.22 am.png

  • by Bob Timmons,

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons Aug 25, 2013 10:29 AM in response to Jay Yoo
    Level 10 (105,079 points)
    Wireless
    Aug 25, 2013 10:29 AM in response to Jay Yoo

    The  modem came from a Best Buy in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.

     

    The Netgear model was recommended by the computer department manager after I tried two Motorola SB6141s, which would connect, but not maintain an Internet connection for more than several hours.

     

    For what it's worth, he relayed that based on modem product returns from their customers, that the Netgear was being returned at a much lower percentage rate than other brands. That is the only reason that I tried the Netgear.

     

    But, in the computer world anything is possible and something that might work for one user won't work for another. That is the nature of the beast.

  • by fotomamajau,

    fotomamajau fotomamajau Sep 4, 2013 2:54 PM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 4, 2013 2:54 PM in response to Bob Timmons

    My new Netgear modem CMD31T has consistent connection with ethernet only.  When I connect it to my AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi, the connection keeps dropping.  Can you please share advice on what I need to check?  Thank you!

  • by mrsbaer,

    mrsbaer mrsbaer Oct 15, 2013 5:13 PM in response to jmerola
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 15, 2013 5:13 PM in response to jmerola

    Got the same connection drops with a SB6141 and AP Extreme. My temp solution is a switch between the WAN port of both SB and AP. Sounds like a port handshake issue of some sort maybe.

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Oct 15, 2013 5:17 PM in response to mrsbaer
    Level 9 (52,596 points)
    Wireless
    Oct 15, 2013 5:17 PM in response to mrsbaer

    mrsbaer wrote:

     

    Got the same connection drops with a SB6141 and AP Extreme. My temp solution is a switch between the WAN port of both SB and AP. Sounds like a port handshake issue of some sort maybe.

    This has been one recommended way out of the problem.. and yes, some timing or port handshake issue..

     

    Another easier solution cropped up .. be interested to hear if you want to give it a try.. use a crossover cable.

     

    These are still readily available in computer stores.. although we haven't needed them for neigh on 10years.. they were often used between modems (cable in particular) and routers..

     

    You can also get the pinout and make it up fairly easily..

     

    Or anyone else who is having trouble.. try a crossover cable and tell us how it goes.

  • by mrsbaer,

    mrsbaer mrsbaer Oct 15, 2013 6:10 PM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 15, 2013 6:10 PM in response to LaPastenague

    I'll get the crossover on Thursday and will test it.

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Oct 15, 2013 6:17 PM in response to mrsbaer
    Level 9 (52,596 points)
    Wireless
    Oct 15, 2013 6:17 PM in response to mrsbaer

    Great stuff.. thanks!!

     

    Hope the shops haven't shut down by Thursday.. along with US Congress and currency!!

  • by Jay Yoo,

    Jay Yoo Jay Yoo Oct 15, 2013 6:26 PM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 15, 2013 6:26 PM in response to Bob Timmons

    I confirmed last week from TIme Warner that the Netgear CMD31T has a firmware flaw that will not handshake with IPv6. They have no intention of fixing it and I was told by a Tier 3 rep that Time Warner will be delisting the modem as IPv6 is rolled out en mass. I am using a Ubee and it has been stable through and through.

  • by mrsbaer,

    mrsbaer mrsbaer Oct 15, 2013 6:35 PM in response to Jay Yoo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 15, 2013 6:35 PM in response to Jay Yoo

    Certainly believe you that the Ubee works fine, it's CableLabs certified after all like all the other options out there.

    But the Ubee is not listed on the approved modem list of TWC. It is only listed on the TWC list of rental modems.

    Unfortunately those two lists are not in sync. Having a modem that's not on the approved list is just always making it a bit tougher when having a troubleshooting session with support..although we understand it should not make a difference for the cable.

    Sorry, this is offtopic.

  • by mrsbaer,

    mrsbaer mrsbaer Oct 17, 2013 7:08 PM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 17, 2013 7:08 PM in response to LaPastenague

    Well the $ still works and the post man delivered the cross-over cable today

     

    So I have been running the cross-over between the AP Extreme and SB6141 for ca. five hours and 'only' had four connection drops in that time frame.

    It is too early to tell if this resolves the issue vs. the standard cable but I think the cable provider here does have some brief outages sometimes which scewed the statistics.

     

    On record so far:

     

    AP <-> normal wire <-> SB6141: 7 days monitoring and 300 complete packet losses (between seconds to minutes)

     

    AP <-> switch <-> SB6141:  1 day monitoring and 6 complete packet losses (between seconds to minutes)

     

    AP <-> cross-over wire <-> SB6141: 5 hours monitoring and 4 complete packet losses (between seconds to minutes)

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Oct 17, 2013 7:18 PM in response to mrsbaer
    Level 9 (52,596 points)
    Wireless
    Oct 17, 2013 7:18 PM in response to mrsbaer

    Excellent info.. thanks for doing this with detaied comparison.. so the cross over is not quite as good as a switch but hugely better than straight cable.

     

    For cost and convenience a crossover is a good solution.

  • by mrsbaer,

    mrsbaer mrsbaer Oct 17, 2013 7:26 PM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 17, 2013 7:26 PM in response to LaPastenague

    LaPastenague wrote:

     

     

    For cost and convenience a crossover is a good solution.

    Agree. I'll keep monitoring on for a while to get a better trend and after that I probably will get a different modem to compare. Even if the drops are few now it is still an issue with voip calls and vpn dropping obviously and the old setup ran months without a single drop so not quite there yet.

    Meanwhile Arris/Motorola support won't escalate to engineering to have this looked into and Apple usually doesn't respond to bug reports.

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