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zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,791
132
Im having a very strange stall of my internet connection to all of my devices (tablets,desktop,smartphones). The provider seems to work fine, but the issue is amongst the devices, their internet connection seems to stop working but I can't figure out why! If I reboot the modem/router it all works ok but after some indefinite time I get the stalling again! Could it be some incompatibility or ipconflict that might be causing this? And if so what can I do about it?
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
Every time I have seen this type of behavior, it turned out the router was on its way out. I'm not saying with certainty that is what is occurring, but it seems like it since all devices have the same issue at the same time.
 

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,791
132
I thought that it was the router too but i bought a new one and the issue is still here!
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
I'd talk to tech support at the ISP. I once had a lag (not a full on drop) and they found my cable signal was low after doing some other maintenance on the line that feeds our road.
 

hughm123

macrumors newbie
Dec 3, 2014
28
11
Which ISP do you use?

In the past I've seen two types of stall:
1. all computers stall because of ISP or router issue
2. only Safari on one Mac stalls apparently because of an OS-X name lookup issue, but "ping google.com" still works in a terminal

Having said that, if AT&T is your ISP, I recently had random 1-2 minute disconnects that affected all computers and the phone; the connection came back on it's own after re-negotiating. In my case the problem was with the interface card at the ISP end of the wire which they fixed and the problem went away.

The main point though is that the AT&T modems allow you to view logs by going to the web browser interface. So if you go to the router's "Server log" and see a bunch of errors including connection-lost and then re-connection at the same time as you saw the stall, then you know it's the router or wire outside your house.
 

Longer Lane

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2015
44
10
Zoran, you seem to have a ton of problems with your internet connectivity. Whereabout are you located, what kind of equipment and ISP do you use?
 

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,791
132
I'm located in Europe, but this is not an ISP problem (since there's no disconnection), neither a modem/router one (the issue is there with the new one I purchased too).
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
I'm located in Europe, but this is not an ISP problem (since there's no disconnection), neither a modem/router one (the issue is there with the new one I purchased too).
You are left with cabling then.

Also, even though there's no indication of a disconnect on your modem doesn't mean there's not an issue with the ISP. For example, it could be a routing issue or a T3 timeout in the case of a cable connection. You'd never see a disconnect in either of those cases.
 

Mikael H

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2014
864
539
Im having a very strange stall of my internet connection to all of my devices (tablets,desktop,smartphones). The provider seems to work fine, but the issue is amongst the devices, their internet connection seems to stop working but I can't figure out why! If I reboot the modem/router it all works ok but after some indefinite time I get the stalling again! Could it be some incompatibility or ipconflict that might be causing this? And if so what can I do about it?

A pretty important question:
Do you have a full duplex Internet connection?
If you use a DSL line, many older phone exchange boxes (on the ISP's side, not yours) can't properly handle simultaneous upstream and downstream traffic. This results in network timeouts whenever something on your side attempts to upload a steady stream of data - for example an iCloud backup from a phone or iPad.

The only way I've found to get around this problem unless you can convince your ISP to upgrade their gear (no, it won't happen), is to force your own router to cap upload speeds if it has that ability.
Run a speed test on your connection with nothing else connected, then configure your router to allow uploads at no more than 75% of the maximum upload speed.
 
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