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grannynancy: doubt setting your DNS manually will fix Internet connection problems, but still it is better over-all use. You can set this per computer, or better, on your router. Login to your router and look for DNS settings. If you Google "how to change my routers DNS", I'm sure there are tons of how-tos.
Easy enough TO change it, but I see options of Open DNS at 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Or google at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
BUT the directions say to write down the current DNS settings if I need it. All it says are automatically connect so I am still working on it. For now I have a connection so I will come back to this later. Have to work.
Old dinosaur .... I remember punch cards and the modems where you put the phone in the cradle. .
Yes this happened to me also when I moved here. They came out 4 times and I must of called 6 times at least and they could not find the issue. Service was going out non stop and I was ready to cancel at my next call.
I turned out to be my router. Once I switched over to a new Netgear router, the service went to A+. I am using a Cisco modem that I -think- Charter provided. Something about the old Linkskys router was totally incompatible and caused constant outages 20 time per day.
I see you are already using a Netgear router though, so you might look into combining it with the Cisco modem - it worked for me.
The problem with Charter is that they subcontract out a lot of their work to 3rd parties. It took me 4 or 5 service guys just to get the TV in my living room hooked up after calling for wall snake appts. The 3rd party guys they sent told my husband "I cannot snake this wall" when the apt was specifically made for a wall snake and the hole from the previous service were already in place. The guy actually left a massive spool of cable in my living room and told my husband to do it. The last guy that finally came was an actual Charter employee that took the time to snake the wall after informing me that the last subcontracted guys simply "didn't feel like doing it, so they lied."
I can't imagine how much cash Charter is losing due to using these apathetic installation people, causing customers to call back for more and more appointments.
The problem with Charter is that they subcontract out a lot of their work to 3rd parties. It took me 4 or 5 service guys just to get the TV in my living room hooked up after calling for wall snake appts. The 3rd party guys they sent told my husband "I cannot snake this wall" when the apt was specifically made for a wall snake and the hole from the previous service were already in place. The guy actually left a massive spool of cable in my living room and told my husband to do it. The last guy that finally came was an actual Charter employee that took the time to snake the wall after informing me that the last subcontracted guys simply "didn't feel like doing it, so they lied."
I can't imagine how much cash Charter is losing due to using these apathetic installation people, causing customers to call back for more and more appointments.
Went through it last year with them trying to get TV service. The subcontractors came out three times, and couldn't get simple TV service working and in fact disconnected our internet which had been working fine. The actual Charter employee that came out got the internet up again, but I told them to forget it on the TV, just stuck with DirecTV. Now our modem is flaking out, we're having to reboot it a couple times a day after losing connectivity.
I've dealt with intermittent internet service loss with Charter a few times. Getting this fixed can be a pain. I think this is really where the skill level (and work ethic) of the tech come into play. They need to test to signal strength at each point where the line splits, to figure out why signal is too weak. For most people its going split once where it enters the house and then again if the modem and a TV share the jack. But there could be other splitters behind walls or outside if additional lines were run after the house was built.
If you get an unskilled or lazy tech they may not test everywhere or just blame the wiring in your house. I had this happen at the first apartment I lived they kept blaming the wiring, finally got a tech that checked the signal at the street and found the box at the street didn't have a strong enough signal. That tech told me while the wiring in the apt was losing more signal than it should be, it wasn't enough that my modem should have had issues.
The most important thing to do when the tech is out there is make sure they sit down at one of your computers and login to their QA site and do the tests. This allows the tech to see if the signal is strong enough to handle some normal variances in signal quality. The signal strength can vary at different times of the day. The QA site allows them to see if your signal can handle these variances. If any of the tests fail they need to keep troubleshooting. The only time I lost service at my current residence, the tech replaced the line from the street to my house and all the splitters but it kept failing one of the qa tests. He finally dropped in a powered amplifier and it passed all the tests with stupid high numbers and I have had no issues since then.
If you feel like you aren't getting the service you should be or getting jerked around by charter, you can try complaining to the county. I did this when I was the apartment and they tried to charge me for 40 bucks for replacing a splitter they put in during the initial install. After getting nowhere with them on the phone I submitted an online compliant with the county. Got a call the next day from charter they removed the 40 bucks and gave me 40 dollar credit on bill for the next 6 months. This was several years ago when charter was having major issues with the county in terms of complaints etc.
In my old house, I would have connection issues due to a couple splitters inside my house. (I didn't pay for wire maintenance, so they were my responsibility.) One splitter was up in the attic, and the other in the wall behind my living room jack. The way I figured it out was to try the modem in the other rooms and then the connection was rock solid. Just a thought.
They did go to the panel and replace multiple splitters with one 8 way. Of course Charter wired it that way in the first place But that did not resolve it last night. Been holding its own today though.
Before he did the test though, he HAD a good signal going into the modem and the internet was fine on the computers; his work just made the signal better. Then after he left it went out for an hour. Then the rest of the evening it was in and out so much I gave up trying to be on the internet at all.
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