AT&T Broadband Link issues

I have tried wired and it does the same thing, even if it worked wired is not an option for me. I have also tried other routers and still it seems to happen. I have narrowed it down to Windows 7 since every other os works fine. Even when I get the error the router shows full green lights.

All that I can suggest is to find out what's not stock.

I know it isn't a windows 7 message, it is a AT&T/2wire message. What do you mean what is not stock? AS in pc components? or Windows 7 tweaks? As far as pc components, nothing is stock, I built it myself. I have also tried 4 different wireless cards, all of which will give the error at some point in the day. I have flushed the dns, I have reset everything on the router to default, I have upgraded the router firmware, I have downgraded it, I have reformatted three times, I have updated and checked all drivers, and I have tried wired and wireless. I can with 100% certainty tell you it is in fact a windows 7 issue, I have received the error page on other os' but only when my network actually drops. I am installing the 32 bit version of win 7 on my laptop to test and see if it is isolated to just the 64bit version.

I have also coded a simple script to auto refresh a simple page every second and add a number when it is interrupted by the broadband link page. It is running on 4 different operating systems and hopefully will prove my theory. It has gone out twice since I started writing this.

I will not in a million years call phone support since I am not interested in turning it on and off again. I will not be defeated by a sub-par internet provider.

Anyone know a specific forum I could try for AT&T users or one directed towards broadband users?

And never have seen that message. But you just revealed a clue that your machine has some ATT software.

Here, not a single machine has ATT software (or on any ATT internet I help on) so the message was unknown to me. Even google didn't help much.

I wonder if you can do without their software.
Bob

But most of the time they'll charge for fixing your machine. It took a few rounds but now that it's evident that something extra is on your machine, that's a lead.
Bob

I don't have a single bit of AT&T software on my machines. I would never dare to allow such a thing especially since their service seems horrid already. I've scoured google as well and turned up one possible thing about disabling something in windows 7 sharing but it didn't go into detail.

I would also never trust AT&T to touch my machine. I treat it like my child and can 99.9% guarantee it has nothing to do with my machine. I tried xp and linux on the same machine earlier, both of which do not have any problems.

It isn't a HUGE deal since I can still use the internet, I would just rather not have to restart my browser for no reason a handful of times a day.

My fix, switch to comcast. Just have to convince two rather cheap roommates.

I have seen these stupid boxes at a friends house but his only did this when a red light also would come on indicating a connection issue and all machines would be affected.

The thing I really hate about this is that it in effect does a man in the middle attack to be able to display its error messages. The only way I could see it could inject its pages when you go to something like www.cnet.com would be for it to always be intercepting the TCP session and then as a proxy issuing your request. This is exactly the method used to steal encrypted data so it always bothers me even when it is done for semi valid reasons.

I would see if there was a firmware upgrade for the box, also many of the nag messages can be disabled but since I do not have this box I do not know which can and can't

One thing I would try would be to run a constant ping to say 4.2.2.2. Let it run all the time in background window and better if you can run it on a machine that has this issue and one that does not at the same time.

When you see this message you could then check, if you see loss on both the machines then you have a real circuit issue and the modem is doing its job. If it only shows loss for the web but not the ping I would be finding a trash can for the modem. If both web and ping are affected only on your machine its hard to say but I would still suspect some compatibility issue with the modem

I'll give that ping thing a try and see what happens. I am beginning to think it is the modem, but 4 other machines are not effected by it, only the one running Windows 7.

Could it be a tcp auto-scaling/tuning issue?

so when pinging it what do i ping because i have the same problem and i got a windows 7 and a gateway router

It is the stock AT&T page. AT&T broadband hijacks your browser when the network drops out, or is supposed to only when the network drops. But the issue is that it happens when the network is still connected.

I know it is not a stock Windows message, it has nothing to do with windows per say or shouldn't. It is caused by AT&T and 2wire's horrendous system.

I am running Windows 7 on my desktop as the primary OS. I am also triple booting Mac OSX, Backtrack 4, and Windows XP on my netbook. My roommates are running OSX on a Macbook and various Linux distros on other laptops.

I feel like the router is sending false signals to my desktop, but if it was a router issue I don't understand why none of the other machines are effected.

Anyone with experience with 2wire systems know of a way to just disable the browser hijacking when the connection drops all together? This might fix the issue.

Now it's slowly unwinding.

I had thought the connection from the router to your PC had failed. But reading this it appears that the router to the internet is failing.

-> If this is true I have only seen one case where this happens (one case, multiple folk with the same issue.)

The owners were running BIT TORRENTS and it looked like some one was mounting DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS on their internet connections.

As all that is documented on the web I won't detail it further but it does help now that it seems it's not your PC to the router that dropped.

Please correct this if I read you wrong.
Bob

It is not between the router and the internet since all lights remain green and as I receive the error on my desktop I am more than able to access the internet on my laptop. My PC also remains connected to the router, it just cuts the broadband connection for some reason. It happens far more frequently the more applications I have accessing the internet. I ran a test running every messenger and browser I have installed and it increased the probability of it happening ten-fold.

I highly doubt someone is mounting a DoS attack on me, not to mention I am not running any sort of bittorrent client.

I'm going to look into TCP/IP issues since I feel like this may be the culprit. Windows 7 added a lot of sharing features and one of them may be the issue.

If the drop happens then there is no way the router can issue such a message.

Back to the PC and look for the source of this message.
Bob

I am going to persuade my roommates to switch to cable. Today it is at an all time high and disconnected 22 times within the last hour. Rather than tracking down and trying to fix this mysterious error I am going to throw this 2wire system off the top of my building and never look back.

Thanks to all who tried to help.

Just a small explanation for those that find this thread in the future.

The 2wire does indeed issue messages directly to your PC. Since the normal user PC does not have the ability to accept messages and most firewall software is designed to prevent any type of incoming message it does this via trickery.

It in effect hijacks the browser and sends back its page rather than the one you requested. This is very similar to how say a hotel will work. You type in your www.xxx.yyy and instead of that web page coming up you get a page from the hotel telling you to enter a code or credit card or whatever. It then let the traffic flow through but all the time still in the middle waiting until it needs to ask for another code.

When systems like this work it make is easy on the uneducated users but when there are bug or you have some traffic the device does not plan for you get all kinds of strange issues. Best bet if its possible is to turn all this off and make the box be stupid and just do its modem function of providing data conversion from Ethernet to dsl

If you go to http://gateway.2wire.net/mdc then click on "Configure Services" and then toggle "Broadband Status Notification". It should disable the message. I haven't been able to see if that fixes the problem for me, but it does remove the nag screen telling me to restart my browser when it does drop.

But something is amiss here. We've been over this quite a bit in this discussion and as it stands I understand the drop is from the router to the PC.

If that is so, how did this message get to the PC?

My bet is that the router to PC didn't actually drop.
Bob

That makes sense, but somewhere it is dropping part of the connection. If it actually dropped the broadband connection no other computers would be able to access the internet.

Drops on the broadband side are not uncommon. Such a drop could happen and have no effect on common everyday use. Drops do bother the folk the "run torrents" or you see a pause in HD play but I like the above change of the settings so the drop and recovery happen without upsetting the users.
Bob

I know drops are not uncommon, what does seem to be uncommon is the fact it drops on just one pc. And again, no torrents are running, it is occurs in just simple browsing.

Disabling the nag screen has helped some.

It's not the pc. Well, it's proof to me.

What can you change? Can you get wired?

AT&T Modems are not compatible with any wireless routers!!

This is horrible considering AT&T still uses the wireless B/G networks and not Wireless N!!! They just came out with new wireless Modems and still only installed wireless B/G networking, UNBELIEVABLE!

I tried to hook up a 300mb per second wireless router to my AT&T Modem and it totally shut down my internet and cable service..

I cant even stream movies from my PC to TV properly , it freezes up alot... Netflix freezes up on me too.

Does anybody know a way around this issue??

I think I'm going to just have to change to Comcast as i know routers can be connected to their Modems just fine... comcast and AT&T Both suck.. im screwed either way..

We should not post in an old discussion. I will address the B/G comment. Since no ATT connection is over 54 megabit per second there is no reason for faster WiFi in the router.

As to the second WiFi router, I do that all the time. How? Google this:
How to use a router as a WAP?

Sorry to see you upset but burying your post is not a good idea.
Bob