Internet disconnects at the same time every night

[Bobo Fett]

I am having a VERY odd problem with my internet connection. For the last few nights, it seems that at EXACTLY midnight (PDT) EVERY night, I lose my Internet for probably about 30-45 seconds. Get disconnected at poker tables, IE & Outlook can't connect. I've been playing Stars at that time the last few nights...it's a recent phenomenon, I'm not positive if it happened before while playing on another site. It always resolves itself shortly afterwards.

I am running Windows XP Professional, and I'm using DSL with a D-Link DSL-3001 Ethernet Modem and a Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router. Anyone ever have a similar experience or any brilliant suggestions?

[CORed]

This is most likely something your ISP is doing. Complaing to them. If they don't respond, find another, if possible.

[SamIAm]

Do you know anybody else on the same ISP? You'd have a stronger case if you can point-out other of their consumers w/ the same issue.

[Bobo Fett]

I will investigate this avenue further. I know lots of people on this ISP (one of two major high-speed providers); unfortunately, I don't think many of them would notice a short disruption like that. Especially at midnight. If I can think of someone else that's always up that late, I'll have them check and see if it happens to them as well.

Thanks for the ideas, guys! If anyone has a different thought, please let me know...although ISP-related certainly seems most logical. I'm going to try and watch more carefully...it seemed like it happened exactly when my system clock hit midnight, which is what made think of something on my end. What are the odds my clock is exactly in sync wih the ISP? It was out a few minutes a couple of weeks ago, I adjusted it manually, so I know it's not synced with an Internet clock. That being said, maybe it isn't precisely midnight when it happens...I'll try to watch for it.

[CORed]

Is your set to synchronize it's system clock (it will show in the "internet time" tab of your "set date and time" dialog if it is). If it is, your system clock is probably in sync with your ISP's. If not, it is most likely several minutes off. One of the great mysteries of modern technology is that you can buy a $20 digital watch that will keep time accurately within a few seconds per month, but the system clock in a $1000 computer (or even a $10,000 server) is typically less accurate than an old-fashioned wind-up watch. If your computer's clock is not in sync with your ISP's it would tend to point to something on your computer. One possibility is that you have some kind of automatic update (virus scan, anti-spyware, etc.), that is running at midnight and tying up enough bandwidth to mess up your poker. With a broadband connection, though you would probably have to have several downloads running at once to cause the problem, though.

[SamIAm]

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unfortunately, I don't think many of them would notice a short disruption like that.

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I think it's worth setting up an experiment. It shouldn't be hard to rig a ping at 11:59 and stop at 12:01. This isn't just to prove to the ISP that you're right; this is also to prove to ourselves that we're on the right track. (I definitely think the autoupdate ideas are solid possibilities.)
-Sam

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
unfortunately, I don't think many of them would notice a short disruption like that.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think it's worth setting up an experiment. It shouldn't be hard to rig a ping at 11:59 and stop at 12:01. This isn't just to prove to the ISP that you're right; this is also to prove to ourselves that we're on the right track. (I definitely think the autoupdate ideas are solid possibilities.)
-Sam

[/ QUOTE ]

and if the ping fails at 12:00, try it again in safe mode the next night.

also, try it off a linux live boot disk if it still happens in safe mode.

Need to eliminate your own software as being the cause.

If it still happens then, you can try plugging directly into the cable/dsl modem instead of going through a router, to eliminate that too.

If it happens on windows, windows safe mode, and linux, it's *PROBABLY* their fault, but it could be something REALLY weird with your hardware (in which case I would try adjusting my system clock and seeing if it still happens according to my computer time).

Process of elimination.

[Bobo Fett]

I was surprised to find that I WAS on auto-synchronize. However, it was showing an error last update, and when I tried to "Update Now", I got an error again. Second time it worked, and it rolled the clock back at least 30 seconds.

I thought of an easier experiment...tried rolling my clock back to 11:59 PM, and watched my connection. I wasn't playing poker, but everything seemed to be fine at "midnight". When I usually have the problem, it's across the board. My Outlook is tied into Exchange Server, and when my poker tables go down at midnight, I always get pop-up messages telling me Outlook is trying to connect. I didn't get that at my test midnight. If I'm able, tomorrow night when I'm playing I'll try to remember to roll the clock forward at about 11:30 pm and see if anything happens, then roll it back and see what happens at the "real" midnight.

SamIAm, I am "ping ignorant". How would I do that?

[SamIAm]

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SamIAm, I am "ping ignorant". How would I do that?

[/ QUOTE ]
Ping is basically just the TCPIP equivalent of "Can you hear me now? Good!"

We talk about it some in the FAQ in the questions about testing your net connection.
-Sam

[Bobo Fett]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear with my question. I understand the concept of a ping (although I love the pic you used [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]), I'm just not clear how to "rig" it as you mentioned. I just checked out the FAQ, that has good instructions on how to ping, but I didn't see anything there on how I would make sure it ran for a specified time period.