Maximum PC

Hello,

A while ago I purchased a Linksys CM100 in a rush to get my internet running again, instead of opting to buy a recommended one from newegg.
The modem I purchased was from Wal-mart, and may be damaged, but I am unsure, so I must ask.

The issue I am having with it is that it keeps disconnecting.. repeatedly, sometimes it goes hours without disconnecting, others it there is less than a minute between disconnections. Is there something that might be the cause of this? Also, is heat a factor? The modem feels very hot, and it is sitting on a wooden desk between, but not touching, two monitors. Would I just be better off buying another modem? It has a five egg rating on newegg, so I'm also afraid I may have just been the unlucky victim of the fickle chip-bin.

I've had the modem for less than a month, and it has been doing this since the day after my cable was set up.

Sorry for the simple question, since this seems like a section meant for more in depth networking information, if any mods/admins think there is a forum this might be better suited for, by all means please move it.

ALSO: Google is being fairly secretive on anything that might cause this, and I've tried doing an IPconfig release/renew (this is about my extent of networking experience..) since that assisted with the old one before I moved out, but it has been to no avail.

Thanks,
AVDP.

Could be a faulty modem, could be a hardware, driver, or Windows issue with the PC (I take it that your modem is directly connected to the PC?), could be a faulty ethernet (or, if applicable, USB) cable between the two, or (this is important!) it could also be a signal-quality issue.

Could you take a look at the modem's diagnostic pages, and tell us what you have for a few values? Assuming that Linksys left it at the 'usual' default, you can access it by pointing your brower to http://192.168.100.1
What are the values reported for: downstream power value, downstream SNR (signal to noise ratio), and upstream SNR?

Here's the information.



If I'm reading this correctly, then...
Downstream Power value: 5.dBmV
Downstream SNR: 38.0dB
and upstream SNR is 48.0dBmV.


Edit: Tried to make the connection information easier to read, and also, here's my modem log, it that shows anything.

Most of that looks OK, except for the downstream power level (it's rather high - usually, it's 0.5-1.0dBmV.
You wouldn't happen to have a signal amplifier in front of the modem, would you? If you do, I'd recommend getting that out of the signal path, and connecting the modem directly to your cable drop (first connection in the house.) See if it's stable then (and, what the signal numbers are in that setup.)

Barring that, could you also pull and post the modem's info when you're in a 'no-connection' situation?