Another halp post from me.

I'm renting a basement from people and they have cable internet (Rogers). Every once in a while... once a day or so... the internet cuts out... But I can still talk on vent and Steam voice chat... All my games freeze/can't connect to a website, etc.

Any known cause for this, and fix? I don't have access to their router but I suppose I could reset it on them so there's no password.

What are "vent and Steam voice chat"?

You're not able to do anything on the Internet at this time? How long does it last? Are other computers in the same building affected?

Are you on wired or wireless? If wired, do you still have an IP address during this time (try IPCONFIG at a command prompt), do you still have a link light on your network card? If wireless, do you lose signal, and does it happen at a time someone's using something like a microwave or heating system?

Steam is a program that runs Value games (like Half life). I'm taking it is the same thing (as there is a voice chat on it).

Ventrilo and Steam... The client Valve uses for their games.

I don't know if I still have an IP address, the modem's lights all say a-ok and the router as well. I keep my wireless signal... and I have no idea if it's when someone's using the microwave...

The weird thing, like I said, is I can't surf the web or play games, but I can continue to use voice chat.

Which is it?

Pretty sure he means he can still use chat devices. I've had it happen a few times with my cable as well - on wireless. No idea what causes it and I have no idea how to fix it, but I feel your pain. Happened right in the middle of a baptism yesterday, nice timing

Maybe their DNS goes down? Try setting your client to the IP number and see if it still happens.

And this voice chat works over the Internet, does it? So everything on the Internet except this one voice program stops working? If that's really true (I highly doubt it) I would suggest not running that voice chat anymore for a week and see how that helps.

Nice subtle way of saying "I don't know what's happening so it must not actually have happened."

That's IT!

Quiet you. This happened a few years ago, maybe it is the router. Oh well, I'll just plug right into my computer instead of using the wireless. Hmph.

By being an ingrateful jerk to someone who is trying to help you, you've earned a nice heaping helping of scorn, and no actual help. Nevertheless, apart from the last sentence, I'm not going to give it to you. All I'm going to do is point out that I've been doing technical support, networking, and programming longer than you've been alive. Feel free to postulate ignorance if you like. But you won't get your problem fixed that way. Fixing your problem requires actual details about the actual situation. So if you want to actually fix the problem, make with the answers and keep the jerkish behavior to yourself. If you aren't looking for actual solutions, on the other, carry on.

I posted every detail already, what more do you want?

Playing DoD, which has voice chat. Game freezes, but I don't disconnect from the server. I can still talk and hear others who speak through voice chat. I exit the game and try to log onto the forums, can't connect. I try google, can't connect, etc. Within 2 minutes it's back up again and working.

Surfing the web and chatting with my friends on Ventrilo, suddenly my download freezes. I ask my friends if they can still hear me, they can. I tried to get on google again, and I can't get on any websites. -shrug-

Ionno, sounds weird to me! It's just a minor inconvenience, but don't tell me you doubt something's happening when it is infact happening! Can't just make things like this up... well I could but it'd be way cooler than this.

At least with the computers I've had, they're a lot like people. When people get upset and act in a way you're not used to and don't like, what should you do? Try to help them, but if that fails? Take a deep breath, and walk away for a while.

That always works for me when dealing with my computers. I had a similar problem when my online games would work, but not my web browsing programs (IE, MF, GC, etc.) . I left my laptop alone for a week, came back to it, and everything worked normal again.

It's through the cable right? Is the signal strong enough? When I was rooming with some friends of mine, my net kept freezing up/lagging/disconnecting and it turned out it was because the cable signal was being split too many times so there wasn't enough of it to work the net by the time it got to my modem. The lights blinked and everything like it was fine because it was hooked up, and it did have a signal, it just wasn't a strong enough signal to do anything. I got a booster thing from radioshack, stuck it on at the splitter that lead to my room and it fixed it right up.

Something is certainly happening.

Possible causes:
- Router problem: either internal firewall or just bad signal.
- Router to pc cable problem: anything from being bend or trampled to much to being parallel with powerlines or other ethernet cables or even being to long.
- Computer problem: faulthy ethernet card, bad ethernet drivers, wrong setup of firewall, anti virus, network unfriendly programs (like limewire)
- ISP side problem: faulty equipment, too weak signal, intentional blocks (for example when they detect a virus on your equipment)
- Problem resides between ISP and you: faulthy "street" lines, people on the same line with unsuited modems (this may still work for them but can cause your signal to drop), bad power supply to enhancers)

Best solution:
- Call your ISP, they can send someone to find the problem for you (my provider does it for free, but even if you have to pay 20-50 dollars it is well worth it)

umm, There is another possible causes:

The steam software and Vent are breaking the internet connection, and hogging all the network resources.

Lately I've had to stop running steam on my laptop in the background because any time there was the smallest hickup in my connection, the ram usage on steam would spike, and my connection would die.

wonder if there is a patch...

That one was already suggested, but he won't even try it to find out.

My ISP has an issue like this and won't fix it, but if you power cycle the modem it should be fine. What happens is that you lose the ability to DNS Lookup anything, but your internet connection is still active, meaning any tcp connections you already have (Vent, MSN, IRC) don't go away. You just can't browse the web or connect to new games, etc. Some mmo's will renegotiate as you zone, so you'll drop out of those too.