Wireless connection constant drops. Please need help

1.  Why would you try to flash Tomato firmware?  Nowhere have I seen any reference to Tomato as compatible with any TP-Link devices.  Flashing incompatible firmware will guaranty creating an expensive paperweight.  Did someone on this board or from Cox suggest flashing Tomato?  Don't complain here about a choice you made.

2. "I now have my wifi wired into my Windows 8.1 64 bit."  WiFi is by definition wireless, how can you have your "wifi wired"?  Are you saying you are dropping a wired Ethernet connection?

3. What is "Windows 7 54 bit"?

Finally, what exactly is your problem?  Are you dropping all connections, both wired and wireless?  Or are you just dropping wireless connections?  Have you tried connecting your PC directly to the modem, bypassing the router to see if you have a stable connecting.  That will help determine if the problem is with the connection/modem or router.  Please give it a try.

First of all I don't believe I complained about anything that I made the choice on. 2nd of all I didn't do Tomato. I did OpenWrt. I did not brick it by the way. I wrote this last night after dealing with this issue for hours without any food. I didn't mean "wifi" I meant hard wired via Ethernet. Are you here simply to just be a pain in the ****? Anyone with half a brain could figure out that Windows 7 54 bit is a typo. You type everything on your cell phone. I wouldn't want help from you if you were the last person here. Get a life!

I have someone finally coming out but thank you so much Michaelj. There was a conflict in scheduling hopefully they will work that out. If not I will respond to your post. Thanks again.

beachin said:
There was a conflict in scheduling hopefully they will work that out. If not I will respond to your post. Thanks again.

Since its a wireless issue, and a non Cox router, I don't see how a Cox technician will be able to help. Outside of selling you a service like Cox Tech Solutions(CTS).

First thing I would try is a site survey and see what other wireless networks are around you. If I had to guess, when you moved, you moved into a more populated area? If there are alot of other wireless networks around you, they can interfere with yours. You need to scan the wifi around you and see what channel they are using, then set your router to use a different channel. If you have a android cell phone, check out Wifi Analyzer.  If you have trouble, the first people you would want to contact is the manufacture of the router, especially if its a new router still under warranty. 

"Anyone with half a brain could figure out that Windows 7 54 bit is a typo. You type everything on your cell phone. I wouldn't want help from you if you were the last person here. Get a life!"

So you made some typos, he pointed them out, and you get upset? We only know as much about the problem as you tell us. Every typo is one less card we can use in the card castle that is the solution to a technical problem. Also, try to understand this is a public forum. So for you to express anger, and not specify its directed at Cox, is to insinuate that your angry with everyone who is reading your post. Not defending either party, but you can catch more flies with honey.... and unless you want pay someone to fix this problem, I think you will be needing help. :-)

Health EdgeI wasn't angry at Cox, I was angry at the person who typed this. 

1.  Why would you try to flash Tomato firmware?  Nowhere have I seen any reference to Tomato as compatible with any TP-Link devices.  Flashing incompatible firmware will guaranty creating an expensive paperweight.  Did someone on this board or from Cox suggest flashing Tomato?  Don't complain here about a choice you made.

2. "I now have my wifi wired into my Windows 8.1 64 bit."  WiFi is by definition wireless, how can you have your "wifi wired"?  Are you saying you are dropping a wired Ethernet connection?

3. What is "Windows 7 54 bit"?

Read that. so I made some typo's and he pointed that out... how is asking me what Windows 7 54 bit pointing out that I made typo's? That is acting like you really have no clue what that could be.

Obviously I am frustrated. Coming in and being a patrol, commenting on things like that are a waste of everyone's time. The 1,2,3, items above are nothing but argumentative. As for honey. I am more than happy to thank you and I did thank MichaelJ  for taking the time to reach out and answer. In case you didn't get that. Thank you again. I realize that your time is valuable.

I guess the big thing is that I have spent probably over 100 hours on this issue over the last 2 years. The only answer is for Cox to come out here and do something about my signal. To loose my wired signal constantly on not just one computer but 4. Cause I have tried each one. No valid IP configuration, and no DNS. I have flush via cmd. I have done everything numerous times.

beachin, you have ignored the last paragraph of my original post:

Are you dropping all connections, both wired and wireless?  Or are you just dropping wireless connections?  Have you tried connecting your PC directly to the modem, bypassing the router to see if you have a stable connecting.  That will help determine if the problem is with the connection/modem or router.  Please give it a try.

Which is identical, BTW, to MichaelJ's response.

Now your last response is "To loose my wired signal constantly on not just one computer but 4."  Is this a problem with your wired connection or did you mistype again and mean wireless?  Both mine and Health Edge's posts were in response to your original statements of a WiFi problem.  I'm not trying to start a flame war, just trying to get a clear understanding or your issue.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I thought it was a WiFi problem because it kept dropping the WiFi. After tracking it down I now know that it is a connection problem to my wired computer that is making it also a problem with my WiFi. For the last two days I have had to come in and reset the modem by taking the battery out, unplugging it, unplugging the router, counting to 10, restarting the computer. Each time and multiple times everyday I loose my connection from the hardwired computer. The only way to get a valid IP configeration is to do what I just mentioned. It is a problem with cox and the hard wired connection. Not my WiFi router. I have done everything as I previously stated including flushing out the dns from cmd, release, renew... non of that works. The only thing that works is the physically come in here and take the battery out etc... it doesn't matter if I have the computer running windows 8.1 directly plugged into the modem taking the router out of the mix or if I plug in one of my other three computers. Two of them are Windows 8.1 and two are Windows 7. The problem is coming from the signal from Cox.

Nothing about the modem settings has changed in the last 2.2 years since moving here. I no longer have a Home Network. I am only using the LAN to connect to see documents and things on all computers. I changed that when the problems started over two weeks ago because I was trying to rule things out and I thought it was a router problem. I now know that without a doubt it isn't. If it were then I wouldn't have to take the battery out of the modem and power it completely off and go throught the entire process. If it were my wireless connection then troubleshooting via my computer would work because when I select that option it resets the router and than comes back saying that it is not the problem etc....

BTW, I did answer, "To loose my wired signal constantly on not just one computer but 4. Cause I have tried each one. No valid IP configuration, and no DNS. I have flush via cmd. I have done everything numerous times."

As stated before. I did not get on here and ask the question before exhausting each and every thing that I could do. That would of course mean taking the router out of the mix and hard wiring the modem. Not just to my main computer because when the problem continued I than tried each one of my other computers to isolate the problem.

beachin said:
I now know that it is a connection problem to my wired computer that is making it also a problem with my WiF

Could you explain this? Do you mean its a problem that effects both wired and wireless? Or do you mean you have two seperate problems, one with the wifi signal and one with the wired?

beachin said:
The only way to get a valid IP configeration is to do what I just mentioned. It is a problem with cox and the hard wired connection

What invalid IP are you getting? 169.x.x.x? 0.0.0.0? 172.x.x.x? Also, anything in the router logs that might shine some light on why the DHCP process is failing. 

beachin said:
I previously stated including flushing out the dns from cmd, release, renew... non of that works.

This would only help if the router wasn't giving the PC a good IP. It sounds like you're saying the modem isn't giving the router a good IP, or atleast something is going wrong. 

beachin said:
it doesn't matter if I have the computer running windows 8.1 directly plugged into the modem taking the router out of the mix or if I plug in one of my other three computers. Two of them are Windows 8.1 and two are Windows 7.

When you connect the modem direct to the PC, did you reboot it? Each time the modem connects to a new device, it needs to be powercycled, even if it has been connected to that device before. It needs to reset to start the DHCP process over again which assigns a IP to your router. 

beachin said:
The problem is coming from the signal from Cox.

Cable signal wouldn't directly change what IP your modem gives. Just like having a bad cell phone signal doesn't change the phone number you dial. Maybe the signal going to the modem is low or somehow troublesome, which is causing the modem to have to resync, and while the modem is resyncing, the router can't get a IP through it, so locks up. This would show itself as the routers WAN ip being a 169.x.x.x or the like. 

beachin said:
I no longer have a Home Network. I am only using the LAN to connect to see documents and things on all computers.

Not to be confrontational, but isn't a LAN a home network? Do you mean your using your network just without a internet connection into it? 

Finally, since this hasn't been discussed, and you think its the modem, what are the modems signal levels? You should be able to find them on the 192.168.100.1 diagnostics screen. Also, you can ask Cox to look at your modem logs. I think they poll the modems every 2 hours and keep 60 days of history for every modem on their network. I would have them look for T3 errors, which are small gaps in the cable signal that cause hiccups with the modem. Since the DPQ3212 doesn't have logs, you can see them, but they still can. Its just a matter of finding the right person at Cox that knows what they are doing.