My cable modem/wireless router combo is giving me problems.?

Well be sure you are not connecting wirelessly. Disable the wireless connection. It sounds like you already know how to do this, but once you do it, it will stay disabled.

This is the big test... you want your wirless on your laptop disabled. From here you can do an accurate test to be sure it is a modem problem.

Turn both your modem and computer off. Turn on the modem first and let it obtain a lease line.... I would say wait a full three minutes to be sure. Do the same with your laptop and don't use it until a few minutes after you are sure it is booted.

Continue to work until there is a failure... which would be about 20 minutes in your case.

When it fails... go to Run, then type in cmd.

Then enter:

ipconfig /all

Look to be sure you have "gateway" numbers and especially "DNS" numbers... these are ip addresses such as 192.168.1.1. The number at the top "IP Address" isn't what we are interested in, but it should be present.

If you have all the above, you have a bad modem.

You then call up your Internet Provider and tell them your problem. They can do some tests to see if your modem/router is working. They will be looking for a Time to Live also, which may be on their end (unlikely).

This method will insure that your modem is bad before tossing it in the trash.

You need to connect the wireless router to your home network. This would consist of your Computer(s), your cable modem, and would probably also fucntion as the device that links them. The router will NOT replace the modem. The wirless router takes wirless data from the 'air' and gets it into the 'wired' network. It then 'routes' (hence that catchy 'router' name) the data where it needs to go... whether that's to your printer (that's connected to the network), another computer, or the internetz. The modem needs to communicate with your cable company in order to get the signal into something your computer can use. You will need to have the modem. While wireless technology is slightly behind wired as far as speed is concerned, if you're purchasing a brand new (and not used or old) model then you most likely won't notice a difference unless you get several (like 5+) wireless computers running downloads at the same time. The thing to remember about speed is that your internet connection (unless you live in a place that has fiber) is AT MOST about 5 meg per second. New wireless routers operate at about 54 meg per second, and your good old blue/green network cable goes at 100 (even 1000 in some newer computers) meg per second. In other words if your connection is slow it's most likely your internet, not anything with you. As to the PSP question, I've never configured a router for a gaming device, but wireless networking is wireless networking. Sony would be stupid to make a device that only works off of a specific 'type' of wireless. I assume you'll be fine, though they may have a preferred model (for setup reasons) I'd just check the web and see on that one.

Router Modem Combo

You say you have a cable modem, wireless router combo - do you mean a single unit that is both the modem and the router? IF not, and you instead have a modem and separate router, then you need to make sure you "cloned" the MAC address of your computer onto the router. This is a critical step for separate router modem combos, as the cable modem will expect to see the computer when it's security program asks what is connecting to it. And if the router answers with it's MAC address, instead of the Computers, then most of the time the modem will turn off your internet access.

Sounds like a bad modem. If you're renting it from your ISP they'll replace it free - no questions ask. Otherwise you may be SOL.

when you have you dongle (wireless pickup) in the usb of your computers, check it's the right one. i had these problems but it happened every 5 seconds and i couldnt understand why, i changed the usb my dongle was in and it suddeny worked fine! hope i helped!