I don't have a different modem or router that I can try it with.
I did connect directly to the router with an ethernet cable and the connection seemed solid for an hour, but I don't know how to check the wireless connection.
I am assuming that if the Airport Utility shows an orange light by the internet world graphics that would mean that it is the modem that is loosing its connection, right?

Where would I find the modem log and what would I be looking for?

Sometimes that's the only way to diagnose things - swap out parts until you see which ones don't work.
Not sure, but are you saying that the connection between your modem and the Airport Express is a wireless one? You shouldn't do that - you should have the Airport Express connected via Ethernet to the modem.

If you have a solid connection when directly connected via Ethernet to the modem, then it would seem that your problem is with the Airport Express.
But first try connecting your Mac via Ethernet to the Airport Express (which is connected via Ethernet to the modem). That sidesteps any wireless issues.

The Airport Express shows an orange light when something is wrong. To find out what is wrong, look at the logs of the Airport Express - look for an Advanced section in Airport Utility.


For that, you'll need to research the docs for your specific modem model.

The connection between my modem and my airport extreme is wired but when I tested the wired connection I connected my computer via ethernet to one of the available ports on the airport extreme.

I don't see an Advanced section in Airport Utility... where is that?

I'm not at home so can't try it to show you a screen capture.
But I think I recall that the Advanced section might have been removed in the most recent versions of Airport Utility. Not sure. I recall some talk about installing the previous version to be able to get at the logs etc.

I a pretty sure I have the latest version... is there another way to the logs?

Now at home and looking at Airport Utility, I don't see any way to get the logs.
Look for the older version of Airport Utility - I think Apple still makes it available.

I have 6.3.2
I just downloaded and tried installing 6.3.1, 6.2 and 6.1 and for all of them I got a message saying that this version could not be installed on this computer and a newer version should be downloaded

It's the 5.6 (as I recall) version that has the logs.
Googling seems to show that special tricks are needed to install that version on Mavericks.

can't the logs be accessed via Console somehow??
also if I post the Wireless Diagnostics test results, can somebody interpret them for me here?

I do not think you have mentioned the size/distance of your home in relation to Extreme (and your computers). The construction of walls, etc. As a small aside a lot of grief/greater speed can be fixed by switching to opendns.org as your dns settable on computer or router.

It would be helpful to know exactly what Airport extreme, express, model, year, etc. Many homes require two rowers. The last two generation Extremes are much more powerful. if your area as the option FIOS is the best ISP that I am aware of speed wise.

thanks for asking

I am open to switching to opendns.org, but how would that help if the connection to my internet is dropped by the modem? would that still help?

I am in an open loft with no walls and my computer is 10 feet away from my airport extreme... there is some furniture between the computer and the airport but no walls!

I have the square Airport Extreme, the one before the latest tower-shaped generation. I am running 7.6.4 on it.

still no FIOS in my area

But I thought that you had ruled out any problems with the modem by connecting directly to it with Ethernet.

And I don't know of any way to get access to the log files of the Airport Extreme from your Mac (without using Airport Utility). The files are stored on the Airport Extreme, not on your Mac, so you need some program that can communicate with the Airport Express and get the logs from it.

It does not seem like you have yet connected your computer directly to the modem by ethernet cable, as requested as a test.

And you probably should leave that connection up for longer than an hour test, unless you ALWAYS had the dropout problem in a consistently shorter time than an hour.

Because your Airport Base Station showed that it's upstream connection failed, we have inconsistent information right now. Is a wired connection between computer and Airport Base Station solid, as your one-hour test showed? Or does the Airport Base Station itself lose connection, as your earlier screenshots showed?

Trevor

In no particular order...

1) Though I suspect wireless at issue.

2) My colleagues point about confirming wired connectivity from the Extreme and Modem both is important too. I am perplexed at least that some are referring to an express and not an extreme. You mentioned it was the last gen Extreme before the tower version.

3) Two answer your question about opendns and other good dns.... Can both make browsing faster and extreme cases overcome not finding certain parts of the internet. It can very well fix that sort of connectivity issues depending on how their defined. I have with say Verizon or another isp DNS run into an occasional brick wall getting where I want to go. It of course can not fix a complete lack of connectivity.

4) I foo not think unless I missed how were defining the lack of connectivity. I have seen funky behavior on occasion regarding airport status of Airport equipment (extreme, express) that does not necessarily agree with current reality. ? Is it that you can not browse the internet, its slow, that you can not get to certain sites?

Occasionally rebooting the modem can be helpful. You also can speak to your ISP and they should be able to tell you if they see any issues on the modem

5) Sounds like you have a Ethernet cable. You can get a long one from Amazon, new egg or monoprice, say 15 to 25 feet that should let your work comfortably wired for testing purposes ($3-$15).

Lastly since you have line of site if the issue is wireless you can use 5gz which is faster and less susceptible to interference then 2.4ghz. Range is less and it can not go through walls as well, but that is not your current situation.

6) Just making sure but the connection between the Cable modem and the Extreme. Your using the WAN port on the extreme * simple if I remember correctly.

Ok, so when you mentioned it I updated my Airport Extreme to the OpenDNS dns numbers and flushed the internet cache both in the browser and via terminal as suggested by the OpenDNS website. I have now been on OpenDNS for over 24 hours but I still get the dropouts.
In particular in the last few hours I saw 3-4 of them... They only last about 30 sec to 2 min usually.
I have been running Wireless Diagnostics for a while... When I went to dinner and came back it had dropped and so I kept running it and I am attaching the logs to this post.
I am getting a long Ethernet cable so I can try wired connectivity next time I can work from home (Probably Thursday).
Here are the logs: http://we.tl/Ws0xH5qguS
Can you guys make any sense out of these Wireless Diagnostics logs? I really don't know where to start looking. Thanks

Umm - when I click on that link, it says the download is 6 MB. Plus it seems to be a Flash site.
Please just attach the logs as plain text files using the Manage Attachments button at the bottom when you reply.

Um, that's normal. Internet speed is highly variable. By that, I don't mean to say just that your download speed may not always be at max. I mean that servers do not always respond immediately to your queries. Packets do get dropped, and TCP will retry after a timeout, but you have to wait through the timeout. A busy server will sometimes just drop connection requests, on the theory that "if it's important, they'll call back, and maybe I won't be so busy then."

A very important compromise in the design of IP (Internet Protocol) is that it is expressly OK to drop packets, anywhere along the route, for any reason or for no reason at all. As cavalier as that may sound, it's important. IP wouldn't work as well as it does if packet delivery were guaranteed. The guarantee would cost way more than it's worth.

I, at least, thought by "dropout" you meant that your internet access was totally gone. (That also happens from time to time, for time periods lasting from minutes to hours, for no fault of you or your machine, but fortunately that's infrequent. Your electric power also sometimes drops, with similar frequency/duration.)

But now I see that you meant some connections were stuttering. Get used to it. That's the internet.

Hayne, please download that file that is the right file and will be there for a week only. Wetransfer is a very popular file-transfer website. I tried to upload the ZIP file to the forums but this forum will not let me upload 6Mb file and the ZIP file generated by the Wireless Diagnostics app IS indeed 6Mb big and contains several logs... I wouldn't know which one to send/attach here as I don't know what they all mean.
Please download it and take a look at the zip file
Thanks

Ganbustein, I believe you have mis-interpreted what I said. My internet connection DOES TOTALLY GO AWAY, luckily never for hours but for 30 seconds to a few minutes a few times per hour.
In my previous apartment I NEVER experienced this, EVER! I could work un-interruptedly for days at a time. Here I cannot get anything done without being interrupted every hour at least once. I definitely know this is NOT normal internet behaviour

A 6 MB text file is way to too much for me (or I imagine anyone else) to look at.
(It's roughly equivalent to something like a 1000 page book.)
It's hard to believe that the log is really that big if in plain text - if it isn't plain text, then please make it so.