New Laptop causing Bluecurve modem to go down after it connects

[tm91]

This is going to sound odd, but I can reproduce the problem on-demand 100% of the time.

Got a new HP laptop on Boxing day.  It has a Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11AC wireless network card.

If I connect to the wifi (Bluecurve gateway) with this device only, then within 60 seconds the gateway drops completely.  

The WiFi Analyzer app on my phone shows that both my 2.4 and 5Ghz SSIDs are no longer visible, and any device connected to either goes offline  (including my wireless TV box for Bluecurve TV).   

If I disconnect the new laptop from the wifi,  the network comes back on it's own, and the 2 wifi networks are visible again. (during the outage, the white LED on top of the modem stays lit, solid, no blinking).

If I use an external USB wifi dongle I have and plug that into the laptop, it connects just fine, no problem.

I can make it all drop on demand as soon as I connect the laptop using the built-in wireless NIC.

Any ideas WTF is going on here?   How is this technically possible that a client can bring down the modem?

I called shaw, this appears in the logs at their end to be the "modem flapping", which just started shortly after I got the new laptop.   They are sending a tech next week, but it sounds like I could possibly fix it if I knew how a laptop wireless NIC card could bring down a modem.

The drivers for the internal NIC have been updated to latest available Windows 10 drivers.   

Any input would be welcome.

[mdk]

> Any input would be welcome.

A very-common hacker-exploit of an operating system (running inside a router or a computer) is a "buffer-overflow" -- when the operating system allows for NNN characters to be received into a buffer, but the hacker causes more than that characters to be sent, the "extra" characters may overflow into some other locations, hopefully (from the hacker's point-of-view) replacing part of the operating system's programming-code by code injected by the hacker. Done "correctly", the hacker's code is now running on the targeted system; done "wrong", the hacker's code causes the targeted computer to "crash".

So, that's one method of causing a "denial-of-service", i.e., a reboot, on the targeted system.

P.S. If you take your HP laptop "elsewhere", does it crash some other WiFi system, e.g., Starbucks, or a ShawOpen access-point?

[tm91]

Thanks for that info.  I have run malware scans using several different tools, so I am pretty sure the laptop is not infected with malware.   If it was, it would be odd that it would only cause it try that kind of denial of service attack when using the internal NIC, and not a wired ethernet connection, or a 3rd party usb wifi dongle.

I have also read that some modems can be caused to "flap" if there are too many concurrent connections established in a short window of time, and the device actually runs out of memory or something.   Not sure if that is what is happening here.  

I havent tried using the laptop on another wifi hotspot yet; that would be a good test.  

[NathanialsWorld]

I was having the same issue with the wife's computer. Came across another forum that stated Microsoft One Drive has issues with certain modems. I presume that the Blue Curve is one of those modems - ever since we uninstalled Microsoft One Drive it has not made our Network collapse.

I must add - we too have a new HP laptop, Windows 10, and the BlueCurve setup.

Problem was detected using WireShark (A bit tracer, found there was overload of packets there). 

[tm91]

Thanks for this info.  I tried your suggestion (uninstalled OneDrive entirely, and restarted the laptop), and it did NOT fix my issue.    Once I unplugged my aftermarket wifi dongle, and allowed the built-in wireless NIC to connect to the internet, the network dropped again.  Literally within 5 seconds of using that internal card to surf the net, the whole thing crashed again. 

I suspected it would not fix the problem as I was allowing my OneDrive installed on that PC to sync itself, and it would work fine as long as I used an aftermarket USB Wi-fi dongle.   It seems that the OneDrive version that I have on Win 10 doesnt cause a problem with the BlueCurve modem. 

From the research I've done on this dreaded Realtek 8822 card, it seems that the modems dropping is a failure of the firmware of the modem; it detects multiple concurrent connections from the same client in a small window of time, and falsely flags that behavior pattern as a possible denial of service attack, and responds by essentially stopping the wireless network entirely. 

Oh well, back to my slower USB dongle, at least that runs 100% bulletproof reliable.  Perhaps someday Shaw will roll out an update for the Bluecurve modem that will fix it's paranoid over-reaction to the wifi NIC trying to get better performance by opening up multiple concurrent connection streams at once.

[KyisAwesome]

I have this same problem I think.  Ever since I got my new HP laptop, it crashes the blue curve internet whenever I try to connect,  Half the time it just says cannot connect,  I have been blaming the computer,  If the problem is the modem, what am I supposed to do to fix it?

[shaw-tony]

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@KyisAwesome wrote:

I have this same problem I think.  Ever since I got my new HP laptop, it crashes the blue curve internet whenever I try to connect,  Half the time it just says cannot connect,  I have been blaming the computer,  If the problem is the modem, what am I supposed to do to fix it?

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@KyisAwesome that is certainly odd. Do your other devices experience the same problem? What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far on the BlueCurve modem?

[tm91]

You can't fix the modem.  That is Shaw's domain.   Personally, I think the firmware on the modem is "too paranoid" about multiple concurrent connections initiated by my wi-fi NIC in an effort to boost effective bandwidth.  The modem then falsely flags that behavior as a denial of service attack, so it takes the Wi-Fi network offline.   Interestingly when this happens, my desktop wired into the modem remains connected just fine.  

Since you cannot control the modem firmware, your only option is to either replace the internal wi-fi NIC on the laptop, or do what I did get an aftermarket USB wi-fi dongle.  Either way, sadly you need to "dumb down" your end so that the NIC that will interact with the modem in less ambitious (and thus slower) way.   Best I can manage with my dongle plugged into a USB3 port is about 175 Mbps.    Less than the 310-315ish I can get on my iPad, but better than nothing at all.....

[KyisAwesome]

I recommend you follow the below steps and check if it helps.

Disable the Power Off option for the adapter:
1. Open Device Manager. (Win Key+R > type devmgmt.msc > OK)
2. Expand the Network adapters.
3. Right click on the Ethernet/Wireless Adapter and click Properties.
4. Click the Power Management tab.
5. Remove the check mark beside Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
6. Click OK.
7. Test.
Reset the TCP/IP settings on your PC:
1. Go to your start screen/menu and type CMD.
2. Right click on the command prompt icon and chose Run as administrator.
3. In the window that opens type "netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt" without quotes, and press enter.
4. Restart your PC and test.

It may also help to reset the winsock catalogue:
1. Go to your start screen/menu and type CMD.
2. Right click on the command prompt icon and chose Run as administrator.
3. In the window that opens type "netsh winsock reset" without quotes, and press enter.
4. Restart your PC and test.

I recommend you perform a system restore back to the date when everything was working fine.

I tried all those things and it did not work and that was when I realized that the problem started right when I signed up for the new bluecurve internet. I had the old internet 25 before and it worked fine. After I posted here, I got on the chat with Shaw and the rep said that they would send me a different type of modem, a cisco or one other type. The rep said that the service would be the same, minus the connection problem I hope. And while I was typing this reply, internet was dropped again…arghhhh. I copy and pasted this into word so I wouldn’t lose my reply.

[KyisAwesome]

No other devices have this problem, and this device works fine connected to any other modem.  It just doesn't work right with my bluecurve modem.  My father has an older bluecurve that looks like a typical modem, and it worked fine at his house.