I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Over the last 2-3 months, my internet goes down exactly at midnight and seems to come on again around 5am. Wth?
I called Swisscom, my internet provider, because to me this sounds like them doing something because it is exactly when the clock strikes 12. They claim it is not their fault in that they are doing nothing on their end. I find this hard to believe.
They are sending a guy to my place to check but I thought I would ask here because he may likely not find something local. Everything else in my house continues to work at midnight.
Has anyone else had this problem? It is very odd and getting to be annoying.
You don't say if you live in an individual house or a flat, nor if the internet shares a wire with the TV supply, but could it possibly be the caretaker or someone else in the building/street is turning the line off for some reason?
True. I have my own internet connection so not shared with anyone. I live in an apartment complex but the problem is that I do not really know my neighbours as most of them are only here for a few weeks out of the year. As a result, almost none of them have internet in their house.
Do you know how to log into your router to check the settings? They will often have settings that turn off the connection between certain hours. I'd have thought it unlikely that these would be inadvertently activated though.
Interestingly, I never had this problem over the previous year which is when I first moved here. However (and it could very well be connected), my internet kept going out. So Swisscom changed the channel I was on. This helped a great deal but it is shortly after this that I started noticing it going out at midnight.
Yes, quickly google your router model and find out how to log in,then download the instruction manual from the manufacturers website and check the relevant settings.
Swisscom don't make routers - they only put their name on routers made by others. There should be a model number somewhere on it, which will give you a clue as to the real manufacturer.
It could be the router's timer programming, as mirfield and Richdog suggested. Or it could be an IP-address problem (DHCP). Your router is allocated an external IP address by Swisscom - maybe this is being changed at midnight (although it shouldn't be) and resetting all active sessions. Alternatively, your router and/or Swisscom may be renewing the IP addresses of the various devices on your local network, and this may be causing problems such as address conflicts.
My Internet connection (supplied by Swisscom) does not go down, either.
DHCP renewals from Swisscom will not be noticed as an outage on normal client connections, and they will not cause address conflicts on anything behind the router, either.
In case you are on the "Internet-Box" modem / router, and in case you use WiFi, verify that you did not inadvertently tweak the power-saving options.
There is also a chance that something literally cuts your "cable" at the times indicated. For diagnostic purposes, it would be enormously helpful if you record the *exact* times of the outage over the course of three days, and the exact symptoms (indicated on the modem itself). There might be something that cuts off power or turns on something that really kills the line (no DSL synchronization possible).
And, FWIW, Swisscom run specially commissioned modem/router devices throughout - most of the "Centro piccolo" and "Centro grande" modem routers are (mostly) unmodified Motorola devices, but the new "Internet-Box" is a device specifically produced for Swisscom.
If it's not some modem setting as others have suggested (which you should check first as it's the easiest thing to confirm), perhaps your apartment complex has it's own O/E node which is powered by a socket whose supply has been set to switch off from 12-5am because the same supply circuit also powers something else which is designed to turn off between 12-5am?
I wouldn't have believed it possible until I witnessed the faulty wiring on apartment when we moved in but it may be that the O/E node is powered by, for example, a circuit that powers a common central heating pump (ours is as we share a boiler between four apartments).
This central heating pump (or communal lighting, or something else) may be set to switch off in the night with a timer.
You are probably on a Centro Grande or Centro Piccolo modem/router.
The new Swisscom Internet-Box has a feature which allows turning off the wireless network on a schedule, in order to save power. Some people confuse availability of the(ir) wireless network with availability of the Internet at large. I am not saying that this is the case here - but it would be nice to hear that this source of problems has been excluded.
However, I have just noticed that in the Swisscom Customer Center, I can login with my Swisscom ID and configure some router parameters remotely like its admin password and the hours of availabilty of the wireless lan . The router is a Swisscom Centro Grande. The setting is found in the Customer Center under Internet > WLAN. Is it possible that when the guy helped you change the WLAN channel, he also changed its hours of operation? You can check this yourself in the Customer Center.