This is an extremely bizarre problem, and I can't believe it myself. I've never seen anything quite like it in my 30 years of computing. It has me a little frightened. Please bear with me as I struggle to explain the situation as clearly as possible without becoming emotional.

My girlfriend's iMac running OS X connects to the Internet wirelessly via our shared 2wire modem (gateway, router, whatever). Recently she began using Google Chrome browser, and that's about the time trouble began. Now every time she quits from Chrome, the DSL modem resets itself.

There are several other clients connected to the modem, both wired and wireless. None of them exhibit the same symptom, but none of them run Chrome either. When the DSL modem resets it causes a momentary interruption of Internet connectivity while the modem reinitializes itself.

I couldn't even pin it down to the iMac+Chrome combination until I began logging the date and time of the disruptions. Sure enough, there it was. Every time she quits Chrome, the modem resets. I can reproduce it consistently myself. In fact, I did it again before posting this help request just to make absolutely certain that I'm not going mad.

I can not even put into words how infuriating this disruption has been. My girlfriend loves Chrome, so I don't want to tell her she can't use it.

Please help.

Edit
I found this help request from 2009 which seems very similar to my problem: Google chrome constantly crashes my wifi

Extensions installed on Chrome:

• Amazon - disabled - says it adds an Amazon link to new tabs
• Google Mail Checker - enabled
• Last Pass - enabled
• Sudoku for Google Chrome - enabled -
• WeatherWindow Beta by Weather Bug - enabled -

I tried iChat, Safari, and Firefox. None of them cause the modem to reset.

Install Wireshark on the Mac. Start Chrome on the Mac. Run Wireshark on the Mac and stop Chrome. Check the packets for unusual behavior.
http://www.wireshark.org/download.html

Find out if Chrome causes the same behavior when running other machines. Be sure to configure Chrome the same way (such as plug-ins).

Find out if other web browsers cause the same behavior when running on the Mac.

1 members found this post helpful.

I'm not looking forward to it. I'll have to do some reading and find out how to use the thing first. What exactly constitutes unusual behavior?

Chrome on the iMac causes the modem to reset no matter which other machines are running. One thing I haven't tried yet is to see what happens if the iMac is the only client running.

I don't know what all these are. (IOW I never install useless add-ons.)

• Amazon - disabled - says it adds an Amazon link to new tabs
• Google Mail Checker - enabled
• Last Pass - enabled
• Sudoku for Google Chrome - enabled -
• WeatherWindow Beta by Weather Bug - enabled -

I tried iChat, Safari, and Firefox. None of them cause the modem to reset.

As of today I can report that quitting Chrome doesn't always trigger the DSL modem reset. I've been trying to find a discernible pattern in the Chrome state which triggers the DSL modem to reset. So far, no promising leads.

• various tabs open with certain URLs loaded
• no tabs open
• various extensions enabled/disabled

So far no pattern has become apparent.

It was suggested to me that some program on the iMac may be trying to change the modem's configuration via UPNP. I have carefully examined the modem's configuration and consulted the manufacturer's documentation. As far as I can tell the modem's firmware doesn't provide any support for UPNP.

Have you tried uninstalling chrome and installing it through the package manager.

Not yet, but will try it when I am allowed.

If uninstalling then reinstalling Google Chrome does not fix the problem, then I intend to try Chromium. What I'd like to try is installing Chromium side by side with Chrome, but I'm not sure how well this will work.

I found this help request from 2009 which seems very similar to my problem: Google chrome constantly crashes my wifi

I have installed Google Chrome on a Windows Vista PC to test. I tried to install all the same extensions, but could not because those versions don't seem to exist any more. I did not install Sudoku because it requires me to submit my Google login, something I will never do.

Inexplicably, my modem hasn't reset for about a week now. Nothing has been changed in that time. Google Chrome is still in regular use on the Mac every day.

My only promising lead on this bizarre behavior is the thread linked in my previous post. Those reporters experienced modem resets with different operating systems and different modems. Sadly, none of them reported a solution or work around.

How frustrating