Broadband Tech Assistance

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badserb

16 posts

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#11692 6-Feb-2007 16:47

OK heres one for you hardcore techies :)

First some info: Modem (DSL-302G) on Orcon's NL/NL 15gb plan with a splitter installed. 3 other phones in the house with working filters on all of them (I checked that the filters were fine).

Yesterday morning, my phone rang and my broadband connection proceeded to drop out immediately (this happened sometimes before as well), and then would not reconnect (this was new). I restarted the modem and still nothing. I proceeded to pick up the phone receiver and bam... modem reconnects. Hang up the phone... internet drops out and cannot reconnect. I went around the house and unplugged all phone jacks, swapped around filters and no faults were found in any of the usual areas affecting broadband. I'm no expert, but that one got me stumped. I rang Orcon and quickly found out I am not the only one thats stumped either. They generally had no clue why something like that would happen.

So basically after talking with them, its down to 2 possibilities: 1) There is a modem fault of some sort, or 2) Wiring got screwed up somewhere. I think its the latter, as the modem seemed to work fine. Anywho, before I check these possibilities, I was wondering if anybody had any bright ideas or maybe solutions to the problem. Mind you the wiring in the house is pretty bad, but I never had any problems with it prior to yesterday.

I just hope there is some very simple solution to this, because I really can't be bothered going around picking up modems and testing stuff, then waiting for the tech person to come around until I get my net back. Any input is much appreciated.

tonyhughes

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#59895 6-Feb-2007 19:20

really... I think modem is most likely culprit, esp. a dlink.

try a different modem.

does modem work with NO phones plugged in?

grant_k

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#59898 6-Feb-2007 19:54

I think the best place to start is by finding out where the phone line comes in to your house, and which is the FIRST phone jack in the line i.e. nearest to the point-of-entry for your phone line.

You will need some basic skills in wiring to do the rest of the job, and preferably one of those wire insertion tools you can get from DSE, or failing that, a small jeweller's screwdriver set.

1) Disconnect ALL wires from the first phone jack identified above and then by touching the wires onto pins 2 + 5 of a known-good phone, figure out which 2 wires are the line from the exchange (you should hear a dial tone).

2) Go around all the other phone jacks and confirm that they are DEAD i.e. no dial tone when you pick up a phone. If you do still hear a dial tone, you have not succeeded in disconnecting the line from the exchange in step (1).

3) Connect the two wires identified in step (2) to pins 2 + 5 of the first phone jack, but DON'T reconnect any other wires just yet.

4) Plug in a phone and you should hear dial tone, if not, you have the connections on the wrong pins, or you have the wrong pair of wires.

5) Unplug the phone and instead, plug in your ADSL modem. Check that the DSL or SYNC lights up after a minute or two.

6) Now try calling your phone number from a mobile and check to see if the connection drops.

7) If the connection DOES drop, you must have a faulty modem, or faulty phone line from the exchange.

8) If the connection remains OK, you are ready to find the faulty phone jack in your house by a process of elimination i.e.:

9) Reconnect the other pair of wires disconnected from the phone jack in (1).

10) Find out which phone jack is next in the line by repeating from step (1) again i.e. disconnect ALL wires from the second jack, check that all other jacks except Jack (1) are dead, call from your mobile again, check to see if connection drops etc, etc.

11) SOMEWHERE in the wiring you will find that the connection starts dropping again as soon as you reconnect a certain pair of wires.

12) Then you have to figure out where that pair of wires goes to, and what is the problem i.e.:

a) Bad connection
b) Faulty phone jack connected to those wires
c) Faulty piece of cable
... and other possibilities as well.

13) Repair the problem found in (12) and Voila, everything should be working OK now.

badserb

16 posts

Geek

#59922 7-Feb-2007 00:03

Thanks for the reply Grant, but you lost me on Step 1 - as I have very little skill in wiring... :(

I guess all I can do is get an Orcon tecchie to come around and do it for me. Hope they don't charge... much :P

P.S. If it was wiring problem though, would you expect it to occur so suddenly? After 1 phone call? Like I said, I really didn't have problems like this previously at all. Net would drop occasionally when the phone rang, but would re-establish the connection normally afterwards. Since yesterday morning, it just died.

badserb

16 posts

Geek

#59924 7-Feb-2007 00:09

tonyhughes: really... I think modem is most likely culprit, esp. a dlink.

try a different modem.

does modem work with NO phones plugged in?

Hope its that simple to be honest. Like at the moment, I'm online... but my phone is off the hook as well. Funny that.

I was always under the impression that if the fault is with the modem it would not be able to connect to the net at all. I'm online at the moment and all is well - do you still think its the modem? If so, which one should I get?

tonyhughes

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#59926 7-Feb-2007 00:21

just buy the cheapest one from any retailer that would happily take returns (with no restocking fee). (DSE happily return stuff thats not right for me for whatever reason...)

Test it.

Regardless of outcome, return for full refund (say your missus bought one same day).

Now you know if your modem is at fault or not.

^^^^^^ I strongly advise you to not take these steps!!! (But if you do, make sure you wipe out your username and password from the device before you pack it up again)

Bung

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#59942 7-Feb-2007 08:22

Grant17: I think the best place to start is by finding out where the phone line comes in to your house, and which is the FIRST phone jack in the line i.e. nearest to the point-of-entry for your phone line.

If badserb is accurate with his description the line has a splitter which could be upstream of ALL phone jacks and with a splitter a modem won't work on any jack except the one intended for it as it needs direct access to the line. Does the line actually have both a splitter installed in the wiring and filters plugged into the jacks?

Some older pre "2" jacks were subject to corrosion and eventually the insulation would break down between various wires. This quite often happened just after a burst of high voltage ringing. The same thing did happen to phones so modems could also be affected.

badserb

16 posts

Geek

#59959 7-Feb-2007 10:13

You are quite right, there is a splitter installed and all the lines are all filtered.

So then it could be the modem that is at fault? Even though it connects fine when the phone is off the hook (though the connection is very unstable and drops frequently)? Well I'm just about to take the modem down for a test, before I commit to spending money towards getting a new one.

Another funny thing is, that if you listen on the phone, in the background you can actually hear the modem connect.

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Bung

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#59963 7-Feb-2007 10:26

Sometimes with filters some of the ADSL frequencies can reach the phone and you'll hear something. A proper splitter works better at blocking these frequencies from the phone portion of the household wiring so additional filters at the jack shouldn't be required. Is there any reason/history for this doubling up? 302Gs don't have the best reputation for reliability so maybe that's a good place to start.

grant_k

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#59964 7-Feb-2007 10:27

badserb: You are quite right, there is a splitter installed and all the lines are all filtered.

So then it could be the modem that is at fault?

From what you are saying it could well be that you have a faulty splitter. I've had a total of 3 replaced now (2 at home and one at the office). They don't seem to last that long.

It sounds to me as though the phone is acting as a Termination Resistor when it's off the hook thus allowing your splitter to function (at least to some degree). Then when your phone is on the hook, it's a much higher impedance to ADSL frequencies which is upsetting your splitter. A splitter should not function in this way! Best to get it replaced.

Sorry for long/irrelevant post above

If I had read your post properly and realised that you had a hard-wired splitter, I could have saved all that typing...

dukezoid

49 posts

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#60144 8-Feb-2007 14:26

The 302G is poor, not nearly as bad as the DSL 200 though. If your lucky you may be able to swap out the 302G for the newer 502T.

Assuming it's within the one year warranty just complain to your ISP, it's not hard to convince your average service rep.

D-Link themselves offer a 3 year warranty (0800 900 900) but they may not be as easy to fool.

Otherwise pick up a decent brand router on TM a Linksys or Netgear should set you right, you'll find a plethora of cheaper D-Links only go for the 504g/t or 502t

All routers report some basic line stats - SNR (signal to noise ratio, higher better) atten (attenuation, lower better) and attainable (data rate, higher better). always refer to these when fiddling with your wiring.

badserb

16 posts

Geek

#60253 9-Feb-2007 13:58

After 4 hours with a Telecom Techie we figured out it was actually a fault on the line. He did replace my splitter and almost every jack-point and connector in the house... not that I will be charged for any of it now though. He was happy enough to just leave it working once he fixed the line fault. :D

Thanks for the input though.

grant_k

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#60286 9-Feb-2007 19:51

I'm pleased to hear of the happy outcome Badserb

I bet you're rapt to have your broadband back working reliably again. That was a really weird fault, not like anything I've heard of before. It's good to know that it was caused by a line fault in case we ever encounter it again. I still have a sneaky suspicion that replacing your splitter will have been part of the solution though as Orcon would have tested your line as the very first step before frustration drove you to make the post below.

Anyway, all's well that ends well, enjoy!