Internet connection problem

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Internet connection problem - Pirimai, Napier

Gordy7

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#92802 6-Nov-2011 12:59

I am trying to help out a guy in Oriel Place, Pirimai, Napier.

He is on Xtra/Telecom and loses internet now and again on a daily basis.

He has tried the help desk, and other technicians without success.

Computer is running WinXP Pro SP3 with all updates, firewall on, AVG free 2012.

Computers seems very clean and very responsive.

Internet runs without problems at 10Mbps on my network via Dynalink router direct to Marewa exchange, (700m away).

On my visit to his place his computer ran Internet without problem at about 15Mbps (wired network connection) via his Telecom issued Thompson router. (White wireless router.... don't know the model number).

Several hours later he called to say no Internet or email.

This has been going on for some time... weeks or months.... don't have the details.

I suspect that he may be on a cabinet because he gets very good speed when it is working.

I am thinking of setting up some sort of test script (pings, port tests, speed tests) recording to a log file.

Might also set up Logmein to check his computer remotely.

Any ideas and help would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Gordy.

Gordy

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sbiddle

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#541675 6-Nov-2011 13:31

Odds are it's the modem or internal house wiring - which could be a cabling issue, or a dodgy filter(s).

To elimimate this you will need to perform a basic isolation test, preferably with a different modem.

kendallj

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#541702 6-Nov-2011 15:30

Gordy7:
I am trying to help out a guy in Oriel Place, Pirimai, Napier.

He is on Xtra/Telecom and loses internet now and again on a daily basis.

<snip>

Any ideas and help would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Gordy.

Has a customer in nearby Havelock North with a similar problem. Rang telecom who found an intermittent line problem (earth or battery?). Anyway it was causing the ADSL signal to drop out, then the fault would clear, the modem would retrain until the line fault re-appeared.

Had another customer with a similar issue - in this case the line checked out fine, so I enabled the logging feature in the ADSL modem (NetComm IIRC), and over the next couple of days could see the regular drop and retrain of the ADSL signal. Turned out in this case it was faulty exchange equipment.

KJ

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#541704 6-Nov-2011 15:48

Hi, I would say its a 20-80% chance its an exchange-house wiring fault. After a cabinet change over there is always going to be a number of jumpers that dont make the grade and need re punching, these as easily seen on the pots side as your phone does not work, but if on the DSL side its often hard to tell as DSL will happily work one legged but constantly drop out.

As Steve have said, do a full isolation test, remove all the phones for awhile so only the modem is across the line, see if that helps, if it does then house wiring is due for upgrade, even if it does not house wiring should still not be ruled out, if an alarm is in the equation then it can cause drop outs. Once you have ascertained house wiring is not the issue, and that in my view is not complete till you have installed a central filter with a clean feed to the modem from there, then if you still have issues put it back on Chorus via your ISP.

Cyril

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#541863 7-Nov-2011 03:32

How many phone jacks at his place?
Does he have a master filter or is he using plugin filters for his phones?
Do the devices (phone, fax, sky) connected to phone jacks have a DSL filters?
Is there an alarm connected to the phone line? Even one not actively monitored could be periodically grabbing the line.

Gordy7

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#542260 7-Nov-2011 21:59

Thanks for the help guys.

The least I can do is report back on progress.

I guess on my first visit when I saw 15Mbps ADSL2+ and a reasonably stable machine I was quite unaware of the condition of the phone wiring.

The dwelling is about 40 years old and so is the phone wiring by the look of it.

There was only one phone socket... But 2 or perhaps 3 phone extension cables running off in all directions.
One extension (10m) had an ADSL splitter/filter on the end of it with the ADSL router and phone along side.

Wanted to check the phone socket, but no room for access to the socket as a book case was nearly jammed up against it.

Did some phone use tests and ring tests. A couple of router leds started flicking on and off.

Relocated the router next to the phone socket, installed the splitter/filter at the socket. So at least there was a short run through the filter to the router. Connected up the router directly to the filter and all the phone extensions to the filter.

Then I connected the router to the computer via about 10m of Cat5 cable.

Made sure that WLan on the router was turned off.

Phone tests did not appear to make the router mis-behave.

When the truth finally came out, it sounds like the guy had moved from ISP to ISP and finally he settled on Telecom. None of the problems were really fixed by doing this.

I am not saying that I have solved everything. Only time will tell. At least I have tidied up some of the phone cable mess to the router.

I was unable to fix a problem with Outlook Express as it would not send and receive Xtra mail.
I tested the email username and password by webmail.
It had been working fine. Cleaned up the temp files and registry. Ran a SSL fix and still got nowhere.
Host file looked clean. Found a Toolbox trouble shooting bit of software on the Telecom web site. Ran it and it fixed whatever was wrong. I had been getting 10060 0x800CCC0E and 530 0x000CCC78 error messages. Only the Telecom toolbox fixed the issue.

So the WinXP Pro SP3 machine I though was clean, definitely had some underlying problems.

What a mission!

Cheers

Gordy

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

cyril7

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#542263 7-Nov-2011 22:03

Just to clarify a point, the filters are only needed for phones (voice/pots/fax) devices not the DSL modem, so ensure each of those have a filter and ideally not more than 3 of them.

Cyril

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Gordy7

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#542270 7-Nov-2011 22:11

The filter I had had a BT input connector and BT output and an RJ12 output for ADSL.

I figured that if I put the router on the RJ12 labeled ADSL and all the other phone stuff on the BT output then I would have fair isolation..

My main objective was to keep the messy phone extension cables out of the shared run to the router.

Of course I only had one filter as well.

Cheers

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

cyril7

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#542273 7-Nov-2011 22:16

Hi, what you have done is correct, but to clarify every voice/pots device must be connected via a filter, the modem can infact be directly connected without a filter as it is designed to connect directly. IF you pull a filter apart you will find the filter itself only connects between the input and the BT, while the DSL port infact connects directly to the input.

Cyril

Gordy7

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#542354 8-Nov-2011 08:38

Thanks Cyril,

I see what you are saying... Normally a filter would be attached to the main POTS wiring around the house at each socket for each phone.

As there was only one socket or master jack I decided to install the filter there.

All the phone stuff is somewhere on the extension cables which are on the BT output of the filter

There is no other place to add more filters off the main POTS wiring around his house.

My one concern was the the BT output of the filter may be overloaded by whatever phones he had around the house. ie saturating the coil in the filter.

Cheers

Gordy

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

trig42

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#542363 8-Nov-2011 08:51

You have done as much as you can inside his house. If the issues continue, he should get Chorus (via Telecom) to check his wiring - they are responsible for everything on their side of the jackpoint.

It may not hurt to try another modem if his issues continue.

Gordy7

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#552498 2-Dec-2011 08:37

Further on the problems. I am stumped!

Seems that relocating the modem/router right at the master socket (the only socket) provided better stable ADSL connection to Telecom.

The remaining issue this guy seems to have is with intermittent email service.
As far as I understand it he sometimes can't find the server, can't send emails and can't receive emails (receives after some hours delay)

To recap on the system:
WinXp Pro SP3 and all updates rebuilt.
Email using Outlook Express (POP3, SSL, 995 and SMTP(Send), SSL, 465) (also tried the ports 110 and 25)
Telecom Wireless router (replaced) using wired LAN.

Seems that he is on the Marewa Exchange via a roadside cabinet and gets 15Mbps download.

No problems with email on my network direct to the Marewa exchange.

The guy is going to spend the day on 123 to see if he can get it resolved.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Cheers

Gordy

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

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Ragnor

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#552745 2-Dec-2011 17:38

Chances are it's an Outlook Express issue, it isn't really developed any more.

Windows Live Mail is basically the replacement for Outlook Express, there is an XP version here:
http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mail-xp

End game:

I'd also be tempted to switch him to a new hotmail or gmail account, their web interfaces is much better than any isp provided webmail I've seen.

Both can be configured to pull email from ISP addresses/servers into into their inbox, which is great for weening people off ISP provided email addresses.