[TelstraClear] Baffling connection problems

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Baffling connection problems

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#39350 12-Aug-2009 18:13

Hi everyone,

I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster at Geekzone.

Over the last 3 months or so I have been having major problems with my Telstraclear cable connection. I live in the eastern suburbs of Wellington and I am on the 10GB plan. My connection is very intermittent: sometimes I can visit some websites, sometimes I can't. For example, I'll try to visit Trademe only to find the page can't be loaded, but every other webpage I visit will load with no problems. Sometimes this will happen with a whole group of unrelated websites (eg. Trademe, Facebook, Hotmail, even Geekzone) where none of these pages will load, but other pages will. Sometimes nothing will load, and on the very (and i mean VERY) odd occasion, sometimes every page will load.

Some websites will never ever work such as Stuff.co.nz and oddly enough Telecom, which is a pain because I can't even check out their broadband plans seeing as I will more than likely move my connection if this problem continues.

Anyway I've tried everything I can think of: talked to Telstraclear technicians on several occasions (both foreign and local sounding) but the extent of their help seems to be "wipe your IP settings and add them again". I had a router (which I've been told is not supported by Telstraclear, blah blah) which I disconnected and instead connected my computer directly to the modem, made no difference. I've tried pretty much every browser available. I've tried connecting other computers (ones I own and also a friend's computer, in case all 3 of my own computers happen to have some mystery virus). Still the problem remains.

Sorry for the length, I thought it would be easier to include all the info in one post. I hope there is a simple solution and maybe I'm just missing the obvious. If anyone could help me with this problem I would appreciate it very much.

Cheers!

-- sorry if this is a duplicate thread, my connection cut out as I was posting lol

1 | 2

8223 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#245864 12-Aug-2009 23:02

Sounds like a suspect modem, are you able to observe the status lights on it when you encounter the problem?

One thing you can try is open up a command prompt (start > all programs > accessories > command prompt) and run ipconfig to find out your default gateway

ipconfig example:

Then setup a continueous ping to your default gateway by using the command: ping [ipaddress] -t

ping example:

Note: Your default gateway will probably be a different address, make sure you ping that not my example.

What you're trying to determine is does the ping fail when your encounter you intermittant connection problem or does it keep pinging fine?

quandum

204 posts

Master Geek

#245870 12-Aug-2009 23:27

have you tried a replacement router?

also worth trying to trace route to the website that is working and that isnt working from a command prompt

e.g. tracert www.trademe.co.nz (if trademe works)
and tracert www.hotmal.com (if this is a site that doesnt work) and comparing the results.

I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code

#BOFH

Ragnor

8223 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#245873 12-Aug-2009 23:44

Yep forgot to mention tracert, another useful command.

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#245897 13-Aug-2009 07:47

Hi, I take it you have read through this thread.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=44&topicid=32842

Sounds to me like you might be getting trapped in TCLs proxy, pity cable does not offer alternative ISPs so you could dump them and go elsewhere.

Cyril

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#245949 13-Aug-2009 10:21

Hey guys thanks for the replies. I've taken your advice and done the following:

My router gateway is 192.168.1.1 and the TC gateway is 202.78.151.1. I decided to leave my router connected for the following tests since the connection problems exist regardless of the router being connected.
After successfully loading Trademe, I tried loading Facebook to no avail. Here is the tracert log:

"Tracing route to www.trademe.co.nz [202.162.73.2]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2    15 ms    11 ms    12 ms 202.78.151.1
3    21 ms    20 ms    20 ms 203.167.249.138
4    21 ms    20 ms    20 ms 203.167.249.139
5    20 ms    20 ms    21 ms 202.162.73.2

Trace complete."

"Tracing route to www.facebook.com [69.63.187.11]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2   119 ms    14 ms    11 ms 202.78.151.1
3    19 ms    21 ms    20 ms 203.98.50.2
4    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms 203.98.50.251
5    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms 203.167.233.10
6   145 ms   145 ms   145 ms 202.84.142.189
7   145 ms   145 ms   145 ms 202.84.251.170
8   158 ms   157 ms   158 ms 202.84.249.42
9   157 ms   156 ms   157 ms 202.84.251.122
10   157 ms   157 ms   184 ms 206.223.116.166
11   162 ms   160 ms   159 ms 204.15.23.246
12   234 ms   326 ms   234 ms 204.15.21.248
13   234 ms   235 ms   234 ms 204.15.20.135
14   235 ms   235 ms   236 ms 204.15.20.252
15   235 ms   234 ms   234 ms 69.63.187.11

Trace complete."

I thought I'd give Stuff.co.nz a try. Interestingly enough this message came up after attempting a tracert:
"Unable to resolve target system name www.stuff.co.nz."
Gave it another couple tries and got this:

"Tracing route to 202.21.128.102 over a maximum of 30 hops

1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2    12 ms    18 ms    12 ms 202.78.151.1
3    19 ms    20 ms    19 ms 218.101.61.41
4    30 ms    31 ms    30 ms 218.101.61.42
5    30 ms   126 ms    30 ms 218.101.61.50
6    29 ms    28 ms    28 ms 203.167.225.19
7    28 ms    28 ms    28 ms 202.21.128.59
8    28 ms    29 ms    28 ms 202.21.128.102

Trace complete."

Also tried pinging the TC gateway (202.78.151.1) several times. One packet was lost every time:

Pinging 202.78.151.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126

Ping statistics for 202.78.151.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 13ms

Cyril: Sounds to me like you might be getting trapped in TCLs proxy, pity cable does not offer alternative ISPs so you could dump them and go elsewhere.

Yeah true I'd move ISP in a second. Unfortunately I live too far away from the nearest exchange so my ADSL speeds are crap.

Again sorry about the length of my post. Hopefully someone can spot the culprit!

Ragnor

8223 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#246148 13-Aug-2009 17:18

I'd probably suspect the cable modem tbh.

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#246268 13-Aug-2009 20:39

I think you might be right. I've checked pretty much everything at my end, the only unknowns are the cable modem or possibly even the connection to the dslam outside - could this be a likely cause? TCL are adamant that everything is fine at their end, they can see my modem connected to the network with no problems.

Anyway thanks for the advice, I'm going to ring them tomorrow and try my luck at getting them to send me a new modem. For some reason I'm not very confident they'll do this.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#246334 13-Aug-2009 22:54

Oh yeah, I decided to do a continuous ping (like Ragnor originally said) on the TCL gateway address 202.78.151.1. Could these results be causing my connection problems, and do you think it's a network problem or a modem problem?

Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=126
Request timed out.
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=126
Reply from 202.78.151.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=126

And if anyone from Telstraclear is reading this, feel free to contact me and help sort this out. I am a customer after all.

amanzi

Amanzi
1299 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#246339 13-Aug-2009 23:03

Your TCL gateway shouldn't be dropping any pings. Also, what are your DNS settings? You mentioned that you couldn't resolve the www.stuff.co.nz name so perhaps your router is proxying the DNS requests and not doing it very well.

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#246346 13-Aug-2009 23:24

Currently I'm using 203.96.152.4 and 203.96.152.12, but I've tried using a couple others as well (both Paradise and Clearnet DNS settings). But yeah I can't access Stuff.co.nz regardless of whether or not my router is connected. I'm not too bothered about the lack of access to Stuff, but when it starts affecting my access to Trademe & Blackboard (being a uni student) ... RRRAGE.

It's interesting what you say about the pings being dropped. I've forwarded that ping log onto TCL to see what their thoughts are. Surely it has to be something at their end if thats the case.

soleil24

124 posts

Master Geek

#248421 19-Aug-2009 00:11

@bigheadren

Been having similar problems here for the past few weeks, some websites not accessible, some very slow to load, but biggest issue was over broken file downloads; anything with in-built integrity checking showing up as "broken" was the first indication something wasn't right.

And got very similar local g/w ping results to yours - although Ragnor's example looks like it's off a LAN, results for your local g/w shouldn't be that far off and *certainly* shouldn't be getting timeouts on that hop.

To give TC their due they have sent out a tech with a replacement modem...which didn't fix the problem so they are now going to replace the cable from the house to wherever it needs replacing to ! Suppose the replacement cable may have been u/s too (its log showed it had been used before - well of course I peeked !). Let's see how the new cable changes things on Friday & I'll report back. My initial thoughts were an upstream network problem (e.g. TCs' proxy/caching config) but if that were the case I'd really expect to see a lot more widespread reporting of it; oh and the fact that another TC customer just a km down the road has 0 problem & my d/l's play just fine there. Suggests it may be a very localised issue. Like I said, wait till Friday...

Meanwhile, suggest you try & provide TC tech with real information (like your ping stats) & any other factual evidence. My (1) experience of dealing with TC tech support here in NZ is positive & I felt like I was actually dealing with someone who knew what they were talking about...and suggested sensible possible solutions. Try living with France Telecom/Orange for six years then you'll see what poor tech support looks like

cheers!

IG

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#248513 19-Aug-2009 09:34

@soleil24

That's very interesting. I'm still waiting on a technician to come visit... called them on Monday yet to hear anything. I also have a friend that lives probably 200m down the road with zero issues. Did TCL charge you for the replacement modem or are they going to charge you for the cable that is going to be replaced? My main issue is that TCL might turn up, replace everything, but have the problem remain and me being stuck with a giant bill.

I also decided to put everything in writing along with the ping and tracert logs and send that to TCL's helpdesk. Their response was:
"Regarding the pings timing out on the gateway, even though they are responding with timed out, this isn't going to affect the connection.
As ping's are treated with the lowest priority, so from time to time they will show increased response times with the odd time out."

Anyway hopefully TCL can sort this out soon. My connection is ridiculously unreliable and I'm seriously considering sacrificing cable speed for ADSL.

soleil24

124 posts

Master Geek

#248852 19-Aug-2009 23:13

Well to update things here, the cable was replaced this morning (2 days early so I wasn't here; it involved digging up some of the garden but all was neatly put back)

Bad news is the problems are still there. And interestingly it's just taken me 3 attempts to be able to open this "Compose Reply" page !!

I know there are a couple of other threads re. TelstraClear issues, including one here in Kapiti, but those issues don't appear similar enough to suggest a widespread upstream problem...although if someone wants to convince me otherwise?

As for TCL charging for replacing either modem or cable, no mention was made of that & as far as I'm concerned the demarcation point is the ethernet port on the Motorola box (I suppose the ethernet cord to my router is theirs as well but I'll not quibble over that !). So let's say I'm not expecting to see an invoice.

So I'm now waiting for another tech visit (slated for tomorrow - Thurs)

As for pings being low priority on the local g/w, yes they should be but that doesn't mean they should be timing out - if the gatweay isn't handling ping requests then that might suggest it's a bit too busy - which is what I've suggested may be the issue here.

Will post again after tomorrow's visit...

IG

bigheadren

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#249346 21-Aug-2009 11:04

Yesterday afternoon I had a technician pop round. He replaced the modem and checked the cable running from the modem to the grey box outside (which was fine). He told me that it wasn't a capacity issue either. Last night my connection was fine and I was able to load any page I wanted - even Stuff.co.nz which previously had always been unavailable.

BUT this morning is a different story.. the problems still remain. The technician promised to keep an eye on my connection over the weekend then call me on Monday to inform me of any unusual behaviour.

Still baffled.

soleil24

124 posts

Master Geek

#249354 21-Aug-2009 11:19

Still baffled here too.
Had a tech visit yesterday who replaced the cable from the outside box into the house & he was still getting ping timeouts to the local g/w on his test laptop (directly connected to the Motorola).
Then had TC change my IP to a different subnet (to try & rule out a local g/w issue) - still the same.
I've sent them a trace using Wireshark showing large numbers of re-tries & segment (packet) losses & out of orders - see if that helps to id the problem...

IG

1 | 2