Disconnects/Faulty modem? can I get a new one? :P

[N3il]

Hi all.

I have had broadband with NTL since it became available and own my own modem (white 3com thing think its a CMX) and basically recently its gotten awful with disconnects, sometimes twice an hour sometimes every few hours.. This happens after a fresh install of windows too so I dont think its a prob with my PC. What I was wondering is, is there a way to ascertain if the modem is faulty, and if so, can I ask NTL for a new one since I am not getting the discount for owning my own modem anymore due to upgrading to 1 meg..

Cheers

Neil

[Chris W]

ntl now only do modems as rentals, the price is the same regardless of whether you are an older customer still using your own modem, or one of the rented ones.

Have you spoken to ntl about this issue? if they identify that it is an issue with the modem, they will order an engineer to bring a replacement modem.

TBH though, the 3com CMX modems dont really suffer problems as much as other modems, so i would be surprised if it was a modem problem. To access the diagnostics on the CMX, the process is quite complicated:

1. connect your PC's serial port to the CMX's serial port with a laplink cable
2. launch hyperterminal
3. set the serial communication parameters to 38400 bps, 8 data bits, No parity, 1 stop bit
4. reboot the cmx and watch the log stream past. The log will only show when the modem is booting up, or has had an error and is recovering from it.

hope that helps

MB :monkey:

[N3il]

Is there no other way to check the modem? My motherboard doesnt have serial or parallel ports (who uses them anymore?) :(

[Chris W]

you can use docsdiag, but unforuntunately to run this you will need to know the isp side ip address of the modem.... and the only way to find this out is from the logs... you see the problem!

Easiest thing to do will just be to ring tech support (do it when the connection has dropped) and tell them that you are getting disconnects. They will be able to check whether the modem is online/ offline and if there are problems with snr or power levels on your line.

If you pm me the mac address of your modem (found on a sticker underneath) i will have a look at it tonight for you.

MB :monkey:

[N3il]

Thanks MB YGPM.

[paulyoung666]

if the modem is faulty then i dont see why ntl wouldnt supply a new one , especially as you are in effect already paying for it :)

[Plonking]

lol this is my second attempt to post this message cos my connection is so slow it failed to post first time.....


anyways, my first post said that i was having similar problems with disconnects and a slow connection, lol! but i guess that is obvious by now...

i have a funky silver ntl modem that i connect to with a linksys router :) so far i have only had very very few problems with my internet connection, but on saturday i started to get disconnects.. tehn sunday as well. i did the turn off modem to fix it routine.. then it was ok yesterday, but has been getting slower and slower today to the point where i can't really do much any more.

i'm hoping that this message gets thru in the ten minutes of connection time i seem to have at the moment before it all goes too slow for me to do anything! eek! i'm jsut trying to work out why this has all suddenly started to happen.. i haven't changed owt on my pc lately, and i read that ntl were doing work on the servers i connect to last week (i live in poole and connect to southampton) .. so maybe they messed something up, lol? anyone have any suggestions?

i've been trying to get new firmware for my router, but am inexpeirienced with that kind of stuff, and seeing as everything has been fine so far, and as i havent changed anything on this pc lately, i want to check that it may not be due to an outside source before i go messing with somethign i dont understand, lol!

P

[carlingman]

lol this is my second attempt to post this message cos my connection is so slow it failed to post first time.....


anyways, my first post said that i was having similar problems with disconnects and a slow connection, lol! but i guess that is obvious by now...

i have a funky silver ntl modem that i connect to with a linksys router :) so far i have only had very very few problems with my internet connection, but on saturday i started to get disconnects.. tehn sunday as well. i did the turn off modem to fix it routine.. then it was ok yesterday, but has been getting slower and slower today to the point where i can't really do much any more.

i'm hoping that this message gets thru in the ten minutes of connection time i seem to have at the moment before it all goes too slow for me to do anything! eek! i'm jsut trying to work out why this has all suddenly started to happen.. i haven't changed owt on my pc lately, and i read that ntl were doing work on the servers i connect to last week (i live in poole and connect to southampton) .. so maybe they messed something up, lol? anyone have any suggestions?

i've been trying to get new firmware for my router, but am inexpeirienced with that kind of stuff, and seeing as everything has been fine so far, and as i havent changed anything on this pc lately, i want to check that it may not be due to an outside source before i go messing with somethign i dont understand, lol!

P

Hi Plonking,

As you have the NTL Home Modem the diagnostics are slightly easier to reach than with the 3Com Modems.

Open your web browser to http://192.168.100.1/.

If your asked for a password enter "root" for the user id and "root" for the password.

Then post back here with the Upstream and Downstream power levels and the event log.

Also you mention you are only getting 10 mins of connection time - when this happens what happens to the sequence of lights on the modem itself.

Also what happens when you take the router out of the equation and connect the modem directly to the PC do you get the same problem ??

Post back with the details.

:D

[td444]

Hi Plonking,

As you have the NTL Home Modem the diagnostics are slightly easier to reach than with the 3Com Modems.

Open your web browser to http://192.168.100.1/.

If your asked for a password enter "root" for the user id and "root" for the password.

Then post back here with the Upstream and Downstream power levels and the event log.

Also you mention you are only getting 10 mins of connection time - when this happens what happens to the sequence of lights on the modem itself.

Also what happens when you take the router out of the equation and connect the modem directly to the PC do you get the same problem ??

Post back with the details.

:D
If no result from browsing at first , its due to NTL disabling SNMP (via broadcast?). Disconnect the power on the modem, and reconnect. Within the first few minutes, try accessing that address above again, you should be able to now.

[Plonking]

hey guys thanks for your help, but i think the problem was due to the problems in southampton at the moment.. its been iffy for the past week or so, but things seem to be starting to be getting better now.. i hope!


cheers for the info about diagnositics tho, it will be my first port of call in future should i have trouble :)

P

[N3il]

Hi again (Recovering from this heinous thread hijack :) )

Thanks to MB for checking the modem for me, and indeed I have now noticed that the first 3 lights that signify connection to the NTL network are actually fine and steady green even when my pc drops connection, I reinstalled windows yesterday and am having the same problems which means that either the modem is faulty somehow in its connection between the modem>router, or router>pc or I have some setting wrong in the router settings..

So I was browsing the settings and I found this:
Block WAN Request which was set to enable. Now I remember reading somewhere NTL ping customers to determine connectivity, so could this be my problem?

[Chris W]

Hi again (Recovering from this heinous thread hijack :) )

Thanks to MB for checking the modem for me, and indeed I have now noticed that the first 3 lights that signify connection to the NTL network are actually fine and steady green even when my pc drops connection, I reinstalled windows yesterday and am having the same problems which means that either the modem is faulty somehow in its connection between the modem>router, or router>pc or I have some setting wrong in the router settings..

So I was browsing the settings and I found this:
Block WAN Request which was set to enable. Now I remember reading somewhere NTL ping customers to determine connectivity, so could this be my problem?



ntl do ping cmrs to determine connectivity, but if you tell t/s that you have a firewall/router they will not rely on this anyway because the test would be no use!

When your connection drops are you still getting a valid ip address on one of your machines? ie starting 192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x and can you release and renew it? (in a dos prompt-> ipconfig /release & ipconfig /renew). Also, are you able to browse to the config page of the router? if so it means it is a problem between modem -> router, but if not, then it is pc-> router.

MB

[N3il]

Cheers again MB, destined to be my saviour methinks ;)

I can definately go to the routers config page during disconnects, not sure about the other questions at the moment as it hasnt happened for 2 hours now! (either sods law or changing that block wan request did something good) :)

[rdhw]

am having the same problems which means that either the modem is faulty somehow in its connection between the modem>router, or router>pc or I have some setting wrong in the router settings..Well, N3il, you never mentioned the router in your previous posts. You appear to be using a Linksys router: disconnections of the kind you mention are frequently reported with Linksys routers, and other makes too, and these effects are nothing to do with the cable modem or the cable company. I suggest you review the Linksys forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/linksys.