No broadband connection after being reconnected

[Kazzie]

Hi all

We would appreciate it if someone could give us some advice please!

My sister had her cable tv/phoneline/broadband cut this morning after not paying the bill. She paid it this afternoon and her services were supposedly restored a couple of hours ago. She has cable tv and phone but no broadband.

She rang Virgin and was told that everything had been restored and that she should have her broadband back as well.

We have tried to 'ping' www.bbc.co.uk with no reply. We have also tried powering off the modem/pc etc. We tried to reinstall it using the original broadband cd but got 'Error code 9 - installation problem has been detected -failed to ping'.

Her OS is Win ME and she connects using an ethernet cable via a cable modem.

Is there anything else we can try to get it back please.

[Jonathan90]

give it till tommorrow depending on how she payed it it won't be instant

[Kazzie]

give it till tommorrow depending on how she payed it it won't be instant

I presumed as her TV and phone are both reconnected, her broadband should be too, VM said this much to her when she rang:confused:

[moaningmags]

Which modem does she have?
Motorola - does she have 4 solid green lights?
Scientific Atlanta or Webstar - Is the cable light solid?
Ambit - are Sync and Rdy lights solid?
Is the pc activity light lit?
Start > winipcfg > Ok
What ip address does she have?

[whydoIneedatech]

I presumed as her TV and phone are both reconnected, her broadband should be too, VM said this much to her when she rang:confused:
It can take upto 24 hours for your Broadband to come back on in these circumstances, all other services come back on much faster as you have seen.

[Kazzie]

Which modem does she have?
Motorola - does she have 4 solid green lights?
Scientific Atlanta or Webstar - Is the cable light solid?
Ambit - are Sync and Rdy lights solid?
Is the pc activity light lit?
Start > winipcfg > Ok
What ip address does she have?

Sorry, i can't answer the above as i'm not at her house now.

My Sis rang them again and apparently the 'ready' light was flashing. VM tried to send her a signal but said it was 'bouncing off' before she recieved it.

They said they would carry on sending a signal to her and would ring her back in an hour if they weren't able to send a signal.

---------- Post added at 22:13 ---------- Previous post was at 22:11 ----------

It can take upto 24 hours for your Broadband to come back on in these circumstances, all other services come back on much faster as you have seen.

That's good to know thanks. Will tell her to give it until tomorrow evening.

[Kazzie]

Hi again

My Sis still doesn't have broadband. She has been on to VM 3 times today (and cut off twice!) and has been told that her modem must be faulty and that they will send out another.

She was also told that this is a common issue once a customer who has been disconnected is reconnected. Has anyone else heard of this?

The modems 'ready' light is now coming, and staying on. We are able to ping the servers but not a website (tried bbc.co.uk). When she turns on her pc she is taken to a VM page saying something like 'your registration is not yet complete - please power off your PC and Modem and restart your PC to complete registration'. When she restarts she just gets taken back to the same page.

Does anyone else think it's possibly not the modem at fault, but a seperate issue relating to the disconnection? I fear that the problem will remain even with a new modem.

---------- Post added at 20:21 ---------- Previous post was at 20:03 ----------

Which modem does she have?
Motorola - does she have 4 solid green lights?
Scientific Atlanta or Webstar - Is the cable light solid?
Ambit - are Sync and Rdy lights solid?
Is the pc activity light lit?
Start > winipcfg > Ok
What ip address does she have?

Hi moaningmags

We have been over her modem and there's no name on it anywhere. When she spoke to VM today thay just asked her if she had the black one or the Grey one! (she has a Black one).

There is 5 lights on it. The 'Ethernet', 'Sync', and 'Rdy', which are all on and solid, and the 'Send' and 'Recieve' which are both off.

The IP addy is 86.15.*.*

Hope this helps!

[whydoIneedatech]

Hi again

My Sis still doesn't have broadband. She has been on to VM 3 times today (and cut off twice!) and has been told that her modem must be faulty and that they will send out another.

She was also told that this is a common issue once a customer who has been disconnected is reconnected. Has anyone else heard of this?

The modems 'ready' light is now coming, and staying on. We are able to ping the servers but not a website (tried bbc.co.uk). When she turns on her pc she is taken to a VM page saying something like 'your registration is not yet complete - please power off your PC and Modem and restart your PC to complete registration'. When she restarts she just gets taken back to the same page.

Does anyone else think it's possibly not the modem at fault, but a seperate issue relating to the disconnection? I fear that the problem will remain even with a new modem.

---------- Post added at 20:21 ---------- Previous post was at 20:03 ----------



Hi moaningmags

We have been over her modem and there's no name on it anywhere. When she spoke to VM today thay just asked her if she had the black one or the Grey one! (she has a Black one).

There is 5 lights on it. The 'Ethernet', 'Sync', and 'Rdy', which are all on and solid, and the 'Send' and 'Recieve' which are both off.

The IP addy is 86.15.*.*

Hope this helps!

This only ever happens to EX-NTL customers and it means you are stuck in what is called a "Walled Garden" and the Activation process just goes into a loop, the easiest way to resolve this issue is to swap the modem and this should sort you out.

Ignore the fact that she has an IP address as that one is not valid for browsing and is just a Activation IP which would change if the process completed itself rather than cycling in a loop.

[Kazzie]

That's very interesting and helpful, thanks very much!

[Ignitionnet]

This only ever happens to EX-NTL customers and it means you are stuck in what is called a "Walled Garden" and the Activation process just goes into a loop, the easiest way to resolve this issue is to swap the modem and this should sort you out.

Ignore the fact that she has an IP address as that one is not valid for browsing and is just a Activation IP which would change if the process completed itself rather than cycling in a loop.

Blimey have they still not sorted out a better solution than to swap out the modem? :(

VM towers must e pretty busy.

[whydoIneedatech]

Blimey have they still not sorted out a better solution than to swap out the modem? :(

VM towers must e pretty busy.
Its just poor old NTL that has this problem and its quicker to swap than to raise it to IT.;)

[Kazzie]

The new modem that was supposed to sort out the above problem arrived today.

My sister installed it, rang VM and registered the modem. When she tried to go on the net she was taken to the 'Broadband' activation page. She then recieved a message saying something like 'Oops, looks like you are using an unsupported version of Windows. Please ring us on this number which shouldn't cost more that £1 a minute'!

She rang them and was told as she was running Windows ME she wouldn't be able to connect with them anymore. She asked why, if that was the case, she was able to connect with them before they cut her off, and using the same OS. She was told that she must have been using a different modem to the one thay have sent her today, even though she told them it is exactly the same type of modem she was using last week! She was then told that there was nothing they could do.

She then rang customer services to cancel her account. This took an hour, and she was cut off several times. When she finally got through she was told by the person handling her call that they had never heard of this problem before!

My Sister is not in the best of health and has been left frustrated and in tears by the level of incompetence in dealing with her complaint. She has been with them for about 10 years and last week was the only time she had had her service cut through late payment, and this was only for one day.

Please, is there anyone out there who could possibly shed some light on what is going on.

[techyguy4]

Hi, Win ME is not supported by VM Tech support. But the case is that the modem is stuck in so called "walled garden". If you can pm me the mac address,I can have a look on it. But I will leave office after 20 minutes.

[Kazzie]

Hi, Win ME is not supported by VM Tech support. But the case is that the modem is stuck in so called "walled garden". If you can pm me the mac address,I can have a look on it. But I will leave office after 20 minutes.


Have PM'd you. Thanks very much for offer of help!

[clayts]

Oh goodie, I'm in exactly the same boat as the OP (reconnected after failing to pay bill today). TV and phone back on within 2 hours (by 4pm today), BB stuffed, using 56K dial up, which is pants.

However, it's useful to know the information which has been imparted in this thread- I will ring up tomorrow and get them to send me a new modem. What a bizarre workround.... (yes, I'm ex-NTL)

Just sorry the OP had to go through all the pain to get to a resolution - but I'm genuinely grateful, anyway ;)

[techyguy4]

Oh goodie, I'm in exactly the same boat as the OP (reconnected after failing to pay bill today). TV and phone back on within 2 hours (by 4pm today), BB stuffed, using 56K dial up, which is pants.

However, it's useful to know the information which has been imparted in this thread- I will ring up tomorrow and get them to send me a new modem. What a bizarre workround.... (yes, I'm ex-NTL)

Just sorry the OP had to go through all the pain to get to a resolution - but I'm genuinely grateful, anyway ;)

Modem swap is not required in each and every case. I have seen even brand new modems getting stuck. Call 151 and get your modem checked. :)

[techyguy4]

Hi Kazzie, your modem is online now.Please check the internet, in case of any problem do let me know. :-) Ennnjjjooyyyy...

[Kazzie]

Your right! She's back online!:D

Thank you so so much, you are a life saver and an angel!:angel:

[techyguy4]

You are welcome Kazzie. :-)

[clayts]

A thank you from me too - rang 151, they hit my modem and it's now all ticketty-boo again :)