Fed up with continued disconnects
 

I am so close to moving to ADSL right now. I am constantly getting disconnected from the internet. My cable modem just disconnects and flashes its lights untill a few hours later when it reconnects again.
Its been happening for about 4 weeks now and is really starting to get at me. it happens 10+ times a day, sometimes a simple turn off the modem will do but other times i just have to wait for it to reconnect. I have one of the old stand alone cable modems, the motorola ones from a few years back.

Is NTL obliged to replace this cable modem if its faulty? is there one I can buy from a computer shop that will do the job just as good? I dont want one of those crappy cable modems in the set top box because they are in totally different rooms and would need interior work getting the wires and leads going through the house.


Thanks for the help

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

I had the same thing last week. Every day, at odd times the cable modem would just die and wouldn't connect again for about 5 minutes. Hasn't happened for a few days now.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

Have you reported the problem to NTL?

They will provide you wi th a new modem i would assume. A stand a lone NTL 100/120

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

give tech support a call......if its the modem at fault....it will be replaced by an engineer......may possibly be a network issue.....

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

Hi Thorny since you have a motorola mod open internet and enter 192.168.100.1 and check the logs critical errors ect.ect armed with info ring tec support and give them the details.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

thanks for the advice, ill give them a ring tomorrow.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

This is probably a cable signal level problem. You need to ring Technical Support to get an NTL techie to come round and check out your cable feed and the local green box in the street.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

I am having the same problems again. Modem connected this morning, but disconnected about 30 minutes later. Tried to get it going again, but apart from a couple of 30 second connects it has died. Spoke to NTL tech support and they said there is a problem with the modem and engineering will give me a ring. I have taken the attenuator off the back and it has started working again, hence me being able to post this. I'm going to order my ADSL this morning, just in case modem dies and I can't get on again for several days.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

Fell off the network a couple of seconds after I posted this. Am back again...obviously! :)

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

signal levels would the obvious candidate , i assume you have rang ntl and told them ;)

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

even if its signal levels im still totally fed up with it. over the last 3 years ive had signal problems. First hey "boosted" the signal. a year later i started getting the problems again, they replaced all the cables coming into my house, this was only 6 months ago. And now this current problem. the TV isnt even worth it any more, might just get freeview digital and then ADSL.
If it is the signal levels then they are only going to boost it again and the same problem will happen again in another 6 months. Im fed up with their substandard network, I should have to request a boost, it should be upgraded as they getmore broadband customers.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

and you have all this documented then , if you have , get in touch with ofcom , i am sure thay would like to know ;)

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

I dont think ofcom have any intrest in broadband. do they? :confused:

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

dont they , i thought they did , seens as though it is a form of comms :confused:

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

I'm not sure. I know they cover tv and telephone but dunno about bb

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

from there website

Welcome to Ofcom
Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

Ofcom exists to further the interests of citizen-consumers as the communications industries enter the digital age.


so i would assume this would include bb

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

its a bit vague but you could construe that bb is included (dial up even). in fact in the day before the internet I believe bulletin board access was referred to comms. so yeah i guess it does

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

could one of you lot with a motorola surfboard 4100 modem do me a quick favor
go to http://192.168.100.1/signal.html and tell me the value of your downstream sections.

mine is

Frequency 402750000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 33 dB
QAM 64
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level -9 dBmV

if none of you have problems and have a higher downstream power level then I would asume its the signal....again.

Thanks for your help

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

from that report your power levels are below acceptable levels their supposed to be between -2.5 and +2.5, how many splitters have the engineers installed? they like using splitters not relising that power levels will decrease until you lose the internet completley, i would take the details of the engineers and make a complaint to NTL coz boosting the power levels is supposed to be temporary until they fix the problem, obviously their doing a half-assed job and wasting your time and money and costing the company more money for having to return to your home

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

we use to have splitters. infact we had the tv arial removed and run the whole house from the cables. but the extra splitter was too much and I removed it, now the cable goes from the grey box outside directly into my modem.

Its getting worse, NTL are gonna get a mouthful in the morning when i ring them up.

I can honestly say the customer service from NTL is the wrost I have ever experienced. I have even emailed my error logs to tech support, as well as customer service and also the feedback form on their site twice each, i have 6 confirmation emails that they have received my email, yet they have ignored every single one of them.

Its like me going into PC world, going up to the customer service desk, asking questions and getting completly ignored. That wouldnt be tollerated in a store if i was there in person, I cant see how they have the cheek to do that via email too.

Lets just say i feel sorry for the person on customer service or tech support that is going to answer my call.

Maybe I should ask for the manager/supervisor right away?

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

Finally got through. I was very prepared with all my info and copies of logs. The powerlevels were going up and down between -2.5 and -1.5 which it should do, its in acceptable range but it should be stable. So an engineer is coming out to have a look at it. I told them about past problems and fingers crossed there will be an engineer that can actually solve problems rather than put them off and leave for another engineer 6 months later.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

I wish you luck. I'd get the engineer to check the upstream at the same time. It should be under 58, way under if possible. If close you might still have trouble (weather dependent I find).

It took me a year (and many days off work at my expense) to get mine sorted out with frequent periods of modem reboots. It was all down to signal levels. First the downstream and then the upstream (engineer ignored the upstream on first call out).

Upstream is far more difficult to get fixed as it's the power of the modem signal to the network that's at issue and involves sorting out any rubbish on the cable. You may need a new cable pulled especially if it's currently shared with one or more STBs (or if some muppet installed the cable split off your neighbour! :mad: ).

It's a lot of hassle I can tell you. The worst thing seemed to be the lack of real understanding by the techs you call, and no knowledge of your previous calls, so each time you've got to try and explain and they go through the same old routine of asking you dummies questions about your PC (i.e. "no it's not my PC, it's definitely the signal quality on the cable, you've had 3 people out before checking it, blah, blah, etc").

It took some rather more helpful tech on forums like this (well the old 'other' site) to sort it.

I've always maintained that BT's approach of testing the line and just refusing the application if the line is poor quality is better. Harsh, but better in the long run. NTL seem to think that as long as there's a cable there, anything will work.

Oh, and it can all go T.U. again if a neighbour gets a new install or there a fault in the green box (or some brat kicks the box in). It's at your expense to get it fixed by calling NTL and waiting in for an engineer only to find it's the box down the road, and I doubt your neighbours will praise you for fixing their cable.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

Fed up- stafford-

I have had constant browsing problems and regular disconnects for the past 3 months, after many many phone calls to tech support and 2 new modems later the problems still persist it was finally recognised that there was a problem on the cable and not my pc or modem.

After my last phone call several hours ago i was told by tech support we won't send out an engineer if you have intermitent problems only if you are disconnected for any length of time goodbye.

I have no doubt that i will be moving isp as the lack of service from ntl is second to non this is a shame as i thought they were a good isp shows how you can be proved wrong

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

And if you argue about it they just say they don't guarantee a level of service. An up and down connection can go on for days, weeks, months or even years (in my case the latter almost), and though you get disconnected for short periods on a frequent basis and then get a good connection for a few days or weeks, they're not interested (or can't diagnose the problem).

Even if they do send someone out, the guy has no clue about the problem or any previous call outs, so each time they start from scratch, and then it turns out the guy isn't qualified to fix it and they need to send the proper people out (and guess what, they send round another monkey who knows nothing about the previous call outs).

I just wish all installations involved a full signal test on both upstream and downstream with the modem (and other boxes) attached. It would save so much hassle.

Re: Fed up with continued disconnects
 

Hope I can prove you wrong again, please PM me your IP address I'll be happy to check your upstream signal levels.