Many disconnections on 20Mb!

spankysmagicpian · 05-02-2010, 22:51

I have been with NTL / Virgin for over 10 years now and it's suffered from very few problems over the years, in fact I could count on two hands the number of times there has been any problems...until now.

It has disconnected more times in the last few weeks than it ever has in a decade! I phoned Virgin this morning and they tried to throw me off the scent by asking if I had a wireless router (yes) and was it supplied by them (no) in which case it was my fault it was dropping. This is despite the fact that my setup is CM->Patch Cable->router->switch-> whole house. It's been like this since I got it.

Anyway - got home and it was still off. Made a brew, didn't restart CM and it sprung back into life 15 mins later before I had chance to unplug it.

I phoned them up again and I was told that when there is congestion on the network it disconnects it's self (this is the CM according to the helpdesk). IT can't have been from here as no one was in. He sent a new config and said it would be OK.

OK - 30 mins ago it's off again!?!?! Is this a new ploy by Virgin to cut down the network traffic? Anyone who is not using it gets cut off until the modem is rebooted?

I have had a look at the modem logs and it's always got the same entries in after it fails -

Fri Feb 05 21:19:39 2010 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out

Fri Feb 05 21:20:24 2010 Critical (3) No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received ...

Fri Feb 05 21:20:54 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.

Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.

and then the modem seems to get a new config file sent....which it already has!

Anyone any ideas before I ring them again and lambast them for the sudden bobbins service?

thanks

Sephiroth · 06-02-2010, 01:18

Post your story and stats on the support newsgroup and you'll get a proper response.

boddyr · 06-02-2010, 18:23

Same thing happens to me m8.
I've never really had any problems, except the past 3 weeks, where I've had about 4-5 network loss problems. Just had one today about 16:00 to 17:00
I'm in Leicester by the way, if thats anywhere near yourself.

They never seem to last very long, usually an hour or two. no longer.
I'm also on 20mb.

spankysmagicpian · 08-02-2010, 10:37

Boddyr -

Do what Sephiroth mentioned. I posted on Saturday, got a reply from Tech Support. Told me my modem power levels were too high and they have booked an engineer for me for next Saturday

Not sure how they did that when my Newsgroup email address is faked - IP Address maybe?

Peter_ · 08-02-2010, 10:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankysmagicpian

Boddyr -

Do what Sephiroth mentioned. I posted on Saturday, got a reply from Tech Support. Told me my modem power levels were too high and they have booked an engineer for me for next Saturday

Not sure how they did that when my Newsgroup email address is faked - IP Address maybe?

Why would you want to use a faked email address when reporting a fault.

Of course they can track you via IP how else can they check your connection and book an engineer.

Sephiroth · 08-02-2010, 11:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moldova

Why would you want to use a faked email address when reporting a fault.

Of course they can track you via IP how else can they check your connection and book an engineer.

Some people on this forum who post into the support newsgroup would be deluged if they put up a real email address. You know at least

one!

Peter_ · 08-02-2010, 11:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Some people on this forum who post into the support newsgroup would be deluged if they put up a real email address. You know at least

one!

They cannot hide so all I would do would be to to open a sub account just for this purpose and then use that for reporting on the newsgroups.

I would never use any of main accounts for reporting.

Sephiroth · 08-02-2010, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moldova

They cannot hide so all I would do would be to to open a sub account just for this purpose and then use that for reporting on the newsgroups.

I would never use any of main accounts for reporting.

I mean hiding from forum members who would deluge

with emails about their problems. As you say, hiding from 2nd line is not possible.

Peter_ · 08-02-2010, 11:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I mean hiding from forum members who would deluge

with emails about their problems. As you say, hiding from 2nd line is not possible.

Which is one of the reasons I disallow PMs from anyone except forum staff and contacts as it is not a good idea to accept pleas for help from someone via PM as you can lose your job.

spankysmagicpian · 08-02-2010, 14:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moldova

Why would you want to use a faked email address when reporting a fault.

Of course they can track you via IP how else can they check your connection and book an engineer.

Well, it wasn't obvious (AS I DON'T WORK FOR THEM) that 2nd Line would do it that way, I was expecting them to ask for my account details etc

Also I was guessing that the support newsgroups were open and not closed to only VM subscribers.

All in all - very impressed at the speed of the responses.

Sephiroth · 08-02-2010, 14:37

The support newsgroups cannot be accessed other than from a VM served MAC address. That's how they know who you are.

spankysmagicpian · 08-02-2010, 15:46

Thanks for clearing that up Seph. Now I know that I'll amend my email address to the correct one.

Sephiroth · 08-02-2010, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankysmagicpian

Thanks for clearing that up Seph. Now I know that I'll amend my email address to the correct one.

That's up to you. Nobody needs to know your email address - so you'd make the amendment only if you were happy for others to email you. VM can email you at your VM mail account (if you have one). If you don't have a VM mail account, then it's a question of whether or not you want VM to email you versus the public knowledge given.

HTH.