Internet Keeps going offline for a few mins - NB, Problem has returned

[TheAdmiral]

Originally Posted by Gaz22

What basically happens for you lot?

For me: I get the "finding site" error (that I explained above) then my modem lights would go out and reset. When I try browsing again, two things can happen; either my connection comes on again or I get the "finding site" error. This repeats itself and I am getting sick of it.

Is my problem related to all of yours?

This is a different problem, I'm afraid. Our cable lights all stay on.

At least with yours, you can tell CS that it's actually turning off.

We get "Well, I can see you modem, so it must be your PC"...
If they did a constant ping test over a few hours, they'd probably find something...

[nopcode]

This is kinda wierd but ive found a (temp) solution

Those free aol trial cd's that usually bug the hell outta me.
Yes the dial up wont let me d/l big files, but i can email, browse and play my games.

hidden saviour in AOL I NEVER thought id say that.

and its my 3rd free trial too. $

[Chris W]

methinks i should have read this thread sooner because everyone seems to be posting their problems in this one!

Eggo60- i seem to have misplaced you ip address that you gave me on msn, so if you can send me the mac address of your modem i will check everything on the ntl side for you.
The problem you are having doesn't sound like a proxy issue, as this would not affecting gaming, ftp, email etc...

TheAdmiral- from the look of your docsdiag info, the power level seems to be the problem there, if you pm me your mac address i will check that it is running ok and there are no strange things going on in your area. I will also run the continuous ping that you mentioned on monday (you will need to disable any firewall software you are using) so you can have the results of that as well.

Mauldor- If changing upstream channel improved your connection, could you please let me know which UBR you are going through, as this may well be a problem with one of the cables that needs investigating further. Also i doubt that you changed the mac address of your cable modem because then you wouldn't be able to get on the network... i am sure you meant/ router/ nic.

Rone- i very much doubt that over-utilisation is what is causing your problems, although i am prepared to be proved wrong. Your area would not have been upgraded if the network could not cope with it- hence why in certain places SACM users are still on 150/600/1mb. PM'ing me your mac address might let me find out what is really going on.

and finally... nopcode- good luck trying to remove that lovely AOL software from your pc when you decide you want to get rid of it... in my experience, the best way to get rid of AOL is "format c"

And to all of the above mentioned people- if you PM me any details please also include in the message a reminder of what the problem is, and what i said i would check, otherwise i have to open your profile, find your recent posts, re-read them, etc and i have barely enough time for all this extra work i am giving myself as it is! **wonders why he does it... guesses he must love his job... dismisses this as a silly idea, decides he must just be mad**
And one last point to clarify- to phone technical support you do not have to be the account holder. We can do most things without having to clear Data Protection.

And now that i have found myself lots to do on monday... i'm going to bed

goodnight!

[Rone]

Thanks for the offer of assistance its much appreciated. I've sent you the deetz via pm.
They should give you a payrise imo, and asap.

[N1ch0l]

I live in Lincoln, and have had my modem randomly disconnect every so often for the past few days or so. The last time it happened, which was last night, I got a new IP. I was hoping it was the speed upgrade, but tests show it wasn't.

Personally, I don't bother with ntlworld's help line anymore. I can't be done with trying to explain my problem several times to someone who's passed a crash course on the internet.

[Mauldor]

MonkeyBreath - Im PM you me Address Page of my CM - though I def think its a local area problem as in Scuntorpe Region, I dont for example Grimsby or Nottingham have these probelm as they connect eventaully to the same Proxy etc.....

Its def Loosing COnnection (loosing Packets maybe) on router from the cable modem to the head end (ooh big words) - whatever it is, it does not disconnect your lights or generate any errors in the Cable Modem Itself. It has been fixed Twice now, so maybe if possible check the logs to see what work was carried out Scunthorpe way, this may well help..

Thanks for taking a look once again and if at all possible (not sure if NTl Allow this) but can you report on here what the actual problem was?

[Rone]

Mine just cut off for about 10 secs, then came back on, no reboot nothing.
Why did they have to screw up a good [if not perfect] connection.
First no gaming , then cruddy email, now no browsing.
I wonder if that still classes them as an isp.

[obvious]

Exactly the same problems here. Intermittent huge slowdowns or complete stalls when browsing, ftp, nntp and mail. Sometimes the cable modem lights will change but most often the modem remains 'active'.

Have had an 'engineer' out twice. The first one removed the attenuator without checking the dB levels. I asked him what the power levels should be and he said "no idea mate".

Guess what the second engineer did? He replaced the attenuator. I told him that the problem happened both with and without the attenuator and he said that perhaps the original problems were not with the cable modem but could be at the box or the head end.

So anyway, back to square one with dodgy intermittent service. dB at -3 (which is fine) and wondering when the extended reach adsl will finally come to the Neath exchange.

[Bubo]

Got back in today at about 8pm and cable light on modem was out. Its only just come back on. Hopefully they've had the thing off while they sort this problem. Not done anything to check dropouts yet but touch wood, theyve done something.

BTW how do you get these modem reports, db levels and such like as that?

[BootBlock]

Whatever NTL did, if anything, it seems to have fixed the problem for me. I suspect though that it somehow "fixed itself". Oh yeah - I noticed that it was working at 8pm; no idea when it did actually start working, though.

BTW how do you get these modem reports, db levels and such like as that?

Open up your browser and type in http://192.168.100.1 and then the modem info pages should appear. Although, to be honest, the Ambit (silver cable modem) pages are almost completely useless compared to the older Motorola SurfBoard, etc, modems. Gah.

Edit: Oh, the admin user/pass should be admin / admin. Not really sure.

[Mauldor]

Well I ran Tech Support, told them of the said fault, check my connection (all about 8pm) and crap as ever. Later on (about 10pm i think) i chnaged MAC address of Router again, tested connection and bugger me, worked 100% fine - now im guessing that indeed a tweak someone has been done though it got me thinking, what happens if my Mac address is the same (possible i guess) as someone else on the CM network? would it fail to get a IP or cause problems?

Here is hoping something has been done and is all well again but i also hope that MonkeyBreath etc maybe look into this problem on Monday even if sorted and find out what was wrong so we can Self Help next time for a quicker resolution to the problem. If its a piece of NTL equipment then fair do's not much we can do about this but if its another reason then we need to know....

[Bubo]

Yeah, can't emphasise anymore how important it is for us to know what is causing this particular fault given that it has happened 3 times now and each time seems to miraculously go away.

[nopcode]

What anoys me the most is that when it happens I call CS and they never sort it. Most common answers are "your pc is at fault" or "it will be fixed soon".
They just don't seem to realise that although I don't mind a net outage from time to time, its always at those times I can actually get 5 minutes to myself. I.E > the few times im not busy with day to day routine like work/sleep/g.f. It ALWAYS seems to be when i need to unwind and do a lil relaxing webcrawling/gaming/chatting that it messes up.

PS, and I hate being charged for recieving MSM remote messages on my mobile, when 4 or 5 people im chatting to, all send me msgs just as I go offline.

[Rone]

Monkeybreath also had a dig into my connection, and it seems there were 2 problems, i already had an engineers visit booked.
1: was a bad connection in the little brown box attached to the wall outside, the engineer said it had'nt been made to well, and was deteriorating a little.
2:i live in a small avenue, right on the end of the system, evidently boxes in the "middle" if you like, have a signal amplifier, my box does'nt and the signal at the box was low.
All i can say is the guy knew exactly what he was doing, he went about it very professionally, checking each bit in turn, and so far no cut offs, and the connection is certainly improved. I cannot say tho that all of us are going to have that same problem, but thanks to Monkeybreath for his time, and to the NTL guy for doing a good job.

[DrToxic]

I've had a very similar problem with my cable modem. A couple of days ago, I lost all the lights for well over 24hrs, so I called NTL and arranged for an engineer to come out. The engineer was due to come round Thursday between 12pm and 6pm, so I made sure I was around. Around about 3pm, all the lights came back on so, as this was the first time it had been working in over 24hrs, I assumed that the engineer had done something in the green box around the corner from my house. I used the connection for about a couple of hours and everything was fine. It got to around 5:50pm so I assumed the problem was solved and the engineer wasn't gonna come round to confirm what he had done and check everything was working (which wouldn't be the first time), so I popped round my mates next door. At 6:15, an I noticed an NTL van parked outside my house, so I ran out to catch him but unfortunately he drove off. I didn't think this would be a huge problem as everything had been working fine for a few hours. I popped back into my house to check that everything was still working and to my horror, the lights had gone out again

They did come back on after a few seconds, but ever since, every so often they'll go off for anything between 10 seconds and an hour and then they'll come back on again. Incidently, whenever the lights go off, my TV also goes off at exactly the same time. Is this happening to anyone else, or have I got a totally different problem