Random Account Suspension

[nickthegun]

Hi Guys,

Apologies If this is a dupe thread (ive searched and am fairly sure its not). I posted my tail of woe on the DVD Reviewer forum and the helpful chappies there said that you guys are the best people to talk to, so here I am. Anyway.....

Apologies for the length, but im going to cut and paste my other posts:

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Last night I unplugged my NTL cable modem to try and make some sense of the ever growing pile of black spaghetti round the back of my PC.

When I plugged it back in the network connection tried to go through the 'Obtaining IP Address' sequence from the modem, but it couldnt get one.

It said 'Your Connection may be faulty or not working' (or something like that, I cant be sure, that was at home and Im now at work).

The lights on the modem are on (synch, usb (and ive tried ethernet) and the other one) and seems to be working fine. Ive plugged the modem back in and everything was the same as before. Except this time it doesnt seem to be assigning a DNS suffix or an IP address.

WTF is going on?

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Advice from reviewer forumites
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Ive tried the repair option to no avail. Also tried the ethernet option too.

The repair option fails to get an assigned IP address from the modem and quits.

Thats the thing. By all rights it *should* be working. No settings have changed, all the lights are on on the modem. All that happened is that I unplugged the power on the modem. Ive got a feeling that the modem has got lost, or something, from the main NTL network.

Of course this all happened, after 8 oclock so I couldnt ring NTL and ask them 'Is my modem buggered?'.
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Advice from forum members
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Well, I went through all the technical jiggery pokery that the help line could give me to no avail. The final tip was to call the MS helpline at 50p a minute.....

So ive spent all weekend backing up my HDD onto 40 DVDs and preparing to to a re-install of XP.

Its f***ing annoying. I think a network protocol has become corrupt somewhere because even when I unplug the modem and do ipconfig it still shows

Connection specific DNS suffix: [nothing!]
IP Address: 169.254.93.173
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway: [Nothing again!]

Even when I release and the IP address resets itself, as soon as it makes contact with the modem, it assigns itself this number, even when the f***ing modem isnt plugged in. And it wont assign a DNS suffix even when I flushDNS and registerDNS.

If any of you guys could actually help me before I get home and have to go through the full palava of re-installing, that would be sweet.
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Advice from forum members
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I have actually found something which seems fairly useful on the internet. If this doesnt work, watch out for low flying cable modems in the oxford area.

*Pasted loads of stuff on how to troubleshoot a 169.***.***.*** IP address*

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Advice from forum members
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I am still pretty much lost for words.......

After trying everything in the above post last night I was litterally a pubic hair away from beating my cable modem with a hammer. So at 7.50pm I called the helpline (again)

Me: 'look, ive tried everything....ive checked the network settings, ive done connection tests, ive even reinstalled f***ing windows. Why, in the name of god, why wont the damn thing work?'

Indian Tech Support: 'Because youre account has been suspended. I dont know why, so you need to call customer services to get it reinstated. It is now after 8 oclock so you need to do it in the morning'

Me: Why the f*** didnt you tell me that the last time I rang, rather than getting me to do loads of connection tests?

Indian Tech Support: I have no control over what my colleagues do sir. Can I help you with anything else?

Me: *SLAM*

So i called NTL this morning to ask them why my account had been suspended. The woman had absolutely no idea why as there were no outstanding debts or issues with the account. So she un-suspended it and it was working within litterally seconds. I was so angry, as a gesture of goodwill she cancelled my BB bill for this month.

So the moral of this story is, next time anyone asks 'WTF? MY NTL BB IS TEH BROKEN!!1' before suggesting any tech advice, ask them to call customer services to check if they are sat there with their fingers up their ****s.

So now im stuck with the thankless task of re-installing all my programs and files from the 40 backup DVDs I took at the weekend......f***ing people.........

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Advice to come here and ask help
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(once again, apologies for length of post)

So dear people, has anyone any idea why my account may have been suspended? I average around 20-25gig a month, so im not going over my limit and everything was fine until I unplugged my modem.

Since I dont go over the limit, last night I was kind of freaking out that the BPI had got hold of NTL and said 'nickthegun is a copyright thief!', since I do dload the odd MP3 from soulseek. Have NTL been approached by the BPI yet? Should I be worried?

And finally (phew) to be fair the lady on the phone was lovely and sorted it out quick smart, so I have no complaints there. But the tech support line was awful.

I just need any help so I can avoid this happening in future.

Thanks in advance

Nick

[Chris W]

moving to billing discussion forum
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Accounts are normally suspended due to billing problems, so i assume that everything there is upto date? I did hear recently that a number of accounts have been suspended in error, but i'm not sure whether this is still an issue.

With regard to preventing the issue in the future- if you lose either the SYNC or RDY lights on the modem (or both) then the problem is with the modem's connection to the network, not the pc. So if you need to ring tech support, make sure they know those lights are off and they should be able to either advise you of an account problem, or get an engineer booked as appropriate.

If you service is suspended, you will see SYNC on solid, and RDY flashing

[HD462]

Hi Nick,

Nice to see you got here. I'm sure the good people on here will be able to help you out (I know the damage has already been done).

I've just filled the contact form for NTL in on here, as you've just jogged my memory that I need to contact them about our TV bill (or lack of one for the last 4 months). Even though they've been taking the money from my bank every month.

Hope you get it sorted.

[Paul K]

Maybe you upset your modem with the sheer number of asterisks you use in communications lol
There is a post in the BB support area about troubleshooting 169. addresses but if it is due to an account suspension you would never find out unless you call CS. Running through the suggestions in the article though would help you discard the usual suspects which cause the problem before calling CS to look at other causes. At least that way you would have a headstart and might be able to steer CS into trying something else or looking further into the issue. Swearing at them rarely helps though I must admit

[nickthegun]

Yes, everything was up to date. I pay everything by DD and there is always plenty of cash in my billing account. Im one of those people NTL must love. Ive got all their services, pay by DD and never change my package unless its changed for me.


Must be one of those random occurances. Incredibly frustrating though!

So its not because the BPI SWAT team are going to be breaking down my door?

I suppose in a glass half full kind of way, ive got a full back up of my HDD, a free months Broadband and, in the last week, I spent a bit more time with the mrs

[Chris W]

If you modem had been suspended by the Acceptable Use department you would have had a letter from them, and getting it unsuspended would have been a lot more of a challenge!

[nickthegun]

Heh asterisks are the last refuge of the foul mouthed!

And, to be fair, I only used one swear in my whole communication with them. Which was after the first tech support person failed to notice the, presumably, important detail that my account was suspended!!!

Throughout the whole process it never occured to me that my account had been suspended as, like I said, it was working fine until I unplugged the modem and I pay all my bills on time.

And yeah, the 169 thread should probably be updated to include 'your account may have been suspended' as this may have saved at least a smidgen of fannying around

[BarFly]

Strange you got a 169ip, from being suspended, you would normally get a normal ip but ending above 248 eg 81.xxx.xxx.251ip, or the synch light would be flashing on your Cm depending how theyve removed it... this is what probably confused the first the agent, just guessing, as to why he/she didnt pick up the suspension, though it is written in bloody big writing on 1 or 2 databases he/she should have been checking...

glad its all working, & atleast its raining this weekend, so u wont miss the sunshine whislt reinstaling all those DVD's.

[nickthegun]

Raining this weekend?!?!?

I hope not! Im getting married on sunday!!!

(which is one of the reasons i was so desperate to get it working again. Ive got a honeymoon to research, wedding list to check and people to email!!)

[punky]

Congrats mate Best of luck for the weekend and thereafter.

[BarFly]

congrats & good luck for the weekend then...

[nickthegun]

Cheers Chaps!

[Chrysalis]

congrats on the wedding.

[nickthegun]

Follow up

An incredibly nice chap just called me from NTL to further explain the cause of the problem.

In summary: They havent been charging me for broadband for months and months so when I unplugged my modem for the first time in about a year, when it made a request for an IP address, the system flagged it up as a 'Hey whats going on here?' moment and cut the service (at least thats what I understood, i was at work and I keep getting bombarded!).

So in addition to the credit thats been put on my account, I havent paid for broadband for god knows how long.

Im going to dig out the bank statements when I get home and have try and work out just how long. You know what its like. The mrs handles the bank statements. I just put money in at the end of the month. She just sees NTL on the statement (presumably for the phone) and thinks everything is hunky dory.

Anyway, I have to give a thumbs up to the CS department on this one as, once the problem was identified, they have rallied and given me a more than satisfactory resolution. Very courteous and helpful. And the manager type guy even gave me his direct dial incase of any other problems A rareity!

Hopefully this issue will filter through to the tech support incase anyone gets this in the future.

So thanks to all who have helped me out over this especially Simon M and HD.

Cheers!

[Jules]

Glad you got it sorted and good luck for the wedding on Sunday