Poor DSL, dropped connections, must constantly reset / login to modem

[ITPaladin]

I recently had to downgrade and change from my 6 mbt Comcast cable to this AT & T / SBC Yahoo DSL that is much cheaper and slower.

Once I get a large lump payment in June I can possibly get it back.

The modem is a Siemens 4100 Speedstream.

From day one I have had nothing but constant dropped connections. After several days of dealing with this, calling tech support, etc, I had them send me a replacement modem.

After a day it started dropping again.

The fix is to push the reset button, log into the modem, click connect, and it fixes itself usually for an hour or more, sometimes it will drop rarely in the next 30 minutes.

It seems to happen the most when I am playing my online EverQuest II.

I can stand around doing not much, but when I am just engaging or in a fight, it will drop.

I can recognize the symptoms quick enough now so it doesn't completely disconnect me from the game, and instead drops me to the character select screen, if I am quick enough to log into the modem page.

Rarely do I notice it has dropped while downloading torrents.

I have a theory that either the modem can't handle the load, or the line quality isn't good and it contributes to the inability to handle the load.

One of the tech support people said that a speed test showed good, but my test at Broadbandreports.com showed a MAX over all the locations tested in the 300s up AND down!

He tried to blame my computer. Yep that's the way to solve the problem. Blame the customer's computer. I even humored them when they said to move it farther from the computer to rule out interference. I have had the cable modem right next to the computer with no problems. You can only move it so far with the length of the cables given anyway.

The replacement modem didn't come with replacement cables though...go figure.

On all those tests it always said I was ~80% worse than the average PacBell.net user.

This is extremely annoying. Just last month using cable I would NEVER go LD (link dead).

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

 

[bruceb]

The first question is How Many DSL Filters are in use ? ? ... Any more than 5 or so will degrade the DSL Signal as it runs at 10Mhz
Second, I would call SBC & have them send out a tech to Test the DSL Speed at the point where the telephone line enters the home.
If the speed is correct at that point, then have the SBC Tech install a Whole House DSL Filter & remove your individual tel set filters.
If you do this, you will need to run a new direct wire from the DSL Modem to where the DSL Filter is installed

It will get wired same as a normal RJ11 Telephone jack ... use normal pinouts & the RED / GREEN
Guaranteed, you will have much better dsl service

 

[ITPaladin]

Hm I suspect that would be a whopping extra charge to have a tech come out to do that.
There is only one line here so one filter. All is installed as directed.

 

[bruceb]

You can buy the Filter yourself for about $40 US .. it is easily installed ... as to the cost to the the Telco come out,
well, you are having a Problem .... DSL is not something the homeowner can TEST where it comes into the house
The telco tech has a special test set (about $1000) that connects to the line & measure Freq, Signal Level, Data Speed
among other things ... and most telcos Will not bill you if they send out a tech & the problem is Theirs
Telcos do not like to install those filters, as the Individual ones are Dirt Cheap for them (.25 cents maybe) & they have
to send a tech (nowadays business just wants to sell a product & not install it for you ... or fix it) ... but they are
responsible ... call them

Let us know

 

[tweekah]

Sounds like your looplength is near 18k feet, and you are capped at 384/384 (sync) due to that limitation. You should be able to login to your modem and look at the signal stats (dB readings, sync rates), correct me if I am wrong. If you are getting single digit dB readings on the downstream, you are in trouble. 6dB is the required min and with fluctuations you will have problems.

Unless they have a remote terminal in your area, sounds like you are SOL. Bruce is right, they will send a tech out to test at the MPOE to make sure you signal is good up to there. However, from that point into your property, is your responsibility. So if there is a short/shotty wiring, they will charge you if they have to fix that. Good luck let us know how it goes.

 

[ITPaladin]

I never read the whole contract, but I assume there is nothing in it to release me from the 1 year term if the service doesn't stand up to being near the 1 mbt down / stable connection I should receive.

I haven't been playing in a day and half. It hasn't cut out. Interesting eh? Like I said, I think it has to do with either or both line quality / data load streaming.

Just downloading stuff isn't as intense as all the data going in and out during a game.

I will give them a call and check on that service but I can't even afford $40 right now.

BTW, I already knew I was near the CO from Broadbandreports:

YEP!, your CO is wired for DSL from one or more DSL networks.
Since you appear to be living less than 18000 feet from the CO, you should be able to find DSL service from the options below.

My Address
Phone: My Phone

about 3130 feet

Wire center (CO)
FRSNCA11

 

[bruceb]

If in fact you ar only 3200 feet away from the co ... definitely call the telco
and tell them to get the POS service fixed ... I am near the end of the limit
here in NJ at around 16000 Feet or so & I get 1.8MBS Download from Verizon
DSL

 

[GeekDrew]

Have you checked your signal strength, etc? Many modems will give you those numbers from their admin interface.

 

[ITPaladin]

I wouldn't know what it would be called among all that electronics techno babble.

 

[ITPaladin]

Had a tech come out to test the lines up to the box outside my home.

They said it tested ok.

She suggested I run a line from the box into the house bypassing the internal wiring to test it for a while.

I went out and spent $9 on a 50ft cord and experienced the same disconnects while playing.

I broke down and bought a Linksys NIC for $20, disabled the onboard LAN, and am now trying through the NIC.

I haven't had much time in the past 16 hours to stress test it yet in-game.

It has stayed on so far with normal browsing and downloads.

My question to them would be...but how can you measure intermittent disconnects just by a one-time visit?

 

[camara120]

I hope you didnt buy a 50ft RJ11 cord. Regular telephone cords pick up a lot of noise and are really bad for the DSL.

I would run a short cable from the box to the DSL modem and then run 50ft of ethernet cable from the modem to the computer.

And you cant measure intermittent disconnects with a one-time visit. Intermittent problems are a PITA.

 

[bruceb]

Also, when you ran the wire Direct to the Telco Line, did you disconnect
the Wiring to the rest of the Home ? ? ... If you did not, then the DSL
Filters were still bridged onto the line

When the telco tech came out, did they Measure both the Speed
and the db Level of the Data Signal (10 Mhz) ? ?

How long did the tech check the speed ? ?
If this is intermittent, they should monitor it for about 1hr or so

Also go into your DSL Modem / Router Main Menu ... there is
a submenu in there (where depends on the brand) which has
a Connection Log ... in that log it will tell you When it Failed
and if you look at it, you can see Why it failed ... it also records
the Signal Level

 

[ITPaladin]

I connected the filter into the box, and then the phone line into the filter into the house to the modem.

The only difference in this setup that I can see is that the wiring is outside of the wall.

This current setup prevents me from receiving calls (not like anyone ever calls for ME...just stupid hangs ups, sales, wrong numbers....) but it is a test setup.

I bought the regular phone wire from Radio Shack.

I have no idea what the tech did on their visit.

I would think 50ft of ethernet would be much more expensive with my limited budget

Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can stress test this online.

I hope there is a poor service clause in the contract to release me if this continues.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
I connected the filter into the box, and then the phone line into the filter into the house to the modem.

you have a filter right before your DSL modem? remove it, and smack yourself firmly on the forehead!

 

[AlgaeEater]

This problem may or may not be solved, but I'll just post for the search archives.

SBC Yahoo DSL was rock solid until they went into the merger. Now they're transitioning into god knows what, and stability isn't their strong point at the moment. From what I've heard over and seen over at DSLreports.com, a lot of people are having problems at the moment.

I was in the same boat as you about the start of last week. My connection (which was working fine for the last 3 years) suddenly started crapping out left and right and had all of the same symptoms.

After various hardware replacement, I found out it wasn't really my fault at all. It seems my local CO was having an outage, and they decided to keep it under reps from everyone that was affected. At first, I didn't want to believe it, but soon I did. I asked neighbors and local businesses who had DSL connections with AT&T if they were experencing problems as of late, and they all said they were. I even invited some to use MSN messenger chat, and we all got disconnected at the same time.

The point of the entire post right now however is that it's a bad time to join up for service, especially if you're new. Techs are busy around the clocking fixing up things and making sure the horde of people who just signed up for Elite (Upgrade from Pro) get their lines rebuilt.

I'm just happy that my area is somewhat stablized after the headache that was last week. But I wouldn't be surprised if more trouble comes my way or yours.

 

[buzaza]

Originally posted by: AlgaeEater
This problem may or may not be solved, but I'll just post for the search archives.

SBC Yahoo DSL was rock solid until they went into the merger. Now they're transitioning into god knows what, and stability isn't their strong point at the moment. From what I've heard over and seen over at DSLreports.com, a lot of people are having problems at the moment.

I was in the same boat as you about the start of last week. My connection (which was working fine for the last 3 years) suddenly started crapping out left and right and had all of the same symptoms.

After various hardware replacement, I found out it wasn't really my fault at all. It seems my local CO was having an outage, and they decided to keep it under reps from everyone that was affected. At first, I didn't want to believe it, but soon I did. I asked neighbors and local businesses who had DSL connections with AT&T if they were experencing problems as of late, and they all said they were. I even invited some to use MSN messenger chat, and we all got disconnected at the same time.

The point of the entire post right now however is that it's a bad time to join up for service, especially if you're new. Techs are busy around the clocking fixing up things and making sure the horde of people who just signed up for Elite (Upgrade from Pro) get their lines rebuilt.

I'm just happy that my area is somewhat stablized after the headache that was last week. But I wouldn't be surprised if more trouble comes my way or yours.

I am having the same problems with AT&T Yahoo DSL here in the bay area, Califnoria. I have been with SBC Yahoo DSL for couple years now and the connection was pretty stable until about two weeks ago. I have been having frequent connection droppings and had to reboot my router and modem several times a day to get a connection before losing it again and the whole cycle starts again. I called their tech support number and they routed me to India and the guy told me he opened up a trouble ticket for my problem and local support staff will call me, but I never got a call from them. It has been extremely frustrating with SBC/AT&T Yahoo DSL lately.

 

[Harvey]

I'm on SBC DSL, and I almost always get good tech support. In those few times when I thought the tech wasn't up to the problem, I just asked for a supervisor.

If the phone wiring in home is older, it could be the cause of your problems. If you can replace it with new wiring directly back to the box where the phone line comes in, it may clean up the signal.

I did that in my previous location, and it cleaned up my DSL and my phone lines. If that's not practical, or you don't know how to do it, you may have to have your local telco tech come out to check your signal quality at the box and at your computer location in the house.

Good luck.

 

[ITPaladin]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
I connected the filter into the box, and then the phone line into the filter into the house to the modem.

you have a filter right before your DSL modem? remove it, and smack yourself firmly on the forehead!

Not sure what this means but that's the way you are supposed to install it.

Phone jack>filter>DSL & Phone line.

I spent $9 on a 50ft phone cord from a closing Radio Shack down the street, and when that didn't seem to work, I spent $20 on a new Linksys NIC, disabling my onboard NIC.

I have had a decrease in "Link Deaths" in the game, but who knows if that is just coincedence if it is true about SBC's problem.

Just the other day I did have about 4 LD's within an hour or two.

This was very annoying while in the middle of the game. I mentioned to my group mates in-game that I thought this crap was fixed but I guess not...

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
I connected the filter into the box, and then the phone line into the filter into the house to the modem.

you have a filter right before your DSL modem? remove it, and smack yourself firmly on the forehead!

Not sure what this means but that's the way you are supposed to install it.

Phone jack>filter>DSL & Phone line.

I spent $9 on a 50ft phone cord from a closing Radio Shack down the street, and when that didn't seem to work, I spent $20 on a new Linksys NIC, disabling my onboard NIC.

I have had a decrease in "Link Deaths" in the game, but who knows if that is just coincedence if it is true about SBC's problem.

Just the other day I did have about 4 LD's within an hour or two.

This was very annoying while in the middle of the game. I mentioned to my group mates in-game that I thought this crap was fixed but I guess not...

I must admit this, I only skimmed the responses in this page.

But my suggestion is this:

Log into your router. Check out the WAN Status page (should be something similar to that) and then check out the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio)... For DSL it should be at least 6/6... If this number drops below 6 on either the receive or sending end, it can and will reset your router. It loses the link and causes your router to freak and reconnect.

The only way for them to improve the quality of your connect is to either work on the outside lines or to drop your service speed. Say for instance you are at 1.5 mbits down and 768 up, and had an SNR is 15/6, then lowering the upstream to say, 640kb or 512 kb will raise SNR to something like 15/8 or 9, which will result in a more reliable connection, but slightly slower upload speeds, since upload seems to be the connect link problem in the scenario above.

 

[ITPaladin]

I can't find anything about an SNR on any page of the modem:

Connection Information



DSL UP
Connection UP
User ID xxxxxxx
Connected at 1536 Kbps (downstream)
384 Kbps (upstream)
IP Address xxxxxx
IP Gateway xxxxx
DNS Servers xxxxxx
xxxxx
Mode PPP on the modem (Public IP for LAN device)
Timeout Never
Modem Information
Modem Name SpeedStream
Model 4100
Serial Number xxxxxxxx
Software Version 1.0.0.53
MAC Address xxxxxxxx
First Use Date 2006/05/11 19:11:31 GMT
Local Network
Modem IP Address 192.168.0.1
Ethernet Status Connected

and....another page...(pardon the lack of table formatting from copy/paste)

Statistics

ADSL Information

Line State UP
Modulation ANSI
Data Path fast

To Modem To Internet
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 1536 384
SN Margin (dB) 23.5 -
Line Attenuation (dB) 29.5 -
Loss of Signal 0 -
Loss of Frame 0 0
CRC Errors 1 2


ATM Information

VPI / VCI 0 / 35
Protocol PPPoE

In Octets 1438044
In Errors 0
In Unicast Packets 2629
In Non Unicast Packets 0
In Discard Packets 0

Out Octets 337611
Out Errors 0
Out Unicast Packets 2130
Out Non Unicast Packets 0
Out Discard Packets 374


PPPoE Information

Session Status UP
Server MAC Address -
Session ID 42141


IP Information

Internet Address xxxx
Internet Gateway xxxx
DNS Servers xxxx
xxx


IP Interfaces

Address Netmask Name
192.168.0.1 255.255.0.0 eth0


Routing Table
Destination Netmask Gateway Interface
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 lo0
192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.0.1 LAN
Default Gateway - xxxxxx PPPoE
xxxxx 255.255.255.255 xxxx LAN


LAN Information

Modem IP Address 192.168.0.1
Modem NetMask 255.255.0.0
DHCP Address 192.168.1.64


Devices on LAN

IP Address MAC Address Name Status
xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxx active


Ethernet Information

MAC Address xxxxxxxxxx

In Octets 380298
In Errors 0
In Unicast Packets 2995
In Non Unicast Packets 41
In Discard Packets 0

Out Octets 1865835
Out Errors 0
Out Unicast Packets 3388
Out Non Unicast Packets 18
Out Discard Packets 11

There is a long technician readout page as well with no SNR on it.

It just cut out on me a few minutes ago. The problem is when it does this you MUST reset the modem in order to log into see these pages, thus clearing the present problem.

 

[ArchAngel777]

To Modem To Internet
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 1536 384
SN Margin (dB) 23.5 -
Line Attenuation (dB) 29.5 -
Loss of Signal 0 -
Loss of Frame 0 0
CRC Errors 1 2

This is the important information. SN Margin and Line Attenuation seem just fine. However, since you checked this after the problem, we are not getting a feel for how many CRC Errors you are getting.

Do this: Periodicly check that stats page every hour or something and report the differences and what not. Your SN Margin will drop significantly and can give us a clue as well as your CRC Errors.

If all of those settings seem pretty consistant over the course of a few hours and the CRC errors remain low (relative term, I know...) then I would point the finger at a faulty modem or filter or something like that. But since you replace the modem already, I doubt that is the problem. You could try another filter for your phone lines or you could try and unplug all the devices in your house that are using a phone line (just for testing purposes) and then just use the modem only and see if you still have issues. That would help pinpoint the problem.

 

[ITPaladin]

ok found this part in the long list that I didn't paste due to its length:


Rx Tx
140 Current Rate 1536 384
141 Previous Rate 0 0
142 DSL Max Rate - -
143 DSL Min Rate - -
144 Current ATTN DR 1536 -
145 Current SNRM 23.5 17.0


Like I said it doesn't seem to be as often as it used to be. Who knows if it has something to do with bypassing the internal house wiring + new NIC or SBC / ATT Yahoo doing stuff.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
ok found this part in the long list that I didn't paste due to its length:


Rx Tx
140 Current Rate 1536 384
141 Previous Rate 0 0
142 DSL Max Rate - -
143 DSL Min Rate - -
144 Current ATTN DR 1536 -
145 Current SNRM 23.5 17.0


Like I said it doesn't seem to be as often as it used to be. Who knows if it has something to do with bypassing the internal house wiring + new NIC or SBC / ATT Yahoo doing stuff.

Those numbers are good.

 

[ITPaladin]

Well of the few times I remembered to look at the page over time, the numbers never changed.

When it goes down, I can't even refresh the page. No access to the modem page is available until I reset the modem.

Worse service ever.

You would think you could at least gain access to the modem without resetting it.

 

[TrueBlueLS]

Any update on this? I've been having some horrible service with SBC over the past 5 days.