DSL connection woes...

[justinsn95]

My DSL connection is acting strange. It drifts in and out of functioning. Most of the time it does not work. Then, it will work for 5 minutes. Then it wont work for 3 hours. I have called AT&T about it many times, and 4 times they have sent someone out, and 4 times they have not fixed the problem. The first 2 times, they could not diagnose the problem because it decided to work while they were there. The other two times they messed around with stuff using their little ways to try to fix it. Then, it would drift back into functioning again, and they would think they had fixed it. I would tell them no, it was just working for the moment, and they would just be like "Well i really don't know what to do." How irritating.

I am not the only phone line box here. In fact, I tie into another phone line box as i live in a guest house behind a larger main house. Then internet at the main house works just fine and is very fast. I have two possible explanations, please tell me what you think of them.

1. Once i felt the bottom of my little black AT&T issued modem. It was almost hot enough to burn me. Is it dead or dying?

2. The underground line running from the main house's phone line box is jacked up somehow. Maybe a gopher or a mole chewed on it. But then why would it function sometimes? You would think if it was messed up in that way that it would stop functioning at all. And, this isn't just any old DSL/phone line. This stuff seems pretty tough. It is hard to even bend it all that much. If you had 4 inches of it in your hand, you would have a hard time bending it completely in half. It is the stuff with that black outer coating and the thick copper wires inside. If you looked at the very end of the line, it is in the shape of a rectangle. My modem is that little black standard issue with 1 lan port. Then numbers on it are as follows: Siemens Speedstream 4100-B. Part number 060R-D146-A10
The router is a Linksys wireless G Broadband router. Model WRT54GS V7 Serial number CGNC1GA70936.

I just have the line coming out of the wall going into the modem, then the router going into the modem's LAN cable port. Then my desktop's cable goes into one of the designated ports in the back of the router. Probly the only way it even can be done but i just thought i would mention it.

Any thoughts or opinions on what my problem could be? Any help would be great!

[Skidmark]

Plug a PC directly into the ATT modem and test it for a while, see if that helps. If so then your router could be taking a dump on you.

I leave my modem on 24/7 and it's only warm to the touch.

[Stevo]

Have AT&T dsl here also, it has never worked completely right in the 2.5 years that we have been here, or the 4 years for the last person that lived here. They replaced the line from the pole to the house, we replaced the line from the their box at the house to the computer, tried different modems, computers, etc, same shit. Random dsl drops, could have 5 a day, could be 50, might take 30 seconds to reconnect, might be 30 minutes. Really sucks while trying to play online games (playing WoW and being a main tank or healer in a 25 man raid :( ) Here pretty soon, will be telling AT&T to fuck off, and will be going the cable route.

Stevo

[Sean Park]

Skidmark made a solid suggestion, assuming that you have/are willing to install the general DSL software on your pc. The key factor here is that you mentioned using a Linksys 54GS with random drops. Have you logged in on your router to check status and and try to reconnect?

I have used Linksys for the last ten years, but when Cisco entered the picture and customer service went to the Phillipines... Given that they have been out four times to no avail begins to point the finger at your router. I had to deal with replacing my 54GX three times and upgrading firmware twice due to poor design to resolve a similar problem. On the same note, after updating the firmware and checking everything multiple times for my in-laws on their Linksys router, the same problem (for them with cable!) never went away. Trying to help resolve their issue, for the heck of it I sent them a "pricey" Trendnet router (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=201683081) to replace their Linksys to see if that would help isolate the problem, and low and behold, for $10 their cable has yet to drop again... To boot, if I recall correctly theirs was also the 54GS (though could have been G or GL).

So, you may want to waste $10 and give that a try, and it's always good to have a backup router on hand should a lightning bolt fry yours at 11:58 pm as you're trying to file your taxes online the last day.

Also, as Skidmark said, your Speedstream will get hot, stay hot, and be just fine hot. It sounds odd that the problem continues - if a swap for your router doesn't help alleviate the issue, you may want to inquire if they have swapped you over at the DSLAM, granted if it were an issue there your service would simple completely disappear rather than go on/off at random.

[Skidmark]

[QUOTE=Sean Park]Skidmark made a solid suggestion, assuming that you have/are willing to install the general DSL software on your pc. The key factor here is that you mentioned using a Linksys 54GS with random drops. Have you logged in on your router to check status and and try to reconnect?

I have used Linksys for the last ten years, but when Cisco entered the picture and customer service went to the Phillipines... Given that they have been out four times to no avail begins to point the finger at your router. I had to deal with replacing my 54GX three times and upgrading firmware twice due to poor design to resolve a similar problem. On the same note, after updating the firmware and checking everything multiple times for my in-laws on their Linksys router, the same problem (for them with cable!) never went away. Trying to help resolve their issue, for the heck of it I sent them a "pricey" Trendnet router (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=201683081) to replace their Linksys to see if that would help isolate the problem, and low and behold, for $10 their cable has yet to drop again... To boot, if I recall correctly theirs was also the 54GS (though could have been G or GL).

So, you may want to waste $10 and give that a try, and it's always good to have a backup router on hand should a lightning bolt fry yours at 11:58 pm as you're trying to file your taxes online the last day.

Also, as Skidmark said, your Speedstream will get hot, stay hot, and be just fine hot. It sounds odd that the problem continues - if a swap for your router doesn't help alleviate the issue, you may want to inquire if they have swapped you over at the DSLAM, granted if it were an issue there your service would simple completely disappear rather than go on/off at random.[/QUOTE]

You don't have to install the DSL software on your PC to run directly from modem to PC.

I believe the standard IP for setting up your connection is 192.168.0.1

So you'd connect your PC directly to the modem, give it a minute or so to recognize it, open up IE, type in the above IP address, log in using your email/pass, and you should be connected from there.

[justinsn95]

I am pretty sure that it is not the modem or the router because when the techs came out to fix it they would unplug both and plug their laptop up straight to the phone line coming out of the wall. They would then say that it wasn't "snyc-ing up" with the phone line box. Then they would go up the road to do god knows what. Then they would come back, and do more who knows what. Then the connection would drift back into working again as it so often does, and they would think they had fixed it and tell me "This wont happen again, as i have fixed it". Then it would happen again 2 or 3 minutes after they drove away. Seems to me like they have not the slightest clue as to what is going on.

[Rafa]

Tech must of not called center to see if card is actually bad at the RT. We either reboot card, or move to a new card. There is times that it is actual "inside wiring" issues.