Internet trouble...

[aintnothang]

I'll be searching the internet, then all of a sudden my dsl needs to acquire a network address and it will do this for maybe 20secs-1 min. This stops all my downloads, and my searching. any suggestions.

[Needsleep]

your helpdesk request has been noted but we will need further details to begin diagnosis :D

please describe your setup - hardware/software and isp, will help us tonnes right now. It could be anything from a faulty cable or a problem with your router or issues at your DP, or...well.. anything, hell i've seen people wiggling their feet under the desk causing network dropouts.

also, are the problems regular or random, how often do you drop out, once a min or once an hour.....does it happen at certain times of the day or all day,

i'm sure between 'us' (everyone here) the problem will get sorted but you have kinda done the IT equivalent of walking into the doctors and saying "I hurt. Any suggestions doc?" :)

[aintnothang]

I have a speed stream modem which then goes to my switch. From the switch it goes to my computer, ps3, and ps2. My isp is just a local provider. It happens at any time just random. Maybe I need tot check my cable...

[Cannibal23]

make sure all cables are seccure first. most likely they are but check anyways. if the switch and modem is in sight of your computer then the next time it fails look at the lights on the front of them. tell us what lights are on or flashing on the modem. it could be your modem or switch is rebooting for whatever reason. if you can deal with your ps3 and ps2 being disconnected from the net for a while, remove the switch from your setup and plug directly into the modem. see if the problem still happens. if so then we know the switch isnt the issue. beyond that or the cables it could be a bad driver or a failing network card in your pc. do you have the most recent drivers for your network card installed?

[Needsleep]

you reset your modem/switch since the trouble started? may be worth a shot, failing that......

next time your conection drops out see if you can ping google from command prompt;

in case that's jibberish follow these steps

start-> run -> enter "cmd" and hit enter -> at command prompt type "ping google.com" then hit enter

you'll probably fail to make a connection but it's worth a shot, if ping fails, at command prompt type

"tracert google.com" then hit enter

and you will see where you connection breaks down, from ip addresses you should be able to establish where that is

from past experience if my i-net drops out randomly for random amounts of time its an issue ISP or between my home and the 'www' not inside my home. if that is the caese, I'd contact them and see if they know of any problems,(some even have a website to announce it which is a fat lot of good if you cant get on the net!) Often they dont know there is a problem till someone tells them :)

hope that helps :)

[Crazy Buddhist]

It sounds like you are losing dsl connectivity so a hardware fault somewhere along the line between the exchange and the modem or a fault with your modem is the likeliest problem. Could be some engineer in the telephone exchange kicked the head-end modem and there's a lose wire there. I'd also ask your ISP/telephone provider to investigate as well as checking that all the internal wiring to your house is good.

:)

[Luke122]

DSL connectivity can be dropped by interference on the phone line also. If you have any other phones connected to that line, try to unplug them temporarily and see if that solves your disconnection issue. Cordless phones can cause troubles too.

Do you have a router, or just a switch?

[aintnothang]

So I checked the cables, they're fine. I'll try to see what lights are on when it fails next time. I also do have cordless phones. They also did fix my phone line a while ago...

[aintnothang]

dsl light=on
act=blinking
enet=on
this when the problem was occuring.

[aintnothang]

you reset your modem/switch since the trouble started? may be worth a shot, failing that......

next time your conection drops out see if you can ping google from command prompt;

in case that's jibberish follow these steps

start-> run -> enter "cmd" and hit enter -> at command prompt type "ping google.com" then hit enter

you'll probably fail to make a connection but it's worth a shot, if ping fails, at command prompt type

"tracert google.com" then hit enter

and you will see where you connection breaks down, from ip addresses you should be able to establish where that is

from past experience if my i-net drops out randomly for random amounts of time its an issue ISP or between my home and the 'www' not inside my home. if that is the caese, I'd contact them and see if they know of any problems,(some even have a website to announce it which is a fat lot of good if you cant get on the net!) Often they dont know there is a problem till someone tells them :)

hope that helps :)

This is also going to be hard to do since it happens for only about 30 seconds on average unexpectedly. I might run out of time.

[billygoat333]

i agree about connecting to the modem directly, if your act light is flashing it means its connected to the switch. could be a bad switch, or again, dsl is pretty touchy with other phone calls and such. The only way i would use dsl is with a separate line ( had dsl and phone service on same line using filters, and internet was always down and the quality on the phone sucked. ) that could have been ****ty service too... gotta love qwest :P

[aintnothang]

I have a dsl filter on one phone jack, but not the other 3....maybe this is the reason?

[Crazy Buddhist]

I have a dsl filter on one phone jack, but not the other 3....maybe this is the reason?

In the sense that anytime anyone picks up one of the other three phones your dsl will drop out it could be a contributing factor.

[OvRiDe]

I have a dsl filter on one phone jack, but not the other 3....maybe this is the reason?

The DSL filters are to filter out the DSL sound on the other phones, by not having them they shouldn't interfere with the DSL itself. They are to cut the high pitch whine out so you don't have to hear it while talking on the phones. That being said it still could be related to filters. I have had almost the EXACT same problem on a couple of occasions. In one case it was a filter that had gone bad and was shorting the line so I would get sporatic disconnects frequently, this included phone service as well. The other time was moisture got into the connections at the box, when the phone was picked up the load was increased and it would start shorting, causing the DSL to disconnect, then later the line would start to crackle.

I don't know if this is the same in your case but I hope it can shed some light on your situation.

[Crazy Buddhist]

The DSL filters are to filter out the DSL sound on the other phones, by not having them they shouldn't interfere with the DSL itself.


... err except as I said above in that every time someone picks up one of the other phones it can cause the dsl to drop. the filter is a splitter that splits off the dsl frequencies to the dsl jack and the phone frequencies to the phone jack.

Not having splitters on all extensions can cause exactly this problem but it's easy to test for. Go pick up the phone that doesn't have a splitter and see if your dsl drops or not.

:)

[Eclecticos]

Limit your upload to 15kbps. If your not uploading you may want download less at the same time.

[OvRiDe]

... err except as I said above in that every time someone picks up one of the other phones it can cause the dsl to drop. the filter is a splitter that splits off the dsl frequencies to the dsl jack and the phone frequencies to the phone jack.

Not having splitters on all extensions can cause exactly this problem but it's easy to test for. Go pick up the phone that doesn't have a splitter and see if your dsl drops or not.

:)

Not to start a flame war or anything but my DSL filters are inline and not splitters, but I do know they make them so you can have a phone at the same jack as your DSL modem.

http://www.king-cart.com/store/byterunner/dsl-filter.jpg

I did some more looking into DSL Filters and apparently they filter both ways. So not only do they filter out the DSL signals from the phones, they also filter out any interference that can be caused by the analog telephone. A pretty good sum up can be found on Wikipedia...


A DSL filter is an analog low-pass filter installed on telephones and other analog devices to prevent interference between such devices and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service operating on the same line. Without the installation of DSL filters, high-frequency signals or echoes from analog devices can result in reduced performance and connection problems with DSL service, and the high-frequency signals from the DSL service can result in line noise and other issues for analog devices.

So CB is right, the problem can be and most likely is the fact that the other lines do not have filters on them.

[OvRiDe]

Sorry ... Double post.. admin please delete..

[Crazy Buddhist]

Not to start a flame war or anything but my DSL filters are inline and not splitters, but I do know they make them so you can have a phone at the same jack as your DSL modem.

...

...

So CB is right, the problem can be and most likely is the fact that the other lines do not have filters on them.

Point is that even inline filters are still signal splitters .. that type just split the signal out for the phone and don't have a dsl output. Usually one has only one dsl device on a line but often more than one phone. You can split the incoming signal at the door and have the whole phone loop on one splitter.

:)

[aintnothang]

I have a bunch of inline splitters so I'm going to put these on the rest of the lines once I find them...

[OvRiDe]

Point is that even inline filters are still signal splitters .. that type just split the signal out for the phone and don't have a dsl output. Usually one has only one dsl device on a line but often more than one phone. You can split the incoming signal at the door and have the whole phone loop on one splitter.

:)

Look I said you were right, but now that you are saying that filters and splitters are the same. They are not.
A DSL "Splitter" is still an inline filter. The line is split, and then one side is run through the inline filter, whereas the other is unfiltered in order to go to the DSL Modem. So if you have an inline DSL Filter it is not "splitting" the signal at all, its just filtering out the the specified frequencies.


You can split the incoming signal at the door and have the whole phone loop on one splitter.

This is how I am currently setup. They took the line that was going to my office and installed an inline filter on it at the box. The only downside to this, is if you want to move your DSL modem to another room, you will have to rewire at the box. Also if you want to have a phone at the jack your DSL modem is plugged into, you will still need an inline filter there as well.


I have a bunch of inline splitters so I'm going to put these on the rest of the lines once I find them...

Good deal, let us know how it turns out!

[OvRiDe]

WTF.. All of a sudden it keeps double posting.

[Cannibal23]

if its happening for such a short period of time it is likely one of your devices rebooting. i used to have the same issue with my router. you could set up a serises of pings and leave them running.
like this

click start - run type in "cmd" click ok
you will get a little black box. in the black box type "ping" followed by a space and then your routers ip address followed by -t the -t will make this ping continue untill you press control C to stop it. if you set up a ping to your router and a ping to your routers internet gateway and maybe to another web site in 3 seperate cmd boxes you will see where you can reach to and pin point the cut off the very next time your at your pc and it drops.

[Crazy Buddhist]

if its happening for such a short period of time it is likely one of your devices rebooting. i used to have the same issue with my router. you could set up a serises of pings and leave them running.
like this ...

Good plan + Rep. It's his phones though. This would show what part of the network they were disturbing lol

Generally speaking this is a good tip for tracing certain types of internet issue.

:)

[aintnothang]

The inline filter thingies fixed it! Thanks for all the help.

[Crazy Buddhist]

The inline filter thingies fixed it! Thanks for all the help.

Told ya :P

[billygoat333]

yay! glad it worked!