Broadband (ADSL2+) dropouts

[Blue Velvet]

Sorry if I don't reply to this or any questions straight away, but the Mac's a bit crippled right now. I've composed this post in TextEdit and am posting it when I can keep an internet connection up for longer than a couple of minutes.

Over the past few months, I've suffered increasingly longer dropouts on my ADSL line. At first, they'd just be for a couple of seconds, then maybe 30 seconds or longer… but we're now at a point where I can't stay connected for longer than a minute or two without having to reboot the router. This is causing tremendous problems with freelance-related work right now, but I'd just like to troubleshoot a few things before contacting my ISP or spending money on something that may not fix the issue.

Currently:

• Not using wifi although I own an Airport Extreme and some Expresses
• MBP 2.33 Santa Rosa, OS X 10.7.1
• Connected by long ethernet cable to router
• Netgear ADSL Modem/Router DG834 v2 (recently upgraded the firmware with little improvement)
• Usual phone/ADSL filter (quite an old one) cables between phone socket and gear no longer than 2-3 feet

So, when it cuts out I get three green lights in Network Diagnostics:
• Ethernet
• Network Settings
• ISP

And two yellow, often turning to red lights, for:
• Internet
• Server

I don't think the line hasn't been the same since it was upgraded to ADSL2+ some years ago, same ISP, but I'm not sure if it all happened at the same time so far. Things I've tried so far:

• Using ethernet cable instead of wifi, in case of interference. No change.
• Upgrading router firmware
• Removing long extension phone cable from wall socket to router and moving router next to phone socket. Some improvement, but it's hard to tell at this early stage whether it's going to last.

Also, one possible solution may lie in this article.

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2007/10/22/zen_ar7_infineon_bt_fault/

I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could lay out some more troubleshooting tips that I could follow to sort this out or at least narrow down the problem. I may not respond straight away as this is my only internet connection right now and it's obviously screwed.

Thanks in advance for any help.

BV

 

[r.j.s]

BV,

Honestly, it sounds like line noise is bringing the connection down - and the only way to do anything about it is to contact the ISP.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Honestly, it sounds like line noise is bringing the connection down - and the only way to do anything about it is to contact the ISP.

I ran a BT noise test (UK) on the line using one of their automated numbers and it's noisy as hell, lots of crackles.

I'll give them a call in the morning. Ta, r.j.s.

 

[stridemat]

It seems you have explored all avenues, apart from contacting your ISP. I would get put through to second level tech support. May be worthwhile asking them to re-sync your line.

 

[Kebabselector]

Make sure you've checked out your internal cabling and line filters as if there's a fault there then you'll be charged for an engineer visit. Disconnect all other phones and plug your router into the master socket.

 

[Blue Velvet]

May be worthwhile asking them to re-sync your line.

Disconnect all other phones and plug your router into the master socket.

Will do. Thanks.

 

[Mord]

If all that fails my father had pretty identical issues caused by an old and crappy linksys router. Replacing it fixed things.

It is probably more likely your line is iffy, given it's noisy as all hell. Just if sorting that doesn't help.

 

[Blue Velvet]

If all that fails my father had pretty identical issues caused by an old and crappy linksys router. Replacing it fixed things.

It is probably more likely your line is iffy, given it's noisy as all hell. Just if sorting that doesn't help.

ISP tested line, said it was noisy, said that there had been intermittent service over the past couple of weeks. Got pissed off as I need to start work tomorrow on a heap of stuff that a client is going to email me and went and bought a new Linksys router with splitter and cables... and set up and replaced the entire lot.

Thought I was on ADSL2+ but still only on ADSL Max, so have ordered free upgrade to some faster interwebz, useful for uploading work files, proofs etc.

Thanks for everyone's help. Problem seems to be solved.