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Continuity of Internet connection......or lack thereof

Avatar John Nicholas
Over the last weekend, my Internet connection kept failing after only about 5 minutes, with a dialogue box reporting that the "remote site has terminated the connection".

This problem appears unrelated to say the frequency of auto checking the contents of the mailbox every so many minutes. So varying the schedule doesn’t help.

I have used less than 2% of my monthly download limit.

Rebooting the modem which I’ve had to do before now when the connection fails to make, does not amend the symptom.

The ISP has, after 5 days rather than the promised one day, had the courtesy to respond to my request for an explanation “as to their actions as the asserted remote site”.

It reads:-An intermittent connection is usually due to a filtering or cabling issue, which can result in a poor connection or sometimes no connectionat all. In order to fix this issue we need you to carry out the
following simple checks:

1.Make sure that all phone sockets that have any equipment plugged in to
them have micro-filters fitted. You will need one micro-filter for each
socket which has any equipment plugged in.

2.If you have multiple sockets and not enough micro-filters, try
disconnecting equipment from the other sockets to see if this resolves
the issue. No more than 4 pieces of equipment should be connected at any
time.

3.If you still have an intermittent connection, the first thing to
establish is whether or not the microfilters are set up correctly.
Please disconnect such equipment in the event of problems and test your
broadband again.

4.Please test your connection again if you are now able to connect to
the Internet, then reconnect your other telephone devices, with a filter
at each socket.

5.If this has not resolved the issue then please scan for any spyware or
viruses on your computer using your current protection. Some malicious
applications can cause your connection to keep dropping. If you do not
possess a security package then we recommend.......

If the above checks do not resolve your problem, please call our
Technical Support.

--------

Done all that. No viruses or spyware as you might expect of a Mac. But continuity not one bit better.

The frustration of this near useless internet service is intense. However I do not wish to change ISP.

Any ideas re the cause or remedy?

Re: Continuity of Internet connection......or lack thereof

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Some time ago I had a problem of the internet speed intermittently dropping to virtually dial up speeds. My ISP eventually traced this to a faulty modem in my router, which was disconnecting every few seconds for a fraction of a second at a time. This caused the ADSL provider, in my case BT, to interpret this as noise on the line and drop the speed accordingly. The connection was not actually fully disconnected but in your case the cause may be similar if the result is different. If possible borrow another router from someone and see if there is a change. The fact that it suddenly happened may suggest a hardware malfunction of some sort.

Re: Continuity of Internet connection......or lack thereof

Avatar Derek Wright
Assuming you are connecting using Ethernet cable between the Router Modem and the computer you could be suffering from line problems, eg corrosion on the copper/aluminium cable in the many connections between your house and the street cabinet.

Could be the use of in correct pairs - are you aware of any work on the local phone network.

Keep harassing the ISP to get full checks done - often the line check carried out from the phone office will show no fault.

Another method to check - using the handset do you get noise on the line, does the noise appear when the router modem is switched on. If so report these as voice line issues to the phone service supplier. Sometimes this is a faster method to getting line issues resolved

Dial 17070 and select option 2 Quiet Line Test and listen for noise.

Re: Continuity of Internet connection......or lack thereof

Avatar John Nicholas
Thank you both.

It became a bit of a pantomime with the left and right hands of my ISP/Line provider saying “you’ve got noise on the line...........oh no you haven’t............oh yes you have.........no problems........yes you’ve definitely got noise on the line”

But still connection lost.

For my part I changed the microfilters, and decided to ditch my aging USB Modem (despite no proveable fault) in favour of a powered Router with both a wired connection (which I am) and a wireless facility should I need it.

Any better. Well the line still kept on failing but, unlike the USB modem, the new router kept prodding something to regain a connection some minutes later. But then a further few minutes on it lost it again. So on-off on-off all day long.

ISP/Line provider referred matters to their equipment in the BT exchange just before the BH weekend. 48 hrs ago stabilty seems (fingers crossed) to have been restored.

My ISP has just rung to say they reset things in the exchange: so maybe their exchange equipment was the cause of the problem?

As you said Derek , keep pressing the ISP to do more than scratch the surface ?
 
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