I’ve got a Westell WireSpeed DSL modem that’s roughly five years old, and lately (starting roughly two weeks ago), it’s been behaving badly. It, and the rest of my network are on 24/7, but lately, it’s locking up somehow.
The power, ready and sync lights are on, but no data gets through it. Power-cycling it restores it to normal operation, but there’s no predicting when it’s going to quit again.
It’s powered through an APC UPS, so I’m pretty sure it didn’t get a power surge, although I can’t make the same promise for the phone line. I *think * the phone line is also protected by the UPS, but I’m not 100% sure, and to confirm this would require moving furniture. Big furniture.
The modem has been living in a small cabinet under a wireless router, but that’s not a recent arrangement - the two have been next to each other for a few months. On advice from my ISP, I’ve tried separating the two - three feet apart has made no appreciable difference in the random failures.
Naturally, they’d be happy to sell me a new modem, but I just want to be sure there’s not something stupid-simple going on here that I can remedy for free first.
I can’t help you, but I’m in about the same boat. My Westell is about three years old and lately it’s taken to re-syncing itself on a whim. I’ve tried the usual solutions of powering off everything (modem, Linksys router and computer) and waiting for several seconds before starting them back up. But whenever I have more than a few tabs open and downloading, the damn sync lights start flashing on me. If anyone’s got an idea I’d love to hear it.
Hey, gotpasswords, you’re not on Verizon by any chance, are ya?
I had (and enjoyed) DSL for three years in Dayton Ohio, with the intermittent problem that the hardware they issued me – each time, a SpeedStream modem – would occasionally appear to “go bad.” Three times, I had technicians come out, replace my modem with one that I saw them take out of the box. The second two times, they were replacing a modem which I had also seen in its virginal state. Each time they left, I asked them “if this one’s bad, do you mind if I hang onto it for parts?” And they just shrugged and said “okay.”
Turns out it was the local circuit, which had been hit by lightning and was acting up (or at least that’s the story they told me). They never came around to collect their modems, and I now use cable modem.
So, two things:
It might not be your DSL modem.
If it is, I could probably send each of you one of the spares I have accumulated in my hardware graveyard. Each piece of hardware I get rid of makes my fiancée marginally happier. And do you know what I get when my fiancée is happy? Hint: the answer ain’t “a happy wife in a few months.” Well, I guess in a roundabout way, it is…
NotQuite - Nope. SBC is the carrier, and sonic.net is my actual ISP. It is a Yahoo-free environment. Just the way I want it.
**Jurph ** - From what I can infer, the DSLAM is OK. When my connection’s not working, Sonic techs can still ping my modem, (I’ve got static IP) so the DSLAM and router are apparently working fine. It’s just not bringing the traffic through.
Guess the next step is to plug the model # of my modem into ebay and see if anyone’s selling any before paying full price via my ISP.
