problem connecting to dsl

Factual Questions
1

I’ve had Verison DSL for about 2 years, and have had two computers connected to the DSL modem via a router for about 8 months. Everything worked wonderfully until about a week or so ago. This is a long story, but I’m just trying to give as much information as possible. Can anyone tell me if the problem is more likely to be on my end or on my DSL provider’s end? Here goes.

About a week ago I turn on my computer - everything looks fine - all the right lights are on - but the connection isn’t working. I reboot the modem and my computer. I go to the router setup screen and things look different. I call Verizon and it turns out all the settings have been reset or something. Instead of showing a PPPoE connection, it’s showing “get IP address automatically.” We straighten out the settings and I’m connecting fine again. Later that night, when I went up to my bedroom, my answering machine is wigging out - repeating my outgoing message over and over. Hmmm…I reset that. No problem. We had some thunder storms that day so I’m suspecting a power surge or something may have messed up the router settings.

A day or so later, same problem with the internet connection. I check the router settings and they are fine. Reboot modem and computer. Still doesn’t connect. I call Verizon again. We troubleshoot again. They have me disconnect power from the router and reconnect. The power light on the router is blinking. Can’t get a solid power light. They say the router is bad. Ok, so I disconnect the router and connect the DSL modem directly to my computer and use my user name and password to log into the system. It works. No problem.

While browsing around on the net, everything starts slowing down. I disconnect and attempt to reconnect. I get an Error 619 - connection to remote computer could not be established. Reboot modem and computer. Same problem. Repeated attempts came up with same error or sometimes it came up Error 718 - connection terminated because remote computer did not respond in a timely manner. A little while later, the connection is restored and everything is fine.

Next day, same thing happens. After 2-3 incidents I call Verizon again. We troubleshoot. No resolution from troubleshooting, but eventually, a connection was restored. This has happened on and off for about a week now.

Last night, I logged on about 11pm and the computer ran fine until around 4am. I was just logging into a game I play and the server was sending an update down the pipe of 3MBs. Everything went normally for a while and then the transmission rate began decreasing…down, down, down, until the connection failed. I go through the by now normal routine trying to reconnect to the service and getting Errors 619, 718 and 678 - all related to the remote computer. I call Verizon and after about 2 hours with them, they decide it’s on my end. There’s something wrong with my computer.

I could accept that except for the fact that my secondary computer won’t connect either. One computer down, ok, shit happens. Both computers down at the same time? Less likely. Unless, of course, there was a power surge that messed something up on both computers. Verizon advises me to call Dell Support, which I did and we went through an hour or more of troubleshooting. Everything seems to be working right.

Back to Verizon and they finally give me to a Level 3 Tech who is more ready to believe the problem is not with my equipment. He’s had another customer reporting the same problem. While I’m on the phone with him, boom! The connection is restored, works beautifully for about 10 minutes and then fizzles out again. Luckily, I still have him on the phone. I reboot modem and computer - Error 619. Verizon is finally ready to believe it may be on their end, but outside of their office as they’ve already fiddled with my lines, etc.

They are investigating further downstream and advised if the problem isn’t resolved in 24 hours to call them back. Fair enough, I guess. Any ideas from anyone about this situation? Is it possible something is malfunctioning on my end (like the DSL modem) even though the modem reads good from Verizon’s end? We even did a system restore to rule out viruses, etc., with no result. Dell is ready to take me through a HD wipe and reinstall, but I don’t want to do that unless entirely necessary.

In my uneducated opinion, since the problem manifests on both my computers, the problem is on their end or with my modem, but wouldn’t a surge have just knocked the modem out completely?

I’ll be checking back this afternoon for any advice. Thanks for your time.

2

There are a few things it can be, some of which you’ve already guessed:

*The modem was fried. (I had a cable modem get hit by a surge: nice pretty spark! The modem looked like it worked from the outside, but it was a case of ‘the lights were on but no one was home’.)
*There is a problem with the phone lines (usually too much line noise). This can be anywhere from the wires in your house to the one connecting your house to the pole, to the one… etc. Sometimes they can measure this remotely, but if everything looks like it’s checking out they’ll want to work backwards from your modem (measuring signal strength/quality) to see where/if the signal starts having problems.
*There is a problem with some of the other hardware along the way. (This is my current problem with my cable modem: there’s an intermittant problem with one of the routers that serve my area. They think they’ve fixed it, but since they can’t duplicate the circumstances that cause the problems…)
*There’s a problem with your computer. But, given that you’ve tried two different computers this is pretty unlikely.

My educated guess is that yes, it’s a problem somewhere between Verizon and you. The problem is figuring out where. I’m inclined to belive there’s too much line noise, which is slowing the connection down to a point where it’s useless.

By any chance is there a pattern to your outages? Rain? Hot day/night? Cold day/night? Lots of dew? After doing X (playing a certain on-line game, after X amount of time, etc.)? If there’s any kind of pattern, that can help track down what the problem is.

<< A cat at rest will tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside food. >>

3

Thanks for your reply. My phone line, while not crystal clear, does not have a lot of noise. There has been no noticeable change from before the problem began.
The computers are in the main living area which stays air-conditioned 24/7.

I also tried to discover a pattern - there doesn’t seem to be one. Sometimes the connection isn’t working when I log on. Sometimes it goes bad while I’m surfing the web or playing an online game. Sometimes it stays down for hours. Sometimes, it’s up and down like a yo-yo. Sometimes it stays connected for hours and hours with no problem at all.

The problem was still there a little earlier today. I’m hopeful that it will be corrected by the time I get home if it’s on Verizon’s end.

Thanks again

4

If the problem is line noise, don’t expect them to look for it/admit it/do anything about it without you making an issue of it. Ask to speak to a supervisor and tell them that you have had a repair technician come to your house at great expense and he tells you the problem is line noise. I don’t know how it works in your area, but in mine, the DSL support is actually separate from phone line support and this is why it is so difficult to get anywhere if the issue is with the phone lines. You might do better to call 611 and report the line noise without going into DSL issues.

5

Do you have ZoneAlarm as a firewall? I’m asking only because if you recently updated to version 5.0, then problems with your internet conncection are very likely to occur. My computer’s internet speed cut in half immediately after I installed it, and many people have similar or more serious problems. If so, you’ll need to uninstall this version and reinstall an earlier one. I discussed the details in this threadhere.

If that’s not it, I’d just ask Verizon for a replacement modem and see whether that fixes things.