hi, i hope someone can provide some answers and/or advice concerning a very frustrating problem. i live in london and have a two-year-old pc clone (emachines 330) with no modifications of any kind, so i’m getting on the net using dial-up access via the conexant softk56 modem that came with the machine. my current isp is tiscali.
except for brief periods when i’ve had trouble connecting, everything has worked just fine since i’ve had the computer, up until about two weeks ago. it’s been just about impossible for me to get on line for the last couple of weeks - i’m talking literally spending a half-hour or so trying to connect, and on the rare occasions that i can i’ve been lucky to get one web page loaded before losing the connection. for most of the last couple of weeks i’ve had to go to a net cafe (where i am today) to get on line at all, negating the point of having a computer at home. (for me, at least.)
i should note that i live in an old block of flats with some pretty ancient-looking wiring, in case that makes any difference. and i have one empirical observation: when i make a phone call on my land line and i can hear static crackling, i know it’s going to be a looooooong night as far as trying to get on line with my pc.
so, question one: any ideas as to where the trouble lies? is this the computer industry’s way of implementing planned obsolescence? is tiscali actually a totally crap isp? is it bt’s phone lines? and question two: any advice as to what to do? new computer? external modem? broadband?
Have you tried getting another free ISP (e.g. freeserve) and seeing if you can get a connection using that? It would help you find out if its the ISP or the modem/telephone line that’s the problem.
If you’re having trouble with the landline as well, it might be worth getting an engineer out to check it. We’ve had similar issues over the last two weeks which turned out to be a damaged cable due to “winter weather” - BT’s version of leaves on the line, considering we hadn’t had the snow when it went wrong.
Tirial.
Haven’t heard any other comments with regard to Tiscali being particularly hard to connect to.
My PC is in a different room to the telephone point and the wiring between the two is abit dicky (easiest thing would be to replace it if it wasn’t for my congenital laziness) and this definately has an effect. I have had periods where it wouldn’t connect (or appeared to connect, but then gave me windows errors on every site I tried to get to).
Does your modem plug directly into the phone socket or does it share it with anything else through a splitter? I have a splitter into which goes the modem. phone and Sky Box and have found in the past when having problems that unplugging the others and having just the modem plugged in improves matters.
Crackly line will ruin your connection speed. When you call BT, they’ll try and sell you broadband because they’re only required to provide a phone line which carries voices, if you can hear what the other person is saying they don’t have to do owt.
However, I discovered that my connection box was full of water one day and had it replaced (dodgy installation, didn’t cost me anything) and my connection reliability went up tenfold.
Also get BT to come out and check any cables or lines outside your house . They are responsible for them and the weather etc can take it’s toll over time.