[Greg Erskine]

Hi Hugh,

Geez, you seem to have all the bad luck. Are you a computer jinx? I had a bloke working for me that could kill computers by just being in the same building as them. I was very, very happy when he left. One day he came back for a visit, and you guessed, file servers started crashing. In the end, I told reception not to allow him in the building.

But seriously, I've used TPG for my ISP for 6 or 7 years and they have proven very reliable. I do check my logs and there are occasional hickups but the majority of the time the connection is up 24 hours a day. They have ADSL2+ and VOIP, not that I use VOIP. Installation of the wireless ADSL routers/modems have been very easy. They are a little bit more expensive, but they have proven their value to me. I don't mind paying for a quality service.

I used to buy VT100 green screen terminals (remember them) from TPG before they became an ISP and they were an excellent comany even then.

regards

[AKSA]

Hi Greg,

I'm actually not too bad, I can hook things up, load drivers, do involved storage and backup, figure out new software.  Not wonderful, mind, but not a complete neanderthal.

People Telecoms won't let me go, say I've signed a contract (a tick on an html form!!), and it's hard to change now.  I'm thinking of going to the Ombudsman, but I don't have the smarts to refute all their arguments that my PC is at fault.  ADSL on BigPond was never like this, however, but when the connection is lost I can always restore it by rebooting, which could be the network card, dunno.  Your thoughts?

Thanks for the concern, Greg, this is quite painful.  In fact the connection has just dropped a few seconds ago and this message will have to be stored and resent.

Cheers,

Hugh

[LM]

Hugh,

I know its a problem when one can't identify the precise cause, but they have a contract too - to provide a service.  It's not so much a blame issue, good business goes out of its way to support customers even when not strictly obliged to.  Look at Aspen. The ISP reaction says a lot about their company and it puts me off for one.

Why don't you really put them to the test, tell them it might be the PC so you are changing to a Mac. aa

[Greg Erskine]

Hi Greg,

People Telecoms won't let me go, say I've signed a contract (a tick on an html form!!), and it's hard to change now.  I'm thinking of going to the Ombudsman, but I don't have the smarts to refute all their arguments that my PC is at fault.  ADSL on BigPond was never like this, however, but when the connection is lost I can always restore it by rebooting, which could be the network card, dunno.  Your thoughts?

Hi Hugh,

Unfortunately I am no longer an expert in this field as I haven't been directly invovled in IT for 6 years. This technogoly wasn't around back then. I can only offer a few thoughts.

I'm under the impression that the ADSL2+ connection is from your ISP to the modem router, nothing to do with your PC. You should be able to see (or get) a log from your ISP showing connection time. That will confirm the ADSL connection is OK or not. Now if your PC is disconnecting from your modem router that is a problem of your PC or possibly the modem router.

I had a problem once with the speed settings of the network card and router port that caused similar issues. You may have options like Auto/100mps/10mps, I think I set it to 100mps/Full duplex to solve the issue.

regards

[rabbitz]

Had a similar problem with drop outs and ended up being a cordless phone (with ADSL filter) when placed in a particular socket on the same line. Every time that phone was used.... clunk, it would drop out. It was interesting to watch the ADSL speed test and when that phone was used, the service stopped.

Try disconnecting all your phones first and see how it runs and than install them one by one with making a call.

Worth a try.

[AKSA]

Lyn, Greg and Peter,

Many thanks for your input - and Ron R too from UK!!

It appears, from Ron's advice, that a lease is issued by the ISP when a subscriber makes a connection.  This lease is of varying length;  usually half or one hour.  At the end of this period, the subscriber PC creates another lease request, and if this is not created for some reason, the connection drops.

My connection drops exactly at the end of each lease.  I can only recover it by rebooting the PC, which takes a bit of time.  I think I'm on the right track;  now I need to find why this request is not being automatically created.

Of course, Lyn, you are right about the ISP.  However, each request of the help desk demolishes at least half an hour waiting for a human being to respond, after going through three quite tricky menu options.

Cheers,

Hugh

[Greg Erskine]

Hi Hugh,

Are you talking about DHCP leases? If so, you can increase the length of time of these leases to stop them being as annoying.

Have you got your squeezebox running off this router? There was a firmware bug 6 months ago that occurred when DHCP leases were renewed.

Good luck. I know sometimes, random pieces of advice without knowing the full story, can be a PITA.

regards