Help with my DSL/Router

insane00

OK, so I've been having problems with my DSL setup for about two weeks now. Here's the lowdown:

About two weeks ago I tried to get online and noticed that the action light (4 lights: power, DSL, Action, and Ethernet) wasn't blinking which usually means I need to reset my modem. I reset the thing and the DSL light is no longer steady, but blinking randomly (3 to 10 times every 5 to 20 seconds). The internet isn't working and no amount of resetting works.

So I spend my Friday on the phone with tech support and they send a guy out to check on it the next day. I had to sit around my house all day waiting for him. Around 2 in the afternoon the DSL comes on all by itself and I can get on the net for the first time in like 3 days. The technician comes by my house, checks the line and tells me that everything appears to be working.

The next day the DSL goes down again. I call tech support and then tell me I probably need a new modem since mine is about 8 years old. I buy a new modem, but before I set it up (it took like three days to get around to it) the internet would randomly work and not work. Come last Friday I finally put in the new modem. It connects and everything appears to be working. Prior to my installing the new modem the internet wasn't working so I figured that I had fixed the problem.

Unfortunately by the next morning the internet wasn't working again so I called tech support saturday morning. I dealt with the BS that is tech support for about an hour and a half when my DSL connected. Once this happened they blew me off and said to just reset the modem and router if I have further problems.

Of course by Sunday the internet stopped working again and when I went to work this morning it was still out.

So I was wondering if anyone here has any clue as to what may be causing the problem I am dealing with. AT&T tech support sucks balls and most of the people trying to help me speak with such thick accents that just understanding them is a chore. Not to mention the fact that when I can understand them they make no effort to actually diagnose the problem. I already spent 70 bucks on a new modem and would like to figure out what the heck is going on. If anyone has any ideas or suggestion as what may be causing the problem that I can go home and troubleshoot I'd really appreciate it.

Transparent

I don't have any helpful advice, but I will restate that AT&T tech support is the devil. My connection was down due to a bad switch somewhere on AT&T's network and I must have spent like 8 hours turning my modem off and on and all the stupid things their script had them tell me over and over before they sent someone out. Then they had the nerve to call me back and tell me that if the connection was out because of a setting I changed they'd bill me.

Luckily the person that came to my apartment was very nice and figured out the problem pretty quickly.

insane00

Transparent wrote: »

I don't have any helpful advice, but I will restate that AT&T tech support is the devil. My connection was down due to a bad switch somewhere on AT&T's network and I must have spent like 8 hours turning my modem off and on and all the stupid things their script had them tell me over and over before they sent someone out. Then they had the nerve to call me back and tell me that if the connection was out because of a setting I changed they'd bill me.

Luckily the person that came to my apartment was very nice and figured out the problem pretty quickly.

The Devil is right. I have been kicked off the phone line, once I got transfered to another department but then a robot asked for the 2 digit department code, they never ever get my name right, and they read from a script. I am just exhausted and sick of dealing with those people. I have a feeling it is a problem on their end, but I figured I would at least try here before I waste another day on the phone.

AtomBomb

I think this is true for pretty much any internet/phone/tv provider, they are a bitch to deal with when there is an intermittent issue affecting your stuff that is not under your control. I had Cox coming out all the time because my digital cable all the sudden started to suck. They tried to tell me it was all kinds of shit it wasn't, and ended up replacing stuff that they really didn't need to (on their dime at least). Never really fixed the problem. Then one day I saw a Cox guy up on one of the poles 3 or 4 houses down from mine and whaddyaknow it's been working ever since.

I also had the joy of working at AOL in their DSL division 7 or so years ago, when DSL was still kind of a novelty. There were tons of areas in the country where the shit was just not going to work well (mostly because of really old lines with all kinds of phone amps and whatnot on them) and I'd have to try to "help" people that were calling in for the tenth time to get their DSL working. One guy even had been paying for it for 10 months and it had NEVER worked in that time. Even though it was obvious to any tech that was even half sober that this customer's DSL was never going to work we had to just keep trying the same bullshit and when none of that worked we'd send out another truck who wouldn't be able to do anything either. We weren't allowed to tell them that it wasn't going to work.

I'm not saying your situation is that dire, I just wanted to point out that it's hard to get genuine help for an issue that can't be fixed by restarting everything or fixing user error. I've found it's helpful to not just go along with it every time, it's okay to say "I tried that yesterday with another tech and it's not the problem." Also, be very clear that the issue is intermittent, so unless they find a problem, fix it and then it comes back up they haven't found the problem. That's another reason why it's good to stop doing the same steps with every tech. If it restarts after the 8th time you've unplugged the modem they're going to want to pretend that they've fixed the underlying issue.

Good luck.

insane00

AtomBomb wrote: »

I think this is true for pretty much any internet/phone/tv provider, they are a bitch to deal with when there is an intermittent issue affecting your stuff that is not under your control. I had Cox coming out all the time because my digital cable all the sudden started to suck. They tried to tell me it was all kinds of shit it wasn't, and ended up replacing stuff that they really didn't need to (on their dime at least). Never really fixed the problem. Then one day I saw a Cox guy up on one of the poles 3 or 4 houses down from mine and whaddyaknow it's been working ever since.

I also had the joy of working at AOL in their DSL division 7 or so years ago, when DSL was still kind of a novelty. There were tons of areas in the country where the shit was just not going to work well (mostly because of really old lines with all kinds of phone amps and whatnot on them) and I'd have to try to "help" people that were calling in for the tenth time to get their DSL working. One guy even had been paying for it for 10 months and it had NEVER worked in that time. Even though it was obvious to any tech that was even half sober that this customer's DSL was never going to work we had to just keep trying the same bullshit and when none of that worked we'd send out another truck who wouldn't be able to do anything either. We weren't allowed to tell them that it wasn't going to work.

I'm not saying your situation is that dire, I just wanted to point out that it's hard to get genuine help for an issue that can't be fixed by restarting everything or fixing user error. I've found it's helpful to not just go along with it every time, it's okay to say "I tried that yesterday with another tech and it's not the problem." Also, be very clear that the issue is intermittent, so unless they find a problem, fix it and then it comes back up they haven't found the problem. That's another reason why it's good to stop doing the same steps with every tech. If it restarts after the 8th time you've unplugged the modem they're going to want to pretend that they've fixed the underlying issue.

Good luck.

Grazie Mille!