Eircom DSL problems

janmc

I've been signed up to Eircom broadband (Home Plus) for a few months, and things were fine to begin with. For the last month or so the DSL light has been flashing on the modem from time to time, and there is no net connection at these times. When I connect to my router it says the DSL is down. I've been on the phone so often to tech support that my voice is going hoarse.

Every time I call, they make me go through all the steps:
1. Turn off modem, restart after 1 min > still no signal? then...
2. Reset modem using 'reset' button > still no signal? then...
3. Remove the filter from the phone line and connect the modem directly. > still no signal? then...
4. Connect the modem to a different phone socket > still no signal? then...
5. Change the dsl cable to another cable
etc etc etc
After trying everything else, they then ping the modem and don't get a response, so they say they'll send an engineer to the local exchange. 24 hours or so later, the problem is fixed... until it happens again.

I'm going crazy because every time I call, they treat it like a new fault, and I have to go through 20 mins of tech support with the person assuming I know nothing about computers and am mentally incompetent (why are tech support always male by the way?).

Any ideas why the DSL would only work intermittently? My feeling is that there must be a fault on the line or at the exchange. Has anyone had similar problems, and if so, how did you sort it out?

Thanks

edit: I just saw from another thread about attenuation and speed - in case it helps - the attenuation is 36/19 dB, the download speed is 1.73Mbps and the upload speed is 216kbps.
I don't have anything else connected to the line either - no sky or phone alarm.

Brandaan

Sounds like there could be an unfiltered device on your phone line at home somewhere. Could be an alarm that's hooked up to the PSTN line, but not necessarily monitored (in which you case you may not be aware of it).

jthrppel

I had a similar problem when upgraded from 1mb to 2mb speed. The line could not handle it (we are more than 2 miles away from exchange) but when switched back to 1mb speed everything seems to be stable.
jthrppel

janmc

Brandaan - I'm in an apartment, so don't think there can possibly be any device on the line (it'd be hard to miss!). Our alarm is extremely old school too - I'd say it was put in well before monitored alarms.

jthrppel - I'll ask eircom whether the speed is the issue next time I contact them.

I had a call from an eircom engineer this morning - by the time he went to check it out it was working again. At least this time though I got a chance to tell him that it was a recurring thing and to explain the problem.

Sponge Bob

Phew, intermittent faults are the worst .

If not internal wiring and/or that alarm then it could be the neighbours fire up the microwave when they get home...it could be the exchange itself goes down ( do the modem line stats set to 0db indicating no DSL signal at all ?) or it could be a dodgy modem or it could be crosstalk .

post the line stats in here once you get them , sample twice 1. when all is well and 2. when the light is flashing

janmc

The eircom engineer called out today, and can't find anything wrong with the line, so he suggested it could be the modem. He's also going to change the 'node' (at least I think that's what he called it) at the exchange in case that's faulty.

The modem stats are 33/19 dB, and I *think* that dropped to 0/0 when it was down, but it has been working fine since so luckily I haven't had a chance to check again

rgfuller

I get the same type of intermittent fault, it would always seem to be up all day long then at random times from about 7pm on would get either short disconnects/resynchs then stability, or it would disconnect and continuously try resynching again and again for anything from 10 mins to 2 hours, then it would come back and be stable again.

Very inconsistant.

(And when I say disconnect the Internet light goes red, then the DSL light goes off and the Internet light goes off, then the DSL lights starts to flash - then go green, then the Internet light flashes and goes green, then it either all works - or they both go off again!).

I also went through the eircom support exactly the same as you.

My modem reports something like 54/23 dB.

I'm on 3mb and it's fairly solid all the time, i've put new filters on my phones and replaced the router dual filter, also unplugged all phones during one of these outage - I got a suspicion that it was something like when a nighbour was on a call it would go down, but a couple of times it's gone down at 12.01 (though that may be eircom doing maint). I also switched router - as I thought it was getting too hot, and I finally filtered my PC connection through a hub to rule that out!)

The only thing I've not done is move the router to the phone entrypoint (it's on an extension) - though why that should matter when it's solidly up for 23 hours a day I don't know...

mrfreddred

I had an intermitant problem with the DSL line dropping around 4:30pm everyday for months.....Tried loads of things including replacing the modem 3 times....Eventually, I figured out that if you set the MTU to the max of 1492 it works fine. I got the fix from a website that discussed MTU settings and recommended that you set teh figure as close to 1500 as yiour modem will allow. This is a genuine fix.

rob80

janmc wrote:

I've been signed up to Eircom broadband (Home Plus) for a few months, and things were fine to begin with. For the last month or so the DSL light has been flashing on the modem from time to time, and there is no net connection at these times. When I connect to my router it says the DSL is down. I've been on the phone so often to tech support that my voice is going hoarse.

Every time I call, they make me go through all the steps:
1. Turn off modem, restart after 1 min > still no signal? then...
2. Reset modem using 'reset' button > still no signal? then...
3. Remove the filter from the phone line and connect the modem directly. > still no signal? then...
4. Connect the modem to a different phone socket > still no signal? then...
5. Change the dsl cable to another cable
etc etc etc
After trying everything else, they then ping the modem and don't get a response, so they say they'll send an engineer to the local exchange. 24 hours or so later, the problem is fixed... until it happens again.

I'm going crazy because every time I call, they treat it like a new fault, and I have to go through 20 mins of tech support with the person assuming I know nothing about computers and am mentally incompetent (why are tech support always male by the way?).

Any ideas why the DSL would only work intermittently? My feeling is that there must be a fault on the line or at the exchange. Has anyone had similar problems, and if so, how did you sort it out?

Thanks

edit: I just saw from another thread about attenuation and speed - in case it helps - the attenuation is 36/19 dB, the download speed is 1.73Mbps and the upload speed is 216kbps.
I don't have anything else connected to the line either - no sky or phone alarm.

I have eircom 2mb and i have a download of 1.75mbps and upload of 153kbps i am worser of than you **** eircom

nethan786

i called them tonight and i had the worst time waiting for 17 mins and and when someone picked up the ****ing prick ask me what my thing was i didnt know what it was and ask him what it was i heard him probably wrong and i said my account number the guy then said i did'nt ask for that and ****ing hang up on me ! earlier my mom called them and said they will check our connection and will call after 30 mins 1hr later they still has't call so, i called them (my mom was sleeping) and what happened on the top was basically !what happened and i need to apply for collage so yeah **** EIRCOM!!! im 16 btw!

lucernarian

nethan786 wrote: »

i called them tonight and i had the worst time waiting for 17 mins and and when someone picked up the ****ing prick ask me what my thing was i didnt know what it was and ask him what it was i heard him probably wrong and i said my account number the guy then said i did'nt ask for that and ****ing hang up on me ! earlier my mom called them and said they will check our connection and will call after 30 mins 1hr later they still has't call so, i called them (my mom was sleeping) and what happened on the top was basically !what happened and i need to apply for collage so yeah **** EIRCOM!!! im 16 btw!

Two things, more than likely they will only deal with the billpayer unless your mother tells them on the phone first that they allow it. Secondly, more full stops and less ranting would be nice...