connection issues, have to try several times

skygrazer

wondering if any1 else is having this problem.

seems like i am playing russian roulette when trying to do anything thruogh my upc internet connection these past 2 days

typical examples are some webpages, ventrillo and online games like wow

take ventrillo for example, it shows servers availible but when i try connect, it acts like i have no connection, saying cannot connect to server, if i connect/disconnect several times, eventually it will actually connect and wotk, same with wow, i try to log in, comes up with cannot connect but after trying several times, i finally connect

even with web psges, i cvlick on a link and it doesnt open, after a couple tries, it does open the page

it feels like i am being blocked most of the time except for say 2 secs in every 10 so unless i happen to try something at the exact right time, it wont work

any1 esle got this issue or have any advice, used several ipconfig commands like release and renew and flushdns, reset modem and pc, nothing seems to help

AmilcarAlho

Just out of curiosity, what's the area you live in? I've been experiencing issues over the last few days (D8), mostly timeouts when browsing. Did the usual troubleshooting, i.e. restart the modem (cisco epc), check cables, changed to google dns on laptop.

Also, is your wireless constantly dropping? I had to ring UPC and they say there is nothing unusual, escalated and the guy did a few changes on the wireless channel ( 11 now, it was like that before, apparently was set to auto) and the wireless stop dropping, but the timeouts are still present. I've seen a couple of similar threads recently, just wondering if this is widespread, or just the modem acting up.

Irish Steve

I'm not UPC at home, but similar issues are happening here, and at other sites that I work with, and I am beginning to suspect that one or more of the backbone carriers that provide service around the digital hub in Dublin, which is at the core of a lot of the interchange between ISP's has a problem with either a router or a server that is overloaded, or faulty, which is resulting in a serious loss of communication packets, not for any one user or service provider, but across wide swathes of the internet.

As to how we track it down, or get it sorted, I don't have access to the sort of technology or monitoring equipment that would enable me to get to the bottom of what is going wrong.

Things like an E-Bay page that times out and then on a refresh comes up in a couple of seconds, other heavy use sites that are the same, but things like POP3 mail that are local to Ireland so don't need interchange in the same way and so don't fail are the reasons I'm suspicious.

With Firefox, it's slightly easier to diagnose, the spinner in the page or tab header rotates one way while it is establishing the link and working out where to go and how to get the data, then the other way when the data is arriving. Most of my fails seem to be before the download gets going, so it's a routing or DNS type issue rather than a congestion or local ISP issue. That's why this is tricky, talking to your local ISP may not get you anywhere, unless their techie knows something about the structure and operation of their server farm, and the methods and suppliers they are using for that level of service, and techies at that level are not often accessible and available to the end user, for all sorts of reasons.

It will be interesting to see how this works out over the next while, I suspect that it won't get fixed until something breaks completely and can be traced by it's absence from the systems.

Steve

skygrazer

im down in Kilkenny but i do not have a wireless modem/router, Iuse the ethernet connection directly from modem to pc and like you get these timeouts, I guess you can look at it that way, seems everything I do, only 1 out of every 5 things work, the rest of the time is timeout.

one thing I think may be an issue is I have had this old modem for a couple of years and it may not be able to cope or need a bios update since the new upgrades to thier lines/speeds, will call em tomorrow ands see what they have to say, altho wont hold my breath, thier support is tenuous at best

just seen irish steves post, sound theory and makes sense :P

me89

skygrazer wrote: »

im down in Kilkenny but i do not have a wireless modem/router, Iuse the ethernet connection directly from modem to pc and like you get these timeouts, I guess you can look at it that way, seems everything I do, only 1 out of every 5 things work, the rest of the time is timeout.

one thing I think may be an issue is I have had this old modem for a couple of years and it may not be able to cope or need a bios update since the new upgrades to thier lines/speeds, will call em tomorrow ands see what they have to say, altho wont hold my breath, thier support is tenuous at best

just seen irish steves post, sound theory and makes sense :P

Having the same problem and im in kilkenny, its been driving me mad the last two days. i have a new wireless modem so i dont think your modem is the problem

SAPBASIS

Don't think it's your modem. I'm with upc in kilkenny and have a new modem and I'm exp the same issue the last few days.

e.g. can't ping www.rte.ie but can ping it from a server in work.
Google working fine.

also on iphone can't access certain apps via wireless but works fine on 3g.

skygrazer

aiy, I think what steve said makes most sense, doubt it has anything to do with the modem or having a router/wiress hub

I have done some testing with dns and other ip related stuff and it is definitively a prob after the packets have left the modem and looks like it may be something to do with a relay from Ireland to the UK and maybe others.

using ventrillo because I know both the IP adresses and the actual domains of the servers I use to connect on ventrillo this problem occurs when I try connect to a UK based vent server but If I use other vent servers, altho I am not sure of thier location, I have absolutely no issues at all so my thought is that the problem does lie with a specific carrier that branches off from our local gateway