Dial up - Anyone else seeing this problem ?

daveg

When I use a dial up account (iol or Utv) my modem dials in ok but then sometimes my connection just freezes. If I open the dial up icon the bytes sent/recived stays the same. Sometimes it comes back after 10/20 secs othertimes I have to re-dial. I find it is worse if you dial in and leave the connection idle. I thought this might be a problem with my line/modem but a mate of mine in Galway city centre has the same problem. Anyone else seeing this intermittent problem ? I'm living about 15 miles from Galway.

spongebob

wesht 091 5 number........
north 091 7 number
easht 091 8 number
south 091 6 number

I have seen the problem u described to iol (1891 number....ie the intelligent network.)

I have no problem to eircomfree 091 703801 which is geographic and not in the intelligent network. Oceanfree should also be a geographic 0914 number afaik

M

LoGiE

I've been having that same problem with Oceanfree in the 01 area. Sometimes it comes back but usually it just sits there and i have to reconnect which is really annoying

ando

Just dump the 56k and get Vdsl off eircom for 20euro a month ...

wait a minute, what am I saying

Jaden

I've got the same problem Dave.

It seems to be ISP independant, but some show worse signs of this problem as others. From dialing out of several places in Ireland, the problem is definately worse in the West. I've found North Galway to be almost unuseable at times.

Eircom (GAH!) seem to be least affected of late, try using them. I have the number and user name and password if you need it.

daveg

Thanks for the reply's guys. I'm in North Galway (093). I dont suppose this would be a ploy by either Eircom or the ISP's to choke your connection if you log on and dont start surfin. I say this because the problem always seems worse if you dial in and leave the connection idle.

tuxy

i have the same problem with oceanfree (067) over isdn very anoying

Mossy Monk

i get it every now again with IOL down here in 058 land

Clu

Ive been getting this very badly the last few days, up to the point where I basically cant access the Net at all!!

Im not seeing exactly the same thing as you though daveg - what I get is the connection connects ok, but after anythin from 5 mins to an hour it just freezes up totally.
Also oddly, when I hit disconnect, it sometimes DOESNT disconnect - it just sits there with the little X-ed out icon (Not sure if this is related to problem)
im using Win98SE with a Conexant PCI modem (Not a Winmodem I believe, at least its not supposed to be heh)
im in the Kilmainham D8 area myself, and Ive tried Eircon, UTV Internet, ELive, Oceanfree - all seem to give same results.
Sometimes the connection works fine - had it going for several hours the other night. But its just unreliable enough to make it annoying (esp. if trying to do any gaming - linkdeaths abound)

anybody had any success tracking down the cause of this? Case of go to Eircon and ask them to test line?

cheers

Clu

daveg

Clu,

Thats exactly what my mate is seeing (when he disconnects the icon sits there with an X through it). He finds if you leave it for a few secs it eventually goes.

To be honest I think this is just another symptom of Eircons crap service. Perhaps getting the line checked may slove... but as this thread shows this is happening around the country...

rob1891

Try turning off call wating if you've got it on. It's probably not your problem as you say it's better if the connection is kept active. But getting an incoming call when online will cause your connection to freeze up for a few seconds, 10 - 20 perhaps.

just a thought

rob

(dunno about your mate or clu, I don't think call wating wouldn't do that, it kicks me off completely every so often, but never freezes the connection completely)

sceptre

It was happening to me for a few days a few weeks ago, on both IOL Free and NoLimits (Limerick - Win2k). Went away after a few days so I forgot about it.

Clu

i reported to to Eircom in any case so i'll see what comes of that. I tried a different phone cable just to rule that out but no joy

As for the modem not hanging up thing, I checked the log file (go into Modems control panel, select modem and Properties, then Advanced, or similar - dont have it in front of me now) and it said the modem wasnt responding to the hangup command. Modem software has been reinstalled but no joy. Might look into getting a new modem just to rule that out - they arent expensive and its no harm to have a spare. might go for an external serial one this time (Marx do one that is supposedly Linux compatible, nice to have the option i guess)

Clu

daveg

Clu - Will you let us know how you get on with Eircon.

Clu

Certainly.
I reported to them that I was basically getting disconnects while using the Internet. The person who I spoke to didnt seem too interested in taking a lot of details - in fact they handed me off to someone else who didnt introduce themselvs, and only asked to confirm that I was having "trouble accessing the Internet".

Hopefully I'll be able to speak to someone slightly more technical lol.
In any case if this keeps going for more than a week or so I'm calling them up and telling them that they can take their phone bill and shove it unless they help me out - I actually only have the landline for Net access (Sad isnt it?) so if it doesnt improve somehow, it's gone (and my bill payment with it :P not paying for something that doesnt work). I have ordered a new modem from Marx (external serial model) just in the interest of eliminating that (dont mind the price, kind of wanted an external anyhow)

Clu

Inspector Gadget

Howdy Clu... fancy seeing you in here

It could well be an issue with the modem itself - personally, I've always been fond of the idea of a modem with an "off" switch just in case (/me hugs his Lasat Safire - or at least I would if it wasn't in Ougherard ).

I also have a thing about Conexant (or to us old fogies, "Rockwell") hardware anyway - in that I don't like 'em. It could simply be that they're everywhere, but I've seen so many cooked/mysteriously-not-working-but-look-fine-physically/misbehaving-unpredictably modems (particularly of the spawn-of-Santa "Winmodem" variety) that I just don't trust them.
(By the way, this page should help you identify exactly what your Conexant modem is by chipset/FCC ID/ATI response set, if that helps)

For what it's worth, I'm hearing good things about Creative's Modem Blaster's external models and of course you could always go down the USRobotics... sorry, showing my age again... 3Com route (considering that practically all of the modems used in ISPs are big-ass USR/3Com Couriers... or least they were :rolleyes: ) - they make good kit.

As a final parting note, although I don't use ISPs/dialups much, those around me (in Galway city) that do reckon that Eircon's free service is offering pretty reliable connects (as in they can't remember when they last failed to connect) and good speeds...

[EDIT]Clu - you still using Win '98? If so, have you installed the most recent version of DUN (1.4, I think) and all that stuff?[/EDIT]

Gadget

Cond0r

I'm sure i'll be corrected if I'm wrong but...

I think the connection freezes when there is noise in the line(because the modem is too busy error correcting I think?). This also happens if you have call waiting enabled and someone rings which causes noise on the line(the 'beep beep') in which case the connection also freezes.

I was once told to go to the "Configure modem button -> Advanced Settings -> Extra initialization commands" and to put in "s=25"(without the quotes obviously), I'm not sure what this does but I think the tells the modem to ignore noise on the line.

As I said, correct me if i'm wrong.
Hope this helps!

C.

daveg

I was once told to go to the "Configure modem button -> Advanced Settings -> Extra initialization commands" and to put in "s=25"(without the quotes obviously), I'm not sure what this does but I think the tells the modem to ignore noise on the line.

No... I think this is a speed dial setting. I have mine set to s=50

Cond0r

I dunno, maybe it is!
Seemed to help my connection at the time though whatever it was, or maybe it was just my imagination