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Review by roderickng See Profile

  • Location: Eagle Mountain, Utah, UT, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
Reasonably Stable Enough
Tech Support
Neutral At Best
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have used wireless Internet for 5 yrs, first with Rapidwave, then Digis bought out Rapidwave.

Throughout the service, there were intermittent connectivity issues, ranging from slow to outright no connection. Sometime weekly, sometime once a month, sometime daily. Most events lasted only a few minutes, only ONCE was the cause my home connection and a few times the house's roof antenna required minor aiming adjustment to the tower. Every other time, it was because of something going on the tower, from maintenance to other software related issues that customers usually oblivious about. I do not constantly stream videos/music, only occasionally watch Amazon Prime low res TV shows. Shortly after Digis bought out Rapidwave, with the last connectivity event, the tech had to re-align the roof antenna to a new and closer tower and I hoped and thought that the closer tower would be the end of connectivity issues.

Guess I was wrong.

With the latest connectivity issue, my Chrome web browser began to display the 'Resolving host...' message more often and longer than before. I have a Linux pc, so I began 'ping' testing to google.com to see. The ping result lines took longer to appear than normal. Sometimes there were some percentages of packet loss and sometimes there were none. Then all of a sudden, no connection at all. The Chrome web browser as showing a constant 'Resolving host...' message and eventually timed out.

I went thru the usual troubleshooting steps: reboot router and pc. But no joy. So I called tech support and explained what happened. I worked with the tech and bypassed the router. I got Internet connection with the antenna straight to the pc. Then I hooked up router 2 and received slow Internet connection with the Chrome web browser giving that 'Resolving host...' message. Both routers, 1 and 2, are the stable Linksys WRT54 series. So now it is possible that router-1 is bad. But I was still curious about that persistent 'Resolving host...' web browser message. CNN and other news websites that have a lot of graphics and media would take a long time to fully load and that 'Resolving host...' message was constant. Then I used router-3, a newer Linksys WRT54G2, and still have slow connectivity.

I have three problem routers ? If I use no router at all, which is a security risk, web sites would load quickly, so it still possible that I have three bad routers.

I called tech support, 3rd time, and explained what I found and asked if he could check something -- anything -- on the tower side, because I find it difficult to accept that three routers are bad. He said that if I have fast connectivity with no routers, and slow connectivity with a router, then it is possible that all three routers are indeed bad, or that the ethernet cable itself is bad. I asked that if I used five cables and still have slow connection -- inline with a router -- that I would have five bad cables ? He said 'Yes'.

So now it is possible that I have three bad routers and many bad cables. I told the tech that I would do what he said: swap out cables.

Oddly enough, after the final phone call, my connection went back to its usual speed, with the original cable and an old Linksys WRT54 router hooked up. I went to Google News, OSNews, EETimes, CNN, PBS, and anywhere that have a lot of media on the website and everything loaded fast. All with the original cable and an old Linksys WRT54 router that have been in used for nearly 10 yrs. There were no 'Resolving host...' messages, just the usual 'Waiting for...' messages after the host was quickly contacted.

Somehow the old Linksys router and even older cable fixed themselves. Fracking magical.

To any Digis support tech that may read this post: I was an avionics tech in the USAF on the F-111 and F-16. I know how to debrief pilots, from fresh out of flight training to combat experienced, to know how to assess any issue they found. I do not take customers' experience lightly, and yes, each crew is a customer and the jets I fixed are the products for them to use. The longer a customer have been with the product, the more familiar he will be with how it should operate, so when a customer calls for help, it is because they notice something out of the ordinary in usage for that product. If someone told you that he used three routers to troubleshoot the problem, you might want to consider the possibility that he has a little bit more in-depth technical proficiency with his hardware than usual. As of now, I am running with the old router and old cable that your support team said are bad.

member for 14.6 years, 8 visits, last login: 9.8 years ago
lodged 9.9 years ago

roderickng
join:2009-08-17

roderickng

Member

Digis and Resolving Host Message

Update on my connectivity issue...

I got good connectivity for about 6 hrs, then my browser started giving that 'Resolving host...' message again. That goes on intermittently for another hr before connection stabilized. I started searching online for this issue and there are a lot of ISP related returns about DNS caching. And Digis support told me that I have 3 bad routers, a potentially bad pc, and possibly several bad cables.
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog

Member

Re: Digis and Resolving Host Message

Ever think about your router possibly interfering with the wireless service which would explain why things work properly with your router disconnected? Also, make sure you aren't connected by hardware and wireless to the router at the same time. If the service works without issue without a router there is obviously an issue being caused by the router. This may not indicated a bad router but simply a configuration issue. If you think you have DNS issues just statically set your DNS to something else. Google, OpenDNS, whatever
roderickng
join:2009-08-17

roderickng

Member

Re: Digis and Resolving Host Message

Three bad routers ? The 3rd router that I used to troubleshoot, Linksys WRT54G2, still have the default admin/admin user/password setting.

Anyway, this problem is a repeat except that when Rapidwave owned and ran the service, their techs knew that the problem lies with the tower's relay processes. Probably each tower have its own DNS server. I do not know the details but there are many online comments about ISP related DNS server issues. My desk PC connects to the router via hard line, not wireless. It does not have the wireless capability.

The Rapidwave techs seems to know about the tower's DNS and MAC address processes because they never had me bypass my router. They just did something to the tower and fixed the connectivity issue. The Digis techs seems to be more focused on how to blame the long time customer.
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog

Member

Re: Digis and Resolving Host Message

So set your DNS manually and be done with it.