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4. Troubleshooting
This is free advice so please take it if you need it. Often we as customers complain about our service and wonder why no one seems to be doing enough. Have you done enough? We expect SBC and ASI to bend over backwards to bring us a better connection when often we have made little or no such effort on or own end. Do you have a POTS splitter? Please keep in mind that the device you plug into your phone jacks all over your house are not POTS "Plain Old Telephone Service" splitters but filters and if you are doing this all of your non DSL lines under your house are counting in your total line length and are robbing you of bandwidth. A POTS splitter goes inside of or next to your SNI/NID which is usually a gray or black box located outside where your phone line comes into your house. On one side of the POTS splitter is DSL and the other side is POTS or voice this keeps the DSL signal from running in all of your other lines under your house which will add to your line length. POTS splitters run from around forty dollars and up and depending on which one you buy and where it may be a module that fits in your SNI/NID or a separate box all together. I recommend getting the module type and personally use the LPF-200 by antec products. You can find some nice examples of how this is done here and for older SNIs here. Be sure to take out that half-ringer since it can add to the length of your line. Do you have a dedicated or "home run" line? Dedicated or "home run" means that the line for your DSL runs from the SNI/NID to the wall jack or interface for your DSL modem and nowhere else and it is best to have no other devices installed on this line. It is also best to use CAT5 "category 5" cable to run your dedicated or "home run" line. You can use any of the four pair to do this and it is often suggested that you use pair number two or the orange and white pair. You can also go the extra mile by running CAT5 from your wall jack or interface to your modem of course you will have to do some trimming "cut some of the other wires back" to allow it to fit into the module plug. Always remember these important rules while routing ANY CAT5 cable: 1. Never stretch your CAT5 cable. 2. Always keep your CAT5 cable at least six inches away from ANY other cables this is VERY important for electrical cables as this will cause more noise on the line. If you are a bad judge of distance a dollar bill is usually six inches. 3. Never un-twist the pair any more than one half of an inch, one quarter of an inch is even better if you can get it connected. The same goes for stripping it including the outside jacket. 4. If you have to cross other cables do so at a ninety degree angle. 5. Never crush or kink your CAT5 cable. This includes stapling your CAT5 cable. Use hangers for such purposes which you can get from radio shack or staple wire ties which you can get almost anywhere. 6. Make sure you don't run your CAT5 into a spike or surge protection device as there are sometimes problems with these like you didn't know your new puppy likes to pee in it. =o) It also should not be needed as SBC should have such protection in your SNI/NID already. Are you sharing your dsl with others in the house? Invest in a DSL gateway or router as ICS, Sygate and other software alternatives just don't do as good of a job and cause you to have to leave a computer on so the other computers can use the connection. If you only have one IP a gateway will do just fine. Make sure that what ever you purchase will support PPPoE "point-to-point protocol over ethernet (RFC 2516)". Most that are made for DSL do but it is always a good ideal to make sure since many of the europe DSL providers use PPTP "point-to-point tunneling protocol (RFC 1171)" or PPPoA "point-to-point protocol over ATM (RFC 2364)". DSL gateways can be purchased for as little as thirty dollars depending on where you shop and how much security you are looking for most of them offer NAT "network address translator (RFC 1631)" protection at the very least and are well worth the investment. Also most of them have a built in DHCP "dynamic host configuration protocol (RFC 2131)" server that makes it easy to use multiple platforms without all of the setup nightmares. Are your settings correct? Your MTU "maximum transmission unit" and RCVWINDOW "receive window" are the most important but you should not ignore the rest. If you are not getting one hundred percent transfer efficiency on the DSL-Reports tweak test it is probably your settings and they offer some helpful advice there. I usually obtain best results with an MTU of 1500 and an RWIN of 65535 but your results may vary depending on your line conditions. The DSL-Reports tweak tester is here Do you have noise on your line? If you have noise on your line it may be RF interference you can find good information on tracking it down here. Remember if you refuse to go the extra mile then you can't expect others to do it either and you will find if you have most of the techs will be able to get to the root of your problem much quicker. Thanks to everyone whose fine post I have used in reference here and DSL-Reports for such a fine resource. I couldn't have done this with out you. by callihn4 edited by Flippant This is a bug in the tcp/ip programming for Enternet 300 version 1.34-1.41c that occasionally prevents Windows 2000 users from being able to browse. Go to Help-About in the Enternet 300 to find out which version you have. As of this posting Ameritech has Enternet 300 v1.5 for download but not on hardcopy yet. You will be better off with RASpppoe or a router with built-in PPPOE software than Enternet . * If you are using Enternet 300 v1.34, the easiest way to fix this is to change Private API to DHCP in the Connections-Settings-Advanced window in the Enternet 300. * If you are already using Enternet 300 v1.5, try one of the following: 1) Install Service Pack 2 for Windows 2000, according to Efficient Networks, this fixes some bugs in the networking components for Windows 2000. 2) Right click on the Enternet 300 icon in the systray click on "Advanced", and click on "log". If it keeps saying "IP address is still not programmed" every second, then go to the Enternet.ini file(do a search or find for it by going to Start-Find or Search) and edit the IPProgramWait= to a value higher than 30, you can have a value between 1 to 60 and 30 is the default number of retries. This is the number of times it tries to reprogram the IP address per second. *If you can browse but have intermittent trouble, then download Enternet 300 v1.5 from the SBC Drivers website with the username: dslsoft and password: driver when you are experiencing one of those times that you can browse. * If you can't browse at all then connect with the Enternet 300, go to Start-Run, type command, click Ok, type ipconfig /release, right click on the Enterent 300 tray icon, select disconnect, then reconnect with the Enternet 300, open your browser. If you want you can also type ipconfig before releasing the IP, you will see that you have 0.0.0.0 for your ip address, after reconnecting it will still show your IP address as 0.0.0.0 but you can browse. Once you can browse, go to the SBC Drivers website with the username: dslsoft and password: driver to upgrade to Enternet 300 v1.5 If you would like to trouble shoot this more thoroughly you can go to the Enternet FAQ at the Efficient Networks website. Here is a excerpt from the Enternet 300 v1.5a Release Notes (file is in pdf.format): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Workaround for Microsoft TCP/IP address setting problem with W2K. The workaround fixes a problem occurring with some Windows 2000 systems whose browsers are unable to browse correctly upon connection. Note that there is also a problem with the Windows 2000 in general which requires service pack 1 for resolution. In all cases, we recommend that you install service pack 1 before installing Enternet 300 v1.5a for Windows. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Ranma edited by Flippant These instructions are for PPPoE software users only (Enternet, XP PPPoE, RASPPPoE, WinPoet). If you have DHCP or PPPoE through a router this can make things much worse. If your computer has to logon to access the internet and you notice delays/freezes/stalls while the OS boots up or when browsing or at seemingly random times. The following will likely cure it: •Open Control Panel. •Open Network. •Look for the first entry in the scroll box marked TCP/IP, that is associated with a hardware ethernet card (ignore dialup, especially Enternet or NTS and VPN type bindings). Note: If you have a 4060 USB modem, select TCP/IP-> Efficient Networks SpeedStream 4060 CIP/1483 •Select it and press properties •Select IP address from the tab Is Obtain IP address automatically checked? If so, change that to Specify an IP address and enter 192.168.1.10, and 255.255.255.0, into IP address and subnet mask fields respectively. You can enter a gateway of 192.168.1.138 as well. Click OK and OK, and the computer will build a driver information database and will require a reboot for the changes to take effect. This assignment of a harmless local IP address to the TCP/IP settings bound (connected) to your network adapter, will stop the in-built DHCP services from waking up every 10 minutes to look for a DHCP server so that it can "fill in the blanks". by Flippant
by CCCMTech2$ edited by Flippant If your IP address starts with 70.240 or 70.241, you may have issues getting to some web sites due to providers not allowing this range. This is because these IP ranges are brand new and have yet to be recognized by some smaller providers. A good guide (and some background information) can be found here: http://www.removed.us/ipguide by removed edited by Flippant __NAME OF POSTER__ -- If you would like to take a short trip over to the broadband tweak forum, and answer as many of the following 11 questions as possible, about your particular system set-up. I'm sure you will get all the advice and information you need from the good people in this forum - myself included. - The RAM by GNH edited by Flippant The MTU setting can be found at the bottom of the Advanced/Filter configuration table. Enable the MTU and adjust accordingly. If you leave it disabled it will default to 1492. If you don't see this setting on that page you need to upgrade the firmware for the unit. Linksys Firmware page. Be sure to read the UPGRADE document for instructions. DSLR Linksys Firmware Revision FAQ page. by RamblingRam edited by Flippant If your modem is capable of giving you stats of your dsl line, or if ASI sends you your line information upon request, you might wonder what it all is. Below are the four most common things you will see, and the only four that you will need to worry about. 1. Line Capacity 2. Line Noise 3. Attenuation 4. Signal Power Line capacity will show you how much of your line you are currently using. 0 being none, and 100 being the max. You want this to stay under 90. Line noise will show you the current rate at which your dsl signal is hitting your modem and going back to the dslam. Ranging from 0 to 31, Where 0 is the worst and 31 is the best. The higher it is, the better. Attenuation is the rate at which your dsl signal attenuates over your line from the dslam to your modem. This will be anywhere from 0 to 60. Where 0 is the best and 60 is the worst. You want this to be in the 10-20 range. Keep in mind that everyone's line will be different then the next persons. If you have any question about this feel free to IM me. by Alphabyte edited by Flippant This can be caused by a software conflict during installation. This can be solved by uninstalling Enternet 300 and closing all programs before reinstalling the Enternet 300. *Go to Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs. Double click on Enternet 300 to uninstall. Click "Yes" when it asks you to confirm the uninstall. Click "Yes" again when it asks if you want to reboot. *Reboot PC a second time. *CTRL-ALT-DEL and click on each program and end task all programs except Systray and Explorer. When you click on "End Task", the "Close Program" window will disappear and you will have to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL again to repeat the process. *Reinstall Enternet300. *Reboot PC. by Ranma edited by Flippant This is never caused by the server or a sync issue its always caused by a communication problem with the server when the tcp/ip protocol is disabled or missing for the NTS PPPOE adapter. In Win 98/ME/2000, go to Start-Run, type ASD, click Ok. If you see tcp/ip for the NTS PPPOE adapter here, put a check by it to enable it, and reboot. You should be able to connect now. If that doesnt work, then the NTS PPPOE adapter may be missing tcp/ip. Go to Start-Settings-Control Panel-Network. You will see that there is no tcp/ip protocol for the NTS PPPOE adapter here. Win 95 allows a limit of 4 adapters with tcp/ip bound to it and Win 98/ME allows a limit of 6. If you have more than the limit allowed, then you will have to remove any unneccessary adapters that listed here. If you have AOL 6.0 and do not use it, then uninstall AOL 6.0 because it uses up 3 tcp/ip stacks for AOL Adapter, AOL Dial-Up Adapter, Dial-Up Adapter #2 (VPN Support). Once you have removed the excess adapters, you can add a new tcp/ip bound to the NTS PPPOE adapter by going to Add-Protocol-Add-Microsoft-TCP/IP, click Ok. When you see the NTS PPPOE adapter is bound with tcp/ip, click Ok and reboot your PC. Try and connect. by Ranma edited by Flippant Check your Power Options. It could be that your computer is going into hibernate mode and will stop responding to keep alive requests. This will cause the PPPoE server to believe that you are no longer connected and force a disconnect. Be sure to check in your BIOS as well for hibernate options. by Flippant Things to check if you are not getting sync. If you have not rewired your premises with a Home Run Line (a dedicated wire run from your outside wiring interface complete with filter), then you need to ensure every phone using appliance in the house is filtered. Not only phones, but fax machines, alarm systems, TV converter boxes etc. Do not wire your DSL modem through an analog phone modem. It will not work. Be wary of UPS surge protectors for phone lines. Some will work some won't. |