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foxbird
join:2012-10-18
Raleigh, NC

foxbird

Member

[Line Problem] Line Noise and Reconnecting Issues

My mother, who lives in Wilmington, NC has been having internet issues for over a year now. She subscribes to the DSL Extreme package, which was given to her as part of an AT&T/DirecTV package. The problem manifests as disconnects from the internet and a refusal to reconnect, which inevitably results in a phone call to me (two hours away in Raleigh). I'm relatively competent when it comes to computers and internet hardware (I've had a CCNA for many years now, and work for Cisco helping with network related exams, never mind my home network which consists of a cisco 871 router).

The gateway provided by AT&T is the typical 2701HB-G gateway. Following the instructions here »www.att.com/esupport/art ··· WhdiPIgb I've configured the gateway to run in bridged mode. I additionally disabled the wireless interface, just to reduce interference. I then attached a Linksys E2500 to the other end and configured it as PPPoE, with her att.net username and the "network password" given to her. Initially the setup works fine. The router connects, gets an IP and everything is golden. Sometimes it will last a few days, sometimes a week, but eventually there is a hiccup. Either a brief power outage or some other anomaly. Now, when the problem surfaces, the Linksys complains that it "Can not get an IP Address from PPPoE". No amount of clicking connect, disconnect, or otherwise seems to make it reconnect. Resetting the DSL modem and/or the Linksys will eventually bring the connection back up, but it's not consistent as to which actually solves the problem. The way I've managed to make it work lately, is to log into the gateway, reconfigure it to use the PPPoE settings, enable routing, and wait a minute or two for it to come online itself and obtain an IP. Once the internet light displays, I revert the settings to disable routing, use Direct IP, and then reconnect the linksys (which disables the internet light). Having it connect is then successful and it continues to work until the next outage when we repeat the phone calls and procedure.

There may also be some issue with the line itself which could be causing the linksys to fail, where the 2wire is perhaps more persistent. Whenever I speak to her over the land line, I can hear some rather loud pops that seem to come and go. Some days it's fairly quiet, other days not nearly as much. I can usually tell when the DSL is working by the quality of our calls. She's not able to hear it as much, but I can hear it loud and clear on my end, and its presence does concern me. It's happened with at least three phones, so I'm certain it's not a phone issue. To avoid a $100 service charge from AT&T, I cleaned up the phone lines at the house. I ran a new segment of CAT5 from the interface box to the DSL modem, completely disconnecting the rest of the house. I was concerned that perhaps the alarm system (which isn't running any longer) may have been on one of those pairs, so I wanted to eliminate that. I also wasn't sure of the line quality behind the walls. I also verified the use of a DSL splitter at the jack and that the modem was properly plugged into DSL and the phone into the phone jack. We've complained about it to AT&T, but they threaten to charge her $100 if the issue is on her side, and I'm to the point now I'd pay $100 just to stop the calls.

As for additional information and troubleshooting. I don't have access to the 2wire directly (I'm working on getting her an ethernet cable to run from a second nic directly to it so I can access the page when it's up), but I can get her to log into it and pull information for me, it just takes time to resolve. After our last troubleshooting scenario, I verified that the MTU on the 2wire and the Linksys was set to 1492, just in case that was causing problems. I also pulled some basic info about the signal quality from it as well:

Modem Information
-----------------
Model: 2701HG-B
Current Noise Margin: 29.5 down, 24.6 up
Current Attenuation: 29.9 down, 8.0 up
Current Output Power: 14.8 down, -1.3 up
VPI/VCI: 8/35

I didn't get a screen capture of the interface unfortunately (she's not quite that tech savvy), but I did have her check the Troubleshooting - DSL Diagnostics page, and all of the various lines were listed as "Ok". The next time it happens, I'll see if I can get to the diagnostic page before its power is reset so I can view the training history from a long-running link.

At this point, I'm at my wit's end. I'm tempted to just disconnect the linksys and use the 2wire, but it has no remote admin interface (that I can find), and it's wireless strength tends to suck compared to the E2500 (which could be a factor of where it's placed). So, I'd prefer to keep it, but am not sure it's worth the hassle. Does anyone out there have any suggestions or recommendations for me to try? Understand it may take me some time to get back information as I don't have direct access to the devices and either have to drive two hours, or work through a non-technical interpreter.

Thanks for any help and suggestions you guys can toss my way.

johnanon
@bellsouth.com

johnanon

Anon

Call Plain Old Telephone Repair and have them run a test on the line next time you hear that popping noise is my first suggestion.
foxbird
join:2012-10-18
Raleigh, NC

foxbird

Member

Okay, I've got a few updates. We've had a tech come out to the house and examine for noise. As predicted, he found nothing. We sent him away before coming inside to save ourselves $100 or so for the service charge. I'm fairly confident that the CAT5 wire and new jack and wall plate we put in a year ago hasn't degraded in quality. We've also removed the splitter and tested without a splitter on the line at all. Straight telephone, no DSL. Today, it was raining and when she called the popping noises were faily loud and I had the foresight to capture them on my phone. I've uploaded copies

»picasaweb.google.com/lh/ ··· rectlink

and

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· youtu.be


I'm not sure why, but the picasa link doesn't work in Firefox, so I also hit Youtube as well. You may need to turn up the volume a bit, but you can clearly hear the popping noises that the techs insist don't exist. The support rep on the line says they do, but the tech is insistant that they don't.

I've also ordered a new DSL modem. One of the Westell 6200's that the tech recommended since we are doing bridging. He's heard enough complains about the 2Wire modem being an issue in bridging that he recommended a change.

If anyone takes a listen to the audio and has any information on what it might be, I'd appreciate it. The popping also interferes with dialing as well, especially when it's real bad. She's got another appointment with the techs for line noise issues (standard telephone, not DSL service), and I'm going to send her the link to play the audio for them as well.

I'll keep you guys in the loop as I get more information.
foxbird

foxbird

Member

Okay, some updates for those of you who are interested in this ongoing plight.

We finally managed to get a tech to listen to the noise and admit that something was wrong. He's replaced a line card somewhere along the way, and I at least don't hear any popping noises when listening in on the remote end. My mother says she hears the popping noises now, so there may be something else going on. They don't seem to be as frequent at least. But, it at least seems improved.

The reduction in noise seemed to make the 2WIRE/Linksys combo happier than it had been and it was up with no real complaints for over a week. Perhaps it was just dumb luck. I replaced the 2Wire modem with a very basic Westell 6200. Once I put the thing in bridge mode (one checkbox instead of 3 or 4), DSL came right up on the linksys first time. Everything is now sitting on a shelf out of the way so no one messes with the thing.

So, the uptime issue seems to be solved now at least. However, there's now a different problem! There is some really horrible lag and slowness. From my internet connection here I can ping the default gateway on the DSL modem and get ~36ms, which is pretty good given that it's from a TWCBC connection. From the linksys device, I ping the same gateway and get some horrible values. There's a few good ones in there, and I've seen some periods of 10-20 seconds where they are are solid, but shortly afterwards it goes back to being miserable. The results from the linksys look like this:

PING 98.67.87.1 (98.67.87.1): 32 data bytes
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 Time=442.0 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 Time=861.3 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 Time=500.4 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 Time=133.0 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 Time=67.2 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 Time=1048.2 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 Time=879.8 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 Time=641.0 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 Time=1287.4 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 Time=1275.1 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=255 Time=768.7 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=255 Time=994.7 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=255 Time=2277.2 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=13 ttl=255 Time=2714.0 ms
40 bytes from 98.67.87.1: icmp_seq=14 ttl=255 Time=3289.5 ms
--- 98.67.87.1 data statistics ---
15 Packets transmitted, 15 Packets received, 0% Packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 67.2/1145.3/3289.5 ms

That's the default gateway on the router right now, so you'd expect something a single hop away would work out fairly well.

So, any suggestions on what to try here? Or should I be fielding another call to the AT&T support desk to see if there's any testing they can do?

medbuyer
join:2003-11-20
Memphis, TN

medbuyer to foxbird

Member

to foxbird
let's start from here house NID...

take a pic of it open and post here....let's see how it is inside...clear pics pls...