Topic 'Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues' in forum 'CenturyLink' - dslreports.com

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:55:59 EDT

billaustin posted : When the modem is in transparent bridge mode, the WAN port of your router can connect to any of the LAN ports on the modem (I usually use Port 1). The router has to be told to get the IP address from CL. If you are in a PPPoE area, enter that information on the WAN setup page in your router. If you are in a DHCP area, set the WAN port on the router for Automatic IP or DHCP.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:31:57 EDT

anon posted : I have had a recent problem with random disconnects on my CenturyLink DSL connection. I was using the 660 modem and what it would do is like drop the DSL connection. The DSL light would go out (and the internet light of course) and then come right back on within a few seconds.

We've gone through everything to fix that and yesterday they came and set me up with the PK5001z modem.

Now, I don't lose the DSL connection as often, but I get randomly disconnected in World of Warcraft quite often, while the rest of the internet is still working, but has extreme latency.

I've been reading about bridging the PK5001z due to these issues and tried to do so. But then I couldn't get anything to work. The DSL light came on, but the Internet light would flash Green and Red.

What port does my router need to be hooked up to on the modem once I switch on transparent bridging?

Extremely frustrated by this.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 22:53:32 EDT

Steve138 posted : I have had the same issues with dropping of the internet the past several weeks. I have an older Embarq 660 modem that I have bridged to a Netgear FW Router with Static IP. Century Link sent me a new PK 5001 Z Router to see if it corrects the issues. After many support calls to Century Link a technician finally told me that they are experiencing what they call "Bandwidth Exhaustion" that began on October 12 and they estimate the problem being resolved by November 10. Ironically though for me, my packet dropping appeared to coincide with my service being upgraded to 10 meg from 3 meg and later dropped back to 8 meg by a tech testing the new service at my demarc. I was unsuccessful setting up the PK5001Z with the static IP, even with a CL tech, and was also told by the same tech that i could not bridge it. I configured advanced -> WAN -> bridging and also disabled wireless, DHCP, and NAT with no luck. How did you accomplish bridging?

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:31:42 EDT

anon posted : I also have this problem! if you don't mind me asking, which router did you get? There are so many to choose from.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:55:09 EDT

CenturyLink posted : Hi Graej,

So sorry to hear that your connection is dropping like that. Please send me your account & contact information so I can escalate and monitor this concern. We want you to be satisfied with the service and need to take a deeper look at what you are reporting.

»bit.ly/TALKTOUS or TalkToUs@Centurylink.com

Thanks,
Rich
Centurylink Help Team

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:56:56 EDT

jojosuburban posted : The PK5001Z (and several other modems) has sporadic issues with its WPS system. I had similar issues with mine and had a friend who is in the business of setting up networks research it and look at the Modem/Router.

if you go into the router settings and turn the WPS off it will cure your problems. In fact if you turn the feature off on any brand of router it will likely cure most of your disconnect problems.

This type of issue with this and several other routers is becoming more common. Many devices are confused by the WPS feature and keep trying to reset there ip address or sign off the network sporadically.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:54:12 EDT

graej posted : so far so good. No drops at all and smooth sailing. If I end up with no more drops by tomorrow, I am going to assume the router side of the dsl modem is the issue.

One of the techs had told me that there was a firmware issue with the PK5001Z modem that caused it to sporadically re-request an IP at random intervals. Yet another tech told me that tech was full of it. :) perhaps he wasn't...

It's working for now with no issues. thanks a ton to all that helped.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:49:04 EDT

graej posted : I got the modem bridged and my connection is up now. I am giving it another shot to see if I can stay connected. I will post shortly with the results.

Thanks

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:15:53 EDT

cscottm posted : Were talking the box that is on the outside of the residence (attached to the side of the house)

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_in···e_device

This link shows a picture of one looks like (or very close).

When you open the main cover, there will be a "phone co side" which will have another cover on it & a "consumer side"

On the consumer side, there might be some wires & usually on the top there will be a retangular cover, that act like a "door", "unclip" this on one side, (so it opens) . Once "open" you will see a phone jack. This is where you would plug in the modem. While you are testing, the phones inside the residence won't work because that little "door" acts like a connector.

Plug the modem in & if possible connect the computer to it (either wireless or long ethernet) and try reduplicating the tasks you've been doing that creates it to drop.

If you get the drop as often then there is problem with the line coming in from the pole. If there is no drop, then the problem is with the wiring inside your residence.

I did find a video on YT, that shows the NIC box. At 1:11, it shows the picture of the rectangular cover, that I'm talking about above (The door is on the top right with two circles on top of each other on the left side of the door, & 3 squares right next to each other on the bottom left

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFCWmjdPC2E

said by graej:

Okay, Please bare with my confusion. Are we talking about some how directly connecting to the box outside the house, or just removing the splitter at the single phone jack that we have in our house and plugging the modem directly into that? (basically, without the splitter)

As far as the SNR and attenuation stats, please see the ones below for when everything is plugged up with the splitter, phone, and modem.

DSL Power

Levels Downstream Upstream
SNR 16.4 dB 11.0 dB
Attenuation 16.1 dB 8.8 dB

Once I better understand what you are asking as it pertains to plugging directly into the NID, I can get that info and post it.

Thanks

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:14:02 EDT

graej posted : A few questions on the bridging. One of the tech support people at centurylink had suggested that I put the modem in and walked me through the basic settings. He told me that I would need to set my netgear router (a wireles G router) up so that it used the following settings, or it wouldn't work.

VPI: 8
VCI: 35
multiplexing:llc (if an available setting)

I see nothing in my router settings for anything like this and after googling it I was made to think that these were in fact DSL modem settings, not settings for my netgear router.

I have looked through the dsl modem settings and still do not see these settings anywhere. Also note that when I actually bridged the pk5001Z dsl modem, and hooked my netgear up to it, I was unable to get an IP/connection with the modem in DSL mode. Some of the new videos I have watched mention a PPPOE login and password, that would be setup in my dsl modem/router. These supposedly need to be used on the netgear router side to make sure the netgear can get an IP from the ISP. However, the current DSL setup shows an empty login and password on this screen.

I am about to try the bridging again, but just wanted to see if I was missing anything. My current steps are:

1) turn off the wireless on dsl modem/router.
2) go to advanced setup>wan settings and switch it from auto to bridging.
3) hook up my netgear and get an IP/connection.

Am I missing anything? I see no place for these vpi and vci settings and no loging ID or password currently in the dsl modem setup.

any thoughts?

Thanks

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:34:16 EDT

billaustin posted : Try putting the modem in bridge mode and using a separate router to make the connection to the ISP. That may help with the dropouts, since they are not line related.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:56:48 EDT

graej posted : I will say that overall I am seeing that a lot of people have issues with DSL. Some who have no choice in what isp they use due to location. I guess if this just can't be fixed, then I will have to cancel the internet (keep the lan line though) and just go back to time warner cable for internet. Had them for over a decade with no real issues. Always had a reliable connection.

I was really hoping this switch would work out better. I might give this another another week and then if they can't resovle it, then i guess I'll switch back. Centurylink was the better deal, but having a stable connection is important. not just for play but for my work also, as I work from home a good bit via vpn.

thanks for the help all.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:50:18 EDT

graej posted : They said they checked our line and it had a good noise ratio (I may be butchering the wording here) and that everything looked good. Even when i had them on the phone and the dropp happened, they said they saw nothing across the 14 diags they had running. They were also monitoring at the modem level.

Also, I am trying to attach an image of what I see when I lose the connection.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 04:36:01 EDT

chd176 posted : Could be a modem issue. I notice a lot of PPoE disconnects on CenturyLink regardless however so a new modem MAY help but chances are it's just something on CenturyLinks end as it happens to me quite often. If it was a line issue you'd see the DSL sync go out shortly before the "internet" connection did or about the same time.
--
10,000/768 CenturyTel PPPoE DSL line (for real this time)

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:52:07 EDT

graej posted : Okay, Please bare with my confusion. Are we talking about some how directly connecting to the box outside the house, or just removing the splitter at the single phone jack that we have in our house and plugging the modem directly into that? (basically, without the splitter)

As far as the SNR and attenuation stats, please see the ones below for when everything is plugged up with the splitter, phone, and modem.

DSL Power

Levels Downstream Upstream
SNR 16.4 dB 11.0 dB
Attenuation 16.1 dB 8.8 dB

Once I better understand what you are asking as it pertains to plugging directly into the NID, I can get that info and post it.

Thanks

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:29:41 EDT

cscottm posted : The NID is the box on the outside of the residence that the line from the pole runs to.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:22:54 EDT

graej posted : The tech that set it all up filtered the whole house because we are getting our house alarm updated to use the new phone line we got. The one wall outlet we have just has one plug and there is a "premier" splitter on it that has a jack for phone and a jack for dsl.

I will take a look at the other items you mentioned. Thank you for the reply :) by the way, what is the NID? I am new to dsl.

Re: New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:38:51 EDT

billaustin posted : Make sure that Every Thing connected to a phone jack, except the modem, has a DSL filter on it. Check the status page in the modem for SNR and Attenuation. Connect the modem directly to the NID and check again to see if there is a significant difference in the numbers. Post the results and we'll go from there.

New to Centurylink - DSL - internet connection issues

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:30:46 EDT

graej posted : Hi all,

I came across these forums and wanted to post and see what you all thought about the issue i'm having. We just got DSL and telephone setup at the beginning of the week and on day one, I did some speed tests and saw that was hitting pretty close to the 10 megabit (think that's what it is) speed I was sold on.

Every day after that we have been getting dropped from our online games constantly. Sometimes multiple times in an half hour.

I have been on more tech support calls than I care to discuss, but here is what I'm seeing when I trying to narrow this down myself. I connected my system directly to the new PK5001Z modem/router that they setup. I then logged into the modem's setup webpage and went over to the status page.

On this page I see two connections. One is DSL and the other is internet. I keep this screen up, along with a network monitoring gadget (win 7 here) while I play my online games. What I am seeing is that the meter will show a lot of activity, which it should for an online game, and then it will just drop to nothing and I get dropped.

When this happens, the internet connection status changes to NOT CONNECTED and shortly there after goes back to connected. I have spent hours on the phone with tech support (all tiers) and they have looked at all the logs they have access to and see nothing showing a drop, but it affects everyone in the house when it happens. Even to the point of knocking my wife off the wireless connection. (I am running a desktop on a wired connection)

They have checked the line noise along with a lot of other things and say there is no issue. But it keeps happening multiple times an hour no matter what were doing the internet status, on the modem status page, just jumps to not connected and then back to connected.

From what I can tell, the problem might be farther up the line, but It's happening so often I am thinking of cancelling and going back to time warner cable even though it is slower and more expensive. I have tried to ask that they escalate this up to someone who can check elsewhere for a problem, but they say unless they see a problem they can't escalate it. (figures..) Note, I have done my years of service in tech support so I'm trying to be nice about this but it's just often enough that it's making me regret switching to dsl.

Again, they have exhausted every thing they can check at tech support. When the problem happens, it just kicks us off and briefly changes the internet connection status to not connected. The dsl states connected.

We also have a phone and have been on the phone with them with this happens and have had no issues with the lines. They checked the lines and say everything looks great.

Lastly, I want to make sure you understand that they have been on the line when it happens and watching and don't see a single log showing a drop.

Any thoughts? Please assist as we're gonig crazy here. :)

Thanks,

Graej