US Telco Support > CenturyLink > Down Again. Please help.

Down Again. Please help.

Given the information provided there is not much we can do on this end.

Can you take pictures of the inside of your nid, or possibly test at the drop line inside the nid with the modem? Do you have on old POTS style phone line?

A million things can cause a DSL outage. Another tech could have erroneously pulled a jumper in a Crossbox which happens very often with ATT. Same thing could have happened in your serving terminal.

reply to one20inna55
If the DSL light does not come on, then the modem and the DSLAM are not syncing. That is the problem you need to fix first. Take the modem out to the NID and try it at the test jack. If it doesn't work there, I would take the modem to the relatives house and test it. You could have a modem that is failing.

It is important to note that if you operate the modem in bridge mode, the internet light will never come on. If you operate it in router mode, then the internet light will come on when the upstream connection is good. If you do a hard reset on the modem, it will put it back in router mode.

If you are in a DHCP area, it is a little easier to test. If you are in a PPPoE area, you will need to call CL Support to get your PPPoE username and password to enter in your modem after a hard reset.

reply to one20inna55
Thank you both for your responses. It started working again about an hour ago. Nothing I did. My assumption is that it wasn't on my end, but then again I can't prove the modem isn't failing. Everything is working fine, now. This unreliable service is just so frustrating. I just don't have a choice where I live.

Unreliable service is usually due to bridge tap inside the home. Can you take a picture of the inside if your nid and possibly behind the jack?

reply to one20inna55
That picture is enough to see you have two inside wires connected in the Nid, so you do in fact have bridge tap.

Do you have an analog phone line as well? If not, you can disconnect one of the inside wires, but without seeing the inside of the wall plate I can't tell if that will eliminate the bridge tap.

What is bridge tap? Yes, I do have an analog phone on a jack in another room.

bridge tap simply means you have a fork, or split in the line which degrades DSL signal. (since you have two lines connected to one binding post, you have bridge tap)

Bridge tap is not required to be removed for slower and older analog DSL, but you will still reap the benefits if you eliminate it. ( generally a major increase in signal )

You need an ADSL splitter filter installed at the nid, and more than likely have the inside jack worked on, and then toned out to the nid.

A competent tech should be able to do this in about 30 minutes. Or we can walk you through the process is you have a simple tone generator and get a hold of an ADSL nid splitter filter

reply to one20inna55
Howdy neighbor, we too are having problems with our service in the last few days, and we live outside of Athens (same zip code as you) near the Tara Winery. I just found this site while searching on the net about our new problem.

reply to one20inna55
anytime the internet light is red means the pppoe info given to to you by your Telco is not there to authenticate. if you reset the modem with the little push button in back that did it. you need to go back into the modem most likely 192.168.0.1 or 1.1 and put your info back in. you must also have a solid dsl light at all times. if not have Telco come out and test at nid , they will adjust package from central office depending how far out you are.

reply to one20inna55
Hey One20inna55, did a tech come out this week or do we need to escalate your concern? Send me your account & contact details so we can get ya back up and smiling.

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

Thanks,
Rich
Centurylink Help Team

reply to one20inna55
Well, it happened again...

Yesterday, we lost electricity, voice phone, and DSL. My assumption initially was that someone cut both lines. Everyone in my area was out of electricity, however, my parents, who live about a mile up the road, did not lose phone service or DSL.

Eventually the electricity came back on, but not before the battery backup supplying my modem and router ran out of juice. I didn't even try to mess with the internet until the voice service was restored, so I submitted a ticket. No tech until the following day. However, the voice service spontaneously returned about 3 hours later. So, I moved on to trying to get our DSL back. Several modem reboots, nothing. Just a blinking DSL light on the 660 Series modem. So I gave up and decided I'd just wait for the tech the next day. But then, spontaneously the DSL returned and speeds were normal (~5 Mbps).

The next morning I attempted to cancel the ticket, but was told I couldn't because the tech was already en route. My wife met him at the door and told him all was well. He told her there were known problems with that particular modem, but she, not knowing what to say to that just told him to leave well enough alone. He obliged. Not even 10 minutes later and the DSL went down again. By this time, I was on my way home and called CenturyLink. They were able to get a dispatcher to contact the tech and send him back out.

While I waited for him, I had a look at the junction box at the end of my driveway. A few years ago, we had similar problems and it was related to a broken wire making intermittent contact and would short out with humidity and rain. The box is a mess as I'm sure many are, but it looked like 2 wires were connected well enough to the posts. However, I still felt like this was the culprit.

I met the tech at the road and asked it he wanted to have a look at the junction box first. He said, "nah, it's got to be that old modem. I've been changing out a bunch of 'em here lately." As I followed him to the house, I figured he'd want to upgrade me to one of the newer modems with built-in router. I really don't want to interfere with my current setup as it was a real pain to get all the laptops with different OS's as well as PS3, XBox 360, 2 satellite receivers, phones, etc. talking to one another. I figured with a new router, I would have to re-setup my network setup. Sure enough he pulled out the new modem/wireless router. I told him my concerns and he said, "Yep, you'll have to re-do all that." At which point, I asked he at least run some testing to confirm my modem is really bad before committing me to that. He then said, "Well, I can just turn off the wireless function of this new one and you can still use your current wireless router. That way, your network will not be affected." Relieved, I allowed him to do so. So after swapping out the modem, the new modem had a red DSL light. He said, "I've seen this crop up a few times. I think they got the lights flipped at the factory, because I'm getting a DSL signal just fine. So, red, in this case means you're all good." While he's doing that, I noticed I had no voice service...no dial tone. He said, "That's not right. What I did shouldn't have interfered with that." So he went to the NID and tested it. He said, "Yep there's a short somewhere before your house." I said, "Now, can we have a look at that junction box." (FYI, when I commented on what you called a 'bridge tap', he said, "That's called 'home runs', that's the best way to do it." I didn't argue.

Finally, at the junction box, he discovered the little plastic tabs they use to connect/splice the wires were popped loose resulting in intermittent contact. He said there are 2 wires, one for DSL, and one for voice. He said the DSL would work if one wire was connected, but it wouldn't work well. He agreed this was my problem. He therefore re-did the connections cleanly and dial tone was restored. Miraculously, the red light that he thought was a factory screw-up was now green. He said, "We're learning something new about these new modems every day. Apparently the red light just means there's a fault, but it can still work if the DSL is intact."

While this guy is a very nice, respectful person, I quickly started to lose confidence in him.

My phone service is currently working fine. My DSL is working fine with speeds near 5 Mbps. My LAN is unaffected.

Now, a question. I've been getting flyers saying I can get 10 Mbps now. When I originally signed up several years back, 5 was the max. I've been hesitating in upgrading to the 10 Mbps for fear they'd force me into a new wireless modem/router. Now that I have said modem with the wireless function disabled and my own wireless router connected to it, will I be able to upgrade to the 10 Mbps without much fuss? Does a tech even need to come out in that scenario?

I appreciate your patience with my elementary questions.

reply to one20inna55
There is no plural "home runs" and you certainly don't have a home run from the picture.

The tech should have removed the inside bridge tap for you.

Without a true homerun 10 megs is doubtful.

reply to one20inna55
Log in to the modem and finds the connection stats. SNR and Attenuation are the most helpful. Those will help to determine how well a 10mb upgrade will work.

A technician does not need to come to your house for the 10mb upgrade. They update your profile with the new speed settings, and then you reboot your modem so that it syncs at the new rate.

Those are all good. You should be able to handle 10mb without any problem.

reply to billaustin

Yes, power-cycle.