I know this isn't a TekSavvy issue, but all DSL services essentially work in the same manner, so it would be interesting to see if anyone here may be able to help explain the situation I've got with a customer. I know there are a number of people here who are a lot more familiar with the workings of the infrastructure than I am, which will be an asset for understanding the situation.
I have a customer who has asked that I see about fixing their internet issues. On the most part, I've been able to hammer them all out. Her hardware configuration is as follows:
Modem: Simmens SpeedStream 4200 (Bridged)
Router: D-Link DIR-615 (Rev E3, FW 5.10)
Configuration: Router establishes PPPoE connection on WAN port, PC connects to router's LAN (as follows:)
PHONE LINE (Internet) ===> MODEM (Bridge) ===> ROUTER (PPPoE Dialer/LAN Host) ===> PC (End Device on LAN)
The first thing that I noticed that was out of place was that her internet seemed to be running really slow. It's supposed to be a 6Mbit/800Kbit line, however it only seems to be bringing in 3.25Mbit/650Kbit. My first initial thought was to do all the usual network resets within Windows, power down the computer, then power cycle the modem and router, powering on/connecting each device in the chain in the order that they come, but had no success. The result was a "PPPoE Authentication Error" that was coming up in the router's error log.
What seemed more interesting was that the modem still indicated that it had a link to the ATM network and that in theory, it should be able to allow the router to establish the PPPoE link. Confused by this, we decided to contact AOHell technical support directly to see if perhaps there may have been some sort of issue with their PPPoE authentication systems in the area, but after a long (and painful) 2 hours, they came up empty handed and unable to explain the reason for why she was unable to establish the PPPoE link. Since this was not satisfactory to me, I decided to run a few more tests for shits and giggles to see where the problem seemed to be, and that's when I started noticing some very interesting results.
The first test that I decided to run was by changing the PPPoE login to test@test to connect directly to the CO and run a few tests. It seemed that the modem wasn't the problem as I was assigned an IP of 10.3.212.18 and noted that when I tried this test from my Kitchener DSL line in the same general side of the city it had given me 10.3.212.16. My first question here is: Does this mean that her line and my line both run to the same CO or DSLAM? Just curious on that one.
The more interesting observation that I noted was when I opened up a command prompt and tried running "ping -n 100 10.3.212.1". The result it turned up was as follows:
quote:
Ping statistics for 10.3.212.1:
Packets: Sent = 50, Received = 50, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 46ms, Maximum = 248ms, Average = 51ms
The first question that comes to mind when I see this is does this mean that the distance from the CO or DSLAM may perhaps be too far?
Aside from that, there are many other things that come to mind, but I can't help but wonder... What does this mean? I know that normally, the ping statistics on this test should generally never be above 10ms, but in this case, it seems that there's a problem. The question here is what would this problem be, and would I need to get AOHell to file a ticket with Hell Telecom to be able to investigate this issue?
What was even more interesting was that when I went to reconnect to her DSL to run some further tests on the connection to see where the problem lied with her connection, but only found myself in a frustrating situation. According to AOHell, there should have been nothing preventing me from establishing the PPPoE link using her actual AOHell login, however no matter what I tried, it seemed that this was just not going to happen. Frustrated by this and trying to determine if the modem perhaps may have been faulty, I decided to give my good 'ole faithful TekSavvy login a whirl... It worked... Like a charm. I was back online and poking around on the internet without any issue, but noted that the speeds still seemed reduced.
My question here is: Is it possible that the problem with the ping on the test@test being so out of whack may be what is causing the link to AOHell's PPPoE authentication server to not be established? If not, would I likely need to have either AOHell or the Hell Telecom Test Centre run any kind of further testing on the line to try and determine the problem?
Any tips anyone could give me at this point would be greatly appreciated. I've already traced every last stitch of wiring, every jack, etc and I am unable to produce any kind of line issue anywhere in the line past the demarc point. I have even attempted to swap the Simmens SpeedStream 4200 with a newer Simmens SpeedStream 5200, a 2Wire 2701HG-G, a Thompson SpeedTouch 516, and a Comtrend CT-5072T, all of which produce the exact same result, so I'm fairly sure it's safe to rule the modem out as a possible problem.
I just hope I don't have to end up dealing with AOHell India or Hell Telcom (at least directly) to get this resolved for her. I'm just frustrated as can be with it and have come to the opinion that the expression "AOL Technical Support" is an oxymoron.