Internet problems

[Jon]

Hi everyone, I keep getting problems with my internet connection. I have BT broadband and keep getting Error 680 and it tells me mu router is possibly at fault or that a connection cannot be made.
The error is intermittent but sometimes it can last a whole evening - hence my writing now! i have been in touch with "Help" dozens of times. I have switched all things off and re-connected and I have installed a new connectoid with 0,38, this workes very well on Sunday evening but Mondau was a disaster.
I am wondering if i go to a wireles router and change to AOL or something like that if it will cure the problem.

Does anyone understand all this It palaver because it is driving me crazy - help - please!! - Anyone! Jon

[Boddie]

I have to say Jon that for all of the bad press that AOL get it seems like jealousy to me by those who dont have it or cant afford to use them. I rate AOL highly for service. Their call centres are second to none, even with none internet issues. I think you can get a wireless router with their 14.99 package and they will talk you through installation. As for AOL taking over your computer - its a fallacy. I would recommend them highly

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Boddie

I have to say Jon that for all of the bad press that AOL get it seems like jealousy to me by those who dont have it or cant afford to use them. I rate AOL highly for service. Their call centres are second to none, even with none internet issues. I think you can get a wireless router with their 14.99 package and they will talk you through installation. As for AOL taking over your computer - its a fallacy. I would recommend them highly

Thanks Boddie, I will enquire, Jon

[Garden Carpet]

If you have a friend on AOL ask them to 'reccommend' you and your friend will receive £50 if you signup... friend might share it with you.. if you are lucky lol
Jaki

PS. Been with them since the whole shooting match started.. wouldnt go elsewhere. People believe the bad and forget the good.

[SteveA]

"Error 680 - No dial tone

No dial tone: There are many possible causes of a No Dial Tone Error."

I don't think any of them are ISP related.

Broadband error codes - broadband error code 680



I'd start by asking your ISP to check the line and take the modem and CD to a friends to check on their ADSL line.



Don't even contemplate switching to AOL, it'll only add an extra layer of complication to the problem - AOL doesn't even use standard Windows drivers for your modem.

[Mr Mag00]

sounds like your line might be noisy. modems are very very sensitive, i have have numerous problems, touch woods things seem to have settled. But i have had the engineer here on a number of occasions

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by Jon

Hi everyone, I keep getting problems with my internet connection. I have BT broadband and keep getting Error 680 and it tells me mu router is possibly at fault or that a connection cannot be made.
The error is intermittent but sometimes it can last a whole evening - hence my writing now! i have been in touch with "Help" dozens of times. I have switched all things off and re-connected and I have installed a new connectoid with 0,38, this workes very well on Sunday evening but Mondau was a disaster.
I am wondering if i go to a wireles router and change to AOL or something like that if it will cure the problem.

Does anyone understand all this It palaver because it is driving me crazy - help - please!! - Anyone! Jon

This sounds remarkably similar to my prob i posted yesterday !
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...-problems.html

[Roy C]

I doubt if this is ISP related, could even be something like a dodgy filter (have you a spare filter to try) or a bad line - do you use a long extention to your pc as this can sometimes give problems. As 'Steve A' says above, be very carefull in changing to AOL - a lot of the stuff they put on your pc is non standard and this could compound the problem.

[rlchew]

Jon

I have been with BT Broadband for a long time now and other than very rare occurrences of a dropped connection, I have found it to be very stable.

I am not a techie so unfortunately I can not offer you any advice.

I hope you get the problem resolved as I am sure like me you need your daily WAB fix.

Richard

[speckled wood]

Not sure of an answer but as to AOL I have been with them save for a couple of short defections since 1996, not that they are good, simply that in my experience they are least least worst of a bad bunch.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by speckled wood

Not sure of an answer but as to AOL I have been with them save for a couple of short defections since 1996, not that they are good, simply that in my experience they are least least worst of a bad bunch.

Trouble is that most people go for 'popular' providers like BT, Tiscali, AOL and Wanadoo with the Consequences that they become overloaded and their servers are not up to it. There are plenty of Real ISP's out there like Demon, Freedom 2 surf, Pipex and Nildram to name but a few but they do not advertise as much as the big boys so most people have never heard of them.

[carlj]

Problem with smaller providers is that they get swallowed up by bigger providers. The problem you're referring to is contention rates. To minimise the cost of bb service, some providers basically shove the maximum number of users on, leading to higher failure rates. For the original problem, it could be a line length problem, ie, distance from the exchange. And as many providers use the same exchange for their bb equipment, changing from one to the other is unlikely to alleviate the problem.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by carlj

Problem with smaller providers is that they get swallowed up by bigger providers. The problem you're referring to is contention rates. To minimise the cost of bb service, some providers basically shove the maximum number of users on, leading to higher failure rates.

You are right about contention ratio's Carl (I do know about them as I recently ran a thin client network to 100 users in four remote offices via ADSL lines - we had to pay big bucks for low a contention ratio). Most ISP's for residential customers have similar contention ratio's of 40 or 50-1 but it is only the big players that use this ratio to its full extent.

For the less experienced this means that your broadband line could be shared by up to 50 users.

I am with a smallish ISP and I doubt if there were anywhere near 50 users for the whole of my area whereas if you are with one of the big boys there are likely to be 1,000 of users in every town.

[Jon]

Originally Posted by carlj

Problem with smaller providers is that they get swallowed up by bigger providers. The problem you're referring to is contention rates. To minimise the cost of bb service, some providers basically shove the maximum number of users on, leading to higher failure rates. For the original problem, it could be a line length problem, ie, distance from the exchange. And as many providers use the same exchange for their bb equipment, changing from one to the other is unlikely to alleviate the problem.

Your reply is exactly the same as one of the IT people at work provided. The problem is how do i get BT to do something. I just get passed from one person to another. Jon

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Roy C

You are right about contention ratio's Carl (I do know about them as I recently ran a thin client network to 100 users in four remote offices via ADSL lines - we had to pay big bucks for low a contention ratio). Most ISP's for residential customers have similar contention ratio's of 40 or 50-1 but it is only the big players that use this ratio to its full extent.

For the less experienced this means that your broadband line could be shared by up to 50 users.

I am with a smallish ISP and I doubt if there were anywhere near 50 users for the whole of my area whereas if you are with one of the big boys there are likely to be 1,000 of users in every town.

This also sounds like something I was told at work, but now I am doubly confused. If Iinterpret correctly you would advise moving to an alternative provider yet other people say this would not be beneficial.

[honeybee]

I hear bad things about AOL and BT, don't get any probs with Telewest although they've been taken over by NTL who aren't as good.

[SteveA]

Jon, it's most likely to be a physical connection problem.

Contact your ISP again and get them to run line tests for you - they have to get BT to do some of this but you can't contact BT directly, your contract is with your ISP.

Have your ISP tested the ADSL line by getting you to setup a connection direct to the BT server? If not, ask them to test it - they'll talk you through it. OR -

To log into the site you may need to change your router or modem settings to the following:-

User Name : bt_test@startup_domain
Password : (leave blank)

You will also need your customer name, EIN and circuit ID... or use
000000000 as the EIN
99999999999999 as the circuit ID

From <--- Kitz - BT Test Login --->


Have you connected your modem to another PC and ADSL line yet?

Have you tried connecting directly to the BT test socket without filters?

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by Jon

This also sounds like something I was told at work, but now I am doubly confused. If Iinterpret correctly you would advise moving to an alternative provider yet other people say this would not be beneficial.

Sorry Jon, my fault for deviating - as I orginally said I do not think your problem is necessarily ISP related.
As far as line length from the exchange goes if you do a line check for your potential broadband speed from somewhere like BT.com: Order BT Total Broadband for home this should tell you if you are to far away from the exchange. Enter your phone number in the 'see how fast you can go' section

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Roy C

Sorry Jon, my fault for deviating - as I orginally said I do not think your problem is necessarily ISP related.
As far as line length from the exchange goes if you do a line check for your potential broadband speed from somewhere like BT.com: Order BT Total Broadband for home this should tell you if you are to far away from the exchange. Enter your phone number in the 'see how fast you can go' section

Hi Roy, thanks I appreciate your reply, I have done all these checks with the BT Help Yahoo wizzo. The speed is OK the error is intermittent. I suspect the distance from the exchange and also the distance of the PC from the telephone connection -it is perhaps ten metres. Just can't understand why now it is good as gold but I bet you later on it plays up. this makes me think there are too many people using the line(s)??

[SteveA]

Just as likely to be a bad connection somewhere along the line or at the exchange.

Keep complaining to your ISP, have them callout the engineers to check.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by Jon

Hi Roy, thanks I appreciate your reply, I have done all these checks with the BT Help Yahoo wizzo. The speed is OK the error is intermittent. I suspect the distance from the exchange and also the distance of the PC from the telephone connection -it is perhaps ten metres. Just can't understand why now it is good as gold but I bet you later on it plays up. this makes me think there are too many people using the line(s)??

Jon, What I meant was that if you do a check to see what your potential speed is and it comes back with say 4mbs then you can rule out distance from the exchange as being the problem as this is determined by the distance you are from the exchange.
Note:this is different from doing an actual speed test.
By the way is there any pattern as to the time of day that you get the errors?

[carlj]

Originally Posted by SteveA

Just as likely to be a bad connection somewhere along the line or at the exchange.

Keep complaining to your ISP, have them callout the engineers to check.

Be careful with this, as some isp's will send out an Openreach engineer without running complete checks, find the fault lies with the customer's equipment (wiring on extensions, router or filters at fault) and you'll be hit with a call-out charge.

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Roy C

Jon, What I meant was that if you do a check to see what your potential speed is and it comes back with say 4mbs then you can rule out distance from the exchange as being the problem as this is determined by the distance you are from the exchange.
Note:this is different from doing an actual speed test.
By the way is there any pattern as to the time of day that you get the errors?

The errors happen after about 8.00pm, I was using it last night until 6.00pm or so, after dinner iIjust could not get a connection at all. This morning from 7.30am no problems and I suspect the same this evening until 8.00pm or so and then it all repeats itself.
This is why I get the impresssion it is not really the modem (does that mean router?), and i doubt if it is the wiring in the house otherwise why would it work perfectly well at some times? My guess is that somewhere there is not enough whatever it is coming down the line to my house because everyone else has got it! Jon