Internet Service Problem or Not?

[kschachn]

When I mentioned NID, I mean the demarc box on the outside of your house. It is where the incoming phone line is at, and one side will hinge open for you, the homeowner. Inside is a test jack that you can unplug and plug in your DSL modem. That eliminates your house wiring, which is what I was getting at as the potential problem. You would plug the phone wire on the DSL gateway into the NID outlet and fish a piece of CAT 5 from the gateway back to your router or computer. The NID looks like this:

Typical NID

And a new problem just recently can be a hallmark. The classic case is having issues at dusk when some new outdoor light comes on. This can affect a wired DSL signal on the phone lines just the same as wireless.

These are all just suggestions. I agree it could be your modem, but if you eliminate the house wiring that might help to narrow it down.

 

[ZeeOSix]

^^^ kschachn - I see now, thanks for the clarification. Maybe I'll try to rig something up to test that out, but doesn't look simple based on where everything is physically located. Simplest thing to do might be to get a long phone cord and route it from the DSL gateway out the office window to the NID box on the outside of the house.

I was also thinking of using a long phone cord and running it into a different room to use a different phone jack in the house just to see if anything changes.

 

[ZeeOSix]

So here might be another clue that my DSL modem is becoming flaky. When I log into the modem to look at the settings, etc, when I serf around into the different menus in the modem's settings I sometimes get a few seconds pause and see the message at the bottom of the screen say: "Waiting for 192.xxx.x.x ... ".

Seems like there should be no waiting for the modem when I'm just communicating between my computer and the modem and not going outside the modem to remote servers (if I'm understanding this correctly).

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
So here might be another clue that my DSL modem is becoming flaky. When I log into the modem to look at the settings, etc, when I serf around into the different menus in the modem's settings I sometimes get a few seconds pause and see the message at the bottom of the screen say: "Waiting for 192.xxx.x.x ... ".

Seems like there should be no waiting for the modem when I'm just communicating between my computer and the modem and not going outside the modem to remote servers (if I'm understanding this correctly).


Having a spare/borrowed/new modem/router to troubleshoot with would be a plus. My old Barricade modem/router didn't fail, it just began to slow waaaaaayyyy down. An ATT tech gave me a new Motorola modem and I bought a Netgear router. Speed immediately went back up. Then the Moto cooked itself and went Tango Uniform. I talked ATT into providing me a new Westell modem/router combo free for being a long-term customer.

It could be your modem has 'temp spasms' (death spiral), starts heading for the ditch, then corrects. It's a sign its going Tango Uniform.

Ask for the 'customer retention dept' of your ADSL provider and see if they won't comp you a new modem/router for your continued support. Get their direct number and only call them from now on. The front-line people have little power and mostly read scripts.

Keep us posted.

 

[ZeeOSix]

This problem is so hard to pin-point based on what I see happening. So tonight when web pages were churning to refresh using Firefox, instead of power cycling the modem I shutdown Firefox and opened Google Chrome to browse with. Web pages loaded up, but then got the churning session again 5 min later, so shutdown Google Chrome and opened up IE8 and pages loaded and worked again. This was all without power cycling the modem.

Did a speedtest.net right after all that and it was down pretty good from where it shoudl be, but still workng.

Then there have a few times when I used the reset button on the back of the modem to reset it (think it’s the same as cycling the power) and it didn’t help. Sometimes it seemed it did. Nothing seems to be clearly repeatable.

Then opened Google Chrome again and it's now working too. So it's strange that sometimes if I power cycle just the modem it comes back for a while, or if I close down the browser and reopen it comes back for awhile. Maybe if the modem is the problem and gets into it's "lock-up mode" it somehow gets the browser software also in some kind of lock-up mode which is cured by restarting the browser? When I see these churning sessions when using Firefox it seems Firefox is using a lot of CPU resources if 3 or 4 tabs are all churning at the same time.

If there any way to determine if it might be a flaky network card in the computer? I’m sure a new network card is way cheaper than a new modem. Looks like I’m going to have to trying new parts to find the real cause.

Is there any way it could be software related?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Had one episode where resetting the modem and also closing and reopening the browsers didn't work. Had to do a computer restart to get any network activity going. That makes me wonder if the network card might be going out (?).

 

[kschachn]

Sorry if you have already said, but is the computer with the network card the only one that you have, or is it the only one showing issues? Do you have a phone or laptop connected wirelessly to your network? If so, does it exhibit the same problems?

 

[JustinH]

all this troubleshooting is dumb.

Burn a linux live cd, and boot the computer from it.

Run a web browser and see how that runs.

If it is better then clobber the OS and start again.

 

[ClutchDisc]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
all this troubleshooting is dumb.

Burn a linux live cd, and boot the computer from it.

Run a web browser and see how that runs.

If it is better then clobber the OS and start again.

+1 Exactly what I was going to suggest. If it works well on the live Linux disc than you know it is the OS. If he then likes Linux enough all he has to do is back up his files and then install Linux on the computer and he is good to go! I suggest you try it with Linux Mint.

 

[redhat]

So sorry our troubleshooting suggestions weren't good enough for you.
Originally Posted By: JustinH
all this troubleshooting is dumb.

Burn a linux live cd, and boot the computer from it.

Run a web browser and see how that runs.

If it is better then clobber the OS and start again.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
Sorry if you have already said, but is the computer with the network card the only one that you have, or is it the only one showing issues? Do you have a phone or laptop connected wirelessly to your network? If so, does it exhibit the same problems?


It's only one computer that is hard wired with a Cat5 cable to the router/modem DSL gateway box. This router/modem is capable of operating wireless also, but I have that turned off through the setting in the router/modem.

I really don't see how it could be the OS - is there any way to know without using some other OS? Only thing I've changed recently is I removed Microsoft Security Essentials and installed Bitdefender Free which is supposed to be a low resource real time anti-virus program. Also installed Malwarebytes PRO which runs real time. I think both of those were installed awhile before this issue really started getting noticeable.

I have a friend that just so happens to have a DLS gateway laying around when she use to have DSL through Qwest, who is now CenturyLink. Think I'm going to try that gateway out and see what happens, that is if I can get into it's menus and make sure setting are correct. The previous user might have had a log-on setup with a password, and if so I doubt I can get in and chance any settings. Will see, can't hurt to try a different gateway first.

 

[Rolla07]

Why don't you do a factory reset on the gateway?
Then ensure firmware is up to date, reconfigure it and run trace route again. It shouldn't time out. If it does, get a new gateway or see if you can borrow one for testing purposes. Also, replace the phone cord from gateway to phone jack and make sure its as short as possible. A long line cord or extension from gateway will cause issues. Better off increasing the length of the cat 5 then the phone cord. If the trouble is still occurring after that,is it occurring always at the same times or at different times. Despite that DSL is dedicated some dslams (central office) can experience slow downs during peak hours. I don't think this would be the issue but who knows. Try browsing with another computer and see if trace times out as it does on this computer. Its all trial and error at this point. Good luck!

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Sorry if you have already said, but is the computer with the network card the only one that you have, or is it the only one showing issues? Do you have a phone or laptop connected wirelessly to your network? If so, does it exhibit the same problems?


It's only one computer that is hard wired with a Cat5 cable to the router/modem DSL gateway box. This router/modem is capable of operating wireless also, but I have that turned off through the setting in the router/modem.

I really don't see how it could be the OS - is there any way to know without using some other OS? Only thing I've changed recently is I removed Microsoft Security Essentials and installed Bitdefender Free which is supposed to be a low resource real time anti-virus program. Also installed Malwarebytes PRO which runs real time. I think both of those were installed awhile before this issue really started getting noticeable.

I have a friend that just so happens to have a DLS gateway laying around when she use to have DSL through Qwest, who is now CenturyLink. Think I'm going to try that gateway out and see what happens, that is if I can get into it's menus and make sure setting are correct. The previous user might have had a log-on setup with a password, and if so I doubt I can get in and chance any settings. Will see, can't hurt to try a different gateway first.


If you do a factory reset on the gateway it will set username and password back to factory default.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I have a friend that just so happens to have a DLS gateway laying around when she use to have DSL through Qwest, who is now CenturyLink. Think I'm going to try that gateway out and see what happens, that is if I can get into it's menus and make sure setting are correct. The previous user might have had a log-on setup with a password, and if so I doubt I can get in and chance any settings. Will see, can't hurt to try a different gateway first.


If you do a factory reset on the gateway it will set username and password back to factory default.


Thanks for that info ... I dug up the manual on my Actiontec and found this about the reset button. I have used the reset button a few times to cycle the gateway (holding reset in just 2~3 seconds). You have to hold it down for 10+ seconds to do a factory settings reset - which I don't want to do on the gateway I'm using now because I don't want to loose my username and password info. I will probably have to do a factory setting rest on the one I'm going to borrow to trouble-shoot, then go from there.

Reset Switch
Depressing the Reset switch for one or two seconds will power cycle the Gateway (similar to unplugging and then plugging in the Gateway’s Power cord). To restore the Gateway’s factory default settings, depress and hold the Reset switch for approximately 10 seconds. The reset process will start about 10 seconds after releasing the switch.

 

[Rolla07]

If you factory reset yours don't you have the default username and PW? You should be able to change ur info back after resetting.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Why don't you do a factory reset on the gateway?
Then ensure firmware is up to date, reconfigure it and run trace route again. It shouldn't time out. If it does, get a new gateway or see if you can borrow one for testing purposes.


Do you have an idea on what setting(s) I need to change in my current gateway to be able to run a traceroute test without it timing out as I showed earlier in this thread?

About the firmware, it looks like this gateway has ISP specific fireware since it was a Qwest starter kit when I purchased it. When logged into the Actiontec, there is a link in the firmware update section that links to a Qwest webpage for firmware updated for this gateway model, but that link is non-existant anymore since they don't support this model any longer.

I went to Actiontec's website and they show a firmware update that was way back in July 2005, but they also say this which makes it sound like I can't use their firmware update due to the original Qwest setup.

"This Firmware Upgrade (3.0.1.0.6.0) is for the GT704-WG ONLY. It is not to be used on any other model of router or gateway. This is a NCS (Non-Customer Specific) Firmware, and is not intended as an Upgrade for ANY ISP Specific Firmware, regardless of version number. Therefore, you should not load a NCS Firmware Upgrade on to a gateway that currently has an ISP Specific Firmware installed."

My Actiontec model GT704WG says the Firmware Version is: QW04-3.60.2.0.6.3-GT704-WG

Actiontec says their firmware update for my model GT704WG is version: 3.0.1.0.6.0, and is Non-Customer Specific (NCS), which makes me very leery to even try it based on their statement above.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
If you factory reset yours don't you have the default username and PW? You should be able to change ur info back after resetting.


I probably do have the factory username and password in the original setup instructions which I could dig up.

But would a factory reset blow away other setup info like my PPP Username and PPP Password in the "IPS Protocol" menu under the PPPoA that I originally had to setup with Qwest to make it work?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: redhat
On the link I sent, keep the bubble on "Obtain an IP Address Automatically" and then put the second bubble on "Use the following DNS server addresses".

Then key in the two Google Public DNS.


redhat - have a question about setting up to use the two Google Public DNS addresses you suggested.

I had originally went into Windows and set them like the link you provided said to do. But I also see in the configuration of my Actiontec DSL gateway that there is a place to set up the "DNS Configuration" which is still set to "Dynamic" but I can set it to "Static" and then enter those two DNS addresses you suggested.

Maybe they will only be in effect if the gateway is setup to have static DNS server addresses? Guess I can try it and see what happens. Do these static DNS server addresses need to be set in both Windows and on the DSL gateway?

 

[redhat]

No, if you set static DNS servers in Windows, it will override any setting your gateway gives to your computer. The gateway can either dynamically (when it renews it's DHCP lease) receive DNS servers dependent upon what CenturyLink is telling it, or you can specify your own statically (Google, OpenDNS, etc.).

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: redhat
No, if you set static DNS servers in Windows, it will override any setting your gateway gives to your computer. The gateway can either dynamically (when it renews it's DHCP lease) receive DNS servers dependent upon what CenturyLink is telling it, or you can specify your own statically (Google, OpenDNS, etc.).


I did go into my Actiontec gateway and set it to static DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as suggested. That as 5~6 hours ago and I've been using Firefox ever since and haven't seen any slow downs like before.

Also about 3 hours ago I downloaded CCleaner and ran it. It picked up ~150 registry "issues" that it fixed. The computer seems to run faster/smoother since then also - CPU usage seem noticeable lower now too. Will continue using without messing with anything from here forward to see if the churning slowdowns reoccur or not.