View Full Version : NTL Disconnecting
Mr Clean
07-07-2004, 22:32
Hello all, I'm new on here but have been reading the board for some time and noticing that some people have been having the same problem as me and a couple of friends in Derby. (Modem disconnecting randomly)
I have had this problem on/off for about 3 weeks now. Tried all differnet methods/tricks to curb it, pretty much without success. I've removed Firewalls, Routers, tried the NTL Cable Modem, Set Top Box.
Everytime I'm downloading, films mainly, and getting a good speed the line dies. My Local Area Connection still tells me I have the same IP Address but there no traffic in or out. If I reboot or disable/enable the Local Area Connection, I get a 169.***.***.*** IP Address. The only way to get service back is to reboot the Set Top Box and everything is fine, with the same IP address I had previously.
It seems like everytime the Bandwidth is being used at great speed, the Modem or Set Top Box disconnects itself or just the line is killed.
I spoke to an NTL Tech today and he was completely unaware of anything like this happening before, (Which I found strange) but he was completely helpful and not one of the usual idiots you get when contacting Tech Support. He booked it as a fault immediately and I have an Engineer coming out to me in the morning to look into it.
If anyone else has this same problem, I'd be interested to know if anyone managed to solve this problem without the assistance of NTL.
Plus, I'd just like to say what a joy it has been to be an NTL customer for 3 years, and enjoying fast Broadband without a hitch for the majority of the time. Also, the NTL Support desk, for me, has always been very helpful and quick at rectifying my troubles, be them little or large. I just hope that tomorrow proves to be as previous encounters have been.
Cheers. :)
Ignition
07-07-2004, 22:46
Send me your IP address and will check everything out from this end, if nothing obvious will leave it to the engineer who will be out to visit.
hoggyspuds
07-07-2004, 22:49
Welcome!! Sorry I can't help with your problem, just wanted to echo your point about ntl broadband, no problems here at all with the service. Credit where it is due. Don't forget to post the solution........if you ever get one!!
Mr Clean
08-07-2004, 09:37
Well, 9.32am. The Ntl Engineer has been and gone and I now have a nice new shiny Samsung Set Top Box. Internet Resumes and downloads/uploads a little faster than before.
Only time will tell now if problem was with the STB (which I suspect) or not.
I will post back and keep this thread updated.
P.S.
A special thank you to JustAnotherN00b for all his help last night. Much appreciated Amigo. ;)
Adios for now.
Mr Clean
08-07-2004, 18:10
Hello again.
About (roughly) 9 hours after the new STB was installed and the PC online downloading fine. Hey Presto DISCONNETION and the nice present of a 169.***.***.*** IP Address. That was with the ame IP Address as before which I found strange after installing a new STB. I thought I'd get a new one.
Anyway, have just changed from USB back to Ethernet and got me a shiny new IP ( same as before but with an 8 on the end N00b if you wanna have a look ) so I will see what happens from here onwards.
Upload speeds are capped and firewall is uninstalled. So I'll see what happens now.
If you are P2P'ing you may run into the problem that I had with my old STB, it doesn't like it and will drop your connection when you really put a load onto the connection.
I changed to one of the older models of STB and it was fine, limiting your upload speed to about 80-90% of its capablity might help keep the STB alive a bit longer LOL
Mr Clean
08-07-2004, 18:44
If you are P2P'ing you may run into the problem that I had with my old STB, it doesn't like it and will drop your connection when you really put a load onto the connection.
I changed to one of the older models of STB and it was fine, limiting your upload speed to about 80-90% of its capablity might help keep the STB alive a bit longer LOL
I am P2P'ing and I have tried limiting the up/download speeds. Nothing makes much difference. It was all running fine until my old STB blew and got a new one. The next one just disconnected all the time.
Today I got the shiny new Samsung, and have just obtained a new IP. IT was with the last change of IP the problem started. So.... hopefully all will be good from now on, but I dont hold my breath.
Only time will tell......
It's more likely to do with the equipment than anything, I've found that some of the older STB models were a lot more stable than the newer boxes, I have no experience of the new Samsung so I'll cross my fingers for you ;)
Mr Clean
08-07-2004, 22:30
It's more likely to do with the equipment than anything, I've found that some of the older STB models were a lot more stable than the newer boxes, I have no experience of the new Samsung so I'll cross my fingers for you ;)
I reckon you might be right there. The first STB I had worked fine for 2 years before it blew up one day. I had the same IP Address forever and all was good. Uploads/Downloads were never a question or problem.
I'll see what happens over the next couple of days. It's been upping and downing now for 6 hours at good speeds and seems to be OK. I'll post back if it disconnects again.
Cheers ;)
Mr Clean
08-07-2004, 23:47
:Yikes: ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH ! :Yikes:
Just disconnected again but this time. I wasn't uploading or downloading. Completely baffled now. :dozey:
Must be a Network Fault or my Line.
My mate Joe from work is having the same problem as over today. He had it a few weeks ago but it went away when he got a new IP Address. So we thought that might be the issue. But apparently not.
I'm gonna monitor the progress of the situation over the next few days while I'm away in Liverpool and if it's still the same come Monday I'll be back on to NTL for further investigations.
Cheers. :sleep:
scrotnig
09-07-2004, 00:16
:Yikes: ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH ! :Yikes:
Just disconnected again but this time. I wasn't uploading or downloading. Completely baffled now. :dozey:
Must be a Network Fault or my Line.
My mate Joe from work is having the same problem as over today. He had it a few weeks ago but it went away when he got a new IP Address. So we thought that might be the issue. But apparently not.
I'm gonna monitor the progress of the situation over the next few days while I'm away in Liverpool and if it's still the same come Monday I'll be back on to NTL for further investigations.
Cheers. :sleep:
Jamgood, if this hasn't improved then feel free to drop me a PM, it's clearly not your box and it may be necessary to get a senior engineer and/or a network tech to find out what's going on.
Mr Clean
09-07-2004, 01:32
Jamgood, if this hasn't improved then feel free to drop me a PM, it's clearly not your box and it may be necessary to get a senior engineer and/or a network tech to find out what's going on.
Thats very kind of you Mark.
I will let you know either way.
Thanx :)
Mr Clean
11-07-2004, 13:18
Been connected now for 2 Days 6 Hours and 15 Minutes so far. Uploading and Downloading all the time. Seems to be going fine at the moment. Not changed a thing on the PC or the way it's connected though :erm:
Strange.
We shal see what happens from here now.
Cheers.:D
Mr Clean
13-07-2004, 02:18
Disconnected again. Twice in the last 24 hours. :(
Something a little strange this time though. I could still VNC in to my PC, see my desktop and use my PC Remotely from another PC. It had stopped Downloading completely, but remained Uploading.
Web pages ceased to come up but I could ping them via URL or IP. I also couldn't recieve Emails but could send them using Outlook Express. It seems to me that there is something well above the "normal" internet connection problem occurring here and will be phoning NTL CS in the morning for further assistance.
Should they fail to rectify this, I'm afraid I will have to move to another ISP because this is really getting frustratingly annoying now. I've tried absolutely everything I can think of and I work for an ISP fixing problems like this, but this one has got me.
I cant spend the rest of my NTL life rebooting the STB box every 5 minutes when I'm 100 miles away at work :(
! HELP NTL !
Joe_Curry
14-07-2004, 12:48
Im also having the same problem, in the Derby area, i also use p2p and often get back to find that im not connected which obviously means a stb reboot. Its frustrating
I have had the same problem all the time I have had my STB, random cut-offs after a random period of time.
Two weeks ago I tried to update Zone Alarm to version 5 and I had massive problems, so I decided to install a different Firewall, and since then I have not been cut off a single time.
Of course it could be coincidence.
Mr Clean
14-07-2004, 17:19
I'm not using a Firewall at all at the moment. I have tried with Norton and Zone Alarm. Same thing, STB still dies after a while.
I use Azureus Bit Torrent Client, (I had the same problem with every client I tried though) and set the maximum # of connections per torrent to 50 instead of 100 and the maximum # of torrents connected globally to 500 instead of a thousand to see if that makes any difference. (still connected and downloading at the moment)
I'm now assuming that it's the number of ports open on the PC that is killing the modems traffic in. It's seems like I'm DOS Attacking myself with Bit Torrent. (too many ports open)
It seems to be working fine at the moment but only time will tell if it disconnects again. It's so intermittent at the moment, you never know.
Cheers :beer:
<Snip>
Have you measured the upload speed on your PC (if so, what is it?)
Mr Clean
14-07-2004, 17:29
Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt.
Uploads have been allowed, capped (at stupendously low speeds) stopped.
Mr Clean
18-07-2004, 18:53
Well well well. I've had no disconnections since the last, (touches wood) which the date of, I forget at present, everything seems to be ok since I limited the amount of ports to be open on my PC while downloading/uploading.
So the theory of DOS attacking yourself with P2p software seems to be true.
Doing this has made no changes to the upload/download speeds and everything seems like gravy at the moment.
So here's :beer: to the future of not being disconnected.
Cheers :beer:
We're having a similar problem to this, but we've got a stand alone modem - a terayon one. After an hour or so the uplink seems to drop - you can't use the web (servers not found), email goes nowhere, and dns requests fail (running, something like "dig www.bbc.co.uk" on my linux box says the server couldn't be reached. The downlink however remains active - I can send an email from work to my server at home without any problem. I connect through a NAT router, and find that either powercycling the router, or the modem - or getting the router to reboot or renew the dhcp lease brings the connection back. All of these activities renew the ip address lease, and the uplink returns for a while. It started doing this a few weeks ago, and it's getting rather annoying. Any ideas anyone?
Cheers
Mr Clean
22-07-2004, 22:51
What do you have running at the point of disconnection.
I've found that when downloading using Bit Torrent software (any of them) I get disconnected.
When using Soulseek or Kazaalite, nothing happens, stays connected forever all good.
Cheers.
Foo Fighter
23-07-2004, 00:00
Hmm this has started happening to me now quite often. Before it was once in a blue moon but lately i cant leave it on while at work or overnight because its just dies.
Gonna change thr routers firmware so if that helps
I don't have any file sharing or anything like that running - just plain old web-browsing and it goes. I think it must be a dns problem - because if I can connect to home from work bi-directional communication must be possible - to send an email requires two servers to talk to each other. My understanding is that an incoming connection - such as an email message comes from a known ip address, so the recipient server (mine) doesn't have to do a look-up to reply to the request, so it can recieve incoming email even when it can't resolve dns properly. However of course to instigate connections from my system I need to be able to resolve dns properly - and it's this that fails. It's almost as if the ntl network says you've had your ip address lease for x amount of time, so I won't respond to dns requests until you renew it manually. My router, a netgear RT314, renews the ip automatically when necessary (and also updates our dyndns account with any changes)
I have a linux box which runs a dns server - it provides dns for our network, and caches look-ups for external addresses - it passes external requests to the ntl dns servers. I haven't touched the setup, and it had been running fine for over 18 months. Maybe my router is on the blink and isn't renewing the dhcp properly.....
bigsinky
23-07-2004, 18:44
the problem is buggy firmware with routers and modems and stbs. if you are using P2P like bittorrent to download movies etc, then with 4 or 5 torrents going, you are maxxing out you download connection. the router,stb,modem needs a little download overhead to do its housekeeping duties, but with maxxed out downloads it can't do this so it drops a connection and when you try to repair you get a "failed to renew IP address". for me anyway i have to reboot modem and router, but this is a major PITA coz i have to renew the download of the torrent files. it was suggested that new firmware for my router might solve the problem but guess what, downloaded new netgear firmware and i still get the same probs. even if you try to throttle back the download to say 90% of total i still get the connection dropping. suppose i will just have to download 1 torrent at a time :D
hope this helps ya
cheers
big sinky
ps can anyone from the cable forum team let me know if there is a firmware update for the ntl home 120 cable modem and if so where can i get it.
Ignition
24-07-2004, 02:57
ps can anyone from the cable forum team let me know if there is a firmware update for the ntl home 120 cable modem and if so where can i get it.
Customers are not allowed to alter the firmware of modems in any way shape or form, the modem is not the issue your router is.
The issue is actually routers not having enough memory to handle all the mass of connections so bodges have to be made with firmware code to try and get around it.
Try reducing number of connections on your BT client, or even paying for your movies which would be good for the soul.
bigsinky
24-07-2004, 08:45
or even paying for your movies which would be good for the soul.
I already have a sizeable (>500 dvds) of original movies all of which i paid for, thru the nose in some instances. if the prices for dvds and cds in the UK were priced a bit more sensibly then i would be the first one at the tills buying them. too many ppls lining their pockets in the movie and music industry and on a point of principle, if i can download, reauthor, and burn a dvd for a fraction of the price, i would rather keep the money in my pocket thanks. watch you don't fall of that big horse btw ;)
cheers
big sinky
Ignition
24-07-2004, 16:17
Not at all, people that download a DVD or 2 a day make the service more expensive for everyone else, but that's perfectly acceptible of course as DVDs are overpriced.
My original recommendation stands though, reduce number of connections on BT and wait for the email politely suggesting you start paying for movies again, I don't think the companies in question really care if you own 500 DVDs the ones you've 'self authored' are probably of more interest.
But anyway.... that's a different issue. IF you ever fall into strife feel free to send me your MAC / IP address, I'm sure your usage will make interesting reading. :)
I already have a sizeable (>500 dvds) of original movies all of which i paid for, thru the nose in some instances. if the prices for dvds and cds in the UK were priced a bit more sensibly then i would be the first one at the tills buying them. too many ppls lining their pockets in the movie and music industry and on a point of principle, if i can download, reauthor, and burn a dvd for a fraction of the price, i would rather keep the money in my pocket thanks. watch you don't fall of that big horse btw ;)
cheers
big sinky
How much is a sensible price for DVDs? You can get them from £7.99 in certain stores.
Of course, on P2P, you can get them for free. But, look at it this way. Yes, there are a lot of people lining there pockets in the Movie industry. It's there to make money, and unless you allow the people that finance the film to make a return on their investment, they won't invest in films. No investors, no film.
It's also worth noting that if enough people thought the same way you appear to, then the result would be quite simple. People would stop making movies.
One final thought: If you invested several million pounds in something (Film, music, anything), wouldn't you at least want your money back, even if you wanted for forgo any profits?
Mr Clean
24-07-2004, 22:32
How much is a sensible price for DVDs? You can get them from £7.99 in certain stores.
Of course, on P2P, you can get them for free. But, look at it this way. Yes, there are a lot of people lining there pockets in the Movie industry. It's there to make money, and unless you allow the people that finance the film to make a return on their investment, they won't invest in films. No investors, no film.
It's also worth noting that if enough people thought the same way you appear to, then the result would be quite simple. People would stop making movies.
One final thought: If you invested several million pounds in something (Film, music, anything), wouldn't you at least want your money back, even if you wanted for forgo any profits?
Never mind all that. Save it for another forum, this is meant to be a Connection Issue Thread, not about the price of DVD's or what people are downloading.
Never mind all that. Save it for another forum, this is meant to be a Connection Issue Thread, not about the price of DVD's or what people are downloading.
Fair enough.
bigsinky
24-07-2004, 23:54
Never mind all that. Save it for another forum, this is meant to be a Connection Issue Thread, not about the price of DVD's or what people are downloading.
oops.. apologies for the thread hijack.
cheers
big sinky
grindkid25
25-07-2004, 13:54
i know exactly what its like with ntl connection, ive lost my patience with the lights just going off on my cable modem and the actual whole not working for a whole week, i phone them up they do a test on it, somehow it starts working again, a few hours later....hey presto, its faffed up!
How you told NTL that you have reported multiple times? If it keeps happing, they need to send out an engineer.
Yes, I know they should know what has happened to your connection, and that you have reported it in the past, but, going by my own experience, NTL seem not to keep track of this *. Next time you phone, point out exactly what has happened (it doesn't hurt to remind the CS person you have had the same problem before even if they can see it on your record), and insist on an engineer.
*NTL employees: I am aware that you probably do keep a track of what happens to a customer account, but I have had almost the same problem with an STB. I called NTL on several occasions, each time I was asked to reboot the box and it worked for a day or two. Each time, the operator appeared not to know I had called before. Eventually they agreed to send an Engineer who replace my dying STB and solved the problem.
Could you try asking ntl for a SACM?
Could you try asking ntl for a SACM?
If you a referring to me, I do actually have a working STB now (this happened when I first had broadband installed a couple of years back). grindkid already has a modem. I used me as an example to try and get across the point that you sometime seem to have to remind NTL of what they have already done.
peacedude2k4
26-07-2004, 19:59
This will put a spanner in works
I download alot online on a 1mb cable bb using USB connection.. and I must admit even when I have just left it logged onto MSN Messenger and Lycos Chat and gone bed or out for a bit I have come back disconnected but yet with same issues as you say above.
I assumed it was just a normal progress of technology and if this carrys on I think I will move to Blue Yonder 1,5mb is £37.99 hmmm NTL how about 3mb for around £50 like Blue Yonder with little complaints from users I know of :Yikes:
:Yikes: ntl u after commiting suicide????:Yikes:
This will put a spanner in works
I download alot online on a 1mb cable bb using USB connection.. and I must admit even when I have just left it logged onto MSN Messenger and Lycos Chat and gone bed or out for a bit I have come back disconnected but yet with same issues as you say above.
I assumed it was just a normal progress of technology and if this carrys on I think I will move to Blue Yonder 1,5mb is £37.99 hmmm NTL how about 3mb for around £50 like Blue Yonder with little complaints from users I know of :Yikes:
:Yikes: ntl u after commiting suicide????:Yikes:
If you get ntl BB, you cannot get Telewests Blueyonder BB, as they are not cross sold.
It's ntl BB only for you I'm afraid, unless you switch to ADSL.
i am really getin annoyed with ntl now from when my speed was upgraded my connection drops if i try to download more than 20meg it seems as if there is a geezer somewhere switchin off my connection, if i reboot its all ok for another 20meg or so???? and this goes on all the way thru the download i was downloading iso of linux last night and it dropped connection at least 15-20 times thank christ ie picks up part downloaded files and i stayed off the net all day to make sure i would now go over the allowed cap just incase that was the problem :Yikes:
It seems to me that you have to be just lucky if you dont get any problems with dissconecting , i was with tiscali broadband and for the first year i had no complaints at all , then tiscali decided to upgrade everybodys speed at no extra cost. Well i wished they had not done so as soon as they did that i kept getting dissconected, sometimes i could not get connected at all, thats when i decided to give ntl a go , so far very good , i have no complaints with the broad band side of things. i hope it stays that way.
cashflow
13-05-2005, 22:44
ive now got this problem my connection seems to be dropped every night at about the same time but funni anoth my over computer stays alive and well. im runnin through a belkin wired router. when i lose connection it takes about a minute for it to start up again i dnt have to do anythin just sit and wait ive been gettin this now for about 4 weeks. it seems to happen from wot i can see from when i start downloadin of limewire and bittorrent. how can i stop this ???? just from lowerin my download and upload speeds.:dozey: though i dnt think tha will help i monitored it and even though my download speeds were low it still disconnected. how can i close ports ? as someone said earlier in this thread tha it helped them.
ZXSpectrum
15-05-2005, 20:19
I have been having this same problem for over a year now... REALLY beginning to annoy me now... I have checked and tried EVERYTHING and the porblem certainly lies with the line...
I had a STB downstairs with a cable running upstairs (Installed by Engineer) And i was getting constant internet dropouts and very poor pic and signal breaking up with TV too... So they eventually, after about 3 callouts, changed the STB and plumbed me in a Silver Cable modem... Things were fine i bought a Wireless router so me and my friend could share the connection and all was fine...
So i started to use BitTorrent... And lo and behold the problem started again....!!! After a few mins of Azureus running the connection would drop out! I had to power off the router then back on and it would sort the problem... So i sold the Cheepo Belkin Router and bout a Netgear WGU624UK... But the same problems arose!!!! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
I have been putting up with it for ages but it seems to be getting worse... I used to be able to reboot the router after the initial dropout and it would be fine for a few hours... But now its doing it constantly...
So yesterday i thought i would remove the router (Thinking that was the fault although VERY unlikely as i has the same problem with different router) and just run with the connection direct from the modem to PC using the Windows Firewall... Seemed fine for a few hours, downloaded a few files and was a bit happier... But shortly after it died again... Same error! (Connection to :Insert IP: ) Then shortly after i rebooted and fired up Azureus it did it again...
Almost had enough now and going to cancel it and get a BT Line in with another BB Provider... My friend has Bulldog.. he says its fast and has never dropped out on him...
BTW I am in Derby as well...
Hey hey
I've had the same problem, when the service was updated to 3mbit, and we were still on 1.5 (i dont know why, but I know my friends in the same area had been updated but NTL said we were still on 1.5). I downgraded/upgraded to the 2mbit service and then we got problems... The modem would disconnect and the router (Linksys) wouldn't re-establish a connection until the modem had been reset. Sometimes it would be days between each reset, others it would be seconds. Yeah I use bit torrent, but it happens when its not being used as well. We had to call out an engineer who replaced our modem at one point as it had completely died, and he said the noise on our line is above normal but (once he fiddled with the exchange, or whatever its called for cable) it was within acceptable limits.
I read your posts here and decided to play with some settings on thr router to see if I could get a more stable connection (tho to be fair the router has worked fine unchanged for about a year and a half before this started happening). I've just tried disabling the advanced firewall protection *eep* so relying on windows firewall right now *double eep*...but using WallWatcher a lot more packets are getting through that are supposed to, and the internet speed seems faster. Hopefully the modem wont crash out for the next few days, and i'll post again if it does...but it all seems to work now...ideas as to why?
We are experiencing the same problems. We have three computers linked through a belkin router and up until recently all was fine. We are connected through a set top box to the router then to the three computers. One computer keeps losing internet connection but the other two remain connected.
It crashes when using torrent and also when playing online Medal of Honor, the game will freeze when the connection goes down and then restart again.
Have changed the network pci card and tried alternative cable into pc just in case these were broken. Still disconnecting, also have connected straight from the stb into the pc (without router) and same thing happens.
Any ideas re is it the router, is it the stb or should I just smash up the third pc - coz thats whats gonna happen soon if I don't sort the problem out.
Raistlin
22-05-2005, 13:06
Sounds like you're swamping your upload.
If you're uploading constantly, and at too high a speed/rate, you will lose your download temporarily.
The packets that you are downloading cannot be confirmed by the network, because the return confirmation is being lost amidst the other traffic on the upload, so the download gets cut off because the network assumes there is a problem.
ZXSpectrum
26-05-2005, 13:51
Well so far so good... Looks like i have sorted the problem by updating the Firmware on the Router (Netgear WGU624) to the latest and newly released version... Even on the firmware description it looks says "Sorts problems with Azureus/High Traffic Load Causing Router to hang"
So if you havent already check if your routers hav an updated firmware... If you are using a router that is... :rolleyes:
Happy Now... :D
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