Unusual Problem

[gimpymoo]

(Sat on a chair which is part of a circle, with head facing the floor)

"My name is James and im an NTL customer"....

Went to use my broadband this morning and to my surprise, it was not working. Went through the usual steps to get it working which NTL normally advise anyway... Reset modem, turn off computer, sacrifice a chicken etc etc. Still no connection. All the lights were on and flashing in the right places and I had a correct IP address. Renewed the IP address, still not able to browse the tinternet.

After an hour of fannying around, decided to bite the bullet and call Tech support. First surprise to me was that the support has been out-sourced to another country (not a good idea in my opnion, but what do I know, Im only a customer, who cares what I think) Im sure its cheaper for NTL so guess thats all they care about.

After the guy had failed to ping my machine he decided my "firewall" was to blame as it was blocking inbound and outbound traffic and it was not NTL's fault. I would have partially believed him, bar from the fact I dont have a firewall and the XP firewall is disabled. The "Tech" seemed surprised and said "Thats impossible" ??? WTF - Didnt realise it was that difficult to disable - LOL

After refusing his advice, he transfered me to the Swansea call centre who said the same thing ?????

I persisted to argue my point and as a final straw suggested that if my PC was at fault, I would not be able to either:

A. Access the Modem Admin page (As my "firewall" would block access)
B. Connect via my dial-up modem.

I advised I would try this and if they didnt work... I would leave him alone. However, BOTH worked.

The tech, apparently a little red faced at this point decided that the "cabling" either going from my modem to my NTL access point in my house OR the cable going from the Cabinet (whats the techy term for those) to my house was faulty in which case they would need to pull the cable (wouldnt fancy that job).

Now, my modem is receiving an IP address, I can ping it, so can NTL, although I cant gain access to the "outside world", HOWEVER, NTL do know when it is connected so it is sending SOME information?

Any ideas?

Am in the NG2 area... Anyone know of any probs in that area. Have checked the service status page although nothing there. Was something on the reorded phone line this morning.

Thanks.

[quadplay]

Hi

"My name is James and I'm an ntl tech..." ;)

That's certainly an odd one you've got there... And I can see why the first conclusion was "firewall" - but if you've not got one, then... Hmm... :erm:

I don't think it's going to be a cabling issue - you're unlikely to have a connection at all if that was the case; it's more likely to be a PC-based, or modem-based issue.

Are you connecting through USB or Ethernet? and can you try pinging out for me? Try www.ntlworld.com, or www.bbc.co.uk. Also, what IP address are you getting on your PC? Just the first and last octets are all I need - should be something like 62.253.162.30, in which case all I'd need would be 62.x.x.30. If you're not sure how to ping, or find your IP, post back.

[Paul K]

Are you running XP and if so have you got SP2 installed? If you have and the connection was fine yesterday I would try a system restore to see if it's a file problem that is causing the connection to fail. Some SP2 installations have caused problems with connection failures for no apparent reason.

[gimpymoo]

Well, thanks for your replies.

I came back from work this evening and it was working ????

Maybe a network issue? Im in the NG2 area.

Thanks anyway. Im happy now.

Although theres still this metered broadband issue to discuss........................................... ..................................... LOL

[scruffbear]

Ive had major problems in the afternoons In the Bolton area, i keep losing my internet connection whilst online, this always occurs between 2 and 4 after this im fully connected, but I work from home so this is not good enough I thought, so I rang NTL who told me a pile of rubbish read from a training manual, ran tests on my PC and told me stuff I knew already like un plug re plug turn off firewall etc.., and assures me it isnt an area problem by this time my sync light and RDY light had magically come back on, bloke without a clue says if u lose them 2 lights ring again, 30 mins later at 330 It happens again so i call again, im put on hold for ages and an asian lady finally speaks to me telling me a completely different tale to the first idiot saying there is a synchonisation problem in my area which may be affecting me even though my next door neighbour has the same ntl set up as me is unaffected, she does not explain it in laymans terms so im none the wiser and scared to use my PC till 4pm which is hardly useful for work, has anyone else had this problem in the North, especially Bolton area, the customer service NTL provide simply isnt good enough my mate was more clued up to my problem with them, Im new to PCs so any tech support goes beyond me, but this should not be happening and I cant understand why Im fine for 22 hours a day but not between 2 and 4pm

[Raistlin]

Scruffbear,

I'm afraid I can't offer any practical advice on the problems you're experiencing - just wanted to say "Hi" and :welcome: to CF.

I'm sure if you give it a while there will be somebody along who can offer you some more useful advice (there are a number of NTL bod's that frequent the forum so maybe one of those will be able to help you get sorted).

Until then, sit back, relax, and enjoy your stay.

Cheers,

Raist.

[Raistlin]

gimpy,

glad you got your problem sorted, not suprised that you got the run-around initially though.....

[BaronVonskidmark]

scruffbear (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/member.php?u=6809) vbmenu_register("postmenu_361359", true);

I am an NTL tech it would seem that if you are getting sync or ready light going walk abouts, then there will be an issue with the signal level coming to the Modem or a broblem with your distribution cabinet in the road. Either way our Faults team need to have a little chin wag and maybe get a tech to call.

Regards

[SMHarman]

scruffbear (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/member.php?u=6809) vbmenu_register("postmenu_361359", true);

I am an NTL tech it would seem that if you are getting sync or ready light going walk abouts, then there will be an issue with the signal level coming to the Modem or a broblem with your distribution cabinet in the road. Either way our Faults team need to have a little chin wag and maybe get a tech to call.

Regards
But why for only 2 hrs a day?

[BaronVonskidmark]

I am not to sure, It could be if you are on a border line signal level then, it could be the slightest fluctuation in signal level, is enough to drop your connection. If you are getting this problem at specific times in the day then this problem could be else where. Either way this is something that needs more investigation by an NTL engineer. If you are on an NTL 200 modem, these have an onboard data capture system and I we can get site of this then we may have a better Idea of what is going on. But what I will say in my experience it is more than likly signal level related.

[BBKing]

If you are on an NTL 200 modem, these have an onboard data capture system

Do they? All modems have a fairly comprehensive SNMP MIB - I can help you get access to that if you like.

scruffbear - if you'd like us to help, PM me your cable modem's MAC address, I can find you from that.

[scruffbear]

thanks for the offers of help but I seem to me ok now, fingers crossed

[BaronVonskidmark]

Please let me know how you get on, I hope things will be ok for you.

[scruffbear]

a mate of mine who works for BT broadband told me a little trick is to rent your line out to someone else for a while because their simply isnt enough to go around, as soon as you complain as i did you magically get your line back and someone loses theirs, a little trick of the trade to con the customers

Ive been fine since I complained to India!!, MMMMM, I wonder

But thanks anyway for everyones help I find this forum much more useful for trouble shooting than actually ringing NTL:Yikes: :Yikes:

[BaronVonskidmark]

You do not use a telephone line for your Broadband so this will not make a differance, your broadband is run on a completly different system. And I would say capacity issues on NTL's system would not manifast itself in this way.