I keep losing my connection

[FrustratedUser]

I keep losing my connection. I've no idea why. It's incredibly frustrating as it's almost impossible to maintain a connection for more than a few seconds sometimes in the evenings (it seems to be much worse in the evenings.) I've looked at some previos threads on this and have tried obvious things like plugging direclty into the socket which doesn't help. I can't get through to the Tiscali help desk. Can anybody help me? I first got Freedom2Surf because it had such good reviews even though it was expensive. If I can't fix this I can't think what else to do except try another provider.

[bobjr]

I'm in the same boat unfortunatly. For teh last week or so, my connection has been erratic. Usually from around 4pm onwards, my connection drops on average 3-4 times. ASL is still fully connected, however, my connection to the freedom 2 surf server is non-existant.

It usually reconnects within a few minutes, but it would be great to find out why my connection is doing this.

If it can't be rectified, then unfortunatly, after being a F2S customer since 2003, it will be time to leave

[JeffG]

Me too. Connectivity over the last few days has been dreadful. Sometimes I am losing sync, but mostly it's the internet connection.

[onceupon]

Originally Posted by FrustratedUser

Can anybody help me? I first got Freedom2Surf because it had such good reviews...

That was long ago. One has to move with the times.

[FrustratedUser]

Sorry to ask what may seem like a dumb question but I'm a totally non-technical person - can anyone explain to me the difference between losing sync and losing the actual internet connection? I've got various lights on my Zylex router (which I'm not using as wifi at the moment; I've got it plugged directly in to my pc) but the instruction book doesn't explain what they all are. The ones that keep flashing and going off when I lose my connection are one with an icon shaped a bit like the network cable connector and one with an icon like a globe. I also get an error message saying, " Error 632: the system could not find the phonebook entry for this connection". Thanks in advance for any help/diagnosis you can offer.

[JeffG]

I'm not particularly technical either, but basically when you have sync you have an ADSL connection to your local exchange. You need that first before you can get an ongoing connection to the internet from your local exchange (if you like, it's a layer on top of the basic ADSL connection).

I would guess that in your case the light with the network icon is your ADSL sync, and the globe is the internet. The error message doesn't mean anything to me.

Whether you connect to your router directly with a cable or by wireless is irrelevant - if you like, that's the "user side" of the router. It's the "network side" (the outside world) that has the problem.

[FrustratedUser]

Thanks. That makes sense. Is this something Tiscali have to fix or is it a BT thing? I don't want to go swapping ISPs if it's a BT thing. I looked up the error message on the internet but none of the responses made any sense to me. I think that might be a separate issue though.

[FrustratedUser]

Actually, I think the problem might be my router. I've been using a Zyxel P660HW but suddenly thought that I didn't have all this trouble with my old router, so I just plugged in my old Belkin router to see if that makes a difference and hey presto! All the lights are on and they stay on and I can maintain a connection. So maybe Zyxel routers are just crap? I've seen a few posts elsewhere saying that...

[JeffG]

I logged a ticket about my problem (see #3). It seems there are two levels of service. The first response I got was a template reply from a call centre in Mumbai or wherever saying they couldn't find anything wrong with my line and providing a list of things to try. Including trying my BT test socket, which I don't have. Useless.

This was closely followed by a reply from a real engineer saying he could see that my connection had been up and down and that he had adjusted the signal to noise ratio. Since then, fingers crossed, it's been ok. (Thank you Mathew.)

[bobjr]

Mine just dropped again. Looks like i'm requesting my MAC tomorrow and calling bethere to see what deals they can give me

[bobjr]

woohoo. More of the

07/10/2009  23:56:11 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Timeout in CHAP negotiation

roll on monday.