Scott,
Thank you for this experiential report. It reads exactly what I have been
experiencing since 03/08. I still believe that there is an external phone
line problem (unprovable by me of course). But, yesterday, I went back
through my router and noticed that somehow it was set for <on demand>
instead of <always on>. It could be that I did this change some time ago
as a way to add another protective layer. Well, DOH!
Must have been a bad choice. Since switching the router back to <always
ON>, I have managed to survive 2 rain events without a 'local' loss of xdsl.
I have not yet rechecked yet whether my currently assigned IP (dynamic) is
still what I last grabbed, but I am leaning toward another PEBCAK event. I
will recheck this test a bit later this afternoon, as we are due for a
semi-serious rain event again. It is cloudy and very humid. Clouds are
building, but nothing yet...........
I still plan to eventually upgrade my internal telco wiring, but maybe a
bit later! ....
after I know exactly what I want installed....... :)
Best,
Duncan
At 13:24 07/26/2008 -0400, you wrote:
Duncan,
I can sympathize with you a lot!
At my office (building is about 100 years old IIRC, and in an older
part of town) a couple of the phone lines were absolute junk. For many
years our DSL was spotty and would go down regularly (this was largely
fixed by switching to Speakeasy as the ISP--they got on the phone
company to fix some hardware issues!). Voice line #1 would get "raspy"
whenever it rained. One of our two fax lines would only receive about
1/3 of all incoming faxes and mysteriously fail (and was much worse
when it rained). Of course we had Verizon technicians out many, many
times and the answer was always the same "we don't see anything wrong!"
We had a new box installed on the outside of our building to
"modernize" the wires there (made no difference), and eventually one
of the contractor technicians said the wire setup on the pole outside
of the building was ANCIENT and in bad shape. Long story short, after
YEARS of hassle, Verizon sent a truck out to fix/replace whatever is
on the pole outside our building, and so far all our problems seem
gone! (knock on wood)
So, I would say...
GOOD LUCK--it's a pain in the butt to deal with the phone companies,
and even more of a pain to get them to admit something is wrong, but
persistence did eventually pay off.
Also, it might be because it was a business account, but I managed to
find a Verizon page when I logged in as our account name that would
let me run a line test... it usually came back "inconclusive" for the
bad fax line, but I got one or two "bads" trying it repeatedly when it
was raining...I think that helped our case.
Mybe you can call up a tech and get them to run a line test when it is
actually raining and you are in the middle of DSL problems?
Anyway, best of luck,
Scott
On Jul 23, 2008, at 2:23 PM, DHSinclair wrote:
Ben and John,
Thank you for the replies and gentle repeat of past education. I
was really trying to eliminate my router, as much as possible, as a
problem when I begin to fight my current xdsl provider. I think my
service during wet weather stinks, but really have no way to prove
it; other than the service goes out whenever it gets cloudy and
rains. Lately, I don't need rain to loose xdsl; just dry thunder.
I really believe I am dealing with some bad (unprotected) AT&T
external infrastructure, but I do feel powerless to prove it ATM.
Mostly, because I operate outside the TOS and do not wish to get
into an administrative pissing contest. Ultimately, I could switch
from AT&T xdsl to Comcast cable, but this option is a last choice
ATM due to expense.
Yes, I have accepted that my 35yr old house may have some phone
wiring that was "upgraded" in years past by the previous owner! For
this, I am beginning to interview Tel contractors to find out how
much to modernize my house. This will generate more questions in the
future because I know the collective has the answers.
Best,
Duncan
At 09:00 07/23/2008 -0400, you wrote:
As others have said, no, it does not matter what IP your router is
- 1.253 or 1.1. Actually, you could give your router any IP address
in the x.x.1.1-x.x.1.254 range and it would be perfectly valid.
There's no efficiency or performance benefits to be gained by
changing it.
DHSinclair wrote:
Is there any efficiency in changing my router/gateway
address from: x:x:1:253
to an address of: x:x:1:1
??????
Thanks,
Duncan
