test

[chickenjohn]

test

[MarkyB]

Receiving you loud and clear!

[chickenjohn]

Thanks!

I am at the moment having severe problems with my broadband. It won't let me connect to Ebay or post replies to forums (among other random issues). I sent the first message via girlfirends broadband and this one from home via dial up.

My internet provider have been no help at all.

I may therefore be quiet on here for a while.

[MarkyB]

What are the other random issues?
I'd suggest downloading and running the free version of malwarebytes from here;
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
And trying another internet browser, maybe Firefox, or Opera.

[Dean]

Ebay screws my pc up. If my wife leaves a tab open with ebay connected the pc will slow right down and lock up eventually. If I stay away from ebay, my pc is as quick as anything.

[chickenjohn]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps! Really do appreciate you reading this and offering the good suggestions and ideas, ta.

However, it seems to be an ISP problem and not a computer one as my laptop works 100% on the girlfriends broadband. Laptop is a Mac so so malware. These problems happen with Opera and firefox (on my PC) and Safari, Camino and Firefox on the mac. So not a browser problem. Both Mac and PC are affected so I believe not a computer problem.

Again, if connect via dial up everything works perfectly- though I am reminded how painfully slow dial up was!

One of the problems is certain forums, i can read the forum, but when I try and post a reply, the browser hangs for a while and then gives an error message- "could not find server/ no response type of message".

I had to go on dial up to post this as the Morris Minor forum is affected at the moment. I can read posts but cannot reply, the test ones above were sent from my girlfriends house and this one via dialup. Thank goodness, i still have a modem and dialup in my laptop!

These problems started last Friday.

The only other piece of the chain I can test is my router. I will set up the G/F's ISP account on my router at her house and see if it works. If it does, then my suspicion is confirmed that the problem is related to my ISP now being part of the Opal/ Talk Talk (yuk!) group.

[MarkyB]

What is the quality of your phone line like?
Any sort of crackles or other untoward noises on the line will play havoc with your broadband.

[chickenjohn]

Hi MarkyB you are right, a crackily phone line does play havoc. I had that problem a couple of years ago and BT fixed it.

This is different. The connection is OK, it is an internet problem. Still not fixed, I had to go back to dial up to reply to this post!!

Anyone remember the days of dial up internet?? Welcome to internet 1998.

[RobMoore]

Couple of things for you to try.
If you have a spaare filter, please replace the one currently in the master socket.
what is your line set up like?
do you have extension sockets?
is your router connected to anything other than the master socket?
is anything else connected to your line? (sky box)

Please try the following
flush your DNS you can do this by (assuming your on Windows XP)
Click the start button and select Run type cmd - this will bring the command prompt up
Type ipconfig /flushdns and press enter
Now lets try and renew your IP address
using the comand prompt type ipconfig /release this will let go of your current IP
now type (again in the comand prompt ipconfig /renew

If this does not help then you need to contact your ISP you will have some difficulty getting past the intial help desk who will follow scripts asking you to carry out some checks such as unplugging things and rebooting your router etc. You can either insists you have already tried everything and attempt to push to a transfer to the 2nd line of support or carry out their requests.
Things to ask 2nd line support
Am I on DLM? (dynamic line management) if yes ask to be taken off DLM
Ask them to look at the noise margins
2nd line support are usually very helpful and have plenty of knowledge with the ability to tap into your local telephone exchange and make some adjustments (assuming your on broadband here and not fibre optic/cable)

[chickenjohn]

Hi Rob, thanks for your suggestions!

Couple of things for you to try.
If you have a spaare filter, please replace the one currently in the master socket.
what is your line set up like?
do you have extension sockets?

I will try the spare filter as soon as i find it! I have no extension sockets, phone and broadband box both come right out of the filter- having had problems with that in the past

is your router connected to anything other than the master socket?
is anything else connected to your line? (sky box)

no and nothing else connected apart from phone- good suggestions though!

Please try the following
flush your DNS you can do this by (assuming your on Windows XP)
Click the start button and select Run type cmd - this will bring the command prompt up
Type ipconfig /flushdns and press enter
Now lets try and renew your IP address
using the comand prompt type ipconfig /release this will let go of your current IP
now type (again in the comand prompt ipconfig /renew

I have re-set the DNS follwing my providers suggestions and even set the MTU to 1492 on my laptop- to no avail
If this does not help then you need to contact your ISP you will have some difficulty getting past the intial help desk who will follow scripts asking you to carry out some checks such as unplugging things and rebooting your router etc. You can either insists you have already tried everything and attempt to push to a transfer to the 2nd line of support or carry out their requests.
Things to ask 2nd line support
Am I on DLM? (dynamic line management) if yes ask to be taken off DLM
Ask them to look at the noise margins
2nd line support are usually very helpful and have plenty of knowledge with the ability to tap into your local telephone exchange and make some adjustments (assuming your on broadband here and not fibre optic/cable)

Thanks- I have spoken to 2nd line support and tried all their suggestions, I will phone them again and ask about the DLM, the noise on the line is fine, I got BT to sort that years ago. I have also proved that my router is 100% fine by setting it up with my girlfriends BT vision broadband at her house. Web and TV work 100% with my router at her house, so there is nothing wrong with my router, or my laptop. I am almost at the point of asking for my Mac address and looking to a different provider. I am after reliabillity rather than cheapness , no obtrusive software or discs to install, and plenty of web space included in the deal, with domain name forwarding allowed. Sadly, this last point rules out Zen internet who are a Which Magazine best buy. They provide 2Gb of web space but sadly do not allow web domain pointing. So no good for my band websites and for the Kent Branches Hop website then ;-(

[RobMoore]

Ok then I think its safe to say the problem is between your master socket and the BT exchange.
With regards to noise margins, I refer to the tolerances of the broadband and not to actual noise you will hear on your line.
It is important that your ISP check these noise margins and adjust them.
you need to be removed from DLM and have the noise margins checked on both the upload and download sides of your broadband.
check your router to see if anyone is piggybacking your connection and stealing your bandwidth.
If your on a line that gives upto"20mb" and you are over 1.5 miles away check to see what your speeds at anything over 6.5 meg is going to be unstable on standard BT lines that have not been upgraded.

[chickenjohn]

Hi Rob,
thanks again for the last suggestions! It seems you are 100% right on a problem between master socket and exchange, after phoning my provider for the 4th time and getting BT to do a copper line test, they have promised to rectify the line fault, with a projected time of 78 hours, which is the odd time of 3.25 days

I also asked about DLM and noise margins and apparently my providers do not use DLM (BT internet only, according to the tech man), and the noise is as low as it can be.

However, better news, following another idea, I managed to set the packet size on my laptop to 1492 and all the internet problems have gone away (for now) although there does seem to be a significant line fault according to the BT copper line test.

[chickenjohn]

Just set MTU back to 1500

[RobMoore]

Well done on getting BT to actually admit there is a problem, 72 hours is the norm for them to resolve this and will probably take less. As for MTU 1500 is about right

[chickenjohn]

had the same problem again for the last week, seem to have fixed it on the Mac now by setting the MTU via the terminal application to 1492 which is the packet size by provider pushes out. I found that fix for myself, so much for their so called "tech support'! What a PITA having to do geeky Unix commands just so i can use the inernet properly.

Anyone know how to set the MTU on a windows 2000 professional pc?

If this post goes then all is well (fingers X)

[chickenjohn]

test from my PC with MTU set to 1492 (I Hope!)