ISP rant

Thread Starter

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
My internet connection has gone bad, it's connecting, but then disconnecting every couple of minutes. I'm not looking forward to the hours I'm going to have to spend on the phone getting them to sort it out.
Unfortunately I'm locked into a one year contract with my ISP because they refused to even attempt to fix my last problem (no internet for over a week) because they didn't support my very popular model of Netgear router. They would only send me a router they supported with a new one year contract.
It's only about 6 weeks before the end of the contract and then I can switch and hope the next ISP is better.
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
A lousy ISP can be a problem, but don't be hasty with generalizations. A certain ISP in Athens has terrible stability, but in the city of Volos, where it has a proprietary cable network, it performs remarkably.

On a related note, for over a year I wasn't able to access wikia pages and other, very specific sites. Turns out it was a router issue.
 

Thread Starter

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
Mostly it's their customer service I dislike so much, that's why I'm dreading the phone calls. The last problem could have been sorted within an hour instead of a week, because it was a problem at the exchange, but their refusal to talk to me until I got their router meant they wouldn't even check the connection.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Ok from my call center days your ISP is right. Some modems and services don't like certain routers. Netgear and Linksys have been my two nemises. Since the VOIP companies told me go with DLINK I haven't had any issues. As for your issue it sounds like your modem is dyeing.
 

Thread Starter

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
I still haven't got round to calling them, it keeps getting better, then going bad again. I've tried the D-link modem they "gave" me with the same problem, and also tried different filters. Seems to be bad at typical high internet usage times 1700-2000h.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Sounds like your gonna have to have someone come out and measure the line signal if multiple modems are failing. I've been thru the on/off/on/off phases before. Each time it was a busted modem, last time it was some sort of security the ISP had installed so if you plugged it into one device with a MAC address, then another with a seperate MAC address it wouldn't work for 3-6 hours till it accepted the new MAC. I was fixing PC's at the time so you can only imagine how many screwdrivers I threw against the wall.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Sounds like my issue with the ISP not wanting to accept the MAC so it takes a lil time for it to connect. I would just connect mine, it would say no connection for 1-5 hours then connect all the sudden.
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
Whataminute! Does your ISP read the MACs of any device communicating with your router and decides whether to send it data or not?

Or do they let mandatory proprietary routers do that for them?
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Whataminute! Does your ISP read the MACs of any device communicating with your router and decides whether to send it data or not?

Or do they let mandatory proprietary routers do that for them?
Usually it lets the Router do it once its issued one for the line. Then that router will break out new local IP's using the MAC's included. If you want certain communications or programs to goto a specific computer you use port forwarding for that. I think if you forward port:21 to a specific IP is bypasses all IP address for FTP protocals other then that IP. Same with torrents and other network stuff. Portforwardings fun once you understand it.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
ISPs/cable companies all suck equally because they all suck equally. If there were one that were better than all the rest, I figure everybody would flock to them. But no such shining star exists, I can only assume, because the calculated level of work needed to be better than the rest does not offset the calculated increase in sales. More profitable to just suck as bad as the next guy and catch his disgruntled customers who are in futile search of better service and hope they might find it with you.

Of course this is just my opinion. My opinion has however been shaped by bad service with all the available cable companies in the city. I had the best service with Comcast, who on the unacceptably numerous times I had to call tech support, actually had competent and friendly tech support people.

Almost all my problems went away after I ran my own cable underground to the distribution box outside and all my own new cable throughout my attic and walls. This was after years of having the different cable companies come out to investigate problems - I told them I suspected bad cable in the ground and/or in my attic and they did not replace it. They did however find reasons on 3 or more occasions to run conspicuous long lengths of cable on the outside of my house, over my doorways, under my carpet, and drill holes with 3' long bits directly from inside the house to outside. one of them punched a hole straight through the wall and just stuck the cable through, no jack, no plate, just a hole with a cable coming out.
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
drill holes with 3' long bits directly from inside the house to outside. one of them punched a hole straight through the wall and just stuck the cable through, no jack, no plate, just a hole with a cable coming out.
That's exactly what I did when installing satellite dishes, company policy. What was really bad is when the drill pushed the outside brick out of the wall and onto a car.
 

vortmax

Joined Oct 10, 2012
102
I used to work 'in the biz'. I've designed a few cable modem headend's and diagnosed some really crappy cable plants in my day. It's amazing how much crap the big cable companies try to float their customers.

All cable modems will cache the CPE (customer premise equipment) MAC address but will be configured (on boot) by the cable company to only permit a particular number of unique MAC addresses to access out. The MAC is stored in volatile memory, so usually powering the modem down for a few minutes will discharge the caps and wipe the cache. I suppose it's not out of the question that your cable company does MAC level filtering on the IP level, but most I've seen are way too lazy.

Almost all of the modem cycling issues I have ever seen have been due to a dirty return path and/or a burned out transmitter. If the modem drops enough upstream packets, it typically reboots itself. So if you aren't generating a lot of upstream traffic or the line is clean...no problem....you start uploading a big file or the SNR falls off....modem dies. The crappy thing is if your return path is dirty, the modem is likely transmitting at the highest power it can...which isn't all that great for the amp and can burn it out over time.

research your modem a little bit and see if you can find the modem's management ip and login info. Most have an admin display where you can see the syslog and signal levels....not that customer service will care when you call in and tell them.
 

Thread Starter

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
It seems to be working well now, I don't know what these numbers mean, but they don't seem out of the ordinary, and are similar to when I was having problems:
 

Attachments

vortmax

Joined Oct 10, 2012
102
So this is DSL? Those numbers aren't horrible, but 9db of SNR isn't anything to get excited about. Take a look when the connection tanks
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Actually Strantor I have a couple friends in Communications with TimeWarner, Verizon, etc.. They all have an inside joke. In 5 years everything will be comcast. If you look at their coverage its a near monopoly. They do this by shoddy work, long appt and wait times, and undercutting the competition by cheaper service and equipment. I had it for a year and it cut out all the time. It was a joke, couldn't even watch channels 1150-1300 from 8am-11pm.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Right now the best bet is Satalitte, and broadband. I'm gonna look into FTA satalitte recievers and if I find anything worth mentioning I'll let you know.
 
Top