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Old March 16th 10, 11:32 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.general
Shane[_14_]
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 17
Default ping Mike and Noel

Mike M wrote:
Alternatively, if you use an O2 mobile, consider
moving to O2 - Be don't hold users to contracts for Be - O2
transfers.


No, I'm strictly PAYG


Shane,

PAYG included. Make one £10 top up payment in a three month period
and get £5 per month off the cost of an O2 LLU ADSL connection (O2
uses the Be network being sister companies both owned by Telefonica).


I'll give that a clsoer look, Mike. Thanks for the info.

Yes, I did raise a ticket (after having read
dozens of posts from other people with the dame or related problems -
and the consensus seems to be that it is the Be DNS servers).


I'm surprised at you quoting let alone possibly believing such total
rubbish. g There's no way that an ADSL line should disconnect
because of a DNS failure. Are you talking about loss of synch? If
so then this is a local problem possibly due to a problem with the Be
DSLAM/MSAN at the exchange or due to a faulty router. DNS failure
causes a loss of connectivity, but doesn't drop the line, unless the
necessary details are in the local cache. Result a seemingly dead
line even if connected at 24Mbps/2.3Mbps but connected nevertheless. There
is one other quirk for those with a dynamic IP, and that is the
relatively short TTL resulting in a disconnect and reconnect (but not
line drop) every 12 or 24 hours to acquire/renew the IP address but
even here the line doesn't drop the disconnect being further down the
chain.


Okay, that's me being imprecise. No, the line isn't dropped. It is still
connected by all other appearances - at 100Mbps - but run the Repair option
on the Local Area Connection and what it fails on is being unable to refresh
the DNS Cache.


I don't know which model modem you have, mine is a Speedtouch 585v7 (I
think) and found it atrocious.


That's the one! Though actually for what I need it was adequate for the
first few months. First thing I did was try to change the password to
something of the complexity I prefer. When that didn't work - I had to keep
resetting the router back to factory spec in order to get back into it - I
changed it to the longest I could get it to handle, made myself SuperUser
and removed the Be remote user, and for all it's inadequacies I am still
impressed at the speed I get out here on an ADSL line when there are plenty
of areas actually in heavily populated, built up Gold Cupville that only get
half as fast!

Cor I fancy a Golden Cup about now! Used to be my favourite choc bar.

I'd have sent it back the week it
arrived other than that Be have no mechanism to handle this and even
if returned still expect a modem to be returned at the end of the
contract so until then it sits in its box under a bed. One of the
many problems I experienced was that it would happily reset itself
behind my back losing my preferred DNS settings and LAN details
especially the table containing the MAC addresses of wi-fi devices to
which I had granted access. And no, this wasn't due to some unknown
individual logging in remotely behind my back. :-) Oh, I'm currently
using a DGN2000 with stock Netgear firmware and also have a DG834PN
which I used with both Netgear and DGTeam firmware. I had problems
with wi-fi when using the DGTeam firmware so dropped back to using
Netgear's but might give the latest DGTeam firmware a whirl -
incidentally the latest DGTeam firmware apparently causes problems
for some using dynamic IP addresses on O2.


Must get a Netgear sometime. I'd be fascinated to play around with these
DGTeam firmwares!


Shane








Mike,

You can only use one router/modem at a time on a single line so I
can't see the problem about being asked to return a router/modem
when you change supplier since the new supplier will provide
another. That is assuming you aren't factoring in the second hand
eBay value of the modem when deciding which ISP to use. :-)


Yes. Good point. But one should still factor in the lack of a router
of your very own (to have and to hold) when comparing the price of
their service with that of competition who do let you keep it. Even
if it is effectively worthless. There again the marketplace is
changing: you no longer get the Netgear from Sky. That would have
been one worth keeping to use when switching to O2/Be. In fact that
has to be part of the reason Sky have stopped supplying that one, as
they must have been subsidising O2/Be - a situation I find so funny I
think it would have been worth going back to Sky TV in order to get
the Broadband service in order to leave it 12 months later and keep
the Netgear!

As for Be having introduced a new cheaper limited service, albeit
with the same or similar name to your current service, have you
tried ringing Be and asking to move to the cheaper service? You
might be pleasantly surprised although it might involve starting a
new 12 month contract.


Yes. I've thought of that. Apart from the fact the contract'll be up
soon anyway so it's a bit late - unless they backdate it - I don't
expect to be here too much longer. And their coverage is still
limited, especially if I go further out into the sticks. I certainly
don't want to pay for an 8Mbps service where I'd be lucky to get
2Mbps!
Alternatively, if you use an O2 mobile, consider
moving to O2 - Be don't hold users to contracts for Be - O2
transfers.


No, I'm strictly PAYG. If I don't keep forgetting not to send
multiple MMS I can make a £20 voucher last a year! Happy enough with
the Motorola KZR too (which just the other day coming out of
Sainsbury's struck me as being a 'Communicator' - which I know
supposedly they were inspired by Star Trek anyway, but they never
actually felt that way before!).
And I'm sick to death of the connection being dropped if not using
it for an hour or two.

This has nothing to do with the DNS servers you use and remember
that no-one is forcing you to use the Be DNS servers just as they
aren't forcing you to use one of their modems. Have you checked
whether the problem is due to a modem misconfiguration? Some adsl
modems have a box that needs to be checked to stop them from
dropping the connection when there is no traffic. Have you raised
a ticket about this and if so, what did support have to say?


No, I've been right through this router. I couldn't even get it to
accept a long password before updating the firmware and setting it
via telnetting to it. Yes, I did raise a ticket (after having read
dozens of posts from other people with the dame or related problems -
and the consensus seems to be that it is the Be DNS servers). They
suggested a lot of stuff I'd already done and knew couldn't be the
problem. Then I found I'd omitted a command when setting the OpenDNS
servers via telnet which meant that the primary server was still a Be
one - and probably iirc the old one that they warned us to stop using
back about November. So I ran the omitted command and had (and still
do) just the two OpenDNS servers and the router immediately stopped
dropping the connection. I'd leave it on, unused, all day and it
would stay connected. I waited until it was clear the connection was
no longer being dropped, then updated the ticket with this info and
closed it. This lasted a few weeks but now the problem has returned.
Also I routinely remove their remote access ID, so there should be no
way they could have done anything to revert the settings. Though I'm
going to go into it shortly and verify the servers again!