airtel broadband: connection drops despite copper wire being changed!

[breakyo]

If you cannot locate the logs then there are two things to try:-

1) Ask the broadband engineer for a spare modem so that you can test for a few hours. If the problem still exists then,

2) Ask the broadband engineer if he can see your ADSL line losing sync from the ISP end. If your line is not losing sync, then it most likely is NOT an SNR margin issue but rather a 'data flow' problem.

So when you have a data flow issue, data transfer on your ADSL line stops briefly resulting in sessions timing out and consequently logging you out of chat etc.

And, a data flow problem could mean a faulty DSLAM port at the ISP end - ask the engineer to put you on a different DSLAM port or on a completely different DSLAM.

By the way, is the copper taken from a cabinet on the road and fed to your computer room within a PVC pipe?


hi again

1) ok I shall ask him. he is gonna arrive in a few mins, btw the modem model which I have beetel 450 bx1 ADSL + ROUTER, does it have any connection issues and is there any newer modem after this???

2) will ask the engineer. the last time some broadband engineer had come I had asked if there is any problem in the line, he then told me, he had done some SULIM test to check if there is any fault with the line, and said everything is fine, when i told him that i still get d'ted though not as often as before, he said he'll check it again. anyways since he is coming today again to inspect, i shall mention this point to him.

yes the copper is taken from a cabinet on the road and fed to my computer room withing a pvc pipe, just checked it.

ty.

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update : the engineer just visited the site to inspect, and he says that since there has been repeated complaints, now he/ll get the underground cable changed from a small blue box which is some 40-50 feet away from my home on the road...and if even after changing this the complaint persists, the wire to the main exchange will be changed and even if the problem still persists, backend will be checked, meanwhile he has told me to monitor the connection and report if there is any disconnection issues ( after the wire is changed), upon asking for a new modem or spare modem, he says, nothing is wrong with the modem.

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" 2) Ask the broadband engineer if he can see your ADSL line losing sync from the ISP end. If your line is not losing sync, then it most likely is NOT an SNR margin issue but rather a 'data flow' problem.

So when you have a data flow issue, data transfer on your ADSL line stops briefly resulting in sessions timing out and consequently logging you out of chat etc.

And, a data flow problem could mean a faulty DSLAM port at the ISP end - ask the engineer to put you on a different DSLAM port or on a completely different DSLAM."

I showed this post to the engineer, he believes that if there was any fault in the DSLAM port then all the 24 customers connected to it would have the same problem. I guess he didn't get your point? or maybe he did, idk. anyways, he said now the underground copper wire will be changed, so let us wait and see, if this works?.

Oh and i forgot to add one more thing he said about the SNR figures, he said there are some customers who have lower SNR figures ( 9-12) than mine ( my snr 18-22) and their connection works fine. so I guess he was trying to say that the problem lies somewhere else??

 

[Mac]

going by what u just posted the Airtel tech seems to be competitive and knows what he is doing. SNR at 10-12 works fine unless Attenuation is high.

 

[breakyo]

going by what u just posted the Airtel tech seems to be competitive and knows what he is doing. SNR at 10-12 works fine unless Attenuation is high.

Hi there, Mac! . Yes he seems quite experienced but why is it taking so much time to find out the real cause of this issue? Well, I must admit, the disconections are not as often and severe as it was before the copper line was changed ( from the exchange- the small box on the outside of my house).

You won't believe, previously the connection would drop as often as once in 5-10 mins. it was so annoying and frustrating. And whenever there would be a disconnection, the YELLOW LIGHT ( dsl light) in the modem would flicker, as if the modem is restarting.

Currently, my disconnections are few and whenever there is a disconnection, the yellow DSL light doesn't flicker. when i say disconnections are few I mean 3-4 times/day at the max.

So here are my QUESTIONS TO EVERYONE who is reading/read this post :

1) is it normal in a WiFi connection, to get disconnections 3-5 times a day?

2) does beetel 450bx1 adsl-router have disconnection issues?

3)if my current problem doesn't solve should I approach the Nodal officer? or remain content with the current state of my connection?

4) where are the modem log files located exactly? I have windows Xp professional edition service pack2.

5) do you have a WiFi or wired connection? if you have WiFi, how often do you experience disconnection or drop in your connection? like for example, getting logged out and in from messengers, getting logged out of chat rooms, downloads stopping in between, video stops buffering?.

Thank you.

 

[coimby]

hi again

1) ok I shall ask him. he is gonna arrive in a few mins, btw the modem model which I have beetel 450 bx1 ADSL + ROUTER, does it have any connection issues and is there any newer modem after this???

The easiest way to know this is to try with a different modem - I don't know why the broadband engineer is reluctant to do this? Which would you do first - change the modem and check for a few minutes OR dig up a road first and re-lay entire cable ? .

2) will ask the engineer. the last time some broadband engineer had come I had asked if there is any problem in the line, he then told me, he had done some SULIM test to check if there is any fault with the line, and said everything is fine, when i told him that i still get d'ted though not as often as before, he said he'll check it again. anyways since he is coming today again to inspect, i shall mention this point to him.

Will SULIM test show faults with the DSLAM ports itself (it usually shows only faults on the copper line)? Again, how long is it going to take to swap you to a different DSLAM port?

yes the copper is taken from a cabinet on the road and fed to my computer room withing a pvc pipe, just checked it.

ty.

----------

update : the engineer just visited the site to inspect, and he says that since there has been repeated complaints, now he/ll get the underground cable changed from a small blue box which is some 40-50 feet away from my home on the road...and if even after changing this the complaint persists, the wire to the main exchange will be changed and even if the problem still persists, backend will be checked, meanwhile he has told me to monitor the connection and report if there is any disconnection issues ( after the wire is changed), upon asking for a new modem or spare modem, he says, nothing is wrong with the modem.

----------

" 2) Ask the broadband engineer if he can see your ADSL line losing sync from the ISP end. If your line is not losing sync, then it most likely is NOT an SNR margin issue but rather a 'data flow' problem.

So when you have a data flow issue, data transfer on your ADSL line stops briefly resulting in sessions timing out and consequently logging you out of chat etc.

And, a data flow problem could mean a faulty DSLAM port at the ISP end - ask the engineer to put you on a different DSLAM port or on a completely different DSLAM."

I showed this post to the engineer, he believes that if there was any fault in the DSLAM port then all the 24 customers connected to it would have the same problem. I guess he didn't get your point? or maybe he did, idk. anyways, he said now the underground copper wire will be changed, so let us wait and see, if this works?.


Oh and i forgot to add one more thing he said about the SNR figures, he said there are some customers who have lower SNR figures ( 9-12) than mine ( my snr 18-22) and their connection works fine. so I guess he was trying to say that the problem lies somewhere else??[/QUOTE]

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yes the copper is taken from a cabinet on the road and fed to my computer room withing a pvc pipe, just checked it.

ty.

----------

update : the engineer just visited the site to inspect, and he says that since there has been repeated complaints, now he/ll get the underground cable changed from a small blue box which is some 40-50 feet away from my home on the road...and if even after changing this the complaint persists, the wire to the main exchange will be changed and even if the problem still persists, backend will be checked, meanwhile he has told me to monitor the connection and report if there is any disconnection issues ( after the wire is changed), upon asking for a new modem or spare modem, he says, nothing is wrong with the modem.

Is'nt this 'underground cable' from the blue box to your computer room the one which has ALREADY been changed?

'Wire to the main exchange' means copper cable from blue box to the exchange? Why would you change this when you are the ONLY one having issues on this 'wire' ?

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" 2) Ask the broadband engineer if he can see your ADSL line losing sync from the ISP end. If your line is not losing sync, then it most likely is NOT an SNR margin issue but rather a 'data flow' problem.

So when you have a data flow issue, data transfer on your ADSL line stops briefly resulting in sessions timing out and consequently logging you out of chat etc.

And, a data flow problem could mean a faulty DSLAM port at the ISP end - ask the engineer to put you on a different DSLAM port or on a completely different DSLAM."

I showed this post to the engineer, he believes that if there was any fault in the DSLAM port then all the 24 customers connected to it would have the same problem. I guess he didn't get your point? or maybe he did, idk. anyways, he said now the underground copper wire will be changed, so let us wait and see, if this works?.

Every customer has individual DSLAM ports allocated - I think the engineer is referring to the Ethernet port on the DSLAM which is common for all customers on that DSLAM.


Oh and i forgot to add one more thing he said about the SNR figures, he said there are some customers who have lower SNR figures ( 9-12) than mine ( my snr 18-22) and their connection works fine. so I guess he was trying to say that the problem lies somewhere else??

[/QUOTE]

Correct and I agree with him.

What chat applications are you having problems with? Are the same applications working Ok without disconnections from a different broadband or netcafe connection?

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Sorry, my replies are all over the place. Pasting it again below:-

Is'nt this 'underground cable' from the blue box to your computer room the one which has ALREADY been changed?

'Wire to the main exchange' means copper cable from blue box to the exchange? Why would you change this when you are the ONLY one having issues on this 'wire' ?

Every customer has individual DSLAM ports allocated - I think the engineer is referring to the Ethernet port on the DSLAM which is common for all customers on that DSLAM.

What chat applications are you having problems with? Are the same applications working Ok without disconnections from a different broadband or netcafe connection? (I should have asked you this earlier).

In summary, I would insist on doing the following FIRST:-

1) Try with a different modem.
2) Change DSLAM port.

And ask the following question to the engineer:-

1) Why are going to dig up roads and change cable to the exchange when I am the only person experiencing this problem?

I am sure the engineer is trying to help you out but taking a structured approach to troubleshooting will save time and trouble for you (and a lot of other Airtel customers).

 

[SiriusB]

I had the same thing happen to me. The link would drop every minute and the dsl modem would re-train. An engineer came and set the "Speed and Duplex" setting of my network card to a lower value and it never dropped the link again.

If it does not work, try half-duplex and a lower Mbps.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9093/captureuy.jpg

 

[essbebe]

Disable client Tr_069 Also "soap" if seen.see under Maintenance.

 

---

[AjayJP]

Can you check a simple step if the connection is itself getting dropped in 2 hours period. If the Messengers are logging out and loggin back in automatically once in 2 hours it could be possibly an MTU issue. This is quite commmon. You need to first find out if there is a drop in dsl link.

Some simple ways you can find this out is by checking your Internet IP address. You can find this from What Is My IP Address? - IP Address Lookup, Internet Speed Test, IP Info, plus more. So when you find that your messenger has logged out and has come back check the ip again. if the ip has changed then it means dsl link could have fluctuated and if the ip still remains same after ur messengers logged out then yuor dsl link and all wires are absolutely fine.

Try to isolate the problem if its with the dsl link

 

[breakyo]

Disable client Tr_069 Also \"soap\" if seen.
see under Maintenance.

Hi There, Essbebe! Morning! , Thanks for the reply.

Here is the screen shoot of Client Tr_069 configuration!


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[/COLOR]Can you check a simple step if the connection is itself getting dropped in 2 hours period. If the Messengers are logging out and loggin back in automatically once in 2 hours it could be possibly an MTU issue. This is quite commmon. You need to first find out if there is a drop in dsl link.

Some simple ways you can find this out is by checking your Internet IP address. You can find this from What Is My IP Address? - IP Address Lookup, Internet Speed Test, IP Info, plus more. So when you find that your messenger has logged out and has come back check the ip again. if the ip has changed then it means dsl link could have fluctuated and if the ip still remains same after ur messengers logged out then yuor dsl link and all wires are absolutely fine.

Try to isolate the problem if its with the dsl link

Hi, there AjayJp aka Ajju. Thank you very much for the reply and the tips. The next time I get disconnected from messengers, chat rooms, etc., I will check if there is a drop in DSL link. And also the check if the IP has changed after the disconnection. will get back to you soon.

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I had the same thing happen to me. The link would drop every minute and the dsl modem would re-train. An engineer came and set the \"Speed and Duplex\" setting of my network card to a lower value and it never dropped the link again.

If it does not work, try half-duplex and a lower Mbps.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9093/captureuy.jpg

Hey there SiriusB, thank you for the reply. , morning to you!

well, I too had the same problem of connection dropping so very frequently, and when it became unbearably annoying, I logged a complaint with Airtel 121, so the engineer comes and suggests a change in copper wire from the bb box ( not sure if its called bb box, it is a small box outside of my home.) to the computer room. and after this change the connection doesn't drop as often as before, but still it drops once in few hours.

I am not sure where to find that setting which you have recommended to change :S, but will try to look for it, must be somewhere under my network services icon or device manager???

thank you

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yes the copper is taken from a cabinet on the road and fed to my computer room withing a pvc pipe, just checked it.

ty. [COLOR=\"Silver\"]

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[/COLOR]update : the engineer just visited the site to inspect, and he says that since there has been repeated complaints, now he/ll get the underground cable changed from a small blue box which is some 40-50 feet away from my home on the road...and if even after changing this the complaint persists, the wire to the main exchange will be changed and even if the problem still persists, backend will be checked, meanwhile he has told me to monitor the connection and report if there is any disconnection issues ( after the wire is changed), upon asking for a new modem or spare modem, he says, nothing is wrong with the modem.[COLOR=\"Silver\"]

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[/COLOR] \" 2) Ask the broadband engineer if he can see your ADSL line losing sync from the ISP end. If your line is not losing sync, then it most likely is NOT an SNR margin issue but rather a 'data flow' problem.

So when you have a data flow issue, data transfer on your ADSL line stops briefly resulting in sessions timing out and consequently logging you out of chat etc.

And, a data flow problem could mean a faulty DSLAM port at the ISP end - ask the engineer to put you on a different DSLAM port or on a completely different DSLAM.\"

I showed this post to the engineer, he believes that if there was any fault in the DSLAM port then all the 24 customers connected to it would have the same problem. I guess he didn't get your point? or maybe he did, idk. anyways, he said now the underground copper wire will be changed, so let us wait and see, if this works?.


Oh and i forgot to add one more thing he said about the SNR figures, he said there are some customers who have lower SNR figures ( 9-12) than mine ( my snr 18-22) and their connection works fine. so I guess he was trying to say that the problem lies somewhere else??

----------

Correct and I agree with him.

What chat applications are you having problems with? Are the same applications working Ok without disconnections from a different broadband or netcafe connection?[COLOR=\"Silver\"]

----------

[/COLOR]Sorry, my replies are all over the place. Pasting it again below:-

Is'nt this 'underground cable' from the blue box to your computer room the one which has ALREADY been changed?

'Wire to the main exchange' means copper cable from blue box to the exchange? Why would you change this when you are the ONLY one having issues on this 'wire' ?

Every customer has individual DSLAM ports allocated - I think the engineer is referring to the Ethernet port on the DSLAM which is common for all customers on that DSLAM.

What chat applications are you having problems with? Are the same applications working Ok without disconnections from a different broadband or netcafe connection? (I should have asked you this earlier).

In summary, I would insist on doing the following FIRST:-

1) Try with a different modem.
2) Change DSLAM port.

And ask the following question to the engineer:-

1) Why are going to dig up roads and change cable to the exchange when I am the only person experiencing this problem?

I am sure the engineer is trying to help you out but taking a structured approach to troubleshooting will save time and trouble for you (and a lot of other Airtel customers).

Hey There Coimby! thank you once again for replying!

I use many chat rooms, like Aamir khans chat room, mIRC, parachat, chatweb, ICQ. etc. also use yahoo & msn messengers. I have only airtel connection at home, So cannot check if the above applications or services get disconnected in a different broadband or netcafe connection too. but this much I am sure, many applications get disconnected at the same time, so the problem doesn't lie in these applications.

I would like to add something here, the connection seems to have improved though, the disconnections are not as very frequent as before ( before the copper wire from the blue box to my computer room was changed).

I got a call from an airtel office last night, saying 'some wire' has changed from the airtel exchange to my bb box ( the small blue box outside my home), When I asked where that exchange is located, I was told it is some 1-2 kms away from home. there was no underground work done. so not sure how and what wire was changed.

I don't think he meant he is gonna dig up the road and change the cable wire, maybe I misunderstood. about trying with a different modem, the engineer suggests there might be no problem with the modem. and the next time I speak to him will tell him about the DSLAM port. and also insist on changing the modem ( and splitter too? ).

well, yeah you are right about taking a structured approach to troubleshooting to save time and trouble. the engineer has promised me to whatever they can do, and asked me to give feedback about the connection, and they would act accordingly.


thank you for the suggestions

 

[amit_dp]

Check for Earthing in the power sockets which power your computers and modem. I have noticed that if earthing is not proper sometimes speed and connectivity gets affected.

 

[breakyo]

@coimby @AjayJp @admin @essbebe @Mac @ SiriusB @amit_dp @Apporvkhatreja @everyone reading this thread


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[/COLOR]Check for Earthing in the power sockets which power your computers and modem. I have noticed that if earthing is not proper sometimes speed and connectivity gets affected.

Hello there amit, . Thanks for the reply. Well, I think the earthing is fine because if there was some fault with it, I would feel electric current upon touching the monitor or the cpu. am I right?.

thank you