Connection problems

[Robin Edwards]

I've not waded again through all the posts in this thread yet, but
thought I should make it known that "connection problems" are still
around (here, anyway).

The number I dial 08451231621 is becoming less and less usable. Don't
know why, but it is very variable. Yesterday, for instance, I tried
quite a number of times to connect. Eventually I got through and
managed to download one email. Then the line cut entirely.

When things are going well what I typically am seeing is the modem
lights CD and RD active (USR 56K Voice Faxmodem being accessed by
Voyager) and when this happens I get a "normal" download. But there are
frequent periods of total inactivity of the lights, periods randomly
varying from a few seconds to half a minute or more, and also total loss
of the line, as happened several times yesterday. This evening I got
through after 5 attempts, none of which (apart from the last) was able
to establish contact with whatever is at the other end of the telephone.
To my relief this successful connection, though very slow (7min 50 sec
to collect 53 news items and 73 emails, none of which was at all large
and mostly very small, eg ZFC stuff), and it did not suffer unduly from
periods of total inactivity.

I feel that it is becoming so unpredictable as to be approaching
unusable as a standard way of using the internet. I hope I'm wrong
about this.

Surely there must be an explanation. I don't touch anything of the
hardware, apart from trying re-setting the modem by removing its power
supply, and this only after a few days when calls have been unable to
get established. I /never/ do anything to the software - scared stiff
of it!

Also I seem to be getting numerous duplicates (or worse) which I note
seems to be affecting others in groups such as this one.

I'd be interested in the experiences of others.

Now to try to get this away.

Cheers, Robin

[Dr J E Hurley]

Post by Robin Edwards
Surely there must be an explanation. I don't touch anything of the
hardware, apart from trying re-setting the modem by removing its power
supply, and this only after a few days when calls have been unable to
get established. I /never/ do anything to the software - scared stiff
of it!

Robin do you live in a rural area? This seems characteristic of problems I
had from my home connection some years back in Argonet days. The problem was
only resolved after numerous complaints to BT when they pumped an
underground section of cable out. It has been rather wet!

The point is that there is a lot of cabling and servers between you and the
ISP and since I have experienced similar problems with several ISPs
simultaneously (particularly those on the pipex backbone) you have to
suspect the links in the chain. Perhaps ISPs need to adopt "fall back"
routeways.

John

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Dr J E Hurley

Post by Robin Edwards
Surely there must be an explanation. I don't touch anything of the
hardware, apart from trying re-setting the modem by removing its power
supply, and this only after a few days when calls have been unable to
get established. I /never/ do anything to the software - scared stiff
of it!

Robin do you live in a rural area? This seems characteristic of problems I
had from my home connection some years back in Argonet days. The problem was
only resolved after numerous complaints to BT when they pumped an
underground section of cable out. It has been rather wet!

I had exactly the same problems with Argonet dial-up, six miles from
John, but suburban. BT kept telling me the line was OK (they would,
wouldn't they?), but the problem was solved only by going broadband.

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Russell Hafter News]

BT kept telling me the line was OK (they would, wouldn't
they?),

Indeed they would.

But then they never made any guarantees that their lines
were actually suitable for dial-up internet use.

"Line OK" means that you can hold a conversation on it, to
the kind of standard that applied in the days of Strowger
exchanges.

They are happy to take your money if you find that you can
use the line for something else, but, AIUI, there is nothing
in your contract with BT that gives you grounds for
complaint if these other things do not work.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I had exactly the same problems with Argonet dial-up, six miles from
John, but suburban. BT kept telling me the line was OK (they would,
wouldn't they?), but the problem was solved only by going broadband.

Same here. Websites slow down when there's a big load on them. News
servers etc seem to be the same - or somewhere in the chain does. When I
was with Argonet, download speeds were at their best in the wee sma' hoors
- presumably a null across the world. Sometimes they just effectively
stopped.

My newsgroup download speeds on Pipex broadband still vary - but at worst
are only slightly slower than the best on dialup. But since there's no per
minute charge it's not so important.

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Dave Plowman (News)

Post by Dr Peter Young
I had exactly the same problems with Argonet dial-up, six miles from
John, but suburban. BT kept telling me the line was OK (they would,
wouldn't they?), but the problem was solved only by going broadband.

Same here. Websites slow down when there's a big load on them. News
servers etc seem to be the same - or somewhere in the chain does. When
I was with Argonet, download speeds were at their best in the wee sma'
hoors - presumably a null across the world. Sometimes they just
effectively stopped.
My newsgroup download speeds on Pipex broadband still vary - but at
worst are only slightly slower than the best on dialup. But since
there's no per minute charge it's not so important.

This really is absolutely frustrating. I can get exactly NO download
speed, Dave :-((

It is now Friday at about 18.10. I have tried (again) to connect to
08451231621 and after almost exactly one minute got the fatal message
the Connection has not been established.

Now to try again in the hope that someone can offer some help or a cure.
I am still sure that the problem does not lie with me or the software
and hardware that I use.

Cheers - through gritted teeth -

Robin

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Post by Robin Edwards
Now to try again in the hope that someone can offer some help or a cure.
I am still sure that the problem does not lie with me or the software
and hardware that I use.

One word. Broadband.

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Dr J E Hurley

Post by Robin Edwards
Surely there must be an explanation. I don't touch anything of the
hardware, apart from trying re-setting the modem by removing its
power supply, and this only after a few days when calls have been
unable to get established. I /never/ do anything to the software -
scared stiff of it!

Robin do you live in a rural area? This seems characteristic of
problems I had from my home connection some years back in Argonet
days. The problem was only resolved after numerous complaints to BT
when they pumped an underground section of cable out. It has been
rather wet!

Thanks for this suggestion/explanation, John. I am about 2km from the
exchange, and normally everything happens nicely. I would be very
surprised if there were significant cable problems.

As I wrote in my posting of 18th Feb the number I dial is 08451231621,
and has been ever since the dire problems of a year or so ago. This has
been OK until a few months (2?) ago, since when it has been increasingly
unsatisfactory, due to what I see as "drop-outs" during connection, and
as of the last few weeks a reluctance to connect. Last evening, at
around 11.30 I tried about ten times to connect. The attempts failed at
the first hurdle with the now all too familiar message about failure to
connect!

I then decided to try dialling some numbers that I used around 2 years
ago. In both cases the connection was established /immediately/!
However, because I was not known at the other end "Authentication"
failed, not surprisingly. My interpretation is that there must be a
connection problem associated with the number I normally use. What else
could it be?

Then, at last, my usual number did connect! Hooray! However, although
the connection speed given by Voyager was 40,000 the News downloads
proceeded at 500 to 800 CPS. A "normal" rate would be between 3000 and
6000 CPS, the latter only very occasionally. There were some periods of
total inactivity as shown by modem lamps. My final yield was 65 emails
- as usual mainly ZFC - and 104 News items. This collection took about
nine minutes to download, whereas experience tells me that it ought to
be about 2 or 3 minutes.

The whole attempt to get these things took around half an hour, which I
cannot regard as being a satisfactory experience!

Post by Dr J E Hurley
The point is that there is a lot of cabling and servers between you
and the ISP and since I have experienced similar problems with several
ISPs simultaneously (particularly those on the pipex backbone) you
have to suspect the links in the chain. Perhaps ISPs need to adopt
"fall back" routeways.

I fully understand that the communications process is complex! It is a
profound mystery to me, and smacks of magic. I suppose that I should be
thankful that it ever works, but it is becoming increasingly painful and
tedious here. I hope that it is a temporary phase, and that "normal
service will be resumed shortly".

I'll not repeat all this in replies to others (Peter, Russel and Dave)
who responded to my posting.

I'll try phoning Paul again to see if he has the magic to get things
moving.

Thanks,

Robin

P.S. My newly installed broadband using a wireless router - dare I
write it via TalkTalk, who are my telephone suppliers and to whom I pay
line rental - has so far been brilliant. Seems to give instant
responses via Firefox on my laptop. It is nominally 8Mbps (with the new
equipment installed on 6th March) which is far faster than I need for
the sorts of things I download, so I'm really happy at the moment. Long
may it last! Telephone also has been faultless for years. Firefox
seems to be excellent too, though I've not explored it at all as yet.

Cheers, Robin

[Russell Hafter News]

Post by Robin Edwards
P.S. My newly installed broadband using a wireless
router - dare I write it via TalkTalk, who are my
telephone suppliers and to whom I pay line rental - has
so far been brilliant.

In which case, you do not need to dial up anymore, at least
for browsing and e-mail.

You will need a network card in your RPC or whatever, and a
cable to connect it to the router (or is it purley wireless?
I which case I am out of my depth. never used wireless.)

Talk to CJE - they will be able to supply a used network at
reasonable cost, and, I imagine, will talk you through
getting it set up.

You will have to ditch Voyager, though. Whatever you use for
browsing on yourt RISC OS machine will just work once you
have connected it to broadband.

You need POPStar to fetch and send e-mail.

I believe that I have read that Talk-Talk do not do news, so
you will have to find some other way of doing that, but AIUI
there are open access news servers around.

[Tennant Stuart]

Post by Robin Edwards
I've not waded again through all the posts in this thread yet, but
thought I should make it known that "connection problems" are still
around (here, anyway).
The number I dial 08451231621 is becoming less and less usable.

<snip>

Post by Robin Edwards
I'd be interested in the experiences of others.

08451231621 works okay for me, I get 20% discount on it.

Not all is perfect however: email was down yesterday at about 8pm,
though it was working again this morning.


Tennant Stuart

[Ben Crick]

Post by Tennant Stuart
08451231621 works okay for me, I get 20% discount on it.

It works OK for me here in NE Kent: and I get a discount on it
from TalkTalk.

Ben