IOLBB login probs

bluedaemon

Has anyone else noticed probs on login to IOLBB?

I am getting a invalid user name or password message occasionally but if I just press the button to get it to try again it usually works immediately or after a try or two.

I was nowhere near the cap (around 6GB) when this started last month and I still amn't (at about 2GB). I mention this because I believe the message some of you were getting when you were blocked out for going over the cap was something like this?

Anyway, please let me know. If it doesn't stop soon I might ring 'em but we all know how much good that does.

Could be on my end I suppose but I doubt it.

oneweb

Yeah, been having that prob too since after Christmas, nothing to do with cap.

robroy

Yes, I have been having problems for the past few weeks. I need to log on up to 3 or 4 times to get connected. My usage for Oct, Nov and Dec has not been higher than 1GB in total, so there is no association with excess usage. The password also gets lost when a logon fails so it's not a matter of hit 'retry'.

As I build / reconfigure my setup I at first thought it was my fault, but it happens on a stable PC also that had worked perfectly for October and November.

I've also been a victim of overcharging. I took the IOLBB offer of free installation and first month free in October. First Bill on Christmas Eve was over 300euro, not the 49.95 I expected for the first 2 months ( 1st free).
That coupled with no invoice for the service, just a direct debit on my account has left a very disgruntled user here, waiting for a promised refund. I did get a reply from customer care after 2 days promising the refund.

oneweb

...on a calll... may be the exchange? Apparently some €ircon exchanges are corrupting the login. Ring IOLBB tech supp on 1890 923 111 anyway, 'cos if you don't, they won't realise how many users this is affecting.

End of call. Will be getting line tested :eek:

Lex_Diamonds

Tell us how you get on Oneweb.

bluedaemon

Originally posted by robroy
The password also gets lost when a logon fails so it's not a matter of hit 'retry'.

That's been happening to me too. Half-thought I was imagining it though as I couldn't see how an external system (ie €ircom/Esat idiots) could be affecting Windows' password storage services. (And I was sure/hopeful that it wasn't anything on my side).

Carbon Blob

I've been gettin this on UTV aswell for the last month or so, it remembers my PW though so it's not a hassle to just hit redial a few times. Tis a relief to see I'm not alone with this. Jesus I'd figured I'd nuked my settings somehow, half expecting to try and login one day and just be refused point blank.

Neil_Sedaka

Originally posted by Carbon Blob
I've been gettin this on UTV aswell for the last month or so, it remembers my PW though so it's not a hassle to just hit redial a few times. Tis a relief to see I'm not alone with this. Jesus I'd figured I'd nuked my settings somehow, half expecting to try and login one day and just be refused point blank.

Ditto, Ditto and Ditto Ditto!

On the UTV forum they seem to think it's possibly a Win XP problem, but I'm on Win 98se!!

oneweb

So it seems to be IOL and UTV on all platforms. Then the TS guy's diagnosis of the pre-Christmas problem with €ircon exchanges seems to be a good one. He said they thought it should have been fixed by €ircon round Christmas.

Anyway, IOL said they haven't received many reports. They won't do anything if they're not told about a problem.
PPL on UTV, I'd advise ya to call UTV tech supp too.

What's the earliest you've experienced this problem? Might explain why (I thought) I needed a password change at the very start of December.

Lex_Diamonds

Ive solved the problem on my machine (Win2k). What I did was bring up the local area connection thingy, itll show youve been connected for a few days, choose "disable" then connect it again.

Then delete your existing dialup for IOL/UTV or whatever, create a new one.


I did those two things and it isn't happening for me anymore.

oneweb

Originally posted by Lex_Diamonds
Ive solved the problem on my machine (Win2k). What I did was bring up the local area connection thingy, itll show youve been connected for a few days, choose "disable" then connect it again.

Then delete your existing dialup for IOL/UTV or whatever, create a new one.


I did those two things and it isn't happening for me anymore.

Nope, didn't work. Also needed the CD to re-enable.

Lex_Diamonds

Doh, soz. Hehe, worked for me though.

eclectichoney

yes happens me too, usually after i redial a couple of times it lets me log in, but today it just wouldn't. i even restarted the puter too, which normally works. eventually tried retyping the password and it worked. its getting annoying now.... this as well as missing out on the eircom ipod offer....why did i choose Bt again?

capistrano

I was getting this too but then I got me a ethernet modem and I haven't had any problems since. So, could be to do with the crappy USB modem they give you for "free".

robroy

Thanks for the idea Lex_Diamonds, but could you be more precise in this 'local area connection thingy'. I'm also on Win2K and none of the settings panels I could find sound like your 'connection thingy'. My connection never stays up for more that a few minutes if I'm not using it, in spite of choosing 'never' signoff. I'm guessing that you are referring to the icon in the right hand side of the tray with a double screen, and I only see a disconnect there.
If it's a settings problem then the zero assistance that comes out of the IOL BB box is part of the problem. But why should that have changed from mid December?

bluedaemon

Originally posted by robroy
But why should that have changed from mid December?

Personally I doubt it's a prob on our end, I'd say that eircom just fixed Lex's exchange around the time he tried that quite frankly.

OfflerCrocGod

I would afto agree with getting some real h/w to handle the connection stuff; I have Router connecting me and I never have any probs...... It may be a combination of crappy h/w and something on the exchange, but some real h/w seems to mitigate the prob.

Lex_Diamonds

Originally posted by robroy
Thanks for the idea Lex_Diamonds, but could you be more precise in this 'local area connection thingy'. I'm also on Win2K and none of the settings panels I could find sound like your 'connection thingy'. ?

Sorry, hehe. Ok if you go into your dial-up networking folder then youll see an icon called "local area connection" along with the normal dial up icon. This is the one I was referring to.

ZENER

Is it fair to say that most of you who are having this problem are using an external "modem" of some sort ?

I've been connected since July using a router and have never had problem ! Mind you I've hardly ever switched the thing off.

Has anyone using a proper router/ethernet connection like the Eircom supplied device had this problem ?

Tinky

robroy

I'm using the free USB Modem, but I have bought a good router which my son has borrowed. Looks like I should get it back and soon.

bluedaemon

Originally posted by tinky
Is it fair to say that most of you who are having this problem are using an external "modem" of some sort ?

Yeah - using the IOL one (ZyZel Prestige 630-11)

RainyDay

I've had similar problems connecting to IOL using two seperate configurations;

1) Win XP Home client and Zyxel USB modem
2) Win XP Home client, Netgear Wireless router/modem (where the IOL username is configured on the Netgear box)

Number 2 above would seem to rule out any issues relating to storage of the password on the client PC.

Having said that, it seems to have been generally behaving itself last night & today.

robroy

Originally posted by RainyDay
I've had similar problems connecting to IOL using two seperate configurations;

1) Win XP Home client and Zyxel USB modem
2) Win XP Home client, Netgear Wireless router/modem (where the IOL username is configured on the Netgear box)

Number 2 above would seem to rule out any issues relating to storage of the password on the client PC.

Having said that, it seems to have been generally behaving itself last night & today.

I have also found that it has been better last night and today. Certainly indicates it is outside our own area of control.
Looks like getting my Netgear modem back will not be a miracle cure. I only get the password lost when it is rejected as invalid. Is that a feature of the WIN2K or XP logon code whenever it is found to be incorrect? I can see the logic of programming it that way if you really do have it entered incorrectly. Could both Netgear and MS be using the same reasoning?

A quick test just now with an incorrect logon id produced the observed effect of dropping the entered password and the checked flag for Save Password reset. Looks like that's the way it works in response to the returned error code.

ZENER

I guess it's an IOLBB problem so - but in the 7 or 8 months I've had IOLBB here I have had no problems. I thought it may have been a problem peculiar to Windows.

tinky

oneweb

OK, I had a call from IOLBB tech support. Went through a driver uninstall/reinstall ('cos they reckoned the modem was sending the wrong password) and...

"Error 691: Check username and password"

D'OH

So tech supp said he'd escalate the prob & get back to me if there's any development.

kida

It seems to work ok if I use network connections and not auto-dial in IE.

In IE its almost guaranteed not to work if I don't disconnnect the connection before shutting down(still doesn't work other times though)

robroy

"Error 691: .... Check username and password" is also the message I get whenever this happens.
I said a few days ago that it had got better, but 7.00 to 8.00 yesterday evening ( Thursday 15th Jan) it was impossible to sign in so I had to give up. Seems OK this afternoon, Friday.

A feature of the Error 691 from IOLBB is that it takes time for it to happen, unless I have used the signon program after it has removed my password, in which case I get a much speedier response to say that ID & PW are incorrect.
If you combine these two observaions I'm beginning to think that it seems associated with busy times on the network, and that their internet server is just unable to cope. Somewhere on the reply chain a timeout is being interpreted as invalid ID.
Next time I get rejected I must try an incorrect ID and see how fast it responds. I would have thought that a reply saying invalid should be as quick as for an accepted signon, if not actually quicker.

bluedaemon

I also had extreme dificulty connecting yesterday evening - I connected eventually but I must have tryed at least 20 or 30 times before it accepted.

I'd have to agree that your timeout theory sounds likely - certainly when one takes into account when these probs are most apparent.

I have actually tried an incorrect id as you suggest and the time was about the same from what I could tell.

robroy

Thanks for that bluedaemon. I've tried again a few just now and I found that the Error IDs could be either 2 or 6 seconds, while a good ID was c. 2 secs. But the connection service is working quite well just now.

jozi

i see i'm not the only one having connection problems here!

taught it was my router (D-Link504) cause its giving me problems the whole time but reading this tread i guess it isn't

on now anyway so i'm happy did take a lot of attempts

might give iol a ring tomorrow

raster

I get and invalid user/pass message, have reset, retryed etc, nut still won't connect, this has happened before, but it always connected after about 7 attempts.

I thought it was a cutoff, but checked their usage metre and have 300MB left this month if cap is combined up/down (great 150MB per week til the end of the month damn this cap)

butts

I've had the same problem over the last week - couldn't log on at all for about the last two hours. Tried rebooting the D-Link 300G+ modem and that didn't help at all (looking at the Admin web page for the modem I could see it was trying to log on but kept getting the "Auth. Failed" message).

I then changed the DNS settings on the Netgear wireless router from 192.111.39.1/4 to "Get Automatically From ISP" and clicked Apply which causes the router to reboot and was immediately able to log on. I think it probably had more to do with rebooting the router than changing the DNS settings. Next time I can't log on I'll try rebooting the router and will let you know what happens.

Funky

i cant connect at all, woop de fucking doo

bizmark

Takes about 15 trys for me to log in now because of a invailed username/password bull ........right pain

clearz

Originally posted by oneweb
OK, I had a call from IOLBB tech support. Went through a driver uninstall/reinstall ('cos they reckoned the modem was sending the wrong password) and...

"Error 691: Check username and password"

D'OH

So tech supp said he'd escalate the prob & get back to me if there's any development.

I have also been getting this problem so I rang tech support and after about 10 minns of listing to sombody typing was also told he'd escalate the prob & get back to me if there's any development. I also mentioned this thread so he could not try and say it was just a problem with me.

I sugest for everybody to start ringing about this or they will prob just ignore it. Anyway if it is not fixed by March when eircom drops their price. I am going to tell them im fed up IOL have been non stop hastle and change to eircom.

raster

Originally posted by clearz
......Anyway if it is not fixed by March when eircom drops their price. I am going to tell them im fed up IOL have been non stop hastle and change to eircom.

What about your IOL 12 month agreement?

clearz

Listen im sure because of the hastle getting set up and the service not even working properly (Took me around 40 tries to get in one day) I have a case for breaking the contract.

meatball

Having severe login difficulties here with the Netgear DG834. Had the same with the USB modem before too. Connection gets dropped at least once or twice a day too, it's ridiculous.

I think I will call them too and intimidate the useless bastards into giving me a free month.

capistrano

Originally posted by meatball
Having severe login difficulties here with the Netgear DG834. Had the same with the USB modem before too. Connection gets dropped at least once or twice a day too, it's ridiculous.

I think I will call them too and intimidate the useless bastards into giving me a free month.

I have an ethernet modem/router setup and I notice my connection drops periodically too, but the modem reconnects automatically itself and I hardly notice.

The thing is that after it reconnects the IP address changes. Do you think IOLBB are deliberately dropping the connection to change the IP address so no one tries to host something with their ADSL connection? I know that they have a static-IP address option that costs about €100/month.

eth0_

Of course that's why. You're not allowed to host anything, it's against the TOS. Your IP will reset every 24 hours, possibly more. What's the big deal? Use DYNDNS if you're annoyed about your IP resetting.

Rumblefish

having been getting username/password login issue since xmas, though has now gotten way worse - was previously occasional and would last a few minutes, now its about 50-70% of the time. i'm on Galway city mervue exchange

Called IOL BB Support last night and the tech support dude was very keen to get the exact details of failed login attempts - he said they still have no idea what problem is and are deseperately trying to collect log files related to incidents.

Asked me to bear with them while they tried to sort it out. He said 'sure I'm having the same problem on my broadband connection at home', to which I said ' yeh but the difference is that you're not paying €45/mnth for your steaming pile of ****e'

The best thing to do is the following

1. report issue to IOL BB Support - make sure you get the 'Trouble Ticket' number
2. Then email or even better call the following person to tell them the issue (quote the Trouble Ticket ID. The more people complain to this person, the greater emphasis Esat/IOL will give the issue

Niamh Murphy
Complaint Officer
+ 353 1 4327117
Grand Canal Plaza
Upper Grand Canal Street
Dublin 4
Complaints@esat.com

capistrano

Originally posted by eth0_
Of course that's why. You're not allowed to host anything, it's against the TOS. Your IP will reset every 24 hours, possibly more. What's the big deal? Use DYNDNS if you're annoyed about your IP resetting.

It doesn't bother me. A friend has NTL broadband in Belfast and, while they say it's dynamic IP, his IP address hasn't changed. So if he wanted, he could host. I'm just a little surprised that IOLBB actually go to the bother of resetting IP addresses.

I wouldn't dream of hosting my own stuff when I get fabulous hosting from properhosting.com for $4.95/month.

ZENER

Your IP will reset every 24 hours, possibly more. What's the big deal? Use DYNDNS if you're annoyed about your IP resetting.

I think if you have a DSL modem/router permanently connected you may find you have the same IP for up to 3 days, at least thats been my experience so far.

dyndns.org is a good service and overcomes the problem with dynamic IP addressing.

I don't think IOL or any of the others deliberately disconnect you to change the I.P., In the 7 ot 8 months I've been using the service I have no problems whatsoever with losing connection, and my IP changes regularly while the router/modem is on.

Tinky

capistrano

I don't think IOL or any of the others deliberately disconnect you to change the I.P.,

Interestingly, just to test I gave my assigned IP addrress to a friend in London and asked him to access the seb server running on my PC. It worked but within a minute the IP address was changed.

Originally posted by eth0_
Of course that's why. You're not allowed to host anything, it's against the TOS. Your IP will reset every 24 hours, possibly more. What's the big deal? Use DYNDNS if you're annoyed about your IP resetting.

I think you will find that NO-Where on the TOS does it forbid a user from "hosting" as you put it. If it were to, that would render alot of internet applications unusable!

robroy

Just checked back on this thread. I've actually been logging my signon responses by clock time and stop watch time to respond since last Sunday. I've logged 13 signons in total, most of which respond in about 2.5 seconds. I had only 2 failures, one after the other at 10:15 and 10:16 yesterday Wed 21st.
The first of these failures responded after 7.89 seconds so my earlier thoughts about a loading problem might still have some foundation. However the second password error was returned in 2.47 seconds but even I could have entered the wrong password. 30 seconds later I signed in correctly.

I recon this connection service is much better than it has been. I used to experience disconnects when my internet acivity was idle, but my email is now checking for mail every 5 minutes, so disconnects no longer happens and I need to sign on much less frequently. I'm not sure of my exchange name, but it's south east Dublin.

If you are logging errors try to keep an accurate clocktime to help the IOL guys look at their system logs.

For new readers of this thread who are getting the invalid ID / password, could I remind you of the trivial problem that the password in your signon process is probably getting blanked out and you actually have to enter the password explicitely after every time you get a password reject - at least that is the way it happens on my W2K IOL BB connection icon. So hitting retry will never again work until you retype the password.

I'm sorry to be so obvious but there might just be someone out there that missed this discussion earlier.

atheist

I too have to frequently retry logins.

I wonder if it's to do with Radius / TACACS+, as this would explain the "domain" @IOLBB that we have to tack onto the end of the login - they could use the same Terminal Adapter / POP at the Eircom exchange for a variety of different providers.

I notice by using NSLOOKUP that the first few hops go through VLANs.

I suspect it's 802.1
authenticate into authorized VLAN = choice
client does DHCP after authentication

which is why we have those silly 169 addresses on the 8mb nic that hosts the PPPoE tunnel.

The cure will likely require some Cisco guru

Joseph

Ronaldo7

i get it too and i dont know why. grrr

RainyDay

Has anyone else noticed a partial improvement? My router has connected successfully first time (without me having to give it the usual virtual nudge) a few times over the past few days (though not every time).

robroy

Yes, Still some continued improvement compared with early January but also continued intermittant failures
Eg Wed 28:
10:46 error 691 after 2.64 sec wait
10:47 OK
13:45 OK
22:15 691 after 9.62 second wait
22:15 691 after 2.8 seconds
22:16 OK
Thurs 29
10:20 OK
13:20 OK
Friday 30th
9:46 691 (2.85 wait)
9:46 OK
13:35 691 ( 2.71wait)
13:36 OK
23:27 OK
Sat 31st
12:24 691 ( 7.85 wait)
12:24 OK
15:17 OK
Sunday Feb 1st
13:32 OK
Clock times about 45 seconds ahead of GMT.

All successful times are around 2.7 seconds.
Thats what I'm getting, and seeing it logged, it hints at, but does not prove my earlier suggestion that it could be a response to a server busy and a reject after a 5 second timeout leading to the default reply of password failure.
This is similar to the pattern for the previous week, but I'm still not at all happy with it.

kmurph

Hmm, anyone else finding IOLBB up and down more often than Jordan's knickers this afternoon?

And as I type this, it's gone again.