Major Eircom Disconnecting problem, HELP PLEASE.

Slingers

Hi everyone hope I can get some help with my Eircom broadband connection problems.
I have been having this connection problem for months but I let it go over the summer months as I wasn't there much, my broadband just keeps disconnecting every 40mins-1hr.
Its very annoying as play Xbox Live and PSN alot, I am on the 3mb package from Eircom, all my Xbox and PS3 settings are correct and it disconnects even if I'm just
browsing the web. When I get disconnected I don't get a red light on the internet light on the modem, all lights stay green.
I'm from the Mayfield area of Cork, I don't know what exchange I'm on, I don't have a complicated setup, I have just one home phone (no splitters running of it),
both the phone and and the modem are connected directly to the socket. Here are my DSL stats if that helps.

Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave
Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 3072 384
SN Margin (dB) 8.50 12.00
Line Attenuation (dB) 58.50 31.50
CRC Errors 94 2

I contacted Eircom at the start of September about the problem and explained everything to the technical support guy and he told me to do the usual stuff
about connecting it directly to the phone socket to see if it still disconnects, which it did, and to ring back the following day and let support know if it was still
happening, so I ring back the following day and he said he would send out a technician, which would take between 3-5 days and that the technician would go to the
exchange to see if the problem was coming from there. A few days later I get a call from the technician looking for my house, so when he comes all he does is change the
phone socket and doesn't even test the line, when I asked if he was at the exchange he says no, that the problem was probably coming from the phone socket, the socket
was fairly old so it sounded plausible. But sure enough an hour after he leaves it disconnects as normal. I ring technical support the next day and am given the run-around
again, and I am told he will send the technician out again, to which I reply the last guy didn't do much to solve my problem, the tech guy then says we'll send out a
better one this time, gotta love that reply. The technician takes 7 working days this time, and I only find out he was working on it that day because I was ringing tech every
day.
So I ring back later that day to see what happened and the tech guy tells me that the problem has been fixed and that the problem was with a faulty socket in the exchange.
So for the next 2 weeks the connection stays solid not one single disconnect, then last week bang same problem starts happening again. I ring tech again last Monday and they
said they would send someone out to check on it again. I then decided to send a letter of complaint to Eircom (registered because otherwise I'm sure It would get misplaced)
I get a call on Wednesday from the technician saying he can't find a problem at the exchange and that he will come out to the house on Thursday to check everything.
So on Thursday he comes and checks everything and says it must be an internal problem as the broadband signal is coming in, which I don't believe, I the get him to change
the phone socket to a phone socket with a built in filter just to see would that help, but no disconnected 5 times with in the space of 2 and a half hours last night.
So I really don't know what to do from here. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE any help would be much appreciated. Sorry for the long read I felt it was necessary.

ynotdu

Given all you have said above and with the provider that i am NO expert,would the simple answer be that SOMEWHERE along the line either Eircom or your computer settings believe you are on dial-up?set to disconnect automaticly if no active use is detected within X amount of minutes?

just a thought as i say i am no expert&you seem to know more than me,just a few problems i have had with BB I/WE forgot to check the 'simple solutions' before looking deeper.

anyways good luck:)

Shredd

I have the exact same problem, but in north Wicklow. After going through the stuff you went through, the broadband expert that Eircom sent simply told me that it was just poor infrastructure from Eircom, and that they needed to spend money upgrading it.

I suggest that you should check your line stats when you disconnect. I found that on my worst days, my SN margin would be averaging as low as 2 dB's.

Good luck.

Sponge Bob

those s/n margins are dog low

disconnect everything from the phone line, all phones sky boxes etc

disconnect all filters

plug modem straight into MAIN socket and run the stats again , we are hoping here for an increase in Margin and a decrease in the 58db attentuation

turnsoutIwas

If the line has been checked and the socket as well I would say the next thing to try is the modem. Borrow a modem from someone else and see how it goes. Make sure you use the other power supply as well.

lucernarian

Signal Margin is fluctuating too much, on top of attenuation being very high. It seems like the modem was able to deal with the background noise for a long time but in recent weeks extra bursts of noise is knocking the line off.

It's a difficult problem to remedy as it's very hard to find out why there are stronger bursts of noise present on the line. The bursts of noise are clearly short, as the line re-connects when the noise has gone at a speed (or bit mapping profile) higher than it can for long-term stability. Also, when the linesman goes to test it, the line will probably not have the incriminating noise on it.


A line with 58.5 dB of attenuation according to the modem is doing very well to maintain 3072. If you don't want to have your speed lowered, then you should try getting some other sort of modem. I think the Netopia, along with a lot of other modems use a Texas Instruments AR7 DSL chipset. There's bad reports of these sorts of modems on the internet (as in, the signal margin can fluctuate a lot and may disconnect where others
wouldn't).

I'm not an expert on what modems are out there with different chipsets, but I do know that Thomson Speedtouch modems are a good call if you can get your hands on one.

Slingers

ynotdu wrote: »

Given all you have said above and with the provider that i am NO expert,would the simple answer be that SOMEWHERE along the line either Eircom or your computer settings believe you are on dial-up?set to disconnect automatically if no active use is detected within X amount of minutes?

just a thought as i say i am no expert&you seem to know more than me,just a few problems i have had with BB I/WE forgot to check the 'simple solutions' before looking deeper.

anyways good luck:)

All suggestions are helpful. I don't think it's this as I have my connection type set to always on.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

those s/n margins are dog low

disconnect everything from the phone line, all phones sky boxes etc

disconnect all filters

plug modem straight into MAIN socket and run the stats again , we are hoping here for an increase in Margin and a decrease in the 58db attentuation

Ok I tested the stats before plugging out the phone and the S/N margin down was 10.50, up 12.00, line attenuation down 58.50, up 31.50. I have sky but I have never connected it to the phone socket, so I plugged out the phone and just had the modem connected and the stats were: S/N down 11.50, up 12.00, Line attenuation down 58.50, up 31.50. I plugged the phone in again and the stats stayed the same when I tested them again. Also it was early morning so maybe that had something to do with the S/N increase.

turnsoutIwas wrote: »

If the line has been checked and the socket as well I would say the next thing to try is the modem. Borrow a modem from someone else and see how it goes. Make sure you use the other power supply as well.

Hi, ya that might be worth a try, I'll ring Eircom and ask them to send me out a new modem.

Sponge Bob

Those stats are also consistent with being around 6-7km from the exchange . Could even be the street lights are coming on earlier along the line and 'bursting' ya !

Slingers

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Signal Margin is fluctuating too much, on top of attenuation being very high. It seems like the modem was able to deal with the background noise for a long time but in recent weeks extra bursts of noise is knocking the line off.

It's a difficult problem to remedy as it's very hard to find out why there are stronger bursts of noise present on the line. The bursts of noise are clearly short, as the line re-connects when the noise has gone at a speed (or bit mapping profile) higher than it can for long-term stability. Also, when the linesman goes to test it, the line will probably not have the incriminating noise on it.


A line with 58.5 dB of attenuation according to the modem is doing very well to maintain 3072. If you don't want to have your speed lowered, then you should try getting some other sort of modem. I think the Netopia, along with a lot of other modems use a Texas Instruments AR7 DSL chipset. There's bad reports of these sorts of modems on the internet (as in, the signal margin can fluctuate a lot and may disconnect where others
wouldn't).

I'm not an expert on what modems are out there with different chipsets, but I do know that Thomson Speedtouch modems are a good call if you can get your hands on one.

Hi, the tech guy lowered the speed to a 2mb connection a few weeks ago and the disconnects still happened so I got him to put it back to normal, changing the modem to something other than the Eircom modem would be a bit off a hassle for me, my technical knowledge is pretty basic.

lucernarian

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Those stats are also consistent with being around 6-7km from the exchange . Could even be the street lights are coming on earlier along the line and 'bursting' ya !

Jaysus SB, how many times need ye be told that the eircom modems don't report attenuation accurately at higher values, and even if it did, the rule is 12dB per kilometre! That's a value taken from eircom's own SEC filings back in the day.

I've got a line that is 6.5 km long. Believe me, he wouldn't get the colour of 3072 on it. And he's in Cork city. Doubtful he's over 4 mile from an exchange. (I assume it's a he:p)

Slingers

Ok I rang tech and asked for a new modem but the guy told me that the engineers would have to look at it again and they would probably bring one with them and try that. I told him the line attenuation was high at 58.50 and he said it should be around 30s/40s for a decent connection and said the engineers might have to drop me to 1mb or a quarter of a meg to see if the connection stays solid. Wow dial up speeds that should be fun and apparently Neil is going to ring me today, whoever that is.:mad::mad::mad::mad:

turnsoutIwas

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Those stats are also consistent with being around 6-7km from the exchange . Could even be the street lights are coming on earlier along the line and 'bursting' ya !

A fault will change the db so you cant tell how far it is by this.

OP: Borrow a modem from someone you know who is with eircom. If this sorts it call them back and tell them this. They will send you a new modem. I would be surprised if this is anything else since they have checked the line, socket and exchange.

Baneblade

if the sych light syats solid and only the inthernet light goes red try setting the connection type on the modem to always on.

if it still disconnects check the line stats right away and see if there are a load of crc errors

thefinalstage

It looks like a modem fault to me. Get another to test, preferably a second eircom one.

Slingers

Baneblade wrote: »

if the sych light syats solid and only the inthernet light goes red try setting the connection type on the modem to always on.

if it still disconnects check the line stats right away and see if there are a load of crc errors

None of the lights go red, all stay green and I have always had connection type set to always on, so everything is fine on that front.

paul150

I had the same problem when i was with eircom, disconnects every hour or two was extremely annoying for gaming on ps3 and it was due to having a low SNR since i moved to smart they have been able to tweak my line to improve the problem big time

Slingers

Eircom rang a quarter of an hour ago to say they'll send out a new modem, to see how that goes, so I will report back the results but I don't hold out hope of this solving the problem.

rob808

hi i have eircom 3mb broadband i have two modem my brother has the older one i have the grey one my problem is pc connect to internet ok but when i try connection to ps3 through pppoe setting i can't allway get failed nat sometimes take me 30min to a hour to get nat1 the thing annoying me is keep getting red light were it say internet please tell what it means i have it right now having this problem for 2 month and my brother modem turn off when im using mine please help thanks

turnsoutIwas

rob808 wrote: »

hi i have eircom 3mb broadband i have two modem my brother has the older one i have the grey one my problem is pc connect to internet ok but when i try connection to ps3 through pppoe setting i can't allway get failed nat sometimes take me 30min to a hour to get nat1 the thing annoying me is keep getting red light were it say internet please tell what it means i have it right now having this problem for 2 month and my brother modem turn off when im using mine please help thanks

Probably better off to start your own thread but you cant have two modems on one line. Use one and both of you connect to it.

Slingers

Tested the DSL stats today at 4pm and the s/n margin down was 11.50 dB and the attenuation was 58.50 dB. I got disconnected at 6:15 and checked the stats and the s/n margin had dropped to 5.50 dB and the attenuation stayed the same. Why is it dropping so low at these times?

Slingers

Ok disconnected again and this time the s/n margin down has dropped to 0.50 dB :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Prisoner6409

I have the exact same problem. My SN Margin(download) is never higher than 6db and at times drops to 0.0db. I did swap out the modem thinking the netopia was overheating and I'm sorry to say it made no difference. An Eircom techie out to your gaf is probably your best bet but I would'nt count in a fix. I've had this for ages now and imo Eircom have too many users using the same old lines, thus the signal degrades from time to time. I could be wrong but after all my troubleshooting that is the conclusion I came to. My line is old but when I got it installed first(3MB's) it was fine for about 9 months, ot's only in the past 6 months it got so bad so as old as my line is, it is capable of providing a good service on 3mb's.

Sometimes when my line is acting up(drop outs ect) I'll do a speedtest(eircom/magnet/speedtest.net) and it will show a download speed of 398kbp/s or so but if I do an actual download I'll get around 240kbp/s, this just does not add up. Something is screwball and I'm convinced it's on Eircoms side. I have three different o/s's running off 3 independent disks and a laptop and all show the same so it is not something on my pc that's causing it. I also plug out my phone/dsl splitter ect to no avail.

Slingers

Prisoner6409 wrote: »

I have the exact same problem. My SN Margin(download) is never higher than 6db and at times drops to 0.0db. I did swap out the modem thinking the netopia was overheating and I'm sorry to say it made no difference. An Eircom techie out to your gaf is probably your best bet but I would'nt count in a fix. I've had this for ages now and imo Eircom have too many users using the same old lines, thus the signal degrades from time to time. I could be wrong but after all my troubleshooting that is the conclusion I came to. My line is old but when I got it installed first(3MB's) it was fine for about 9 months, ot's only in the past 6 months it got so bad so as old as my line is, it is capable of providing a good service on 3mb's.

Sometimes when my line is acting up(drop outs ect) I'll do a speedtest(eircom/magnet/speedtest.net) and it will show a download speed of 398kbp/s or so but if I do an actual download I'll get around 240kbp/s, this just does not add up. Something is screwball and I'm convinced it's on Eircoms side. I have three different o/s's running off 3 independent disks and a laptop and all show the same so it is not something on my pc that's causing it. I also plug out my phone/dsl splitter ect to no avail.

I got a new modem today from eircom hooked it up everything was going well for an hour and then disconnected as usual, so its not the modem, its not the socket, and I've had them at the house now twice in the last month, I've come to the same conclusion as you, that the problem is at eircom's side, especially since a few weeks ago they checked out the exchange and changed something and my connection was solid for 2 weeks without a single disconnect and then just started acting up as normal. Where do I go from here?

lucernarian

Ask for your line to be put on a different port in the DSL equipment in the exchange. And you'd want to ask someone higher up in eircom support for this or else a local technician, especially a local technician actually, to do it. Average call centre staff won't have a clue what you mean.

Slingers

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Ask for your line to be put on a different port in the DSL equipment in the exchange. And you'd want to ask someone higher up in eircom support for this or else a local technician, especially a local technician actually, to do it. Average call centre staff won't have a clue what you mean.

Hi I have just a basic knowledge of these things so what will this do.

laurence997

We seem to have the same problem as you, and have had it for about two years now since we switched over to eircom broadband. I just decided to post here as the problems are very similar and the fix might be the same. Our internet connection drops about every 10-15 mins, and down time varies from 30secs. to 5mins. One thing that I notice is that our max speeds are nowhere near where they should be. We are on the 2MB package (atleast I think we are) but it says our max download speed is 768kbps. Is this because of a bad line or is it a preset eircom thing? The crc errors (down) also increase by about 100 a miniute, but the count reset each time the internet drops. The downstream line attenuation is very high aswell.
Here are the stats copied from the Netopia dsl page:


Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave



Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 768 128
SN Margin (dB) 8.00 12.00
Line Attenuation (dB) 63.50 31.50
CRC Errors 490 7

---

We called an eircom techie about a month ago and despite trying to tell him that the connection had been dropping for two years he said to restart the router and call back the next day if the connection was still dropping, which it was, but we were too busy to call back. Never asked anyone to change settings in the exchange though as I am not quite that technically advanced.
The DSL light turns off and the Internet light on the router turns red when the connection drops.
My guess is that it is a poor line (about 3-4 miles from the exchange) or too many people on the line and it is too old.
This is really annoying and I want to get it sorted. Does anyone have any advice or help?
All help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. If there was another good ISP in our area (Enistymon) we may think of changing, but to the best of my knowledge there isnt.
Thanks.

Slingers

laurence997 wrote: »

We seem to have the same problem as you, and have had it for about two years now since we switched over to eircom broadband. I just decided to post here as the problems are very similar and the fix might be the same. Our internet connection drops about every 10-15 mins, and down time varies from 30secs. to 5mins. One thing that I notice is that our max speeds are nowhere near where they should be. We are on the 2MB package (atleast I think we are) but it says our max download speed is 768kbps. Is this because of a bad line or is it a preset eircom thing? The crc errors (down) also increase by about 100 a miniute, but the count reset each time the internet drops. The downstream line attenuation is very high aswell.
Here are the stats copied from the Netopia dsl page:


Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave



Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 768 128
SN Margin (dB) 8.00 12.00
Line Attenuation (dB) 63.50 31.50
CRC Errors 490 7

---

We called an eircom techie about a month ago and despite trying to tell him that the connection had been dropping for two years he said to restart the router and call back the next day if the connection was still dropping, which it was, but we were too busy to call back. Never asked anyone to change settings in the exchange though as I am not quite that technically advanced.
The DSL light turns off and the Internet light on the router turns red when the connection drops.
My guess is that it is a poor line (about 3-4 miles from the exchange) or too many people on the line and it is too old.
This is really annoying and I want to get it sorted. Does anyone have any advice or help?
All help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. If there was another good ISP in our area (Enistymon) we mat think of changing, but to the best of my knowledge there isnt.
Thanks.

I had that problem with the red light on the modem too along time ago but when I changed my connection type to 'always on' that problem rarely occured. To check if you have it set to always on
-click on the eircom broadband icon on your desktop or type 192.168.1.254 into your browser
-Click on expert mode and then select 'yes enter expert mode'
-Then click on 'configure' on the left pane.
-Then click on 'connection' from that drop down menu.
-Then look for connection type and change it to 'always on'.

I'm not saying it will solve all your problems but it should cure that red light problem:)

lucernarian

Laurence997 is too far from the exchange or has a bad line. How long is it to Ennistymon as the phone lines travel from your house?

Getting the port changed, that your phoneline is plugged into, will help rule out faulty exchange equipment causing the disconnects.

Slingers

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Laurence997 is too far from the exchange or has a bad line. How long is it to Ennistymon as the phone lines travel from your house?

Getting the port changed, that your phoneline is plugged into, will help rule out faulty exchange equipment causing the disconnects.

Ok I got no disconnects last night at all and the last day I was talking to technical support they said an engineer would be going to the exchange to look into it, so fingers crossed the problem is sorted. I will see how it goes tonight maybe it was just a one off. I will ask them to change the port I'm on should it disconnect anymore, but getting them to do will probably be a hassle.

laurence997

@Slingers-My connection was set to be "on demand" but I have now changed it to always on and I will see how that works. Thanks.

@To_be_confirmed-The line to our house from the exchange is probably around 3-4 miles long and may be in poor condition, though Ennistymon is a small town and there shouldn't be too many people on it.

dez_warlock

I've been having this problem aswell for the last two years. I keep getting the red light and disconnecting.

It happens only after 6pm for some reason and can happen anywhere between 15 and 20 times a night. I just changed the connection to "always on" and 5 mins later it disconnects again. It's particularly frustrating when on xbox live!

Anyone have any solutions that worked for them?

cpu-dude

OP, with that very high attenuation together with our poor copper wiring, you should only be on a 1MB connection to get a stable connection. The Eircom Netopia routers are very good for getting sync on the poorest if lines, this is why everything appears ok. Drop it to 1MB and save yourself some money.