Digiweb Metro BB Router/IMac Problems

ondablade

Hi all. I've just spent most of a frustrating day trying to get a Thomson TWG 870 modem supplied by Digiweb for use with their Metro/beamed broadband system working properly with my IMac.
The latter was working reliably with an older Thomson modem they supplied yonks ago, the new one was to assist in a better connection speed project. (part of a home network upgrade)
Bottom line it feels like the router has a problem. The IMac when trying to connect on wi fi alternately switches between 'on' and 'searching' on about a 10 sec cycle - but ultimately can't find the wi fi signal from the modem. Despite the light on the modem suggesting it's transmitting.
My proven wi fi router connected by RJ 45 won't work with it at either, same symptoms.
It just about works on a direct ethernet cable connection from the modem (hence this post), but despite the connection testing as being OK using the diagnostic tool in 'networks' does so only erratically. Flies one minute, but by a few clicks of the mouse later has slowed dramatically or even stopped for maybe 10 sec, then flies again.
It's as though the internet connection from the modem is cycling on and off to cause this cyclically variable ethernet performance, but that the cycling is confusing both the wi fi tranmitters because they can't reset fast enough to keep up with it to deliver even an intermittent connection.
The problem could of course still be on the IMac (have tried every fix I can find though), or maybe it's something to do with our aerial, or Digiweb's transmission base or their DNS servers.
It took a while to remember, but they supplied the same modem years ago and it didn't work then either...

I'll talk to Digiweb on Monday, but in the meantime do the symptoms ring any bells for anybody?

ED E

If you're on OSX 10.6 or below there was a weird IPv6 bug that caused them to freak out if connected to certain CPE.

The wifi not finding sounds like its either broadcasting on 5Ghz and you've an old Mac or its 2.4 and CH12 or CH13 and your mac is only looking for US channels.

Digiweb support isn't known to be that great :rolleyes:

ondablade

Thanks ED. I'm on 10.9.5.

We were sent out the TWG 870 modem as an 'improvement' (on the initiative of Digiweb support) when we asked if the very old 520 we had was restricting our bandwidth. This because we had spent a fair bit buying a good wireless router, and wanted to maximise the benefit.

It turned out on speaking to Digiweb support on the Monday (following the above) that the wireless was not sending because the 'new' modem needed resetting - it was a used one they sent out. There's a possibility support had turned off the wi fi last thing the Friday evening (i wanted to run the modem with our new wi fi router, but as of Monday morning they didn't seem to think that this had been done.

Eventually the support guy thought of trying a factory reset and bingo - instant wi fi. No idea how it prior to that was showing the green light that apparently says it's transmitting RF. Frustrating, it cost me most of the weekend and much of Monday morning chasing hares in the hope of finding a problem on the Mac.

This didn't resolve core problem - the erratic quality of the connection which was the same on both wi fi and ethernet cable - it'd open web pages like a shot for a short while, but then start part opening them and hanging, and then either lose the connection or speed up again. Resetting the modem or closing and re-opening the web pages several times would usually restore the speedy connection - only for the cycle to immediately repeat.

Several calls to support got nowhere - so far as they were concerned all was fine on their side. The last guy blamed my computer, but without pointing to anything as being the likely cause. Switching to alternate DNS servers seemed to make to difference.

With no options left I reconnected the original and very old very old THG 520 modem (which has no wi fi - not a problem given what we wanted to do) and asked Digiweb to activate it again. Instant fix - back to the very decent if not spectacular (but at least pretty consistent) performance we had before. (we didn't ask to change the modem - only if what we had was likely to impose a bandwidth restriction)

Whatever the cause it's working well now - but no idea whether there was a problem with the new(er) router, or my Mac (that only upset the new modem), or with Digiweb's modem or wider system.

We got upgraded to a 30Mbps download rate connection (which the speed test confirms) along the way for a reduced fee, which was nice - although realistically it doesn't seem to run any faster browsing standard web pages than the old 8Mbps connection. I'm guessing there's issues to do with contention etc that slow that a bit - as well as the odd slow website.

At least their people are pretty pleasant, but it would be nice if it was all a lot more focused and methodical...

ED E

Its possible the new modem is capable of a higher link rate and was trying to achieve it but in doing so bringing you down to unstable signal values. Old modem has a hardware cap so stays put and the link doesnt collapse. Don't know a huge amount about FWALA gear so couldn't say for sure.

Metro is an ok service but falls way behind fixed line for reliability so it'd always be something I'd be slow to opt for.

ondablade

That in principle is the sort of thing I was inclined to suspect too - that there was perhaps something about the new modem that e.g. wasn't allowing enough time for whatever handshake the system requires to maintain the connection.

Presuming soemthing of that sort it felt like the problem was building with repeat page openings - to the point where eventually the link was lost.

Only guessing though....