I'm having a wretched time with my Virgin ADSL broadband this week.  It's 
suddenly started dropping the connection every few minutes telling me 
there's no dial tone.  When I pick up the phone, there's a perfect 
noise-free (to my ear) connection with dial tone so I don't know what the 
problem can be.   I suppose it could be hardware at my end, which will 
entail endless swapping of modems, filters, wiring etc., but equally I 
suppose it could be a problem with the broadband connection at the telephone 
exchange.   What a pain in the nether regions!
-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"

On Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:10:18 +0100, "Dave \(Sgt. Pepper\)"
 wrote:

>I'm having a wretched time with my Virgin ADSL broadband this week.  It's 
>suddenly started dropping the connection every few minutes telling me 
>there's no dial tone.  When I pick up the phone, there's a perfect 
>noise-free (to my ear) connection with dial tone so I don't know what the 
>problem can be.   I suppose it could be hardware at my end, which will 
>entail endless swapping of modems, filters, wiring etc., but equally I 
>suppose it could be a problem with the broadband connection at the telephone 
>exchange.   What a pain in the nether regions!

I have no trouble at all with my Virgin-media cabled broadband.  I've
had it connected about 2 years and it runs perfectly. I just wish it
was a bit faster.
Hope I'm not tempting fate!

Pam in Bristol

Dave (Sgt. Pepper) wrote:
> I'm having a wretched time with my Virgin ADSL broadband this week.  
> It's suddenly started dropping the connection every few minutes telling 
> me there's no dial tone.  When I pick up the phone, there's a perfect 
> noise-free (to my ear) connection with dial tone so I don't know what 
> the problem can be.   I suppose it could be hardware at my end, which 
> will entail endless swapping of modems, filters, wiring etc., but 
> equally I suppose it could be a problem with the broadband connection at 
> the telephone exchange.   What a pain in the nether regions!

The line here went dead, ADSL and phone, then slowly came back to the 
point where the phone was virtually noise free but the router kept 
dropping the connection and reconnecting making karge downloads 
impossible. Eventually I spoke to someone at BT who explained that ADSL 
faults have to be raised with Open Reach by your ISP. This applies to BT 
Internet users as well. So I sat there cursing at the thought of having 
to speak to a VM muppet when he called back. Apparently it's 'standard 
procedure' to do a line test and it had thrown up a fault which he said 
he would report. Never saw anyone or heard anything but normal service 
was eventually resumed.

Probably no help to you but it's got to be worth calling BT and trying 
to get a line test done before going through your kit or contacting VM.

HTH,

Alec

wrote in message 
news:v66km.250949$Tk2.240973@newsfe21.ams2...
>
> The line here went dead, ADSL and phone, then slowly came back to the 
> point where the phone was virtually noise free but the router kept 
> dropping the connection and reconnecting making karge downloads 
> impossible. Eventually I spoke to someone at BT who explained that ADSL 
> faults have to be raised with Open Reach by your ISP. This applies to BT 
> Internet users as well. So I sat there cursing at the thought of having to 
> speak to a VM muppet when he called back. Apparently it's 'standard 
> procedure' to do a line test and it had thrown up a fault which he said he 
> would report. Never saw anyone or heard anything but normal service was 
> eventually resumed.
>
> Probably no help to you but it's got to be worth calling BT and trying to 
> get a line test done before going through your kit or contacting VM.
>
> HTH,
>
> Alec

Good suggestion Alec, although I'm now beginning to think it might be my 
setup here that's at fault.  I had to unplug everything and open the 
computer last week to replace a failing BIOS backup battery.  It's quite 
possible that I affected something else, maybe the USB 4 port card that my 
modem connects to.

I had another bizarre thing happen yesterday.  As well as the dropouts, even 
when the modem was connecting I was getting a response that my username or 
password was not recognised on the domain.  I tried to connect several times 
and got the same message and at one point the Windows connection wizard 
started up which makes me think it thought the modem was new hardware being 
introduced.  Finally I retyped my password and it connected.  All very 
weird.

-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"

"Pam Moore"  wrote in message 
news:08r095tfdpvbnhhtej7k6u3nkqgubc3rp7@4ax.com...
>
> I have no trouble at all with my Virgin-media cabled broadband.  I've
> had it connected about 2 years and it runs perfectly. I just wish it
> was a bit faster.
> Hope I'm not tempting fate!
>
> Pam in Bristol

Thanks Pam.  I'm beginning to think it might be worth switching to Virgin 
cable here.  Our phone lines are so old they just can't be relied on any 
more.

-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"

In article , 
EpsomMafia@Sicilia.net says...

> I had another bizarre thing happen yesterday.  As well as the dropouts, even 
> when the modem was connecting I was getting a response that my username or 
> password was not recognised on the domain.  I tried to connect several times 
> and got the same message and at one point the Windows connection wizard 
> started up which makes me think it thought the modem was new hardware being 
> introduced.  Finally I retyped my password and it connected.  All very 
> weird.

Do the filters wear out Dave. I changed mine and it did the job..

Cheers

B.



-- 
Thar's gold in them thar hills

"BrianE"  wrote in message 
news:MPG.251816a87a35ef3498975a@news.eternal-september.org...
> In article ,
> EpsomMafia@Sicilia.net says...
>
>> I had another bizarre thing happen yesterday.  As well as the dropouts, 
>> even
>> when the modem was connecting I was getting a response that my username 
>> or
>> password was not recognised on the domain.  I tried to connect several 
>> times
>> and got the same message and at one point the Windows connection wizard
>> started up which makes me think it thought the modem was new hardware 
>> being
>> introduced.  Finally I retyped my password and it connected.  All very
>> weird.
>
> Do the filters wear out Dave. I changed mine and it did the job..
>
> Cheers
>
> B.

I'm sure they do Brian, just as modems do.  They are all just cheap and 
cheerful electronics supplied mostly from China and similar eastern sweat 
shops.  Some while ago I had to replace my modem because I was getting huge 
numbers of reported errors as the internet downloaded.  The replacement 
modem (same model) cured all that, but the free filters that came with it 
were all dead on arrival, not one of them worked.     Moral of the story ... 
trust nothing, check everything.

Fortunately, after the problems reported above, everything seemed to sort 
itself out, so I think on this occasion it was either BT or Virgin or both 
who were making changes at the exchange that affected my connection.
-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"