att dsl constantly losing connection

[zerocool5468]

hey guys,

i have the att elite dsl package. i've had it for about 2 months. first month everything was perfect. the past two weeks though i've been losing my connection constantly. every few minutes sometimes. its a real annoyance. i've called att and they say my signal strength is great and they went through a bunch of their so called diagnostic tests with me. everything seems to check out yet i still lose connection. on the modem the power, ethernet, and dsl lights are always good, but the internet light is the one that usual goes off.

any helps would be greatly appreciated.

modem is a motorola, the standard given by att.

[zalternate]

I suppose they had you press in the reset button on the modem?

Otherwise maybe the modem is bad or a bad card at the node?

Internet light out means the modem can not negotiate a Internet connection at the node.

But the rest shows up ok to be able to get the connection.

[zerocool5468]

yes i have power cycled and reset the modem many times. what is the node? could you be more specific about that? thanks.

[mudmanc4]

yes i have power cycled and reset the modem many times. what is the node? could you be more specific about that? thanks.

A node is a device where may connections are gathered , like a switch , only more complicate, and is entirely under the control of the ISP, and generally only has problems of it is a hardware failure.

Do you have a router hooked to the modem, if so, is it wireless ?

[zerocool5468]

no router, just the modem. the att service rep. said there have been no outages in my area that would cause my connection problems.

[mudmanc4]

no router, just the modem. the att service rep. said there have been no outages in my area that would cause my connection problems.

Alright, thats ruled out.

As to the test they ran , they wont catch an intermittent issue like that.

There is a test server located @ Argonne National Laboratories  , it's a java based test, so allow the site to access you. I know there's alot in there as far as data once you run the tests, and even more that not many people will understand , including myself. But it will tell you some things that you will understand.  Post the results here, when the test is done , there is another tab that you can click that has even more data, go ahead and post that as well.

[zerocool5468]

took the test. here's some of the information.

WEB100 Enabled Statistics:

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Done

checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Done

running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 512.0kb/s

running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [s2C]) . . . . . . 4.91Mb/s

------  Client System Details  ------

OS data: Name = Windows XP, Architecture = x86, Version = 5.1

Java data: Vendor = Sun Microsystems Inc., Version = 1.6.0_13

------  Web100 Detailed Analysis  ------

Cable modem/DSL/T1 link found.

Link set to Full Duplex mode

No network congestion discovered.

Good network cable(s) found

Normal duplex operation found.

Web100 reports the Round trip time = 77.12 msec; the Packet size = 1408 Bytes; and

There were 5 packets retransmitted, 162 duplicate acks received, and 164 SACK blocks received

The connection was idle 0 seconds (0%) of the time

S2C throughput test: Packet queuing detected: 2.27%

This connection is receiver limited 14.46% of the time.

This connection is sender limited 48.20% of the time.

This connection is network limited 37.32% of the time.

Web100 reports TCP negotiated the optional Performance Settings to:

RFC 2018 Selective Acknowledgment: ON

RFC 896 Nagle Algorithm: ON

RFC 3168 Explicit Congestion Notification: OFF

RFC 1323 Time Stamping: OFF

RFC 1323 Window Scaling: ON

Server 'ndt.anl.gov' is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]

Client is probably behind a firewall. [Connection to the ephemeral port failed]

Information: Network Middlebox is modifying MSS variable

Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End

Information: Network Address Translation (NAT) box is modifying the Client's IP address

Server says [XXXXXXXX] but Client says [192.168.1.64]

WEB100 Kernel Variables:

Client: localhost/127.0.0.1

CurMSS: 1408

X_Rcvbuf: 262142

X_Sndbuf: 262142

AckPktsIn: 2308

AckPktsOut: 0

BytesRetrans: 7040

CongAvoid: 0

CongestionOverCount: 0

CongestionSignals: 4

CountRTT: 2141

CurCwnd: 49280

CurRTO: 276

CurRwinRcvd: 65535

CurRwinSent: 5840

CurSsthresh: 35200

DSACKDups: 0

DataBytesIn: 0

DataBytesOut: 6264636

DataPktsIn: 0

DataPktsOut: 4432

DupAcksIn: 162

ECNEnabled: 0

FastRetran: 4

MaxCwnd: 97152

MaxMSS: 1408

MaxRTO: 312

MaxRTT: 120

MaxRwinRcvd: 65535

MaxRwinSent: 5840

MaxSsthresh: 45056

MinMSS: 1408

MinRTO: 228

MinRTT: 28

MinRwinRcvd: 65535

MinRwinSent: 5840

NagleEnabled: 1

OtherReductions: 2

PktsIn: 2308

PktsOut: 4432

PktsRetrans: 5

RcvWinScale: -1

SACKEnabled: 3

SACKsRcvd: 164

SendStall: 0

SlowStart: 0

SampleRTT: 80

SmoothedRTT: 76

SndWinScale: -1

SndLimTimeRwin: 1495849

SndLimTimeCwnd: 3856714

SndLimTimeSender: 4982688

SndLimTransRwin: 289

SndLimTransCwnd: 754

SndLimTransSender: 1034

SndLimBytesRwin: 1539032

SndLimBytesCwnd: 4352940

SndLimBytesSender: 372664

SubsequentTimeouts: 0

SumRTT: 165108

Timeouts: 0

TimestampsEnabled: 0

WinScaleRcvd: -1

WinScaleSent: -1

DupAcksOut: 0

StartTimeUsec: 946210

Duration: 10338818

c2sData: 2

c2sAck: 2

s2cData: 3

s2cAck: 3

half_duplex: 0

link: 0

congestion: 0

bad_cable: 0

mismatch: 0

spd: 4.85

bw: 4.64

loss: 0.000902527

avgrtt: 77.12

waitsec: 0.00

timesec: 10.00

order: 0.0702

rwintime: 0.1447

sendtime: 0.4821

cwndtime: 0.3732

rwin: 0.5000

swin: 2.0000

cwin: 0.7412

rttsec: 0.077117

Sndbuf: 262142

aspd: 0.00000

CWND-Limited: 683.90

minCWNDpeak: 2816

maxCWNDpeak: 97152

CWNDpeaks: 4

The theoretical network limit is 4.64 Mbps

The NDT server has a 127.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 25.93 Mbps

Your PC/Workstation has a 63.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 6.48 Mbps

The network based flow control limits the throughput to 9.61 Mbps

Client Data reports link is 'T1', Client Acks report link is 'T1'

Server Data reports link is 'Ethernet', Server Acks report link is 'Ethernet'

edit out personal info

[mudmanc4]

With the info there, like you said, your cabling checks ok, but if you look at this info >This connection is receiver limited 14.46% of the time.

                                                                                                                             This connection is sender limited 48.20% of the time.

                                                                                                                             This connection is network limited 37.32% of the time.

it tells something during the test there was issues, now what they are, if there's something causing interference near and around the modem , sometimes this can be related, they say AM radio can do that to DSL, if you have a phone line filter on the line, take it off or a little bit, and see how things go. Maybe get everything away from the modem, and the lone comming from the wall as well.

It's been a while since I had DSL, but hose were some things that caused me issues like that.

[zerocool5468]

yes, when i talked to the service rep he said the modem had to be two feet away from all electronics. i have since moved the modem and take the filter off this dsl line as there is no phone like on this line. but still the problem persists. that is interesting information though.

[mudmanc4]

What about a cordless phone ?  If you live in an apt, or maybe even next door they have a powerful cordless thats getting in there, or sometimes remote cameras, anything that transmits. This might be stretching it, so I'll look at it myself as well, but I'm wondering about bluetooth, I doubt it, but then again, I don't know the frequencies either.

I'm also thinking of the firmware of the modem, but generally , only the ISP can change that.  .

[zalternate]

And there is also moving the modem to a different phone plug. Since sometimes one of the phone wire runs can be damaged or have a bad connection in either the phone plug outlet or at the side of the house(demarcation point) where all the wires come in.

I've got a Thomson Speed Touch DSL modem that is one inch from my router. 4 inches from one speaker and above a nightmare of wires under the desk. And a cordless phone about 12 inches away(combo 5.8Ghz and 900Mhz).

[zerocool5468]

no wireless phones, no neighbores. i can't think of anything that is transmitting close to this modem. moreover i think that problem would have been immediate from the time of installation, unlike the actual situation in which the connection was perfect for a month and only now is acting up even though nothing has changed. att said my connection/signal strength is very strong so i don't think the phone line would be an issue. its just bizarre. they said they could send a tech out but i'm not sure about that.

[zalternate]

no wireless phones, no neighbores. i can't think of anything that is transmitting close to this modem. moreover i think that problem would have been immediate from the time of installation, unlike the actual situation in which the connection was perfect for a month and only now is acting up even though nothing has changed. att said my connection/signal strength is very strong so i don't think the phone line would be an issue. its just bizarre. they said they could send a tech out but i'm not sure about that.

Not everything shows up to call support's online tool and a free tech visit is the best way to go.

Sometimes they will switch out the modem too, just to be sure.  Occationally they may switch you to a different card at the Node(DSLaM). I think some people do have problems if they get a 'refurbished modem'. But there should be a sticker on the modem if that is the case.

[zerocool5468]

the modem is new.

[mudmanc4]

Well like zalternate posted, it's difficult to diagnose every issue with the tools they have at the call center , and the tech would probably be the best idea right now.

[zerocool5468]

well the connection has been working well for the past 2 days straight, new world record. i haven't changed anything so we will see but as of right now its fine. thanks.

[dwt1966]

I had a similar problem and what it was the signal was to high.Its got to be at a middle range to make things line up right

[ZengXiong]

well, am not sure if this will help but it happen to me too a few month ago, i did all wat you say you did and it still happen. so i finally had an idea which for you to check for the phone line and the internet line are not interfering each other, cause most of my disconnet come from someone calling to our house phone. so i went and bought new phone line and phone pulg and it been working fine all this time, no more disconnection, but am not sure if this is our problem but just try to see if it is.