DSL "dropping out"

We've got DSL from Deutsche telekom and on the whole pretty happy with it. But about say twice a week or so at random times to drops out for half an hour or so. Temporary glitch for a few seconds would be OK but you'd think they'd have pretty mauch 24/7 up time in central Munich no?

We turn off the box thingy and let it re-start.

Any other hints or comments?

Have the same problem quite regularly. Signal is suddenly gone, then I have to turn it off and wait for a few minutes, and then it usually works again (though sometimes it would again disappear after 10-20 minutes, maybe even a third or fourth time). Never managed to figure out the reason for it (has been that way for the last few months).

And does it always work after restarting? I've had DSL from them for just over two months now and the modem has locked up once and needed restarting.

Might be worth just giving them a call to check the line, I had a problem with the telephone after they turned on the DSL, a phone call and it was fixed the next day.

have the same problem
just turn it off and then turn it back on, innit, comrade
it's a bugger if it's down just when I'm settling down with a nice cup of tea to watch Question Time or GNTM past episodes

Over subscribed line perhaps? To get 1MB you have to up your subscription to 2MB at the higher price. I will go put my tin hat on now.

Yeah I had the same problem the first month. i just turned it off then back on also. After the first month though it never did it again.

Question Time Comrade Topsy? Generally a more genuine debate on a "pikey" thread on TT than listening to the same overpaid precocious out of touch tossers from the Labervativedemocrat party. They all want hanging from lamp posts, but I digress.

Seems to be a common problem then. The ex has called Telekom before and they just said "oh wait a bit and it should come back". Seems to happen when we've been online for say at least a couple of hours. Defence mechanism against huge downloads? Undermining a true "flat rate" ?

I had a problem for a couple of hours this morning, with tiscali though. I looked at the ppp logs and my authentication was failing due to maximum number of sessions being exceeded!

Normally this should only happen if someone else was connecting in with my name and password which I cant imagine being the case as I havent shared it with anyone. Was probably a software glitch at their end.

So, look at your logs the reason could be in there.

Just me and my flat mate and its a secure thingybob so no one else is on it.
But I do tend to have fair few windowns open on password protected sites...

I quite enjoy it, myself. Keeps me up-to-date with all the scandal and goss from the UK, so's I know what the ruling class scum are up to

Just some FYI...

Most if not all DSL providers will kick you off after 24hrs of continued use and force you to get a new IP address. On top of this They usually have a daily or weekly maint. usually between 1am and 6am.

Sometime maint. doesn't go correctly and may take longer. Another problem I used to have with telekom is that there Radius authinication servers seem to go down at all time of the day..

Ahh.. DK beat me to it. I also know of providers keeping people off if they stay permanently connected. Probabyl just this !

but I have a fixed IP address... I think (will have to check with ex to be 100% sure)... so how come mine is always "dropping out"?
they can't be forcing me to get a new IP address if I always have the same one, surely?

and it seems to happen to me during the afternoons rather than in the middle of the night like maintenance and I am NEVER on for a 24 hour stretch. It seems to happen if I have been online for say 3 hours.

@Topsy
Unless you have a business class DSL Line (Lots more $$) with an included SLA, you do NOT have a fixed IP address. Your PC might have a fixed address, but your router connection to the internet doesn't..

@MT
Look at your router or Windows dialing logs. What is the Error # or error text? You can look-up the error
number (If Windows Dial-up) via google. If it says something like Invalid Username or Password and you
know 100% that you didn't change anything, then it’s a prob. with T-online's Authentication Servers
(Which get rebooted whenever T-Online wants)

Hmmm - well when I reconfigure my work laptop to log on to t'internet at home, then I always enter the same fixed IP address for my router.
So I'm confused. And have no idea what an SLA is.
Ah well.

Cheers Darkknight!

@Topsy, yuor router has two IP addresses. The one you type in to connect to it, but then another one that it uses to connect to the internet. The other one I expect it gets automatically from the ISP and can change (hence dynamic rather than static IP).

thanks, sgb27

Yup.. Thats it.. Thanks sgb27

We have been having the same problem too, usually during the day. Restarting helps, but sometimes need to reboot the computer too. Pain in the $%&/.

face it, Telekom is crap. SLA=Service Level Agreement. But in Telekom's case, it means, Slow Limited Access

There are so many problems that could be occuring here and factors that can influence them. It's important to know:

- Who is your line provider - most are Telekom, not all
- Who is your DSL-provider - many *think* it's Telekom, but often it's not.
- Alleged speed of your DSL line - higher speeds interrupt more often
- Who is your Internet provider - some providers can be very unreliable for continuous connectivity
- How do you connect your PC to the internet - wired or wireless? - wireless is very prone to failure and interruption
- Make model of modem/router? - older units are poor, especially on higher speed connections. Early versions need firmware updates.
- Make/model of PC/LapTop or interface, especially if you connect wirelessly? - Intel wireless interfaces need latest software.

Just for the record Telekom had a massive outage today, Wednesday, due to an exchange failure, predominantly on the west and south-west side of Munich and environs, affecting DSL and/or phone lines for over 100,000 subscribers from around 4am to midday.

YL6

Show me an alternative.

Ahh - thanks. I was thinking the dsl box was flipping again, my laptop was freaking again, or my husband had pulled the cable when I tried to check my mails before work this morning.

Darn - it is a good thing I was in the office today, I would have gone haywire with no internet until midday

Cheers YL6.

The wireless connection was working fine, it was the actual DSL availability through the box thingy that wasn't working.

I've slagged off telekom enough in the past but right now I'm happy enough with them, especially when i see the nightmares people have with other providers.