intermittent dsl lost in space

[revron]

last week i installed dsl at our house. we have three wireless laptops all running xp sp2. they connect to a netgear b router which is wired to the att dsl streaming 5100 modem.

usually all things work well on the lan and the wan. however, occassionally (sometime during the day) our laptops stop getting web pages displayed and the progress bar very slowly steps ahead for a long time and then we get page not found.

if my wife's laptop acts up, sure enough so does mine.

i can still get to the router via 192.168.0.1 and see that our lan is still connected. but, if i go to test the dsl connection, i get the slow progress bar and finally get page not found.

so, it seems i have some kind of conflict. i expect i have not set up the right parameters on all three laptops w/i xp internet connections.

i am not sure how the internet requests make it to the dsl modem and if i have to set up xp parameters in any particular way so that the requests get resolved w/i the right pecking order. first, is there any pecking order for the three laptops? or, are they totally independant from one another?

do i have to set up one so that it says other computers get to the internet through *my* computer be that *a* or *b* or *c*??? note that all three laptops are wireless to the router.

also, the only way i've been able to cure the problem is by pulling the power from both the router and the dsl, then powering up the dsl until stable and then powering up the router. if i do this, i am back up and working on all three computers.

comments (especially about all specific settings i should do)???

thanks in advance!

ron

[Floppyman]

There actually isn't a "pecking" order with any of the laptops -- the requests just get resolved by the router/modem in the order they were received. You also shouldn't need to setup the internet to go through any of the other machines....just straight the router. What type and model of router are you using? How old is the firmware on it? Also, who provides your DSL service? When the DSL disconnects, can you still logon to the router and see whether the DSL connection is active? Also, when you installed the DSL, did you get any special instructions for installation? HTH

[revron]

Originally Posted by Floppyman What type and model of router are you using? How old is the firmware on it? Also, who provides your DSL service? When the DSL disconnects, can you still logon to the router and see whether the DSL connection is active? Also, when you installed the DSL, did you get any special instructions for installation? HTH

i'm using a netgear mr814v2. based on your ?, i just updated to the latest fw which is v5.3_05 of june 7, 2004. i did have v5.01 of may, 2003.

it is att dsl. and, yes, when the dsl seems to be out in space, i can still logon to the router. when i do that and enter *test* for the dsl, the status bar very slowly ticks along and finally i get page not found.

when i did the install, i checked my notes for when i did the same install for my church's att dsl install done back in april, 2006. (the church and the parsonage where i live is just a parking lot of about a football field away.) the only thing i changed is the userid and password for the required login to att dsl.

side note: my other posts done a few months back were attempting to get a wireless connection to work from the church to our house/parsonage while keeping the garage door down. i tried lots and lots of things but finally last week gave up and purchased the new dsl.

i have also called tech support on this installation as the dsl light on the streaming 5001 dsl modem would randomly (every few minutes to every ten minutes or so) flash red and i'd get disonnected. then a minute or a few minutes would go by and the dsl would reconnect. this seems to have been due to a faulty filter. at ts suggestion, i have removed the filter and the dsl flashing red has ceased.

thanks for your comments/suggestions.

i guess i'll see if the connections stay up with the updated fw. (there was a comment in the update that sbc disconnects were fixed, so ...)

blessings back to you!

ron

[glc]

If you still have problems, consider replacing the router with a more reliable model. Netgears can be a headache. That one sounds like it's getting old too.

[revron]

Originally Posted by glc If you still have problems, consider replacing the router with a more reliable model. Netgears can be a headache. That one sounds like it's getting old too.

it's now been 2 1/2 days and the dsl seems to have been on steady w/o any red lights flashing. also, my thought was it was a dsl problem and not a rouer problem.

what i did notice was that i had to remove the dsl filter from the telephone jack else the dsl did flash red intermittently. i changed to another filter and got the same problem. w/o a filter, no problem (other than i cannot use a telephone on the same jack.)

happy new year!

ron

[glc]

If you want to use a telephone on the same jack, you need a splitter/filter, not just a filter. The unfiltered side of the splitter goes to the modem.

[revron]

Originally Posted by glc If you want to use a telephone on the same jack, you need a splitter/filter, not just a filter. The unfiltered side of the splitter goes to the modem.

yes, you are right and that is what was defectiveL the splitter with dsl and phone jacks. i've tried two of them and each causes the dsl light to flash red. my tech support calls to att dsl have resulted in their request for me to remove the filter (splitter.)

happy new year!

ron

[glc]

It may be the phone, not the splitter - have you tried a different phone or disconnecting the phone to confirm?

You can use a standard unfiltered splitter and use a regular single jack filter too.

[revron]

yes, i've been through the various combinations. the result is that if i use the att dsl supplied filter (splitter w or w/o a telephone), the dsl light intermittently flashes.

i've now been several days w/o using the filter and no flashing red dsl light, just steady green.

and this with two different filters.

ron