Modem crashing randomly..

[AustinDB9]

Herro :)

 

If you live in Australia and have experienced the truly rubbish, pathetic, hopeless, useless, ridiculous, conning, stingy network called Telstra, then you might be able to help me.

 

We recently changed our plan to 100GB per month @150kb/s speed (Slow speed I know but they already con $139 a month out of us for that plan) and the modem appears to be crashing when any computer in our house loads a site with lots of content. It is particularly bad with this site. I can not load threads such as most photothreads, POTW, Post your photos and even simple threads like post your phone. When I do go onto these pages, it loads about a third of the first images or banners then the modem resets itself. I have contacted the dimwits at telstra two weeks ago and all they have said is someone will call our house regarding the issue. Two weeks on, no phone call.....

 

What I am trying to say is has anyone else had issues like mine with there modem? I'm not exactly sure what the exact specs of it is but it is a Speed Stream modem that is connected to a Ethernet+Wireless Netgear router. This is actually the third router that Telstra have given us in the past 4 years as they all break. What I think is happening with the support service is they can't be bothered coming down 120km from the next big city to come and repair it again.

 

Anyway if you know what is wrong or how I should deal with Telstra, type into that big box down the bottom.....

 

Thanks a million :)

Austin

[Sponge]

Sounds to me as if the router can't handle the data transfer rate and/or has been subjected to damage.

 

My advice would be to switch provider ($139 month for LIMITED Internet is just an absolute farce) If you're unable to switch internet (Parents prohibition or the like) Then call Telstra up and say that their hardware (the router) is not fit for purpose and you can't even browse basic websites without the hardware failing. If they're a legally decent company, they'll send you out a new one.

 

If, however, they don't send you one out, threaten to leave upon the grounds of not getting the service you have signed for. Most of the time, you'll get somewhere if you start threatening to take your custom elsewhere. But just be forceful... Tell them exactly what it's like to have consistently failing internet and say that a home business/work related task cannot be completed because of it.

 

Good luck

[AustinDB9]

Since Unfortunately I live in a regional part of Australia, The ISP's can get away with the rip-off prices and Telstra is Australia's biggest ISP. So in other words the only one we can get in our area. I have had a suspicion that it's the router too causing the modem to crash. We had a lot faster internet prior to this plan but less bandwidth (and $169 per month) which the router handled fine. We are calling them up and yelling at them if they don't reply by Friday. They should know us well by now since something internet related breaks every sodding fortnight :evil:

 

The modem was provided by the ISP but we bought the router. (it's a good one. I guess it will still be under warranty)

 

Luckily, next year the whole country is getting upgraded to Fiber-Optics internet so we can get the same bandwith @ up to 10mb/s for about $49 (Thanks to the labor party and their nerdiness :D). About time we get descent internet. My town only got out of the middle-age dial up phase two years ago.

 

Anyway thanks heaps for the quick reply :)

[Sponge]

Hang on...

 

Router AND modem?

 

In the UK, we only need one or the other, not both... Or more to the fact that the router has the modulation/demodulation hardware built in to them. If you have two separate units, then the company will almost certainly say "No it's not a DEVICEX fault, it's a DEVICEY fault" and then they'll get more money off you for having to speak to another employee...

[Jazzi]

HOLY FUDGE CAKE!

$139AUD?! for 130KB/s?!

That's *checks* £85!

 

Can I suggest a cheap option for the long run?

MOVE TO THE UK! Lol.

We get 50meg for $80AUD!

 

:eek:

[AustinDB9]

hahhahahahahaha.....Well it is tempting at times since things are so bloody expensive over here and I am part Scottish. Telstra has some form of pure hatred for towns more than 300km or 180mi away from capital cities. Perth which is my state capital gets really, really good internet for up to 8 times less. Most of it already has the new internet so they pay less then $50 a month for huge bandwidth and tremendously fast speeds.

 

Yeah we do have a router + modem. I don't exactly know why dad has done that that way but he used to be an IT man so he hopefully knows what he's doing (well I certainly hope so) I think the modem can only provide internet to one PC and the router makes it so we can have up to 5. What I might try later on is disconnecting the router and testing it with just the modem connected to one PC. If it works then obviously we need a new router. If it doesn't, Telstra is getting an angry phonecall :)

 

Btw, I presume you meant 50Gig?? haha

[Sponge]

Ahh, I see. In that case, all you may need is a hardware upgrade. Modems are ancient now, and these modern routers have modems built into them.

 

And no, 50meg is the speed (50mpbs downstream) Usually, the bandwith is unlimited.

[Jazzi]

Nah, well, I don't actually know what download speed it translates to, but here we have a 8meg line, and that gives us a d/l speed of 840kb/s ish.

[Ryzza5]

Hasn't read the entire thread, but I am Australian :)

 

 

If your modem/router is a 'Thomson' or 'Telstra' brand, throw it out, and buy something like the Netcomm NB6

[AustinDB9]

haha oh right. That is amazingly cheap and 50mb/s download would be soooo fast.. I just asked dad, since we have medieval cables that connect to our house from the main station in town (all underground. I think we should expect wireless by next century) we have to have a separate modem. The modem routers, aren't compatible.

 

The modem that we have Ryzza is a Speed Stream something or rather. The router is Netgear. It has actually been a record for the modem to stay working for that long. 15months roughly.

 

Although with this new layout, the modem hasn't crashed so far but the threads with images load pathetically slow. It still crashes on some other sites though :/

[Sponge]

Like Ry said. Get a netgear.

 

Another brand to steer clear of is SpeedTouch. They're terrible!

[Ryzza5]

I think Telstra used Speed-xxxxx before they started using Thomson (perhaps they considered that an upgrade) :)

 

If you are using some form of ADSL I see no reason why you can't use one unit to provide modem and router functions. Of course, knowing the ins and outs of how to configure your modem/router make all the difference in these situations, so that you don't have to rely on the ISP to set it up (and charge you for it). They will say all sorts of lies to cover their backsides, or to make their jobs easier. Only if you've studied IT and Networking yourself can you discern what is and isn't possible.

 

Anyway, back on track. I used to be with iPrimus, then switched to Telstra earlier this year. I went from a Netcomm NB5 to the router they gave us. Multiplayer gaming was then pretty much impossible due to massively high pings over 800ms. After a month or two I bought the newer Netcomm NB6 which is officially supported by Telstra (http://www.netcomm.com.au/products/adsl-broadband - pick whicher NB6 has the extra features (i.e. WiFi, gigabit LAN, etc) for the specs). As soon as I switched, everything was fixed and much faster. It's my belief that the Telstra branded routers (A) allow easy setup for home users that are computer illiterate, and (B) allow Telstra backdoor access and provides a way to throttle traffic perhaps (could be wrong there).

 

 

Anyway, ummm, back on track (again).

As an intermediate possible fix, you can search the Speed-whatever website for new firmware for your modem and possibly also grab new firmware from the Netgear website for your router. Netgear is a good brand, but it's still better to use an all-in-one modem/router device so that security settings are already setup just right from the get-go. This helps prevent intrusions, and/or prevents connectivity issues on your network due to strict security settings.

[AustinDB9]

Okie Dokie. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me :)

 

Yeah as I said on the first post i think, it's our third modem of that brand in the past 3-4 yrs so it must be a pretty crappy brand.

 

I will google the name and search for some updates otherwise I will look again for some router+modem packs. Our netgear is a pretty good one but I will have a looksie for a Netgear with a modem + Router that can run with our internet.

 

Thanks for the tip Ryzza. You know your stuff..

[Ryzza5]

Hang on...

 

Router AND modem?

 

In the UK, we only need one or the other, not both... Or more to the fact that the router has the modulation/demodulation hardware built in to them. If you have two separate units, then the company will almost certainly say "No it's not a DEVICEX fault, it's a DEVICEY fault" and then they'll get more money off you for having to speak to another employee...

Just to clarify - I'm pretty sure his modem is also a router. The other router is there purely for the WiFi if I've read the posts right.

 

I also have a 2ndary Linksys router (with the router function disabled) that gives me dual-band Wireless N and gigabit LAN.

[AustinDB9]

Yep, you are right. I do believe the modem can handle all of the PC's in our house (it's just not activated) but we mainly have the router as a firewall and the fact that it has wifi for stuff like consoles and my ipod.

 

Speak of the devil, telstra has just replied. They are saying it's either my modem (Speed Stream) or it's a faulty cable underground since they have had an identical issue with someone elses internet at a subdivision a few k's from my house. No mention of when they are coming to see though. What I might do in the meantime to avoid a hefty bill from them is to go through some drawes to see if I can find an old modem that I can hook up and see what's what.....

[T3hReaper91]

From what i can make out is that the "modem" is there and only has one Ethernet (RJ45) socket in it. The "Router" Is linked to the "Modem" through the only Ethernet socket. This then enables more than one ethernet connection to the "Modem" then through the "Router" Also as it is a "Router" it would most likely have wireless too as otherwise it would be classed as a "hub or switch".

 

If possible could you give us the model number of the netgear router?l

[Tool831]

We recently changed our plan to 100GB per month @150kb/s speed (Slow speed I know but they already con $139 a month out of us for that plan)

 

Wtf? Why not get change the plan or something. I am with telstra and I have BigPond Elite Liberty* (100GB) - ADSL $79.95 monthly and get up to 20000/1000kbps.

 

 

To the main issue.....

Put in your browser http://10.0.0.138/ << Default IP for telstra modems.

 

What you do is log in with details "Username: default" and "Password: default" once that happens that allows access to the speedstream settings "Blah blah blah" unless you have changed that... (Hope not)

 

 

You should see your IP address or PPP setup with IP address in "Green" meaning your on the net, I suggest look at this while connecting to a page and then see if it goes "Red" meaning "Disconnected"

 

If that happens you should be able to read the Logs of the modem down the bottom somewhere (I Forgot because I have a new Thompson router and modem) and what it has done on the side bar, it may lead you to what is happening. Personally when I did have the SpeedStream 4200 series I had same issues my problem was relating to the Reset Button on the back of the modem being stuck. Resulting in unknown resets.r

[Sponge]

Yeah, it's similar to what I have set up at home.

 

1 "Modem" (Router) that receives the internet signal and then another router which acts like a switch in our bedroom so my PC and the xbox can get internet.

[AustinDB9]

haha. That is what I was trying to explain but in a much more weird way. Thanks for that EASY explanation! ;)

 

 

It's a D-Link DIR-320 (Oopsies, I thought it was a Netgear)

 

http://www.dlink.com.au/products/?pid=768

 

 

EDIT - Sorry missed Sponge and Tool's post......

 

I'm going to have to leave that test with dad. I have no idea what the password or username is. But I'll make sure he gives it a crack. It's a speed stream 4200 if that helps.

 

I live in Rural Margaret River (south west) and they can get away with absolutely stupid prices since it apparently 'costs them more' to transmit the internet to us. I personally think it's a load of rubbish since we only really live 10km out of town I don't live on a farm. Anyway, the cables in our area are getting upgraded (dunno if they are going to use Fibre Optics yet) so we are going to get city prices by Dec next year at the latest. Finally, I might get a better ping and overall download speed. I'm lucky to get under 450 in some games..

[Tool831]

It's a speed stream 4200 if that helps.

 

Woops I said 6200 that was wrong.. *Edits*

 

Anyways yep, 4200 is the one I had too also that gave me issues ages ago. It is a old modem though you should see if telstra could give you the newest one, or at least buy a new one? Either that or see if you can update the latest firmware.

[AustinDB9]

Yeah. It drives us insane since it always breaks and then they will replace it with the identical model. I might mention that we still have this type of modem when I reply to the email I got today and see what they do. Since we have given them $1,000,000,000 in bills over the past several years, hopefully they will just send us a newer one. I am 99% sure now that it's the modem playing up.

[T0M722]

How unlucky... If you ever get the chance to switch, do it. I'm getting usually 2mb a second and below speeds with 120GB worth of data from Optus for $60AUD.

 

Also, don't hold your breath on the national broadband network crap. Don't get me wrong, it'll be great, but it will take ageesss.

 

I made a detailed map showing who gets the fibre optic cable and who gets the other one (wireless satellite (worse than the fibre optic))

 

[AustinDB9]

Very cool map. How did you do it?? its awesome :) Sources over the internet say WA might have to wait until 2014 to get it. I love WA but we always seem to get things like new technologies last. Especially regional. Anyway my town is meant to be getting updated next year regardless if it's Fiber or not. I guess we will get Telstra Elite finally. I doubt it that Margaret River and anything south of it in WA will get it anyway.

 

The problem is the modem..... Telstra somehow played with it remotley and it isn't responding correctly to the usual demands. But the ridiculous thing is the wait for a new one...Since they know we are used to them breaking, they are just sending it to us from NSW and the wait is up to 3 months!! They must have run out

 

They only good consolation to this waiting time is that they have ditched the Speedstream and now they mainly use Thompson (you're right Tool ;) )

[T3hReaper91]

What you have to remember is that ISP are never wrong. They are always offering you the correct service.

 

Have had plenty of that here in the UK with different ISP. But luckily we managed to get out of out 18 month contract each time just a few months in without any cancelation charges due to the fact we proved them wrong many times.

 

One example is with Sky and there Router. They said check your router to see what speed it says you are currently getting and thats what it is. It constantly said 5mbs, After a bit of looking i found out this was just a text box and not actually interacting with the actual speed. After we bought this up they instantly let us out of our contract. Must have felt Guilty.

 

Its not just a problem in australlia its all around the world.

[AustinDB9]

Yeah definitely, there are always some form of catches in every ISP. We actually got a free 6 months of unlimited internet (same speed) a couple of years ago as we found out that they were breaching our contract. And I know lots of people even family in Scotland who have had issues with other ISP's. I'm not intentionally criticizing Telstra. We have just had a bad run in with them on multiple occasions.

 

I was just looking at your GT5 photos. They are really, really good. That game shall be mine on Christmas :D