Testing broadband line

One of my friends signed up for broadband with AOL three weeks ago. AOL
have sent through the USB modem and connection settings, my friend followed
the instructions and nothing worked.

I went over and the first thing I noted was that although the power light
was on the modem the DSL light was not lit, unplugging the modem from both
the USB port and the phone line did nothing.

I connect though Wanadoo at home, and so I took along my 3Com ADSL router
modem to my friends house. When I plug this to my home phone line (without
any connection to my computer), the DSL online link LED flashes for a few
times over a period of 30 seconds or so, and then stays lit showing a DSL
line is present. I tried this at a second friends house (who connects via
BT Broadband) and again the LED lit. The router stores info such as my user
name, password and the fact that the connection is PPPOA.

However when I took it to the friends house who cannot get his AOL
connection working, the LED on the router/modem did not light. From this I
deduce that, despite assurances from AOL and BT, his line has not been
enabled for broadband.

Am I correct in my assumption, or could there be another reason why the DSL
online link LED would not light when using his line.

--
Graham.



%Profound_observation%
"David Groom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cmm08m$ova$(E-Mail Removed)...
> One of my friends signed up for broadband with AOL three weeks ago. AOL
> have sent through the USB modem and connection settings, my friend
followed
> the instructions and nothing worked.
>
> I went over and the first thing I noted was that although the power light
> was on the modem the DSL light was not lit, unplugging the modem from both
> the USB port and the phone line did nothing.
>
> I connect though Wanadoo at home, and so I took along my 3Com ADSL router
> modem to my friends house. When I plug this to my home phone line (without
> any connection to my computer), the DSL online link LED flashes for a few
> times over a period of 30 seconds or so, and then stays lit showing a DSL
> line is present. I tried this at a second friends house (who connects via
> BT Broadband) and again the LED lit. The router stores info such as my
user
> name, password and the fact that the connection is PPPOA.
>
> However when I took it to the friends house who cannot get his AOL
> connection working, the LED on the router/modem did not light. From this
I
> deduce that, despite assurances from AOL and BT, his line has not been
> enabled for broadband.
>
> Am I correct in my assumption, or could there be another reason why the
DSL
> online link LED would not light when using his line.


Quite possible, however, many ADSL problems are with filters and you dont
mention anything about them.

Are all his phones and other analogue devices connected through a filter?

When you tested his line with your router, did you try it with all his
phones etc. disconnected?



Graham.

%Profound_observation%

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
David Groom <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> One of my friends signed up for broadband with AOL three weeks ago.
> AOL have sent through the USB modem and connection settings, my
> friend followed the instructions and nothing worked.
>
> I went over and the first thing I noted was that although the power
> light was on the modem the DSL light was not lit, unplugging the
> modem from both the USB port and the phone line did nothing.
>
> I connect though Wanadoo at home, and so I took along my 3Com ADSL
> router modem to my friends house. When I plug this to my home phone
> line (without any connection to my computer), the DSL online link LED
> flashes for a few times over a period of 30 seconds or so, and then
> stays lit showing a DSL line is present. I tried this at a second
> friends house (who connects via BT Broadband) and again the LED lit.
> The router stores info such as my user name, password and the fact
> that the connection is PPPOA.
>
> However when I took it to the friends house who cannot get his AOL
> connection working, the LED on the router/modem did not light. From
> this I deduce that, despite assurances from AOL and BT, his line has
> not been enabled for broadband.
>
> Am I correct in my assumption, or could there be another reason why
> the DSL online link LED would not light when using his line.

The failure to get a steady DSL light means that the line isn't synching -
not (necessarily) that it isn't enabled. This could be due to any one of
several reasons - the most likely being duff (or no!) filters between the
line and analog phones etc.

The standard test is to remove the faceplate from the master phone socket,
and plug the ADSL equipment directly into the test socket behind the
faceplate (using a BT to RJ11 adapter if necessary). If it *still* doesn't
work when using equipment which has successfully been used elsewhere, it
indicates a problem with the line.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On 7 Nov 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "David Groom" wrote:

>From this I deduce that, despite assurances from AOL and BT, his line
>has not been enabled for broadband.

>Am I correct in my assumption, or could there be another reason why
>the DSL online link LED would not light when using his line.

I took a router to a friend's house, a few days after his line was
'enabled' but when connected had a similar situation... We spoke
to the ISP (Eclipse in that case) and explaining that trying the
router's diagnostic test showed failure in getting sync, the guy
was quickly in contact with BT and they had to remove a DACS from
the line (it should've been done as part of the setup on the line,
but took another 10 days before his line worked properly, and then
Eclipse altered the billing date to match use being possible). PGM.



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

Prior to today I had tried with two different filters supplied by AOL.

Today I took along my microfilter, router, and laptop, disconnected all
extensions from the master socket (its one of those new types where you
remove the faceplate and the extension wiring is disconnected leaving just
one phone socket connected to the BT line), and tried again to get a DSL LED
lit on the router, again without success.

Rang AOL, they didn't like the idea I had used my own router, and told me
that wouldn't work, even as a test of whether the line was enabled for
broadband or not. Was told to install AOL software on my laptop, use the
modem they supplied and then try and connect. Surprise, surprise, after
doing all that I still couldn't connect.

Rang AOL back,
was asked to reinstall the modem drivers on the laptop ( I refused, pointing
out this was the second installation which wasn't working on the line)
was asked if I had a firewall in operation, I hadn't but couldn't see the
relevance to the particular problem anyway.

Finally after being at my friends house for two hours, and after the second
call to AOL, they agreed to "escalate" the call, and have now passed this to
BT to check the line, which will apparently take two days.

Many thanks to Graham, Tim & Peter for your responses

On 8 Nov 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, "David Groom" wrote:

>Was told to install AOL software on my laptop, use the modem they
>supplied and then try and connect. Surprise, surprise, after
>doing all that I still couldn't connect.

I doubt I'd go that far :-) If your router has a diagnostic test it
would perhaps have been worth running that - mine (and several I have
installed for clients) can report whether the link to the exchange is
OK, and then tests the PPP connection... You can have the former and
still not have the latter (eg if login details have been typed badly)
and it would probably have proved (for all but AOL) that it was users
line which was having the problem, not their darn modem or your PC.

Anyway, glad it has been escalated and hope it is sorted out soon.


--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 13:55:48 -0000, "David Groom"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Rang AOL, they didn't like the idea I had used my own router, and told me
>that wouldn't work, even as a test of whether the line was enabled for
>broadband or not. Was told to install AOL software on my laptop, use the
>modem they supplied and then try and connect. Surprise, surprise, after
>doing all that I still couldn't connect.

What a load of pallava! More reasons to avoid AOL like the plague -
giving out completely false information like that is just wrong.

Two days after contacting AOL the line suddenly started working.

Pity I couldn't have convinced them the problem was with the line without me
wasting two hours on the phone to them.