Virgin.net conenction problem

For over a month I have had a strange connection problem with Virgin.net. The connection hangs apparently randomly. Both green lights remain solid on the Speedtouch 330 but there is no data throughput. I have to disconnect via the icon in the system tray and reconnect and it comes to life again. The thing is the same thing happens on my mum and dad's connection at exactly the same time. They are on the same exchange.

Virgin appear unwilling to help other than suggest swapping filters, trying the main BT socket etc and say "Unfortunately, we cannot report this as a fault as it just disconnects instantly." What has the speed of the "disconnection" got to do with it? Surely the fact that it happens to another user on the same exchange at the same time points to either a Virgin.net problem or an exchange fault?

Does anyone have experience of what could cause such a fault before I get back to Virgin?

--
Remove SOMETHINGFISHY to email
www.ukwebhost.com

both you and your parents could try logging a fault at www.bt.com and get
the line tests done to see if there is a problem. Since it is affecting both
of you, it is likely an exchange fault. If not, then at least you can go
back to Virgin and say BT have tested their equipment.


"Cullen Skink" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
For over a month I have had a strange connection problem with Virgin.net.
The connection hangs apparently randomly. Both green lights remain solid on
the Speedtouch 330 but there is no data throughput. I have to disconnect
via the icon in the system tray and reconnect and it comes to life again.
The thing is the same thing happens on my mum and dad's connection at
exactly the same time. They are on the same exchange.

Virgin appear unwilling to help other than suggest swapping filters, trying
the main BT socket etc and say "Unfortunately, we cannot report this as a
fault as it just disconnects instantly." What has the speed of the
"disconnection" got to do with it? Surely the fact that it happens to
another user on the same exchange at the same time points to either a
Virgin.net problem or an exchange fault?

Does anyone have experience of what could cause such a fault before I get
back to Virgin?

--
Remove SOMETHINGFISHY to email
www.ukwebhost.com

On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:09:03 GMT,it is alleged that "Cullen Skink"
<(E-Mail Removed)> spake thusly in
uk.telecom.broadband:

>For over a month I have had a strange connection problem with Virgin.net. The connection hangs apparently randomly. Both green lights remain solid on the Speedtouch 330 but there is no data throughput. I have to disconnect via the icon in the system tray and reconnect and it comes to life again. The thing is the same thing happens on my mum and dad's connection at exactly the same time. They are on the same exchange.
>
>Virgin appear unwilling to help other than suggest swapping filters, trying the main BT socket etc and say "Unfortunately, we cannot report this as a fault as it just disconnects instantly." What has the speed of the "disconnection" got to do with it? Surely the fact that it happens to another user on the same exchange at the same time points to either a Virgin.net problem or an exchange fault?
>
>Does anyone have experience of what could cause such a fault before I get back to Virgin?

Not entirely sure whether it could be related, but Virgin have been
having serious difficulties with their DNS servers, I am having them
now, random 'SERVFAIL' results when using nslookup etc. When reporting
this to virgin, I got a tech support guy who shall remain nameless due
to actually being helpful, apparently they're *not* allowed to state
that they're part of NTHell, but if you mention it they can't deny it.

The general upshot is however Yes unofficially we have a problem. No I
can't fix it. Officially we can't support you because you're not using
our favoured browser/operating system combo, although we wouldn't
support you even if you were'

May be time for a new ISP

--
"The most overlooked advantage of owning a computer is that if they foul up
there's no law against whacking them around a bit."
- Eric Porterfield.

Chip wrote:

> On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:09:03 GMT,it is alleged that "Cullen Skink"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> spake thusly in
> uk.telecom.broadband:
<snip>
> > Does anyone have experience of what could cause such a fault before I get back to Virgin?
>
> Not entirely sure whether it could be related, but Virgin have been
> having serious difficulties with their DNS servers, I am having them
> now, random 'SERVFAIL' results when using nslookup etc. When reporting
> this to virgin, I got a tech support guy who shall remain nameless due
> to actually being helpful, apparently they're not allowed to state
> that they're part of NTHell, but if you mention it they can't deny it.

I've been having problems with that as well today. MSN won't log in until I've connected a few times, which is annoying as given the original problem which is also worse today I have to then reconnect lots to get other things to work. The Virgin news server has also been giving me serious problems today. I left NTL for Virgin, (oh the irony) because of DNS problems...

> May be time for a new ISP

Thinking that myself.

--
Remove SOMETHINGFISHY to email
www.ukwebhost.com

On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 18:23:39 GMT,it is alleged that "Cullen Skink"
<(E-Mail Removed)> spake thusly in
uk.telecom.broadband:

[snip]

>I've been having problems with that as well today. MSN won't log in until =
>I've connected a few times

Quick 'n' dirty workaround, (one I've been using myself). Assuming
you're using XP or win2000

Open notepad, type in the command 'ipconfig /flushdns' without the
quotes.

Save as flushdns.bat, choosing a location where you won't trip over
it.

Create a shortcut to it [right click > send to > desktop(create
shortcut)

In the properties of the shortcut, set it to 'run minimized' and
'close on exit'

Dump the shortcut in your start menu, and then give it a shortcut key
combo (ctrl+alt+F in my case, you can guess what the F stands for)

Saves reconnecting all the time :-)

(or you can just leave a dos command prompt open, and type the command
in directly, then use the up arrow to "reload" it )

--
"The most overlooked advantage of owning a computer is that if they foul up
there's no law against whacking them around a bit."
- Eric Porterfield.

On 06 Jun 2006 Chip <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Virgin have been having serious difficulties with their DNS servers, ...

From one of the "cheap and nasty" Conexant routers, I noted the following
DNS entries which might be usable (unless Virgin/NTL filters DNS requests
to force them onto their own servers... yuk!)

212.23.8.1 (zen.co.uk) 195.112.4.4 (nildram.co.uk)

>apparently they're *not* allowed to state that they're part of NTHell,
>but if you mention it they can't deny it.

but presumably this is afecting users of the Virgin.net ADSL service,
so not sure whether you are intending to imply it might also affect a
cable NTL user, or if not, how NTL is "important" in this issue ?

>The general upshot is however
> Yes unofficially we have a problem.
> No I can't fix it.

Nice to see a bit of honesty from staff at an ISP. Shame that some will
acknowledge a problem but claim it is being dealt with...



>Officially we can't support you because you're not using our favoured
>browser/operating system combo,

Oh dear! Glad my ISP doesn't have any restriction on what they support.


>May be time for a new ISP

Yes, but it is easy to jump from frying pan into the fire, isn't it!

--
Change to DSL Max the way I did: switch ISP <http://www.dslmax.info/>