Zen connection problems

I've been having a lot of connection problems with Zen over the past
couple of weeks. First week of service was fine, but since then there
have been regular disconnections, with the modem losing sync. It then
renegotiates and carries on as normal. Also, my connection has
recently started to freeze for a few seconds without the modem
appearing to disconnect. This happens every couple of minutes or so,
making the connection quite unusual.

I suspected it might be my cheapo router causing the problems (it's an
MRi ADSL Ethernet Router), but it seemed to be fine at first, and
sometimes works OK for a day or so before the disconnections start
again. The first router I tried (Dabsvalue one) didn't work at all -
it couldn't sync with the exchange.

This problem's driving me insane, and it isn't getting any better. Zen
technical support don't seem to reply to their emails and the phone
support typically has a long queue, is an 0870 number and isn't open
after 5pm. When I did get through to them they just reported the fault
to BT and nothing seems to have improved.

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this,

"Richard Platt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been having a lot of connection problems with Zen over the past
> couple of weeks. First week of service was fine, but since then there
> have been regular disconnections, with the modem losing sync. It then
> renegotiates and carries on as normal. Also, my connection has
> recently started to freeze for a few seconds without the modem
> appearing to disconnect. This happens every couple of minutes or so,
> making the connection quite unusual.
>
> I suspected it might be my cheapo router causing the problems (it's an
> MRi ADSL Ethernet Router), but it seemed to be fine at first, and
> sometimes works OK for a day or so before the disconnections start
> again. The first router I tried (Dabsvalue one) didn't work at all -
> it couldn't sync with the exchange.

Hmmm the fact that your first didn't work does lead one to worry it is the
line that may be the problem.

Do you find it still disconnects if you remove all other telephones etc?

Is there any pattern - every so many minutes or time of day - or
temperature?

And is the firmware on your MRi upto date?

--
Stuart

Hi Richard

Have you got the filters inline correctly? There should be nothing at all
coming off the line between the filter and where the BT line enters the
house, the ADSL modem effectively needs to be isolated. Although mine works
without the filter in the proper place, things like call waiting and the
stupid beeps BT put on the line can have an affect.

Have you asked BT to increase the gain on your line?

Apart from the odd occasion (like last weekend) when BT did some unscheduled
maintenance and noone could authenticate, Zen is pretty reliable. My router
crashes mroe often than Zen does!

Steve
--


"Richard Platt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
| I've been having a lot of connection problems with Zen over the past
| couple of weeks. First week of service was fine, but since then there
| have been regular disconnections, with the modem losing sync. It then
| renegotiates and carries on as normal. Also, my connection has
| recently started to freeze for a few seconds without the modem
| appearing to disconnect. This happens every couple of minutes or so,
| making the connection quite unusual.
|
| I suspected it might be my cheapo router causing the problems (it's an
| MRi ADSL Ethernet Router), but it seemed to be fine at first, and
| sometimes works OK for a day or so before the disconnections start
| again. The first router I tried (Dabsvalue one) didn't work at all -
| it couldn't sync with the exchange.
|
| This problem's driving me insane, and it isn't getting any better. Zen
| technical support don't seem to reply to their emails and the phone
| support typically has a long queue, is an 0870 number and isn't open
| after 5pm. When I did get through to them they just reported the fault
| to BT and nothing seems to have improved.
|
| Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this,

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 21:32:23 +0100, Richard Platt <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>Has anyone else had bad experiences with Zen tech support? The only
>way I can contact them is via phone after a long wait on hold - the
>emails go unanswered.
Zen tech support are great Richard to hear SOME people talk just has
Tony Blair is the promised messiah to SOME people in this country !.
I have been having more or less exactly the same problems has yourself
but I am pointing at BT not Zen for the simple reason has I had the
same problems with my other line when I was with Freedom2 Surf and BT
did all the checks and found nothing wrong with the Zen using this
line but the problems still continue and I know if I complain to Zen
or BT that I will just be banging my head against a brick wall.
I think the problem is in the exchange not the line itself but try
telling BT that .
Monty .

Richard Platt wrote:

> I've tried to find new firmware, without much luck. MRI's website
> seems to have drivers for their modems, but no firmware upgrades.
>
> Has anyone else had bad experiences with Zen tech support? The only
> way I can contact them is via phone after a long wait on hold - the
> emails go unanswered.
>


I have only been with Zen about 2 months now but in the first few weeks,
whenever i sent an email to (E-Mail Removed) there was always an answer
when I got home from work. They usually replied the same day within 4 hours
from me sending. I havent send an email though in the last 4 weeks.

Back to your problem, it may be your line as has already been suggested and
not zen. Ring 151 and ask them to ring you back with a line test, your line
could possibly be developing a fault. When you make a long phone call, is it
quiet? i.e. no crackles or static ? Try a different line filter if you have
more than one and have you added any new extensions or telephones or answer
machines since this problem started?

"Richard Platt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 18:07:52 +0100, "Stuart" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
> >
> >Hmmm the fact that your first didn't work does lead one to worry it is
the
> >line that may be the problem.
>
> That's what I thought. Also, the fact that the fault's intermittent
> and apparently random suggests that it's not the modem.
> So far, BT have claimed they can't find a fault on the line. Not that
> that means much - when I first had it installed and couldn't get it to
> work, all the "engineer" did was test it with his USB modem and said
> "right, that works".

I have had 2 experiences with similar symptoms as yours.

The first *was* a BT problem. An intermittant fault on the DSLAM.

The problem with diagnosis was that the 'line' was OK so 151 would always
draw a blank. When escalated to *Manchester* or *Walsall* (then where BT
Ignite's 'heavies' were then located) when they did a remote test there was
a 90% chance it would be OK and 99% if they did a retest, and according to
their procedure, the fault was 'cleared'. It took an engineer actually
seeing the fault occur to lead to a result.

They speculated that a circuit was overheating, disconnecting, cooling,
reconnecting...

The particular charateristics of this fault was that there was a random time
between disconnects and the downtime (when you could not synch) was also
random (minutes to hours). And it happened twice - both in Augusts of
different years supporting the temperature hypothesis.

The second *was* an ADSL router problem (see Ebuyer's review of their
Conexant based router). Massive packet loss leading to disconnection.

Trouble is with either of these faults Zen support can only be of marginal
help.

If you can - try another ADSL connection device - can you temporaily swop
yours with someone else's? Then you should know if the problem is your side
of the socket.

--
Stuart

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:10:07 +0100, "Stuart" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

<snip my original description of problem>

>I have had 2 experiences with similar symptoms as yours.
>
>The first *was* a BT problem. An intermittant fault on the DSLAM.
>
>The problem with diagnosis was that the 'line' was OK so 151 would always
>draw a blank. When escalated to *Manchester* or *Walsall* (then where BT
>Ignite's 'heavies' were then located) when they did a remote test there was
>a 90% chance it would be OK and 99% if they did a retest, and according to
>their procedure, the fault was 'cleared'. It took an engineer actually
>seeing the fault occur to lead to a result.
>
>They speculated that a circuit was overheating, disconnecting, cooling,
>reconnecting...

>The particular charateristics of this fault was that there was a random time
>between disconnects and the downtime (when you could not synch) was also
>random (minutes to hours). And it happened twice - both in Augusts of
>different years supporting the temperature hypothesis.

In my case, the modem can resynch immediately (takes about 10 seconds
or so). There also seems to be a problem where there's a lot of packet
loss (I've noticed 70% loss over an hour of pinging the other side of
the PPP link) despite the modem not losing sync. This lasts for hours,
making the connection completely unusable.

>The second *was* an ADSL router problem (see Ebuyer's review of their
>Conexant based router). Massive packet loss leading to disconnection.
>
>Trouble is with either of these faults Zen support can only be of marginal
>help.

Yes, I understand that they can't do anything about them directly.I'm
more annoyed about them not answering the support emails. I can't go
to BT directly, after all, so I have to rely on Zen.

>If you can - try another ADSL connection device - can you temporaily swop
>yours with someone else's? Then you should know if the problem is your side
>of the socket.

I've just replaced my modem (with one fo the same model), and am still
experiencing disconnections. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to keep
trying to get Zen to provide some information.

Regarding the other replies, all my phones are connected via a
Zen-supplied microfilter. My telephone works OK, as far as I can tell,
and BT 151 reports no faults.

Thanks to everyone for their replies,