Thursday, December 30, 2004

IT SOS ALERT

I have been using a dial-up connections for years and was overall happy with it: low price, great service. I am running a very fast and relatively new Dell (Windows XP) and unless I was downloading something that was band-intensive I was not really inconvenienced and saved a great deal of money. Over the holidays I had an increase in user-ship of main computer in the house and a great deal of pressure was brought to bear to penny up and move back to the hi-speed age. Originally I had Sympatico and was so dissatisfied that I moved to dial-up when they changed their fee structure.

This being Canada my only other option was Roger’s. Initially the installation went well and everyone was happy but a few days ago the internet connect went mysteriously dead as I was surfing the net and attempting to use a hyperlink in a blog. I went through the hold standard shut down the computer, disconnect the power sources, re-start the machine etc and other trouble shooting measures that Roger’s issued. Nothing worked, so I called the tech support at Roger’s and they arranged for someone to come out the next morning (yesterday and check the line). Before the Tech arrived the connectivity came mysteriously back online. The Tech arrived and checked the incoming sources and cables and was just as bandoggled as I as to what the source of the problem is/was.

Early this morning I was again at a blog and attempted to use a hyperlink and the cable modem lost connectivity. I have called Roger’s and someone will come out again but I am running out of holidays and patience. My browser is Internet Explorer and I am using McAfee Virus/Protection/Firewall etc, and the modem is a Webstar provided by Rogers. Anyone else had this problem or knows of a possible solution rather than go back to dial-up?

3 comments:

Chris Taylor said...

It will take too long to explain in a comment, so I'll e-mail you with the details.

In essence here is what you check:

1. Cablemodem sync indicators
2. Network connectivity and name resolution
3. Local network router/gateway
4. Local computer IP stack

Gordon Pasha said...

OK, it may sound too simple, but Rogers cable service does, on occasion, simply "go down" temporarily. It happened to me and once it lasted 3 days. And, apparently it happens by region, or sector, or whatever. If you ring Rogers, they can tell you if service in your area was interrupted or not. Just a thought.

Curt said...

It's kinda like when you lose your cable TV. It just happens a bit more often with the nete, probably because it hasn't been around as long, and ism a lot more complicated. As long it stays at a low level, I wouldn't worry much about it. Our outages don't usually last more than an hour and most are much less than that. We can go for long periods without them, and then have a few. Could be maintenence work, which you might be able to get e-mail notices about.