Help! ADSL in Mayenne

[Jo53]

Have been having terrible problems with Wanadoo ADSL for 6 days now. Nothing for a couple of days, then working, then not, now off again. Connection is working fine our end but it's just not getting through to anything. Even having some probs with dial-up connection, which luckily we kept.

Have phoned France Telecom and Wanadoo many times. It's like a Kafka novel. Both say 'everything is working fine, there are no problems on the line, your router is synchronised fine, our services are working fine, therefore IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. But we do! I know this because someone else in our village is having exactly the same experience.

Is this happening to anyone else?? EIther here or in another area?

I suspect problems at the local telephone exchange (Lassay area). If anyone else is having the same problems, it will help prove this (or if you're not, that also might shed some light).

Desperate and trying to earn a living, internet essential!

Jo

[MargaretD]

Not in Mayenne, but we had problems with ours, I eventually went to the wanadoo shop, got home and it worked!  Not sure whether they took me seriously, or what... but I'm not complaining now. I even have the email working

[Deimos]

A lot probably depends on your configuration (i.e. where possible causes of the problems might lie). For starters:

1. Are you using a USB ADSL modem connected directly to your PC or a Ethernet/WiFi modem (i.e. connected to your PC through a local network

2. Are you using the Wanadoo software or have you established a Windoze connection.

2a. If not using Wanadoo software, are you using a “dial-up” type of connection (I know its not a analogue modem, but wanadoo seem to like using ADSL through a dial-up type of connection) or have you configured it as a router. I have always found the Wanadoo software very unreliable and causes loads of problems (occasionally it locks-up and the dial-up connection stuff of theirs just stops, XP wont shut down, etc. but most local apps keep running fine) – hence I don’t use it any more.

3. Do you have all solid green lights on your ADSL modem or are any orange or flashing.

4. When it does not work, can you get anywhere or is it all web sites that do not work (there have been some issues with some modems provided by Wanadoo where the routing table defaults one group of IP addresess to class A rather than the correct class 3 setting which “takes out” quite a few web sites (e.g. www.hp.com, www.adobe.com).

Wanadoo technical support is not the greatest in that they may tell you that what you need to do is “Clear your cache, clear cookies and clear history”, then when that makes no difference, they will tell you “you have a virus” – all at premium rate. I have always had more success with France Telecom (1013). If you push they will come out and check things but if its not “their fault” they will charge you for the visit. (They can give you an indications of the possible costs). I have called them out twice (once problem where phone lines went through my trees – my responsibility and 2nd time where house telephone wiring was introducing noise) and was not charged either time (but maybe I was lucky). You will have most success with an FT engineer if it is not working when you arrive. However, the FT engineer will not even look nor touch at your computer.

Probably further questions.

Ian

[Simon]

I'm a little unclear what is wrong from your description, but if you think you have a connection, but cannot get at anything then that could be a dns issue. Try starting a dos box and typing ping 212.158.192.2 you should see "Reply from ..." a few times. If you get "Request timed out" then it isn't dns.

If it is dns then your IP settings are off, check those and see if that helps the problem.

Regards

Simon

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

We are near Craon, have had ADSL from Wanadoodoo for a couple of years. The nearest server is in Nantes, and there have been drop outs for a couple of weeks now. I understand that it is a temporary problem.

[Jo53]

Thanks everyone for your posts, esp Deimos for your very detailed advice. Actually we knew straight away that the problems were nothing to do with our setup, because others nearby were having the same thing at the same time. But it took a week to convince France Telecom of that (we knew it wasn't Wanadoo either). Now they claim the problem is fixed, and touch wood the ADSL is working, though as it has come back intermittently throughout the week and then gone off again, I'm still a little nervous.

It is good to know that you can call out an FT engineer; I think I will do that straight away if it happens again, rather than bothering with the telephone helpline (who of course never mentioned that an engineer could come to the house).

Best wishes to all

Jo