2wire 1701HG Connection Issues

sfleuriet

This problem started happening only after we got our speed upgraded from the ATT/SBC Express to the current ATT/SBC Pro speed.

Sometimes its 2 or 3 times right in a row, sometimes once in an hour, sometimes not all day, but my 2wire modem's Broadband Link light will suddenly go from the steady green to a blinking Orange, and the internet stops working. It will blink orange for 5-10 seconds, then go back to solid Green and work fine again. Its soooo frustrating!! I've called ATT 2 or 3 times, but they're clueless and all I get is the little Chinese ladies who don't know anything beyond what their little computer screens tell them. So how can I fix this?? They keep saying there's nothing wrong with the servers, my area, my settings or anything, and that the "line tests" and speeds are very good. Help plleeaasseee!!!

sfleuriet

Anybody?

Keyarch

pilotwings119 wrote:

This problem started happening only after we got our speed upgraded from the ATT/SBC Express to the current ATT/SBC Pro speed.

Sometimes its 2 or 3 times right in a row, sometimes once in an hour, sometimes not all day, but my 2wire modem's Broadband Link light will suddenly go from the steady green to a blinking Orange, and the internet stops working.

It sounds like you are just loosing your connection due to a dynamic IP and may have nothing to do with the modem. Maybe the new service has more traffic or the modem is more sensitive to the traffic. I just got the same modem from SBC and the light signals you're getting are part of how it reconnects once it's disrupted.

I used to get the disconnects all the time until I upgraded to a Static IP address. It does cost a lot more, but I run continuously without interruption.

Keyarch

sfleuriet

Hmm.. that sucks. There's not any setting I can change to help it?

RWB

I am guessing this is DSL? If so, how long is the telephone cable being used from your DSL modem to the phone jack? Make sure you don't have a filter on the DSL line, only the phones... also are there filters on all the phones and possibly even other devices that use the telephone line like any Satalite TV or even the alarm system?

Keyarch

I wouldn't think so, if the issue is truely a traffic one. You may need to talk to SBC/ATT and find out if that is a common problem with the new service.
I'm paying $50/mo. to get the static address when those with dynamic are getting promo packages for < $20. With so many people getting DSL now, I would expect this type of problem with the standard dynamic service (assigns a new IP address each time you log-on).

sfleuriet

RWB wrote:

I am guessing this is DSL? If so, how long is the telephone cable being used from your DSL modem to the phone jack? Make sure you don't have a filter on the DSL line, only the phones... also are there filters on all the phones and possibly even other devices that use the telephone line like any Satalite TV or even the alarm system?

Yes its DSL. I'm using the included and recommended phone cable that came with the modem. I DO have a filter on the DSL line, but my filters have 2 plugs - one for DSL, one for phones (like this one). Yes theres a filter on every other phone in the house, and we dont have any satellite or alarm systems plugged into the phone line.

belltek

sfleuriet wrote:

Yes its DSL. I'm using the included and recommended phone cable that came with the modem. I DO have a filter on the DSL line, but my filters have 2 plugs - one for DSL, one for phones (like this one). Yes theres a filter on every other phone in the house, and we dont have any satellite or alarm systems plugged into the phone line.

I know this is an old issue but I thought I would respond in case others are having the same problems. It sounds as if you got a speed upgrade, and now your wiring cannot handle the new speed. The main reason for stability issues with DSL is due to the capacitance of your telephone line/wiring. The longer the loop (distance from the telephone central office to your home) the higher the capacitance of the telephone line. There are a few ways for us (I work for at&t) to remedy this. One way, which is usually the simplest and the best fix, is to home-run your DSL jack to the network interface box on your home. Then we place a whole-house filter in the NID to filter the rest of your wiring at that point. This eliminates the extra wiring in your home and will generally increase your signal strength by quite a lot. I have seen instances where a customer can barely stay connected at 1.5 meg and placing the whole house filter makes it possible for them to run a 3 meg dsl with no problems at all.

I would suggest that you contact your service provider and request that this be done. There may be a small fee for this, but the work done is good forever. Also, if you are running a 2-wire modem ask them to try a different modem. I have seen homes where no matter what you do the 2-wire will not stay connected. However, replacing it with the Siemens 4100 DSL modem corrects the problem. I believe the 2-wire is more susceptible to interference from other electrical devices in the area, causing connectivity issues. The preferred method for me, for DSL in a home is setting up a Siemens 4100 modem, then having the customer provide their own router after the DSL modem. I also set the DSL modem in bridge mode, and program the customers user name and password into their router, and let the router pull the ip address.

The other issue could be that you are simply too far from the telephone central office to run that speed. In that case you would be looking at downgrading to a slower speed, or changing to cable modem service. My company doesn't like people chosing this option, but as I like to be honest with people I do sometimes suggest it. When I was in training the instructor told us in some cases DSL is better than cable, and in other cases cable is better than DSL. You just have to decide which is best for you.

As for network traffic, this is never an issue with DSL. You do not share a connection until you hit the dslam. Trust me, there is WAY more bandwidth to the dslam than anyone will ever need. They are fiber fed, and have a limitless amount of bandwidth.

rapture

I know this is an old issue but I thought I would respond in case others are having the same problems. It sounds as if you got a speed upgrade, and now your wiring cannot handle the new speed.

Agree, think I missed this thread first time around but sounds like it was losing sync every so often.

From what I gather ISPs in the US tend to lock down their modems so much these things can be hard to troubleshoot. Can't help but think the whole seperate modem and router thing makes things more difficult either.

Trust me, there is WAY more bandwidth to the dslam than anyone will ever need. They are fiber fed, and have a limitless amount of bandwidth.

Haha that was hilarious.

lordofblack99

sfleuriet wrote:

This problem started happening only after we got our speed upgraded from the ATT/SBC Express to the current ATT/SBC Pro speed.

Sometimes its 2 or 3 times right in a row, sometimes once in an hour, sometimes not all day, but my 2wire modem's Broadband Link light will suddenly go from the steady green to a blinking Orange, and the internet stops working. It will blink orange for 5-10 seconds, then go back to solid Green and work fine again. Its soooo frustrating!! I've called ATT 2 or 3 times, but they're clueless and all I get is the little Chinese ladies who don't know anything beyond what their little computer screens tell them. So how can I fix this?? They keep saying there's nothing wrong with the servers, my area, my settings or anything, and that the "line tests" and speeds are very good. Help plleeaasseee!!!

I have the same modem. the 1701hg was giving me the exact same problem when i had too many p2p connections. Even using another router with this modem in bridge mode still causes this error. I only use this thing for a wireless access point. An old speedstream 5360 handles hundreds of p2p connections through my smoothwall router (google it, it's nice!). Get another modem.

Also, if you changing the tcp/UDP timeouts to ~10 minutes helps , as they defaults are days. The NAT table runs out and the router dies. The incoming NAT table is a tiny 500 connections. When it overflows, the modem reboots. This an additional problem on this modem. http://gateway.2wire.net/managment/