|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
Philip
Now the fun begins.
Many of the problems you will encounter will be related to the learning
curve of your vendor. Modem problems, software bugs, line connections
between you and the CO, server incompatiblilites, funny noises on your
voice line, just to name a few. The biggest problem will be getting a
straight answer when you call in for help. Many of the people you will
talk to don't know what they are talking about because it is so new so
they will try and blame your computer or setup. The best thing to do is
open a trouble ticket and have a qualified tech check it out. Keep
doing that until it's fixed and you are satisfied. Be nice but be
persistent.
Things you can do: Learn everything you can about your modem (look for
reviews and customer complaints. For example: I use an Alcatel 1000.
Many of them had to be replaced because they have an overheating
problem. This was discovered by *USERS*, not the vendor, and was a
design flaw known by Alcatel when they made the things. Mine works
fine, but I run it with the cover off). Make sure you have good
connections all the way back to the "line of demarcation" box where the
phone company wires come in. Learn about "CAT5" wire. Make sure there
is a proper splitter or filters installed. Note what time of the day or
night you have the most problems. Turn off and on any indoor and
outdoor appliances (especially halogen lights and dimmer switches) and
see what happens. Make sure your answering machine still works (the
line sometimes gets reduced by several decibles and the answering
machine will "hang-up" on a call even though the sound is amplified and
sounds normal on your handset.
Another thing you can do is find out if your ISP has a newsgroup. I
have learned SO MUCH just from reading our internal PBINET newsgroup.
Most all of my problems have been solved by knowledgable people there.
You might also try one or two of the newsgroups in alt.online-service...
or comp.dcom.xdsl .
In addition the links from my last post; a helpful tool to learn how to
use is a visual ping and traceroute program. They are not hard to
figure out and many time give the "evidence" you need when talking to a
tech. I use PingPlotter http://www.nessoft.com/pingplotter/ . There
are others, but this seems to work well and even has an alarm when a
site you are monitoring falls below a "ping" time limit you've set.
When doing a speed test, try to download a large file from your ISP.
This will more truly indicate your bandwidth. If you go anywhere else,
you might be seeing other problems outside of your direct link to your
ISP's server. (also, if you can, find an ISP that has a direct backbone
connetion.)
Anyway, that's my rant, and I'm sticking to it.
Bob Perry
San Jose, CA
From: "Philip Nixon" <pnixon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: W2000 install/adsl line
To: <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Thanks to all who offered help and suggestions. I did the upgrade
> and it seemed to go ok. I am having intermittent problems with the
> usb/adsl line (which was the reason for the upgrade) but hoping that
> is not a W2000 problem. W2000 seems much faster than WNT and the
> adsl is so fast in compariosn to my old 56k that it is very
> frustrating that it is not working properly. It goes dead after
> anywhere between 15 minutes and a couple of hours after connection
> but then wont "disconnect" and the DUN goes "not responding" and on
> occasion I have had to reboot.
|